Kashmir’s Accession to India

Let me be quite clear about Kashmir. There still seems to be a good deal of misunderstanding about Kashmir’s accession to India. The other day, I said in this House that this accession was complete in law and in fact. Some people and some Newspapers, mostly Newspapers abroad, seem to think that it is only something that has happened in the last week or fortnight or three weeks that has made this accession complete. According to my views, this accession was complete in law and in fact in October, 1947. It is patent and no argument is required, because every accession of every State in India was complete on these very terms by September in that year or a little later. All the States acceded in three basic subjects, namely, foreign affairs, communications and defence. Can anybody say that the accession of any State in India was incomplete simply because they acceded in only those three subjects? Of course not. It was the accession of the Jammu and Kashmir State, in law and in fact, by the end of October, 1947. It was not open to doubt and challenge. I am surprised that anybody here or elsewhere in the world should challenge it. I was telling the House that when the first United Nations Commission, accompanied by their legal advisers and other came here, it was open to them to challenge it. But they did not, because it was quite clear to them and to their legal advisers that there could be no question about the legal validity of the accession. The people of Jammu and Kashmir State not only agreed to come to us as they did, but it was at their request that we took them into our large family of States. I do believe that they have the same friendly feelings towards us as the other States have. I believe that on other occasions they have given evidence of this fact. Even in the election of this Constituent Assembly that took place nearly a year ago, they exhibited that feeling of friendship and union with India.

            A short while ago, we met the representatives of the Government of Kashmir and they were not merely the representatives of the Government but undoubtedly the popular leaders of the people of Kashmir. We met them, we talked to them and we discussed many matters with them. We did not go to them in a bargaining spirit of opposition. We discussed matters with them, with a view to solving our intricate problems.

Nehru's speech in the House of People, New Delhi, August 7, 1952