Srinagar, the Maharaja requested Indian forces for their defence. The Governor General of India, however held that Indian forces would be available only after the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India. At the same time, various options available regarding the future of the state, including being autonomous, were being widely discussed.

In January 1948, India took the case to the United Nations. However, the case was not presented convincingly and the issue got transformed into a India-Pakistan question. Meanwhile, Sheik Abdullah reached what is called the Delhi Agreement, whereby Kashmiris would become full citizens of India and have greater autonomy as well as powers compared to the other states of India. Most of the clauses of this agreement that were intended to protect the essential characteristics of the state found a place in the Constitution in the form of article 370.

At the same time, there was also an economic divide in the state which acquired a religious tone. The land reforms in the state disposed many of the landlords who happened to be Hindus, of land beyond the ceiling limits, while the major beneficiaries of this economic programme happened to be Muslims. During the period of 1950-1990, many attempts were made by the central government to reduce the autonomy of the State and bring it in line with other States. This caused a severe reaction among the people of Kashmir. This was used to ferment a movement of Independence in Kashmir in 1990s. During this period a large number of Hindu families in the Kashmir valley were forced to migrate to other parts of India.

Indira Gandhi took up the challenge both from within her party as well those outside by taking a sharp left turn post the 1967 elections. She attempted to create a new social base of her own and for her party by identifying with the poor and down trodden. This move was a double edged weapon. Old promises of social and economic development were yet to be fulfilled and this was seen to be the major reason for the defeat of Congress party in 1967. Yet, the Congress under Indira Gandhi was making new promises. Less than a decade later, the lack of fulfilment of rising mass expectations created frustration and disheartenment and culminated with the imposition of Emergency.

Bangladesh War

In the early 1970s, trouble was brewing in East Pakistan (what is now Bangladesh) as a movement for the assertion of Bengali identity and protest against what was seen as a step-motherly treatment by West Pakistan. In the general elections, the party led by Mujibur Rahaman won but he was arrested and taken to West Pakistan and a period of military repression of East Pakistan began. Lakhs of

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