Editing Kashmir (section)

===1947 and 1948===
{{Further|Kashmir conflict|Timeline of the Kashmir conflict|1947 Poonch Rebellion|Indo-Pakistani War of 1947|1947 Jammu massacres|1947 Mirpur massacre}}
[[File:Brit IndianEmpireReligions3.jpg|thumb|The prevailing religions by district in the 1901 Census of the Indian Empire]]

Ranbir Singh's grandson [[Hari Singh]], who had ascended the throne of Kashmir in 1925, was the reigning monarch in 1947 at the conclusion of British rule of the subcontinent and the subsequent [[Partition of India|partition]] of the British [[British India|Indian Empire]] into the newly independent [[Dominion of India]] and the [[Dominion of Pakistan]]. According to [[Burton Stein]]'s ''History of India'', <blockquote>Kashmir was neither as large nor as old an independent state as [[Hyderabad State|Hyderabad]]; it had been created rather off-handedly by the British after the first defeat of the Sikhs in 1846, as a reward to a former official who had sided with the British. The Himalayan kingdom was connected to India through a district of the Punjab, but its population was 77 per cent Muslim and it shared a boundary with Pakistan. Hence, it was anticipated that the maharaja would accede to Pakistan when the British paramountcy ended on 14–15 August. When he hesitated to do this, Pakistan launched a guerrilla onslaught meant to frighten its ruler into submission. Instead the Maharaja appealed to [[Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma|Mountbatten]]<ref>Viscount Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of British India, stayed on in independent India from 1947 to 1948, serving as the first Governor-General of the Union of India.</ref> for assistance, and the [[Governor-General of India|governor-general]] agreed on the condition that the ruler accede to India. Indian soldiers entered Kashmir and drove the Pakistani-sponsored irregulars from all but a small section of the state. The United Nations was then invited to mediate the quarrel. The UN mission insisted that the opinion of Kashmiris must be ascertained, while India insisted that no referendum could occur until all of the state had been cleared of irregulars.<ref name=stein>Stein, Burton. 2010. ''A History of India''. Oxford University Press. 432 pages. {{ISBN|978-1-4051-9509-6}}. Page 358.</ref></blockquote>

In the last days of 1948, a ceasefire was agreed under UN auspices. However, since the [[plebiscite]] demanded by the UN was never conducted, relations between India and Pakistan soured,<ref name=stein/> and eventually led to two more wars over Kashmir in [[Indo-Pakistani War of 1965|1965]] and [[Kargil War|1999]].

{{anchor|Current status and political divisions}}