1947 Kashmir Invasion Why Stalemate? (Who Failed India)

There would have been no Kashmir problem but for the indecisiveness and personal predilections of our top-most Indian leadership of the time and the British evil designs which wanted Pakistan to surviveas a stable and strong nation. Lord Mountbatten had a major role in ensuring a stalemate. Shortly after Independence in August 1947,when the invaders from Pakistan started attacking the forward posts of the State, Maharaja Hari Singh made an urgent request for arms and ammunition.BritishCommander-in-Chief of the Indian Army denied it on the pretext of shortages. He along with Royal Indian Air Force Chief kept up the determined resistance to the deployment of Indian troops to chase out the raiders. Credit for the initial thrust for the annexation of the State goes entirely to Sardar Patel. But he was deprived of the charge of J&K immediately. Lord Mountbatten shot down the proposal of Indian Cabinet to set-up cordon sanitaire within J&K State and succeeded in removing the small fleet of planes from the State.“I will bombard so and so place and I will retaliate like this” was the conversation at an evening tea chat between the two Commander-in-Chiefs of the Indian Army and that of the Pakistan Army. Even when Pak invaders were about to knock at the doors ofSrinagar, Pandit Nehru would not accept the Instrument of Accession from the Maharaja till the complete administration of the State was handed over to Sheikh Abdullah. When Indian forces were chasing the invaders, their forward march was stopped atUriand not allowed to advance to Muzaffarabad. Needless to say that if we had captured Muzaffarabad which our forces were in a position to do, the story would have been different.There would have been no proxy war unleashed by Pakistan and instead strategically it would have remained vulnerable. Even reference to UNO by Pandit Nehru for intervention was made under the pressure from Lord Mountbatten.