Causes Of The Second Kashmir War

The Second Kashmir War broke out in April of 1965 and lasted until September of that year. Ironically, the root of the conflict was not in Kashmir, it was farther south in the modern Indian state of Gujrat. After the First Kashmir War, the UN created a ceasefire line which was religiously observed by both nations in Kashmir, but in many other areas of the border, it was vague. The border in the Rann of Kutch along the Indian Ocean was highly disputed, and it led to many small skirmishes in the area. Simultaneously in Kashmir, Pakistan feared that the Indians were spreading their political influence in Kashmir, and the Muslim population did not want to be under Hindu control. India had just recently finish a war with China in northern Kashmir in which the Indians lost thousands of men in the mountains of Kashmir. The Chinese victory showed the Pakistani government that the Indians were not prepared for war, and the Indian Army was weak. Subsequently, Pakistan decided this was a prime opportunity to attack Indian …show more content…
Since Pakistan’s creation in 1947, the Pakistani National Assembly was located in West Pakistan, and because of this, the people of East Pakistan did not have representation in their nation’s government. The Western Pakistani’s feared that the larger population in Bengali East Pakistan would take numerous the seats in the National Assembly, and the Western Pakistanis would lose their voice in government. For the first time in 1970, Pakistan held open elections for East and West Pakistan, and the Western Pakistani prediction became a reality. The Awami League party of East Pakistan took 130 of 313 seats in the National Assembly, and it left many military elites in Western Pakistan furious. They could not allow Eastern Pakistan to rule the whole nation when a majority of the political and military leaders of Pakistan had come from the West since