[Reader-list] KASHMIR SURVEY FINDS NO MAJORITY FOR INDEPENDENCE

[Aditya Raj Baul]

did the survey find 'any' majority for Indian rule?

On Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 8:57 PM, Bipin Trivedi <aliens at dataone.in> wrote:
> http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i_ynr0-yXCshxv0x802hR9DLu
> 4fA
>
> (AFP) - May 27, 2010
>
> SRINAGAR, India - Less than half of residents in both the Indian and
> Pakistani zones of Kashmir favour independence as a solution to end unrest
> in the disputed Himalayan region, a survey said Thursday.
>
> Conducted by British academic Robert Bradnock, the independent survey found
> that 44 percent of people in Pakistani-administered Kashmir favour
> independence, and 43 percent in Indian-administered Kashmir.
>
> United Nations resolutions soon after the partition of the sub-continent in
> 1947 called for a plebiscite to determine whether the region should belong
> to India or Pakistan, both of which claim Kashmir in full.
>
> "These results support the already widespread view that the plebiscite
> options are likely to offer no solution to the dispute," said the survey,
> which was released by the London-based Chatham House think-tank.
>
> Titled "Kashmir: Paths to Peace", it was a rare attempt to assess the
> opinions of people on both sides of the Line of Control (LOC) -- the de
> facto border that splits the region between the two rival nations.
>
> "Any solution will depend on the Indian and Pakistani governments?
> commitment to achieving a permanent settlement," Bradnock said.
> The survey interviewed about 3,800 people to record their views on how they
> saw the future of Kashmir -- a scenic region that has been a constant source
> of tension between India and Pakistan.
>
> In the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, which has been at the heart of a
> 20-year-old insurgency against Indian rule, between 74 percent and 95
> percent respondents favoured independent Kashmir.
>
> But in the Hindu-dominated Jammu region -- which is also part of Indian
> Kashmir -- support for independence dwindled to less than one percent.
> The survey found that the "overwhelming majority" of people wanted a
> solution to the dispute, even though there were no "simple fixes".
> More than 47,000 people have died in Indian Kashmir since the eruption of
> the insurgency in 1989.
>
> India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, but a
> recent peace process has brought a reduction in violence.
>
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