Since 1947, 1947 to today

Photo: Mutahir Showkat · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

1947 to today

30 events12 exhibits

Partition left the princely state divided and disputed. Today the wider Kashmir region is administered in parts by India, Pakistan and China, and its status remains one of the world's longest-running disputes. This wing covers the major turning points and marks where accounts differ.

Events in this period

August 1947
Partition
British India was divided into India and Pakistan on 14 and 15 August 1947. Jammu and Kashmir, a princely state with a Muslim majority and a Hindu ruler, did not join either country at first.
October 1947
Invasion and accession
Contested
On 22 October 1947 armed tribesmen from Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province entered the state. Maharaja Hari Singh signed an Instrument of Accession to India, and Indian troops were flown into Srinagar on 27 October. The first war between India and Pakistan followed.
Contested
The event happened, but its dates, causes, numbers or meaning are genuinely disputed. Shown with a visible 'Contested' marker and the dispute named.
The exact timing and circumstances of the signing, and the roles of each government, are disputed by India and Pakistan and debated by historians.
In the museumMaharaja Hari Singh
Maharaja Hari Singh
Photo: Georges Devred · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Late 1947
Violence against civilians
Contested
Partition-era killings reached the state in late 1947. Large numbers of Muslims were killed in the Jammu region, and Hindus and Sikhs were killed in places such as Muzaffarabad and Mirpur.
Contested
The event happened, but its dates, causes, numbers or meaning are genuinely disputed. Shown with a visible 'Contested' marker and the dispute named.
Death tolls and responsibility remain disputed.
1 November 1947
Revolt in Gilgit
The Gilgit Scouts revolted against the Maharaja's governor, and the Gilgit region came under Pakistani control.
1 January 1949
Ceasefire and a promised vote
A ceasefire arranged by the United Nations ended the first war and left the former state divided along a ceasefire line. UN resolutions called for a plebiscite, a public vote on the state's future, which has never been held.
Note
Why the plebiscite never took place is disputed.
1949
Article 370
India's constitution included Article 370, which gave Jammu and Kashmir special autonomous status, allowing the state its own constitution and limiting which Indian laws applied there.
August 1953
Sheikh Abdullah is dismissed
Sheikh Abdullah, then Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, was dismissed and arrested. He spent most of the next two decades in detention.
In the museumSheikh Mohammad Abdullah
19 September 1960
The Indus Waters Treaty
India and Pakistan signed a treaty, brokered by the World Bank, dividing the rivers of the Indus basin between them. The Jhelum, the Chenab and the Indus itself were allotted mainly to Pakistan, with limited use permitted upstream in Jammu and Kashmir.
Note
The treaty was agreed between the two countries. Politicians and engineers in Jammu and Kashmir have long argued that the limits it places on storage and hydropower hold the region back, and both governments have since disputed how its terms apply.
In the museumThe Jhelum
The Jhelum
Photo: Myasinilyas · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
1962
War with China and Aksai Chin
China had built a road across Aksai Chin, on the eastern edge of the former state, in the 1950s. After the 1962 war between India and China, Aksai Chin stayed under Chinese control.
December 1963 to January 1964
The relic disappears
The relic at Hazratbal went missing in December 1963, bringing huge crowds onto the streets across the Valley. It was recovered in early January 1964 and identified as genuine by religious leaders.
In the museumHazratbal Shrine
Hazratbal Shrine
Photo: Hardikmodi · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
1965
The second war
India and Pakistan fought a second war over Kashmir. The Tashkent Declaration of January 1966 returned both sides to their earlier positions.
1972
The Line of Control
After the 1971 war, India and Pakistan signed the Simla Agreement. The old ceasefire line became the Line of Control, the de facto border that still divides the region.
1975
Sheikh Abdullah returns
An accord between Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Abdullah brought him back to power as Chief Minister, a post he held until his death in 1982.
Note
The accord dropped the demand for a plebiscite and accepted Jammu and Kashmir's place within India. Supporters saw it as the only realistic settlement available; critics, then and since, saw it as a surrender of the movement Abdullah had led.
In the museumSheikh Mohammad Abdullah
1984
Siachen
India took control of the Siachen Glacier in the far north in 1984, beginning the highest-altitude military standoff in the world.
1987
A disputed election
Contested
The 1987 state election was widely alleged to have been rigged against a coalition of opposition parties, the Muslim United Front. Many historians see it as a turning point towards armed revolt.
Contested
The event happened, but its dates, causes, numbers or meaning are genuinely disputed. Shown with a visible 'Contested' marker and the dispute named.
The scale of the rigging and how much it caused what followed are debated.
1989 to 1990
Armed insurgency begins
An armed movement against Indian rule took hold in the Valley. Decades of violence followed, with tens of thousands of people killed, among them civilians, militants and members of the security forces.
Note
Casualty figures differ between official and independent counts.
21 January 1990
Gawkadal
Security forces fired on protesters at the Gawkadal bridge in Srinagar, killing dozens of people. It was one of the deadliest single incidents of the early insurgency.
Note
Official figures and those of witnesses and rights groups differ widely.
1990
The Kashmiri Pandits leave the Valley
Contested
Amid targeted killings and threats, the large majority of the Valley's Kashmiri Pandits left their homes in early 1990. Most have not returned.
Contested
The event happened, but its dates, causes, numbers or meaning are genuinely disputed. Shown with a visible 'Contested' marker and the dispute named.
How many people left, and accounts of why and how they left, are strongly disputed.
The 1990s
Living through the conflict
Contested
For most of the 1990s ordinary life in the Valley was shaped by the conflict. Curfews, strikes, crackdowns and searches were routine, schools and businesses closed for long stretches, weddings and funerals were cut short, and families on all sides lost people. Allegations of killings, disappearances, torture and sexual violence by security forces, and of killings and intimidation by armed groups, date from these years.
Contested
The event happened, but its dates, causes, numbers or meaning are genuinely disputed. Shown with a visible 'Contested' marker and the dispute named.
Individual incidents from this decade are among the most bitterly disputed in Kashmir's history. Official accounts, Kashmiri accounts and human rights organisations disagree over what happened, who was responsible and how many people died, and many cases have never been settled in court.
1999
Kargil
Fighting broke out on the heights above Kargil after Pakistani forces and militants occupied positions on the Indian side of the Line of Control. India regained the positions after about two months of fighting.
8 October 2005
The earthquake
A powerful earthquake centred near Muzaffarabad killed more than 80,000 people, most of them in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and neighbouring areas, and destroyed whole towns.
2008
The Amarnath land row
A decision to transfer forest land to the board that runs the Amarnath pilgrimage set off large protests in the Valley. When the decision was reversed, counter-protests followed in Jammu, and the highway linking the two regions was blocked for weeks.
Note
Accounts of how the dispute started, and of the number of people killed in the protests, differ.
In the museumThe Amarnath Cave
The Amarnath Cave
Photo: Gktambe at English Wikipedia · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Summer 2010
The summer of 2010
Months of street protests spread across the Valley, met by curfew and by police and paramilitary firing. More than a hundred people were killed, many of them young, and the Valley was largely shut down from June to September.
Note
Totals given for those killed range from about 110 to about 120, and responsibility for individual deaths is disputed.
September 2014
The floods
The Jhelum burst its banks after days of heavy rain, flooding much of Srinagar and large parts of the Valley for weeks.
In the museumThe Jhelum
The Jhelum
Photo: Myasinilyas · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
8 July 2016
Burhan Wani and the 2016 unrest
Security forces killed Burhan Wani, a young Hizbul Mujahideen commander who had built a large following on social media. His funeral drew very large crowds, and months of protest, curfew and shutdown followed. Around ninety people were killed, and the use of pump-action pellet shotguns on crowds left many more injured, including a number blinded.
Note
He is described as a militant commander by the Indian government and as a symbol of resistance by many in the Valley. Casualty and injury totals differ between official and independent counts.
5 August 2019
Special status revoked
India ended the special status given by Article 370 and split the state into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, which took effect on 31 October 2019. A long communications shutdown followed in the Valley.
Note
Pakistan rejected the move, and Kashmiri parties including the National Conference and the PDP opposed it. India's Supreme Court upheld it in December 2023.
14 February 2019
Pulwama and Balakot
A suicide bombing on a convoy at Lethpora in Pulwama district killed forty members of the Central Reserve Police Force. India carried out an air strike at Balakot in Pakistan twelve days later, Pakistan responded, and an Indian pilot was captured and returned within days.
Note
Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed the bombing. What the Balakot strike hit, and what each side's aircraft achieved in the exchange that followed, remain disputed.
2024
Elections return
Jammu and Kashmir held its first assembly election in ten years. The National Conference won the most seats and formed the government.
April to May 2025
Pahalgam and a brief war
On 22 April 2025 gunmen killed 26 people, most of them tourists, in the Baisaran meadow near Pahalgam. In May India and Pakistan exchanged military strikes for several days before agreeing to a ceasefire on 10 May.
Note
Each side's claims about the strikes and their results remain disputed.
In the museumPahalgam
Pahalgam
Photo: Billjones94 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
June 2025
The railway reaches the Valley
A direct rail line connected the Valley to the rest of India's railway network for the first time, crossing the Chenab Rail Bridge, the highest railway arch bridge in the world.
In the museumChenab Rail Bridge
Chenab Rail Bridge
Photo: Ojhayogesh · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

In this wing

12 exhibits

Events in this period

Partition

Invasion and accession

Violence against civilians

Revolt in Gilgit

Ceasefire and a promised vote

Article 370

Sheikh Abdullah is dismissed

The Indus Waters Treaty

War with China and Aksai Chin

The relic disappears

The second war

The Line of Control

Sheikh Abdullah returns

Siachen

A disputed election

Armed insurgency begins

Gawkadal

The Kashmiri Pandits leave the Valley

Living through the conflict

Kargil

The earthquake

The Amarnath land row

The summer of 2010

The floods

Burhan Wani and the 2016 unrest

Special status revoked

Pulwama and Balakot

Elections return

Pahalgam and a brief war

The railway reaches the Valley

In this wing

Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah

Agha Shahid Ali

Jawahar Tunnel

Chenab Rail Bridge

The Line of Control

Siachen Glacier

University of Kashmir

Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden

The Gulmarg Gondola

Dina Nath Nadim

Raj Begum

Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad

Further reading for this period