Read on Twitter
For geographical and economic reasons, accession to Pakistan was the best option for Jammu and Kashmir in 1947. A brief thread!
1. Almost all of J&K’s major geographical, communication and economic links were with areas of western Punjab and the KPK Province that were to...
[1]
1. Almost all of J&K’s major geographical, communication and economic links were with areas of western Punjab and the KPK Province that were to...
[1]
become part of the state of Pakistan.
2. Geographically speaking, the only railway line that entered J&K was a branch of the North Western Railway from Sialkot, some 25 miles away in Pakistan, to J&K’s winter capital, Jammu City. As for motorable roads, J&K had few.
[2]
2. Geographically speaking, the only railway line that entered J&K was a branch of the North Western Railway from Sialkot, some 25 miles away in Pakistan, to J&K’s winter capital, Jammu City. As for motorable roads, J&K had few.
[2]
3. Like the railway line, the main road to Jammu City was from Sialkot. Of the three roads to Srinagar, J&K’s summer capital, two entered J&K from areas that were to become part of Pakistan.
[3]
[3]
4. In 1940, there were almost 29,292 visitors of Jammu and Kashmir, comprising of 8,367 Europeans and 20,925 Indians. They entered J&K by roads coming from areas that were to become part of Pakistan, chiefly the Jhelum Valley Road.
[4]
[4]
5. Economically speaking, accession to Pakistan was feasible as J&K’s links with areas that were to become part of this new dominion were highly important. Up to 98 per cent of the non-timber exports from the Kashmir Valley went via the Jhelum Valley Road to Rawalpindi.
[5]
[5]
6. Rawalpindi was considered the ‘warehouse’ for goods transiting to and from the Kashmir Valley. J&K timber exports were floated down the Jhelum and Chenab rivers to points downstream in (Pakistani) Punjab.
[6]
[6]
7. Goods from J&K freighted by rail from Jammu City or Rawalpindi were carried on the western rail network to Karachi, the traditional port for the princely state. Owing to its proximity, Karachi enjoyed a 65 per cent freight advantage over goods sent to Bombay or Calcutta.
[7]
[7]
8. Of the two roads that entered J&K from Pak, the first was Jhelum Valley Road, which ran alongside Jhelum River for 132 of its 196 miles. This road began in Rawalpindi, where there was a railhead, and then went via Murree and Domel, near Muzaffarabad, to Srinagar.
[8]
[8]
9. A second road went from the NWFP rail terminus of Havelian, seventy-one miles further north of Rawalpindi, via Abbottabad, to Muzaffarabad, and then to Srinagar.
10. A third, ‘more picturesque’ road was an extension of the Sialkot-Jammu road. This route went for 203 miles...
10. A third, ‘more picturesque’ road was an extension of the Sialkot-Jammu road. This route went for 203 miles...
..from Jammu City to Srinagar via the Banihal Pass, which was often snowbound during winter from December to April 5 and was ‘notoriously liable to gullying and landslips’.
[10]
[10]
11. In terms of communications, J&K’s post and telegraphic links invariably followed the major road and/or rail links that entered the princely state. These also originated in, or traversed through, areas that were to become part of Pakistan.
END!
END!
