ABSTRACT
The State of Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost part of India, in the north-west, at the apex of the country. Its southern border is with the rest of India: at the western end a short border with Punjab, while for the rest of its length Himachal Pradesh gently abuts into it. All the other frontiers are international ones, most of which are disputed, and, indeed, great swathes of territory have been occupied. India still claims an area coterminous with what the former Maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir ruled (except in the south where the princely state and Kangra-now part of Himachal Pradesh-exchanged some territories). In the north of what India claims is the de jure state, there is a relatively short border with a north-eastward extending tendril of Afghanistan, the bulk of which lies to the west, beyond Pakistan. The People’s Republic of China lies to the north-east (Xinjiang Uygur) and east (Xizang-Tibet), but also administers the Aksai Chin plateau (the eastwardextended ‘thumb’ of the clenched fist of Jammu and Kashmir, part of Ladakh), as well as a length of territory to the west of there, beyond the Karakoram Pass, and another pocket to the south. Pakistan is in possession of a strip of territory in the south-west of the state, up the western border, which widens in the north to include much of the northern part of the state. The border dividing the state between the Pakistani zone and Indian-held territory
is known as the Line of Control-it starts just north of the Chenab, heading up through Punch (Poonch) to curve eastward round the mountains surrounding the Vale of Kashmir, continuing in an easterly direction just to the north of Kargil and then north-easterly, petering out at the Chulung Pass and the massive Siachen Glacier. The total area of the state is 222,236 sq km (85,839 sq miles-which would make it the sixth-largest state in India), but, of this, 78,114 sq km is occupied by Pakistan and 42,685 sq km (including 5, 130 sq km ceded by Pakistan) by the People’s Republic of China. The figure given for the area of Indian-held Jammu and Kashmir (for statistical purposes) is 101,387 sq km, which would make it the 10th-largest state of the Union.
