The ceremony in the brilliantly illuminated durbar hall of the maharaja of Kashmir in Srinagar was the climax of one of the most ancient feasts in the Hindus calendar  every year at the raising of the October moon  Hindus marked the legendary nine-day struggle of the  goddess Durga the  wife of lord shiva with the minotaur mahishasura by a nine-day festival as his ancestors had for a century hari sing maharaja of Kashmir close  the 1947 festival on the evening of allegiance from the October by receiving a  ritual pledge of allegiance from the assembled nobles and dignitaries of his state  one by one they advanced to the foot of his throne and pressed into his princely palm a symbolic offering of a piece of gold wrapped in a silk handkerchief  the petulant maharaja was a fortunate man





They would not leave again by the time the Pathans resumed there attack it was too late the Indians stamped there advance then when their first armored cars arrived over Radcliffs Road routed the rider in a pitched battle outside Srinagar gradually they drove them in disorder back up the valley of Kashmir Alon the valley through which they,d descended on Srinagar toward the bridges they,d seized on a bitter OCT, Night believing all Kashmir might be theirs without firing a shot. seething with anger, Jinnah defied the British commander of his army by sending Pakistani units disguised as irregular to Kashmir stiffen the demoralized raiders. more tribal levies were raised and for months in the hostile cold of winter, the war would rage on.

Ultimately, the dispute would reach the United Nations. the lovely vale, whose name had been the last word to pass the lips of a dying Moghul, would take its place along sides  Beline, Palestine and Korea in the gallery of the world's unsolved problems. the plebiscite to which Mountbatten had with such difficulty secured Nehru's agreement would be relegated to that vast file of forgotten good intentions. the state would remain divided along the battle lines of 1948, the vale of Kashmir in Indian hands, the northern territories around Gilgit with Pakistan. Half a century later, Kashmir disputed possession remained the principal subject of discord between Indian And Pakistan, the one seemingly insurmountable barrier to their reconciliation. 







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