Kashmir’s modern history begins in 1947, following the collapse of the British Indian Empire, and with a promise, made by India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to Kashmir’s citizens. That promise, of a vote on Kashmir’s independence, was never kept.
In the years before 1947, Kashmir existed as the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir, a monarchy which had for decades been a vassal state to the British Empire, and before that, the East India Company.
That year, the emerging nations of India and Pakistan scrambled for control of Kashmir, leading to a series of conflicts.