Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir, also called Kashmir and Jammu, was a princely state in the western Himalayas created in 1846 out of the defeated Sikh empire's hill territories. After the First Anglo-Sikh War, the British East India Company annexed the Kashmir Valley as war indemnity on 9 March 1846 and then sold it to Gulab Singh, the Dogra raja of Jammu, for 75 lakh rupees. The resulting state combined Jammu, the Kashmir Valley, Ladakh, Gilgit and the frontier districts under a Dogra dynasty, with Srinagar as its summer capital and Jammu as its winter capital. It was one of the largest princely states in British India, covering roughly 220,000 square kilometres and including the upper Indus valley and the Karakoram. Under British paramountcy the maharaja controlled internal administration while Britain handled defence and foreign affairs; the state had its own army, currency and postal service. Its population was predominantly Muslim, while its ruling dynasty and much of the administration were Hindu Dogras. In 1947, as British India was partitioned, Maharaja Hari Singh delayed choosing between India and Pakistan. An uprising in the western districts, supported by tribal militias and Pakistani personnel, forced his hand: on 26 October 1947 he acceded to India in return for military airlift. The western and northern districts passed to Pakistani control, the rest remained with India, and the resulting First Kashmir War ended in a cease-fire line that still divides the territory.