Kashmir is a region in northern India that is located in the mountainous regions of the Himalayas, with the capital of Srinagar. Currently a disputed region between Pakistan and India, Kashmir is a predominantly-Islamic region with a Hindu and Sikh population in addition.
History[]
In 1706, Kashmir consisted of 1,084,309 people, with 72.2% Islam, 22.2% Sikh, and 5.6% Hindu. Kashmir was originally a region of the Indian Mughal Empire that was in the far north of the empire, bordered by the Himalayan Mountains - it was seen as the northernmost termination of the Indian Subcontinent. The Maratha Confederacy eventually conquered Kashmir's capital of Srinagar, and by 1750, the population grew to 2,075,704 people, with an 86.2% Hindu population, 11.4% Muslims, 2.4% Sikhs.
It later became a province of the British Empire during their conquest of India in the 1700s-1800s, and it became a princely state as Kashmir and Jammu. Kashmir chose to join India in 1947 after British Raj broke up, resulting in an invasion of Kashmir by Pakistan and Kashmiri rebels who wanted to join Muslim Pakistan instead of Hindu India. Kashmir is currently divided between Pakistan and India, with China having claims to some northen parts of the territory. Kashmir is also the scene of an insurgency by Kashmiri independence activists, Islamists, and Pakistani-trained Islamic militias. Al-Qaeda has a base in the region, with Ilyas Kashmiri being their operations chief in the region until his death.
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