Kashmir problem is much older than the accession issue which cropped up in 1947. Ever since the British imperialists sold the valley to Maharaja Gulab Singh in 1846, the problem has presented itself in one shape or another. For over eighty years the Dogra Hindu rulers could contrive to conceal the hideous truth that their subjects, predominant majority of whom was Muslim, were unhappy under their harsh rule. But when in 1931 the Kashmiris rose in open rebellion against the despotism the problem was posed in public for the first time. After independence the issue has in essence remained unchanged, namely, the scope of freedom for the state Muslims under majority Hindu role.
