Kashmir!

This is coolbert:

Here today, from the Times of India:

"China projects Kashmir as a separate country"

This is troubling? China - - apparently trying to meddle in the affairs of India. Using the disputed border and region of Kashmir as a pretext to "cause some aggravation"!



NOT since the days of the Tang Dynasty, thirteen hundred years ago, has China attempted to exercise dominion and sway in this part of the world?

[one can speak of a thirteen hundred [1300] year continuity of Chinese culture. A historical context since the Tang of amazing proportions]

"Besides issuing separate visas to Indian passport holders from Jammu and Kashmir, China is also projecting the disputed territory as an independent country in other ways."

"Visitors to Tibet, especially journalists invited by the Chinese government, are given handouts where Kashmir is indicated as a country separate from India."

China - - snubbing legitimate Indian claims to Kashmir, seeking to exacerbate existing tensions as part of an expansionist scheme?

The Kashmir situation has festered for over sixty years now! NO resolution in sight either. At the end of the British Raj, the ruling Maharajah of Kashmir [a Sikh] opted for consolidation of his realm into India, a decision NEVER acceded to by the Pakistani.

AND, for the last twenty years, Kashmir, the Indian-controlled half, has been the scene of a particularly brutal insurgency, Islamic groups contesting by force Indian rule!

Kashmir, at one time, along with the Swat valley, were both POPULAR INTERNATIONAL TOURIST DESTINATIONS - - IDYLLIC SPOTS!! Have not been so for some time now. And are not likely to be seeing an influx of tourism for any time in the foreseeable future!

Again, China now seeks to exacerbate an already tense situation and make matters worse? Taking sides more decidedly so - - to the detriment of India!

coolbert.