Kashmir

One of the main tourist places in India is Kashmir which lies in the northernmost region of the country and is blessed with surreal natural beauty and myriad adventures. Kashmir offers two different experiences, one during the summers when the whole valley looks enthralling with its lush-green landscape and snow-capped mountains in the backdrop and other during the winter season when it is all covered with white snow. No matter when you plan a visit to this place, it will always offer you a blissful experience. It is known as the heaven on the Earth for a reason as it is a postcard-card perfect scenery drawn by nature.

ashmir was neither as large nor as old an independent state as Hyderabad; it had been created rather off-handedly by the British after the first defeat of the Sikhs in 1846, as a reward to a former official who had sided with the British. The Himalayan kingdom was connected to India through a district of the Punjab, but its population was 77 per cent Muslim and it shared a boundary with Pakistan. Hence, it was anticipated that the maharaja would accede to Pakistan when the British paramountcy ended on 14–15 August. When he hesitated to do this, Pakistan launched a guerrilla onslaught meant to frighten its ruler into submission. Instead the Maharaja appealed to Mountbatten^[39] for assistance, and the governor-general agreed on the condition that the ruler accede to India. Indian soldiers entered Kashmir and drove the Pakistani-sponsored irregulars from all but a small section of the state. The United Nations was then invited to mediate the quarrel. The UN mission insisted that the opinion of Kashmiris must be ascertained, while India insisted that no referendum could occur until all of the state had been cleared of irregulars

In the last days of 1948, a ceasefire was agreed under UN auspices. However, since the plebiscite demanded by the UN was never conducted, relations between India and Pakistan soured,^[40] and eventually led to two more wars over Kashmir in 1965 and 1999.

The word Kashmir is thought to have been derived from Sanskrit and was referred to as káśmīra.^[9] A popular local etymology of Kashmira is that it is land desiccated from water.^[10]

An alternative etymology derives the name from the name of the Vedic sage Kashyapa who is believed to have settled people in this land. Accordingly, Kashmir would be derived from either kashyapa-mir (Kashyapa’s Lake) or kashyapa-meru (Kashyapa’s Mountain).^[10]

The word has been referenced to in a Hindu scripture mantra worshipping the Hindu goddess Sharada and is mentioned to have resided in the land of kashmira, or which might have been a reference to the Sharada Peeth.