The Stand Down Order was the title of a general order issued by Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck, the Supreme Commander of the Indian and Pakistani military forces, in 1947. It directed that, in the event of a war between the newly independent dominions of India and Pakistan, all the British officers on both sides should immediately stand down. The order was never invoked. However, it was raised when the Pakistani Governor General, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, ordered Pakistani Army to march into Kashmir following the Indian air lift of troops for its defence. At Auchinleck's instance, Jinnah was forced to rescind his order. In subsequent months, the British government watered down the strength of the order, and General Douglas Gracey, the Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistani Army, defied it. Three brigades of the Pakistani Army were fighting in Kashmir in May 1948, as reported by Pakistan's foreign minister, Sir Zafrullah Khan, to the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan.
Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, was a British Indian Army commander who saw active service during the world wars. A career soldier who spent much of his military career in India, he rose to become commander-in-chief of the Indian Army by early 1941 during the Second World War. In July 1941 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Middle East Theatre, but after initial successes, the war in North Africa turned against the British-led forces under his command, and he was relieved of the post in August 1942 during the North African campaign.
Muhammad Ayub Khan, widely known as Ayub Khan was a Pakistani army officer who served as the second president of Pakistan from 1958 to 1969. He previously served as the third Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army from 1951 to 1958.
Liaquat Ali Khan was a Pakistani lawyer, politician and statesman who served as the first prime minister of Pakistan from 1947 until his assassination in 1951. He was one of the leading figures of the Pakistan Movement and is revered as Quaid-e-Millat.
The Indo-Pakistani war of 1947–1948, also known as the first Kashmir war, was a war fought between India and Pakistan over the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir from 1947 to 1948. It was the first of four Indo-Pakistani wars between the two newly independent nations. Pakistan precipitated the war a few weeks after its independence by launching tribal lashkar (militias) from Waziristan, in an effort to capture Kashmir and to preempt the possibility of its ruler joining India.
General Headquarters, India was the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief, India, who commanded the British military forces in India, including the British Indian Army, after the Kitchener Reforms of 1903. It succeeded Headquarters, India which was the term in use initially after the three Presidency armies had been amalgamated into one force. The Commander-in-Chief answered to the civilian Viceroy of India.
Ram Chandra Kak was the prime minister of Jammu and Kashmir during 1945–1947. One of the very few Kashmiri Pandits to ever hold that post, Kak had the intractable job of navigating the troubled waters of the transfer of power from British Raj to the independent dominions of India and Pakistan.
General Sir Douglas David Gracey, was a British Indian Army officer who fought in both the First and Second World Wars. He also fought in French Indochina and was the second Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army. Gracey held this latter office from 11 February 1948 until his retirement on 16 January 1951. Born to English parents living in India, he was educated in English schools before returning to India to serve in the military there.
General Sir Frank Walter Messervy, was a British Indian Army officer in the First and Second World Wars. Following its independence, he was the first commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Army from August 1947 to February 1948. Previously, he had served as General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Northern Command, India in 1946 and 1947.
Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan Kashmiri was a major figure in British Indian and later Pakistan politics, in particular in the North-West Frontier Province, where served as the deputy speaker of the provincial assembly, first Chief Minister of North-West Frontier Province and served as Interior Minister of Pakistan in the central government from 1972 to 1977.
The following is a timeline of the Kashmir conflict, a territorial conflict between India, Pakistan and, to a lesser degree, China. India and Pakistan have been involved in four wars and several border skirmishes over the issue.
General Kodendera Subayya Thimayya, DSO was the 3rd Chief of Army Staff from 1957 to 1961 during the crucial years leading up to the conflict with China in 1962. Thimayya was the only Indian to command an Infantry brigade in battle during the Second World War and is regarded as the most distinguished combat officer the Indian Army has produced. After the Korean War, Thimayya headed a United Nations unit dealing with the repatriation of prisoners of war. After his retirement from the Army, he was appointed Commander of the United Nations Peace Keeping Force in Cyprus from July 1964 to December 1965 and died in Cyprus while on active duty on 18 December 1965.
In February 1948, the princely state of Junagadh, located in what is now the Indian state of Gujarat, was annexed to the Union of India after a dispute with the Dominion of Pakistan, regarding its accession, and a plebiscite. Junagadh had been a princely state under the suzerainty of the British Crown, until independence and partition of British India in 1947.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 39, adopted on January 20, 1948, offered to assist in the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir Conflict by setting up a commission of three members; one to be chosen by India, one to be chosen by Pakistan and the third to be chosen by the other two members of the commission. The commission was to write a joint letter advising the Security Council on what course of action would be best to help further peace in the region.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 47, adopted on 21 April 1948, concerns the resolution of the Kashmir conflict. After hearing arguments from both India and Pakistan, the Council increased the size of the UN Commission created by the former Resolution 39 to five members, instructed the Commission to go to the subcontinent and help the governments of India and Pakistan restore peace and order to the region and prepare for a plebiscite to decide the fate of Kashmir.
Mohammed Zaman Kiani was an officer of the British Indian Army who later joined the Indian National Army (INA), led by Subhas Chandra Bose, and commanded its 1st Division.
Sir George Cunningham was a civil servant in British India who served as the governor of the North-West Frontier Province. He was appointed to the post again by the Dominion of Pakistan, after its independence. He tacitly witnessed his provincial government launch a tribal invasion of Kashmir and then oversaw it under directions from Governor General Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
The Jinnah–Mountbatten talks were bilateral talks held in Lahore between the Governor-Generals Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Louis Mountbatten of Pakistan and India, to address the Kashmir dispute. The talks were held on 1 November 1947, five days after India dispatched its troops to defend the princely state of Kashmir(which was a Muslim majority state recently acceded to India) against a tribal invasion. In the talks, Mountbatten presented India's offer to hold an impartial plebiscite under the United Nations auspices to decide the accession of Kashmir. Jinnah effectively rejected the offer.
Chandrashekhar Dasgupta was an Indian civil servant, diplomat and writer who served as Indian ambassador to the European Union, Belgium, Luxembourg and China.
A standstill agreement was an agreement signed between the newly independent dominions of India and Pakistan and the princely states of the British Indian Empire prior to their integration in the new dominions. The form of the agreement was bilateral between a dominion and a princely state. It provided that all the administrative arrangements, existing between the British Crown and the state would continue unaltered between the signatory dominion and the princely state, until new arrangements were made.
In spring 1947, an uprising against the Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir broke out in the Poonch jagir, an area bordering the Rawalpindi district of West Punjab and the Hazara district of the North-West Frontier Province in the future Pakistan. It was driven by grievances such as high taxes, the Maharaja's neglect of World War veterans, and above all, Muslim nationalism with a desire to join Pakistan. The leader of the rebellion, Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, escaped to Lahore by the end of August 1947 and persuaded the Pakistani authorities to back the rebellion. In addition to the backing, Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan authorised an invasion of the state, by the ex-Indian National Army personnel in the south and a force led by Major Khurshid Anwar in the north. These invasions eventually led to the First Kashmir War fought between India and Pakistan, and the formation of Azad Kashmir provisional government. The Poonch jagir has since been divided across Azad Kashmir, administered by Pakistan and the state of Jammu and Kashmir, administered by India.