Why are India and Pakistan fighting?

Fighting between Pakistan and India flared up over the weekend, with a ceasefire broken just hours after it was declared. 

The latest surge of hostilities began after armed militants killed 26 tourists at Pahalgam in India-controlled Kashmir last month, marking the deadliest attack on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

The violence is a continuation of decades of fighting between the neighbouring countries.

Here's a brief explanation of where the conflict began.

Why are India and Pakistan fighting?

Because of a decades-long dispute over land in an area referred to as the Kashmir region. 

Where is Kashmir?

It's a region near the northernmost corners of India and Pakistan. 

Many people just call it Kasmir, but on many maps, you will see the region labelled as Jammu and Kashmir.

This goes back to the days when it was a princely state of Jammu and Kashmir — more on that below. 

Why are India and Pakistan fighting over Kashmir? 

To understand the dispute, we have to go back to the days of the British Indian Empire. 

This massive area included the land that makes up the countries we now know as India and Pakistan.

Britain's control of the area ended in August, 1947 and the empire was split into India and Pakistan. Pakistan included the territory now known as Bangladesh, which achieved independence in 1971.

India was a Hindu majority, while Pakistan was Muslim majority.

But the fate of Jammu and Kashmir — then a princely state — was left undecided.

The region was majority Muslim but its ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, was Hindu. 

He was given a choice about whether to join India or Pakistan or remain independent. 

Before he could decide, the local uprisings and an invasion from tribal groups that Maharaja Singh accused the Pakistani government of backing, led to him seeking help from the Indian government, which was only offered on the condition he cede to India.

He signed the Instrument of Accession to India in October, 1947. 

Fighting escalated over the coming months, with the war eventually ending with a UN-brokered ceasefire in April, 1948.

The idea was to stop the fighting so the people could vote on whether the region would become part of India or Pakistan — but this never happened. 

A boundary called the Ceasefire Line — now known as the Line of Control — was established, which divided the region without technically being classified as an international border.

The map included in UN documents from 1949 is difficult to read but, in a nutshell, Pakistan administered the land on the north west, while India administered land on the south east. 

Hostilities between the two nations continued over the decades. 

Fighting intensified again in 1965, continuing for months until a ceasefire was brokered by what was then known as the Soviet Union. 

Both sides agreed to adhere to the original ceasefire line from the late 1940s. 

Fighting flared up again in 1971, ending with the signing of a peace treaty in 1972. 

And in 1999, India and Pakistani forces clashed again in the Kargil region in what was described as an undeclared war. 

Who controls Kashmir now?

• India governs the Kashmir Valley, Jammu and Ladakh.
• Pakistan controls Azad Kashmir (which translates to "Free Kashmir") and Gilgit-Baltistan, a region formerly known as the Northern Areas
• China holds the Aksai Chin region

What is Australia's stance on Kashmir?

Here's what the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says about the region on its website about Australia's relationship with Pakistan:

However, DFAT's page on India makes no mention of the Kashmir region. 

Here's some of what a DFAT report on India from 2023 says about the region:

 The federal government's SmartTraveller website updated its warnings telling people to avoid the area over the weekend. 

Here's what it says:

It goes on to say:

ABC/wires

Editor's note (19/05/25): This story has been updated to include reference to the Pahalgam terror attack which sparked the most recent hostilities between India and Pakistan.