India's population is 80 percent Hindu and 20 percent Muslim. The state of Jammu and Kashmir, which borders on Pakistan in the north, is the only state in the country with a majority of Muslims. The distribution has shifted in recent years because militancy has caused Hindu and Sikh families who have lived there for generations to relocate to other parts of the country.

In 1947, the subcontinent was divided by British Governor-General Lord Mountbatten into two countries, India and Pakistan. Muslims on the Indian side of the border fled to Pakistan and Hindus in Pakistan fled to India. In 1971, West Pakistan, separated from Islamabad by 1000 miles and a different culture and language, became the independent country of Bangladesh.

At the time of partition, the Maharaja of Kashmir, Hari Singh, was given the choice to join India or Pakistan. Mountbatten favored accession to India. While the King was deliberating, Pakistani forces occupied one third of the mountainous princely state. Pakistan calls that region Azad ("Free") Kashmir. It is also known as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK). The Maharaja quickly responded by signing the Instrument of Accession, making Kashmir an Indian territory on the condition that India would provide defense and communications to Kashmir and that a plebiscite would be held at a later date. The Kashmir Valley, with a population of nine million, became part of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, and POK, with a population of three million, remained in Pakistani territory. In 1950, China seized control of Askai Chin, a region in northern Indian Kashmir, and in 1963 it claimed the northern Pakistani border regions of Gilgit and Hunza.

Different views about Kashmir have been voiced since the end of colonial rule. Should Indian Kashmir remain part of India and POK remain part of Pakistan? Could POK rejoin with the rest of Kashmir and flourish as a unified Indian state? Should POK and Indian Kashmir reunite and exist as a sovereign Kashmiri nation? Or should Indian Kashmir become part of Pakistan? Neither India nor Pakistan -- nor China, for that matter -- is willing to give up any territory that is presently within its jurisdiction.

Despite the fact that the issue had not been resolved, the economy in Jammu and Kashmir thrived, tourism was a booming industry, Muslims and Hindus lived side by side in peace and violent conflicts were relatively infrequent until 1989. As Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1977 to 1979, Vajpayee liberalized visa regulations for Pakistanis visiting India in order to ease tensions between the nations. As Prime Minister 20 years later, he initiated a direct bus route between the nations, thus uniting people who wanted to visit family and friends on the opposite side of the border.

During the 1990s, the atmosphere changed dramatically as militant groups became increasingly active in the Kashmir valley. The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), an indigenous movement, is the only significant group that favors an independent nation. It was bolstered by Islamabad temporarily, but support was withdrawn in favor of pro-Pakistan militant groups, such as the Harakat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) and others. Without Pakistani support, the influence of the JKLF has waned. Today more foreign fighters are reportedly engaged in the struggle than local Kashmiris.

For the last 15 years, a pervasive issue on the agenda of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the secret service of Pakistan, which is run by the military, has been Kashmir and the broader subject of India. The ISI has trained militant groups in Afghan and Pakistani training camps and has armed, financed and deployed their members in Kashmir. Since 1990, these groups have escalated attacks on civilians in public and private places, assaults on security forces, hijackings, kidnappings and murders in the Kashmir valley, New Delhi and other parts of India. They have also disrupted ceasefire initiatives and were reportedly the chief cause for the failure of the 2001 Indo-Pakistani summit. In the 1999 Kargil Conflict, which ensued from the belligerent Pakistani crossing of the Line of Control, General Musharraf, then Joint Chiefs of Staff, allegedly deployed ISI-backed militants in conjunction with regular troops.

Following the militant attacks on New York City in September 2001 and accusations by India that LET and JEM were behind the bombing of the Indian Parliament in December, the US and the international coalition have pressured Islamabad to rein in the militants and end the Kashmir jihad. In January 2002, President Musharraf banned five groups, including HUM, LET and JEM. Demands increased on Islamabad to take more effective measures following the kidnapping and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. The most active and ominous group today, LET, stands not only for the expropriation of Indian Kashmir to Pakistan, but also, according to a pamphlet it issued entitled "Why Are We Waging Jihad," for the establishment of Islamic rule throughout India.

New Delhi and Islamabad both have nuclear capabilities and have amassed munitions and hundreds of thousands of troops along their common border. The world watches, crossing its fingers in the hope for the de-escalation of violence and a renewal of talks to resolve the Kashmir issue. According to reports, so do the people of Indian Kashmir and rural Pakistan, who long for the return of a peaceful life and the restoration of their suffering economies.