“The people of Kashmir should be asked whether they want to join Pakistan or India. Let them do as they want. The ruler is nothing. The people are everything.”
Mahatma Gandhi, political and spiritual leader of the Indian independence movement. Quoted in Stanley Wolpert. Gandhi’s Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi (2001, p. 239), 29 July 1947.
“I should like to make it clear that question of aiding Kashmir in this emergency is not designed in any way to influence the State to accede to India. Our view which we have repeatedly made public is that the question of accession in any disputed territory or State must be decided in accordance with the wishes of the people and we adhere to this view.”
Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India. Quoted in Government of India. White Paper on Jammu & Kashmir (p. 46), 25 October 1947.
“[I]t is my Government’s wish that, as soon as law and order have been restored in Kashmir and her soil cleared of the invader, the question of the State’s accession should be settled by a reference to the people.”
Louis Mountbatten, Governor-General of India. Quoted in Government of India. White Paper on Jammu & Kashmir (p. 47), 27 October 1947.
“Our assurance that we shall withdraw our troops from Kashmir as soon as peace and order are restored and leave the decision about the future of the State is not merely a pledge to your Government [Pakistan] but also to the people of Kashmir and to the world.”
Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India. Quoted in Government of India. White Paper on Jammu & Kashmir (p. 51), 31 October 1947.
“We have declared that the fate of Kashmir is ultimately to be decided by the people. That pledge we have given, and the Maharaja has supported it, not only to the people of Kashmir but to the world. We will not, and cannot back out of it.”
Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India. Quoted in Government of India. White Paper on Jammu & Kashmir (p. 53), 2 November 1947.
“It will thus be seen that our proposals which we have repeatedly stated are: […] (three) that the Governments of India and Pakistan should make a joint request to U.N.O. to undertake a plebiscite in Kashmir as the earliest possible date.”
Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India. Quoted in Government of India. White Paper on Jammu & Kashmir (p. 62), 8 November 1947.
“In order to establish our bona fides we have suggested that when the people [of Kashmir] are given the chance to decide their future this should be done under the supervision of an impartial tribunal such as the United Nations Organisation.”
Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India. Quoted in Government of India. White Paper on Jammu & Kashmir (p. 71), 25 November 1947.
“In Kashmir, as in other similar cases, the view of the Government of India has been that in the matter of disputed accession the will of the people must prevail. […] The question of accession is to be decided finally in a free plebiscite; on this point there is no dispute.”
Government of India. White Paper on Jammu & Kashmir (p. 45), 1948.
“But, in order to avoid any possible suggestion that India had utilized the State’s [Kashmir’s] immediate peril for her own political advantage, the Government of India made it clear that once the soil of the State had been cleared of the invader and normal conditions restored, its people would be free to decide their future by the recognized democratic method of a plebiscite or referendum which, in order to ensure complete impartiality, might be held under international auspices.”
Government of India. Letter to the President of the Security Council (S/628, para. 6), 1 January 1948.
“The question of the future status of Kashmir vis-à-vis her neighbors and the world at large, and a further question, namely, whether she should withdraw from her accession to India and either accede to Pakistan or remain independent, with a right to claim admission as a Member of the United Nations – all this we have recognized to be a matter for unfettered decision by the people of Kashmir, after normal life is restored to them.”
Gopalaswamy Ayanger, Representative of India to the United Nations. Verbatim Record of the 227th Meeting of the Security Council (S/PV.227, p. 29), 15 January 1948.
“India has repeatedly offered to work out with U.N. reasonable safeguards to enable the people of Kashmir to express their will, and will always be ready to do so.”
Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India. Quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 January 1951.
“So, similarly, the word ‘plebiscite’ embodies the great idea of self-determination and it simply is not to be misinterpreted.”
Krishna Menon, Representative of India to the United Nations. Verbatim Record of the 769th Meeting of the Security Council (S/PV.769, para. 110), 15 February 1957.
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