Part of the country series of articles.
TRAVEL ADVISORY: EXERCISE HEIGHTENED CAUTIONPARSTATE advises travellers to exercise caution in Kashmir, particularly near the Pakistani and Indian border regions where military activity and occasional skirmishing remains a feature of local conditions.
| Republic of Kashmir | |
|---|---|
| Republic | |
 |
|
| Capital | Srinagar |
| Languages | Kashmiri, Urdu, Hindi, Dogri, and many regional languages |
| Population | 10,400,000 |
The Republic of Kashmir is a small mountain republic in the western Himalayas, independent since the collapse of British India. When the Raj fell apart, the Dogra monarchy in Jammu and Kashmir found itself amidst a region in collapse, and witness to one of the deadliest mass-migrations in history. Both Pakistan and the new Indian republic claimed it, and the area was subject to regular violent incursions and skirmishes throughout the 1940s. By the time the region stabilised, Kashmir had been governing itself long enough that it had acquired some international legitimacy as an independent nation.
Kashmir is in an unenvious diplomatic position. It maintains correct if cool relations with both India and Pakistan, and leans toward the Non-Aligned Movement for what diplomatic cover it provides. It keeps its internal politics deliberately quiet. It is poor but not wretched, sustained by the valley’s famous saffron, handicraft exports and a tourism trade that fills Srinagar’s houseboats each summer with visitors who find the anxiety of the place part of the atmosphere. The Dogra monarchy gave way to a republic in the 1970s without much drama, and the Kashmir National Party that replaced it has invested considerably in a nationwide militia system with rifles smuggled from China.