Alastair Lamb, Incomplete Partition, Roxford 1997, pp.216-217

Alastair Lamb, Incomplete Partition, Roxford 1997, pp.216-217

There was nothing very new about the idea of the plebiscite as a means of solving Subcontinental problems. As we have seen, it surfaced during the actual process of Partition prior to the Transfer of Power in August. In September, it had been actively considered in the context of Junagadh, a State with a Hindu majority population whose Muslim Ruler had at the very last moment of the British Raj decided to accede to Pakistan. As a solution to the Junagadh issue, Jawaharlal Nehru had made the following proposal to the Defence Committee of the Indian Cabinet on 30 September 1947:

"we are entirely opposed to war and wish to avoid it. We want an amicable settlement of this [Junagadh] issue and we propose therefore, that wherever there is a dispute in regard to any territory, the matter should be decided by a referendum or plebiscite of the people concerned. We shall accept the result of this referendum whatever it may be as it is our desire that a decision should be made in accordance with the wishes of the people concerned. We invite the Pakistan Government, therefore, to submit the Junagadh issue to a referendum of the people of Junagadh under impartial auspices."

As in Junagadh so quite logically in the mirror image situation of the State of Jammu & Kashmir, an argument of which it is certain both Mountbatten and Nehru were aware.