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When the British left the Indian Subcontinent in 1947, Mountbatton was undecided as how to draw the line between independent Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India through the Himalayan range in the princely and Muslim state of the Kashmir. The Maharajah, led by a Hindu prince, made their decision only when Pakistani tribesmen invaded in support of an uprising of their Muslim peasant, Kashmiri brothers. The Maharajah fled to Delhi and signed over their 'princely state' to India.

So began the first Indo-Pakistan conflict. The area is presently approximately two-thirds Indian to one-third Pakistani while some Kashmiri want their own independent country. Since 1992, nothing short of complete independence from the worlds two latest nuclear powers has been demanded by the Pakistani sponsored, Jammu and Kashmiri Liberation Front. And so the three main parties continue to eye each other suspiciously across inhospitable high altitude deserts, and more recently, exchanging artillery fire, with jet fighters and bombers soaring around the Himilayan peaks.

Part of the problem was that the Maharaja forbid the British to own land in the cool lushness of the Vale of Kashmir, which led to the building of spacious and luxurious mahogany houseboats which today are still one of the regions most worthwhile attractions.