Do you know that the Indian ‘official’ map of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) shows the state having a geographical area of 2,26,741 square kilometres?
This would make J&K the 5th largest state in India in terms of area. Even after the division, the UT of Ladakh is bigger than 13 Indian states and all other 8 UT’s; while the UT of J&K is bigger than 9 Indian states and 7 other UT’s.
Do you know that India effectively controls only 1,04,390 square kilometres, or only 46% of the total area shown on the ‘official’ map? This would make the erstwhile J&K state – before it was divided into 2 Union Territories (UT’s) – the 12th largest state in India.
Do you know that Pakistan controls 78,114 square kilometres, or 34.5% of the ‘full’ state of J&K shown on our official map? Of this, only 13,297 square kilometres is referred to in Pakistan as Azad Kashmir, and the balance 64,817 square kilometres is Gilgit-Baltistan. Both are treated within Pakistan as Autonomous (self-governing) Territories, and not as Provinces. However, India treats all of this territory as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir lost this territory to Pakistan in the First Indo-Pak War of 1947-48. Pakistan has four provinces – Balochistan (3,47,190 sq.km.), Punjab (2,05,344 sq.km.), Sindh (1,40,914 sq.km.) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (1,01,741 sq.km.)
Do you know that China controls 44,237 square kilometres, or the balance 19.5% of the territory in our map? Of this, the 6,993 square kilometres Shaksgam Tract was also won by Pakistan from us in 1947-48, and ceded to China in 1953. The larger portion of 37,244 square kilometres – known as Aksai Chin – has a long history, which I will save for another blog post.
Though Pakistan and China has given autonomy to the territories they won from India be it kashmir or aksai chin while India had given limited autonomy to JK which also was scrapped after abrogation of article 370 ,Indian occupied kashmir doesn’t have even matching autonomy with other other indian states like Bihar and Bengal
What is the source of information for areas (in square kilometers) under various administrations? Some previously published books show slightly varying numbers.