Britain and the Indo-Pakistani Conflict: The Rann of Kutch and Kashmir, 1965

Lal Bahadur Shastri, 1964–1966: Leader at a Glance

“…Herein lie the reasons for India’s willingness to have the British mediate in this matter, for as Jonathan Coleman showed, ‘the moderate Shastri’ had, according to the then-UK High-Commissioner in India John Freeman, realized the ‘consequences for the sub-continent’ and was ‘receptive to our offer of good offices, though his ministerial colleagues were divided into “hawks” and “doves”’ (Colman, 2009, p. 468). By early June, however, Shastri was taking a harder line.…”

“…The tribunal, with ‘India represented by a Yugoslav and Pakistan by an Iranian’, took until February 1968 to come to any decision. It gave India ‘3,150 miles out of the 3,500 that the Pakistanis demanded’ and this decision was formally accepted by the two governments in July 1968 (Colman, 2009, p. 470).…”

“…Interestingly, Shastri no longer counted Britain among ‘our friends abroad’, after Wilson’s statement of 6 September ‘condemning India for an act of aggression’, and tersely told Freeman that their ‘relations were more strained now than at any time since independence’. He even suggested that ‘both America and Russia were considered by his government to be more trustworthy friends than {the UK}’ (Colman, 2009, pp. 471–72).…”

“…471–72). The ‘Indian push towards Lahore’ had come as a shock in Britain and Freeman, wryly, noted that it was ‘perhaps an unrecognised tribute to Pandit Nehru’s earlier success in presenting an image of non-violent India to the world’ (Colman, 2009, p. 474).…”