This was the first resolution on the India-Pakistan Question, which called on India and Pakistan to take measures to improve the situation in Kashmir and to refrain from doing anything that would aggravate it.

Topics: international peace, international intervention, failure of bilateralism

The US was aware in advance of Nehru’s plan to refer the Kashmir dispute to the UN for settlement. Nehru is quoted as suggesting a referendum in Kashmir under international auspices. The US preference was a direct settlement between India and Pakistan but would support a UN-supervised referendum in Kashmir with universal adult sufferage. The US viewed India and Pakistan as probably not able to settle without external assistance and preferred the UN be that party. The US notes that India “may attempt to establish the extant electoral rolls as the basis for the referendum. As those rolls are said to contain less than 7% of the population and were compiled on a bais which served to weight the numbers of the wealthier educated Hindu minority who would obviously vote for accession to India, it is important that the electoral body should in fact be composed on a basis of complete adult sufferage in order that the result of the referendum may be representative of the actual wishes of the people of Kashmir.”

Mr Nehru, in his address to the Constituent Assembly of India, stated:

"Further we made it clear that as soon as law and order had been restored in Kashmir and her soil cleared of the invaders, the question of the State's accession should be settled by reference to the people."
He added: "In order to establish our bona fides we have suggested that when the people are given the chance to decide their future this should be done under the supervision of and impartial tribunal such as the United Nations Organisation."

"And here let me make clear that it has been our policy all along that where there isa dispute about the accession of a State to either Dominion, the decision must be made by the people of the State. It was in accordance with this policy that we added a proviso to the Instrument of Accession of Kashmir."

"We have declared that the fate of Kashmir is ultimately to be decided by the people. That pledge we have given, and the Maharaja has supported it not only to the people of Kashmir but the world. We will not, and cannot back out of it."

" .... our assurance that we shall withdraw our troops from Kashmir as soon as peace and order are restored and leave the decision about the future of the State to the people of the State is not merely a pledge to your government but also to the people of Kashmir and to the world."