The political landscape of Kashmir has undergone a tremendous change. The domination of occupation by the Mughals, Sikhs, Pathans and Dogras has left indelible marks on the minds of the Kashmiri nation. Kashmiris were forced to submit to the repressive measures of the rulers which inflicted deep wounds on their psyche. It was then, in the mid-19th century, that Kashmir had to silently witness an unpleasant turning point in its political life when the British colonizers sold this Paradise on earth for the paltry sum of Rs 75 lakh to a Dogra soldier Gulab Singh in 1846. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay The 100-year-old Dogra rule did not give the subjugated people their fundamental rights of free speech and expression of their grievances. In 1947, when the Indian subcontinent was divided and two free nations, Bharat and Pakistan, were born, the most unfortunate part of this region, Kashmir, remained embroiled in a dispute between these two neighbors without being resolved for 62 years now. The Dogra Maharajas proved no better than the previous foreign occupants of Kashmir. The sale of Kashmir on March 15, 1846 was dubbed the “Treaty of Amritsar,” under which, in the words of Prem Nath Bazaz, “The British authorities in India did not consult even one of the Kashmiri leaders. It was overall a sordid and shameful affair, devoid of any sense of fairness, justice and fairness. Two million people in the Valley and Gilgit were sold like sheep and cattle to an alien adventurer of the rights, interests of the future of the people.” An independent and sovereign Kashmir had been enslaved for more than 400 years by aggressors from the South and the West. Their living condition had transformed into a pitiful life of animals. The ignominious Treaty of Amritsar gave impetus to the latent discontent against Dogra rule among the people of Kashmir. This spark of anger and desire for freedom emerged before 1931, but 13 July 1931 proved to be a watershed moment for a drastic and epochal change in the political culture of Kashmir. The political leadership was taken in hand by a towering Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah who emerged as the tallest of the tall to lead the oppressed Kashmiris out of bondage into a world of freedom. After a tragic partition of the subcontinent on the basis of the two-nation theory, the Kashmiri nation continued to demolish its democratic institutions one after another as a result of an unresolved Kashmir dispute. Elected governments were dismissed. Gradually the legislative, judicial and administrative powers were placed in the background to their masters and protectors who issued commands from outside. The most astonishing event took place when the first Prime Minister of the State, Sheikh Abdullah, of whom Jawaharlal Nehru had said that "Sheikh Abdullah is Kashmir and Kashmir is Sheikh Abdullah", was unceremoniously sacked and arrested on the morning of the 9th. August 1953. The shocking step taken against the state government by New Delhi, has once again thrown the people of Kashmir into the darkness of uncertainty and confusion. They were sincerely forced to reflect on the shaping of their political future, whose wounded culture had been further wounded by Abdullah's sudden removal. The people, inhabitants of the most peaceful region called the Paradise on Earth, had imbibed in their mentality the philosophy of Lalla Arifa and Sheikhul Aalam who had transformed the Kashmir valley into an abode of devout saints, spiritual ascetics and scholars who propagated the ideals of human essence and its greatness..