In April and May 2025, India and Pakistan were on the brink of war, after gunmen opened fire on mainly Indian tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir, killing 26 people. After this attack, thought to be by separatists, India responded by closing the border, expelling Pakistan diplomats and - for the first time during all these conflicts - suspending the Indus water contract. Both countries are very dependent on the water coming from the Indus river. It is agreed that Pakistan can use 80 percent and India 20 percent of the water and India, located upstream, is not allowed to block the river. In a reaction to India, Pakistan stopped all trade and expelled Indian diplomats. On both sides, troops have been firing small-arms across the border in the weeks that followed. There is a fragile cease-fire now but both countries claim victory, so the situation in Kashmir is still volatile.

Kashmir is a mountainous area between Pakistan and India, de facto ruled by India. It was divided after India gained independence from Britain and Pakistan was created in 1947. Pakistan was created to be mainly Islamic and India mainly Hinduist. The area of Kashmir, in the north of India is predominantly Islamic and has been a disputed area since. Both countries claim the area, resulting in two bitter wars and slumbering tensions since the last war. About half a million Indian soldiers are deployed in the area.

These claims and tensions can also be found on stamps, both from Pakistan and India. Like this 1960 cover from Pakistan showing ‘Jammu & Kashmir. Final status not yet determined’. It shows the territory of Pakistan, including Kashmir as a disputed area.

India in turn, added this northern area to their territory on this 1973 stamp, see the northern “head” on the map of the country. The stamp on the left commemorates the first inauguration of the Bangladesh parliament, after Bangladesh gained independence in 1971. The postal stamp on the right shows the same outline of India, with Kashmir as an outlined outcrop.

Many conflicts followed. On the ground, but also in a philatelic sense. In 1973, Pakistan issued a stamp with the text: “prisoners of war in India, challenge to world conscience” (left stamp). In 1974 a stamp was issued with “roads in Pakistan”. On that stamp Kashmir is included and indicated as “Disputed Area” (detail on the right.)

In 2018, Pakistan issued a set of twenty stamps with the text: “atrocities in Indian occupied Kashmir”. One of them depicting the text “Freedom struggle” and a protest with a banner “Stop inocent killings in Kashmir” (sic, with one ‘n’)) and the other stamp with the text “Brutality” depicting Indian soldiers carrying away a dead body (right).

India protested against these stamps and even asked the United Nations to put pressure on Pakistan to withdraw the stamps. Additionally they stated that on one of the stamps with the text “homeless children” (see below) is not a picture taken in Kashmir, but showing Palestinian children, not Kashmiri children. A shame for Pakistan, according to India. India’s prime minister Modi revoked Kashmir’s partial autonomy in 2019, claiming to bring more peace to the area, although there have still been incidents of violence and tensions are never far away, as the events in May 2025 show.

A small part of Kashmir, the Siachen Glacier, is claimed by the Peoples Republic of China. Stamps of this part of the conflict do not exist, as far as we know.

The Pakistan-India conflict is not about to end any time soon. Both countries have nuclear power, so a war could potentially be very damaging.

Our explorer Jan Heijs has been collecting postage stamps depicting “disputed political propaganda” since 1980. Sometimes correct franked mail with such postage stamps is accepted by another country, sometimes not. Not accepted mail is called “postal war”. For more examples see: www.postalwar.info.