This month’s confrontation between India and Pakistan caused a diplomatic, military and political earthquake in Asia and beyond. The tectonic plates will take a while to resettle.

The root cause was all too familiar, dating back to the 1947 partitioning of India and Pakistan and the unresolved issue of Kashmir, control over which remains divided between the two nations.

Pakistan’s official position is that this conflict can only be resolved through a plebiscite, as ordered by the UN Security Council in 1948, while India maintains that its control over its part of Kashmir is non-negotiable.

Since 1989, the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir has been in a state of insurgency, with tens of thousands of people arrested, brutalised or killed. India blames Pakistan for the unrest, but decades of Indian state repression have clearly played a role.