‘Be Clear Kashmir will Vote for India’ Jammu & Kashmir 1947-1953

Reporting the Contemporary Understanding of the Unreported

Raghuvendra Tanwar

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781032654058
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000517538
• Topic: Geschichte
• Subtopic: Landeskunde

The central point that this volume makes is that much of what happened in Jammu & Kashmir in the critical first few years (1947-53) needs a more careful reassessment. It is argued that there were little voices of ordinary people that should have been heard but were ignored. The political discourse that took centre stage even as it appeared more assertive and representative of mass public opinion was, however, as is now clear only a clever and misleading political move.
Much of the source material upon which the author has based his study has till now remained unstudied and uncited – rare hard to find books, pamphlets, articles in journals, magazines and newspapers, official and party reports and so on. The volume takes the reader back in time to a kind of ring side seat. Kashmir's cultural and historical legacy, the invasion, the issue of the plebiscite, the United Nations and the ceasefire, the Praja Parishad and most important of all the political scene and its key players – Prime Minister Nehru, Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Sheikh Abdullah. Based on the nature of its sources the volume breaks free of a stereotyped approach to understanding the origin of what we commonly term today as the 'Kashmir problem'.
The volume argues that contemporary views recorded as they are in the heat of the moment with natural spontaneity often contain hidden lines and new light. Not surprisingly contemporary versions tell us a story very different from mainstream conventional writings on Jammu & Kashmir. This timely volume will radically influence the existing discourse on Jammu & Kashmir.

Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

CHAPTER ONE

Jammu & Kashmir: A Historical Perspective

Religion, Culture and Tradition

1500 YEARS OF HINDU RULE

WITH A HISTORY that is full of turbulence and turmoil Kashmir still retains the distinction of being the cradle of not just Hinduism but perhaps Buddhism as well. Without going back too much in time it is important to note that Kashmir was not only a part of the great Ashokan empire, but it was Emperor Ashok who founded the city of Srinagar and also introduced Buddhism into Kashmir. An unbroken chain (with a brief break in the early sixth century AD) of Hindu rulers ruled the region since the time of Ashoka upto about the thirteenth century AD. The most famous in this long chain of Hindu rulers extending to over 1500 years was King Lalitaditya. Lalitaditya as is not commonly known was one of India’s great Hindu rulers. His vast empire included Afghanistan, parts of Turkey and even parts of Central Asia. Srinagar during his reign was a major centre of trade, commerce and learning. It was a great age by any standards. The dynasty collapsed as a result of misrule by his successors by about the middle of the ninth century AD. Among the Hindu rulers that followed, an important reference needs to be made of Jaya Simha (AD 1128-55) of the Lohara dynasty. He ruled for about 28 years in the tradition of Lalitaditya and Avantivarman. The period is referred to as a ‘golden age’, a period of Aryan renaissance.¹

It was following the death of Jaya Simha that followed a period of decline and decay. A final fatal blow was struck to the long period of Hindu rule in AD 1320 by Dulacha, a Mongol warrior. The region was reduced as an account puts it to ‘a region before creation.’² In typical Mongol style – women and children were taken away as slaves, no one was spared. Dulacha ‘entered the valley as a lion enters the cave of a deer.’ The story goes on, in sum Kashmir thereafter saw its first Muslim ruler. This rule was at first short lived and ended in AD 1323 with the death of Rinchana who had embraced Islam to smoothen out things.

KASHMIR TAKES TO ISLAM

Muslim rule in Kashmir commenced more effectively with Shah Mir (1339-42). Shah Mir was enlightened and fair in his dealings. He treated Hindus and Muslims alike. His grandson Shibab-ud-din (1354-73) proved an effective and powerful ruler. He took the title of Qutub-ud-din (1373-89). It was his successor Sultan Sikandar who adopted a fanatical approach in matters of faith and government. Conversion was taken up on a large scale. This was to the extent that even the chief minister who was a Hindu with the name of Suha Bhatta had converted to Islam. The zeal of conversion that followed is understandable. Kashmir became a part of the Mughal empire under Akbar in 1586. The Mughals gave Kashmir relative governance and peace. Even though floods and famines continued to impact the people, food and other supplies were assured just as Kashmiri goods came to be seen and be traded across the vast Mughal dominions.

To deviate a bit from the sequence of events. In a recent study Mohammad Ashraf has taken the present crisis in Kashmir back to the times of Akbar. He says that ‘… the worst day in the history of Kashmir was (is) 14 October 1586, that is the day when the Mughal forces entered Srinagar’.³ The point that Ashraf probably seeks to make is that Kashmir was forced to be identified with the rest of India following its annexation by Akbar.

During Aurangzeb’s reign Kashmir saw 14 Governors. Like in other parts of the empire Kashmir too faced the impact of a disintegrating empire following Aurangzeb’s death in 1707. Those who were appointed Governors rarely came to Kashmir and chose to govern through deputy governors. It was in this troubled time that Ahmad Shah Abdali was invited to invade Kashmir. The Afghans took Kashmir in 1753. Plunder, loot and torture followed. Ruthlessness was the mark of the time. So suppressed was the Kashmiri that a mere 3000 Afghans was all it took to keep them under control.

THE BRITISH SELL KASHMIR BUT RETAIN INFLUENCE – DOGRA RULE

Kashmir passed to Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1819 thus bringing to an end Kashmir’s nightmare of Afghan rule. The Sikhs ruled for 27 years. Of these Ranjit Singh ruled for 17 years. Like other parts of his kingdom Kashmir too was restored to some extent in terms of general governance. Ranjit Singh did not however visit Kashmir even once. In 1846 Kashmir was taken over by Gulab Singh from the British for the payment of a price as a part of the Treaty of Amritsar that had resulted from the defeat of the Sikhs at the hands of the British. Unlike other parts of his kingdom Ranjit Singh had not given much attention to Kashmir. The Kashmiri peasant’s legendary poverty had got only worse. Gulab Singh had paid a hefty price for getting Kashmir. Once again it fell on the Kashmiri peasant to refurbish Gulab Singh’s treasury. But Gulab Singh’s taking over the control of Kashmir had another significance as well.

Gulab Singh was a General and feudatory of Ranjit Singh who was already ruling the Jammu region. His coming to power in Kashmir meant that a Hindu ruler had returned to rule Kashmir and its associated regions after a gap of almost 550 years. Maharaja Ranbir Singh who succeeded Gulab Singh added to his kingdom the territories lying north of Kashmir. Jammu & Kashmir with about 84,500 sq. miles of territory thus came to be the largest Princely State of British India. With a border that came to touch China, Afghanistan and Russia, its geo-strategic importance soon began to attract world attention. This attention led to several issues and events in the post World War II years – the years of the Cold War.

One of the great mysteries in the unfolding of these early events is, as to why the British decided to hand over the beautiful region to someone else. It was most unusual by the norms of European colonialism. There are several important writings available to us on this. Among recent writings that are comprehensive and explain events as they unfolded, one comes from Jagmohan⁴. Jagmohan has referred to how even some of the well known British officers had questioned the decision of not retaining the state as a part of the empire. The famous Younghusband of the ‘expedition to Tibet’ fame, is among those who questioned the rational of selling of the state after the hard fought battles with the powerful Sikh empire. Kashmir as these officers insisted was acquired by the British as a compensation of war. In retrospect however it is not difficult to understand why the British decided to separate with Kashmir. The answer lay perhaps in the lesser known classical British colonial approach in such matters. Jagmohan has quoted from a note by Lord Hardinge to the East India Company (19 March 1846) which explains the decision to sell the state to Gulab Singh: ‘… a Rajput dynasty will act as a counterpoise against the power of the Sikh Prince the son of the late Ranjit Singh and both will have a common interest in resisting attempts of any Mohammaden power of establishing an independent state on this side of the (River) Indus. …’⁵

Several contemporary versions that appeared in the years after the sale of Kashmir to Gulab Singh have explained the action. It was: ‘… one of the political mistakes that we make in a hurry to appease the demon of economy … we threw away by diplomacy what we won by the sword. …’⁶ Robert Thorp noted: ‘… We deliberately sold millions of human beings into slavery for a few pieces of silver. …’⁷ Thorp died in 1868 and had been married to a Kashmiri girl.

Notwithstanding several writings that have criticized the transfer of Kashmir to the Dogras, there are writings that point out that it was the best option for the British because the British could not have managed to hold on to Kashmir without first annexing the Punjab. May be things would have been different if the Punjab had been annexed a few years earlier.

This decision of the British to sell Kashmir saw four Dogra Maharajas ruling Kashmir – Gulab Singh (1846-57); Ranbir Singh (1857-85); Partap Singh (1885-1925) and finally Hari Singh (1925-52). It must also be noted that even though Jammu & Kashmir had acceded to India in 1947 and soon after Sheikh Abdullah had got most powers into his hands, technically Dogra rule was abolished only in 1952.

But perhaps of even greater importance is that though the state was sold to Gulab Singh, the British had no intention of over-looking its importance or weakening their hold and influence over it. As early as 1852, an officer on special duty had been posted to keep an eye on Maharaja Gulab Singh. In 1867 a Trade Agency was set up in Leh. This enabled the British to control trade and the trade routes into central Asia. In 1884 a Permanent Political Agent was deputed to Srinagar. As had happened in several Princely states, in Kashmir too all powers came virtually to rest in the Resident. This was to the extent that even travel to Kashmir by non-Kashmiris now required official permission.⁸

It is also important to remember that when the British handed over Kashmir to Gulab Singh, the world was a different place. Colonial rivalries were no doubt widely in context, but the compulsions of the ‘cold war’ that followed the end of World War II were still decades in the future. For Britain its foreign policy had through the nineteenth century been influenced by the ‘Ghost’ of Russia. The three Afghan Wars were not just with regard to the strategic importance and significance of Afghanistan. It was the potential of Russian influence that was actually the cause of major concern. It is in this ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1 Jammu & Kashmir: A Historical Perspective – Religion Culture and Tradition
• 2 The Invasion of Jammu & Kashmir: Public Opinion Turns Anti-Pakistan
• 3 Nehru Puts Abdullah Incharge: Beginning of the Political Whirlpool
• 4 ‘Pilgrimage of Hindustan to Lake Success (UN) the Hotbed of International Intrigue’: Nehru sees Kashmir as a World Problem
• 5 ‘Accession Still in the Melting Pot’ The Praja Parishad: Nehru-Mookerjee and Abdullah
• 6 The Dismissal of Sheikh Abdullah Pakistan Prime Minister Meets Nehru: Talk of Plebiscite and Partition of Kashmir
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index