KASHMIR-15

A PERIOD OF TURMOIL 1930-1947

Rise of Sheikh Abdullah/Muslim Resurgence

1.         Sheikh Abdullah was born in 1905 in Sura village in the Kashmir Valley. Abdullah’s ancestors were Kashmiri Brahmins who converted to Islam during the Afghan rule. He had obtained a MSc degree, worked as a science teacher and later resigned to actively involve himself in politics. He was a member of the Reading Room Party, which focussed on propagating the poor condition of Muslims in Kashmir and was influenced by Sufism. Abdullah had to suffer many periods of detention because of his public dissent against the policies of the Maharaja.

2.         The Maharaja was forced to appoint a commission, headed by Sir Bertrand Glancy to enquire into the complaints of the people. The report, submitted in 1932, established that ‘real grievances existed which needed redress’. The report recommended many reforms including creation of employment opportunities.

3.         The Muslim leaders decided to conduct the Kashmir Freedom Movement on ‘secular, progressive and democratic lines’. A political party was formed in 1932 called the ‘Muslim Conference’ and Sheikh Abdullah became President and Ghulam Abbas was the first general secretary. Religious differences between the leaders of the Muslim Conference resulted in the Mirwaiz (Yusuf Shah) braking away from the party.

4.         As a result of the Glancy committee’s recommendations a legislative assembly called the Praja Sabha was set up and held its first session in October, 1934. This was the first attempt to create a common platform for Muslims and non-Muslims for sharing legislative powers, even though the Maharaja reigned supreme.

Road to Indian Independence

5.         On 26 March 1935, the British leased the Gilgit Agency north of Indus for a period of 60 years.   This  was  a  result  of   British fears  of  a threat from Russia and also due to a growing rift between  the  British  political  agent  in  Gilgit  and  the  local  chieftain  or  wazir-I-wazarat,  who controlled the tehsils of Gilgit and Astar. 

6.         In 1935, the idea of in All India Federation was enacted in the Govt of India Act. The act provided for autonomous legislative bodies in the eleven provinces of British India “as well as creation of a Central Government which would represent the provinces and princely states” and also that the Muslim minorities would be protected. An important issue which arises at this stage  is aptly noted by Victoria Schoefield that “as the largest and most northernly princely state, strategically located on the borders of China and the Soviet Union, the state of Jammu and Kashmir could have played a key rule in future negotiations. But Hari Singh never seems to have given the future of his state, nor indeed the sub continent, the consideration it deserved”.

7.         The Congress party led by Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel won (in eight of eleven provinces) the first elections to the new provincial legislatures in 1936. On 08 May 1936 the Jammu and Kashmir Muslim conference organised a ‘Responsible Government Day’ in which Sikhs and Hindus participated. The Muslim Conference was gaining in influence especially among the poor and working class and the prominent leaders included GM Sadiq, Mirza Afzal Beg and Bakshi Gulam Mohammed. The party strongly professed a secular image to include Sikhs and Hindus. This secular stance and a desire to get on the national stage led to the changing in name of the party, on 11 June 1939 to become the ‘National Conference’.  

                       

8.         The Lahore resolution was adopted, by the Muslim conference in March 1940 which says, ‘that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority, as in the north-western and eastern zones of India, should be grouped to constitute “independent states” in which the constituent units ‘shall be autonomous and sovereign’. This was based on an early ideology (proposed by Chaudhuri Rahmat Ali in 1933) that the Muslims in Punjab, NWFP, Kashmir, Sind and Baluchistan should be recognised as a distinct nation called ‘Pakistan’. World War II broke out in 1939 and a ‘war emergency’ was declared in British India. The Cripps mission was sent to India in 1942 to prepare a draft declaration on a future independence after the war was over. This mission was not taken seriously by the Indian political leadership since it was perceived that Japanese would be victorious in  South  Asia and British would face defeat. Simultaneously, the Quit India movement took place in Aug 1942 and the Muslim League became more strident in their demand for a separate homeland. Hari Singh, like his father, supported the British war effort.

9.         In Jammu and Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah adopted the ‘Naya Kashmir’ manifesto at the annual session of the National Conference at Sopore in September 1944.  The  manifesto announced a programme of ‘freedom, equality and democracy for the people’. 

    

10.       Sheikh Abdullah had a secular outlook to the Kashmir issue and was pro-Congress party. These two aspects were mainly responsible for Muslims, specially the non-Kashmiri speaking ones, to side with the Muslim League. It is also pertinent to note that Mohammed Ali Jinnah and Sheikh Abdullah were not in agreement on the political and ideological issues of Kashmir and this is an important factor, which perhaps determined the future of Kashmir. In 1941, Ghulam Abbas left the National conference and helped Mirwaiz to revive the Muslim Conference. Abdullah was against the ‘two nation theory’ propounded by Jinnah, which stated that there were two nations in the sub-continent – Hindus and Muslims.  By 1944, Jinnah was publicly propounding his idea of a non-secular Islamic platform and supported the Muslim Conference on a visit to Kashmir. An interesting twist of history, which is relevant in the present day context, is best told in the words of Sheikh Abdullah (writing in his memoirs) – ‘If we were to accede to India, Pakistan would never accept our choice, and we would become a battleground for the two nations’.

11.       The Cripps mission in March 1946, resulted in the majority of rulers  (of kingdoms in India) being allowed, to decide their own future. Referring to the sale of Kashmir a century ago and its strategic importance, Sheikh Abdullah rejected the option given to the Maharaja, and demanded total freedom. To this end he launched a ‘Quit Kashmir Movement’. Both Abdullah and Ghulam Abbas alongwith other leaders of the Muslim League were imprisoned by the Maharaja. In January 1947 the Maharaja in absence of leaders of both political parties, held elections to the legislative assmebly, which resulted in a victory for the Muslim League since the National Conference boycotted the elections.

12.       In the swirling current of fast-paced events affecting Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh remained  generally  indecisive  and  did  not  initiate  any  meaningful  discussion  over any of the parties involved (National Conference, Muslim League, Congress and the British) due to a variety of misgivings on his part. The indecision left a vacuum, which left the future course of Kashmir open to conflict and confusion.