Kashmir: From Amritsar To Agra

The Genesis

Jammu and Kashmir as a State came into existence by virtue of the Treaty ofAmritsar signed between Maharaja Gulab Singh (the Founder of the State) and theEast-India Company in 1846.

The Maharaja agreed to pay a compensation of Rs.75 lacs to the East-IndiaCompany, which was imposed as a penalty on the government of Punjab headed byMaharaja Dalip Singh for having lost the battle to the Britishers.

And it was thus that the valley of Kashmir became an integral part of thethen Jammu-Ladakh State.

Ladakh-Gilgit region had been united with Jammu by the unprecedentedsacrifices made by about 2,000 Dogra soldiers under the leadership of alegendary General Zorawar Singh (called Napoleon of India by the Western writersof that time).

By this conquest of the Himalayan region, extending Indian boundaries uptoLahasa, Central Asia and Afghanistan, a great and strategic region wasconsolidated between 1836 and 1842. Zorawar died in a battlefield near Lahasa in1842 leaving his conquest intact.

The three distinct and rich cultures with different histories, languages, andgeographical entities though merged together, could never really blendinto each other. The Kashmiri leadership and the intellectuals never reconciledto the spirit of the Treaty of Amritsar.

Communl Harmony Under Dogra Kings

Jammu and Kashmir remained under the Dogra rulers from Maharaja Gulab Singhto Maharaja Hari Singh for 106 years from 1846 to 1952.

The three regions of the state namely, Ladakh including Gilgit, KashmirValley and province of Jammu were granted sufficient self-rule by the rulers.

There was only one example of state arrogance when about 17 Kashmiries werekilled in police firing in 1931 but  the Maharaja did put up a Commission of Enquiry tothe satisfaction of the general public.

Among his other noteworthy contributions, the Maharaja also introduced laws prohibiting untouchability,prostitution, smoking by minors and allowing temple-entry to all, irrespective ofcastes.

Except some minor political turmoils, the people in the state comprising ofover 84,000 sq. miles of territory lived in harmony and peace. Nearly 80% of the population was Muslim under a Rajput (Hindu) Maharaja, yetthere never arose a communal conflict.

The foremost Kashmiri Muslims’ leader, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah had tochange the name of his ‘Muslim Conference’ to ‘National Conference’because of the public pressure as the Kashmiris -- both Hindus and Muslims --had grown together under the spirit of the Kashmiriyat that blossomed with thefragrance of the message of Nand Rishi, a Kashmiri saint in whose name standsthe unique shrine of Charar-e-Sharief.

Monarchy was abolished, though illegally and in violation of the Constitutionof India, in 1952 through, a Presidential Order signed, though reluctantly, byMr. Rajendra Prasad, the then President of India.

From Harmony To Discord

What internationalised the J&K issue was the complaint India lodgedbefore the UN in 1947 against Pak aggression. The United Nations failed to takeappropriate measures against the aggressor due to the support of the Westernlobby Pakistan enjoyed.

Introduction of Article 370 in the Constitution of India proved an absoluteobstacle on the way of full merger of the state with the rest of the country.Though accession was complete yet Article 370 never allowed a full integration.

The political, the social and legal factors which have been responsible forthe present situation in Jammu and Kashmir deserve attention of theparliamentarians, the intellectuals, the historians and the actors involved inthe peace-making process in Jammu and Kashmir.

To reach at the conclusion of the genesis of the Jammu and Kashmir situation,there is an important question that needs a scientific answer digging out thetruth on the facts and circumstances which have made Kashmir a ‘Nuclearflash-point’ in the estimate of the Anglo-American Axis.

The fathers and grandfathers of the presently gun-holding Muslim Kashmiri(styled as militants) youth had rejected the two nation theory of Mohammed AliJinnah in 1947, taken up guns to resist Pak-sponsored armed infiltrators, sungthe Indian national anthem on every platform of Kashmir and supported the State’saccession with the Union of India signed by Maharaja Hari Singh (26th October,1947), the only competent authority to sign the Instrument of Accession.

They lived in peace and harmony for nearly 40 years, supported the secularcharacter of the state, and opposed each and every communal move of amicroscopic section of the Jamat-e-Islami in the Valley.

The Questions

The question I am talking about is how and why the children and grandchildrenof the Muslim Kashmiri-freedom fighters who not only opted for India but alsofought against Pakistani aggression each time they attacked, ended up taking up guns against India andstarted killing nationalist Muslims and non-Muslims.

How a Kashmiri, who never touched even a knife, came to gun down his ownneighbours, mostly Muslims and the Pundits? Why was a Kashmiri Muslim youthdriven to cross the most risky and difficult terrains of the LoC to Pakistan toreceive arms-training, and indoctrination in fundamentalism, only to return toKashmir to cause death and destruction to his own blood and people?

Several foremost Hurriyat leaders and ‘militant killers’ who had takenthe oath to uphold unity, integrity and sovereignty of India while contestingelections to the State Assembly and to the Parliament in the recent past, havenow turned enemies of India.

The so-called chief of Hizbul Mujahideen Sayed Salahuddin sitting in Pakistanhad contested against NC minister in 1987 and won, yet was declared defeated andsent to prison.

About 24 candidates of the Muslim United Front including Sayed Ali ShahGeelani and Abdul Ghani Lone, could not enter the Assembly because of theelectoral fraud committed by ruling NC.

Four Panthers Party candidates met the same fate in Jammu province.

Abdul Ghani Lone was elected four times, Ali Shah Geelani thrice, to theAssembly and each time they swore in the name of Constitution of India. Todaythey are the leaders of the terrorists and the fundamentalists seekingsecession.

Answers to these questions only can reveal the genesis of the presentsituation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Political Mayhem

There has been political blackmail of the people by the ruling cliquessponsored and imposed by the masters sitting in the North and the South Blocks.

Maharaja Hari Singh who acceded the entire state to the Union of India withfull support of his people, 80% of whom were Muslims, was forced to leave thestate in 1949 and later dismissed unconstitutionally and in violation of theterms and conditions of the Instrument of Accession. This led to a bloody uprising in Jammu region under the banners ofPrajaparishad.

Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah who stood as an undaunted leader of the KashmiriMuslims to denounce two nation theory of Jinnah and supported the State’saccession with Union of India was dismissed in August, 1953 at the instance ofno less a democrat than the Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru under the signsand seal of Yuvraj Karan Singh.

The Sheikh, Mirza Afzel Beig, and dozen of their legislatorsremained in detention for nearly 2 decades. Governments were installed andscrapped at the pleasure of the masters of Delhi. 

Bakshi Gulam Mohammed,appointed chief minister in place of the arrested Sheikh Abdullah, was dismissedby Nehru after 12 years of his rule and then humiliated by engineering hisdefeat in parliamentary elections that followed, only to pleasehis enemies. He died in humiliation. This was the reward from Delhi. 

Mir Quasimwas divested of his portfolio of Chief Minister in 1975 only to re-employ SheikhMohammed Abdullah as Chief Minister. What happened to Mir Quasim is anotherstory.

Nearly one million Kashmiri Muslim youth joined the funeral of SheikhMohammed Abdullah shouting, "La-Illah-Il-Illah, Sheikh MohammedAbdullah". The slogan if interpreted correctly would not please any Muslim.But that was a charged emotion of the Kashmiries on the death of SheikhAbdullah. Sheikh Abdullah’s body was wrapped in tricolour. Mrs. IndiraGandhi the then Prime Minister joined Sheikh’s last journey. I myself was apart of that procession.

Who could imagine that those very Kashmiri youth after 5-6 years, shall attack theSheikh’s Mazaar itself?

Delhi's Machinations

The electoral process in Jammu and Kashmir has always remained under theshadow of the power that be in Delhi. Right from 1951 to 1977, the elections remained a farce and were manipulatedonly to shut up and bolt the doors to democracy.

It was only in 1977 that free and fair Assembly polls were held when Mr. MorarjiDesai was the Prime Minister. I, too, was elected in that election for the firsttime to the Assembly.

Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah was misled by his own party leaders to promulgatethe Public Safety Act, which empowered the government to arrest political activistsand detain them without trial. I was the first victim of this draconian law and remained under detention for more than 3 years as an MLA during Sheikh Abdullah’srule from 1977 to 1982.

After his death, whatever was left in the name of democracy and rule of lawwas crucified by the successive governments. Dismissal of Dr. Farooq Abdullah inJune 1984 by the then Governor, Mr. Jagmohan proved a disaster. The same oldstory was repeated which was earlier enacted in 1953.

Sheikh Abdullah’s son-in-law known as one of the most corrupt and arrogant politicianswas imposed by Delhi against the will of the people of the Kashmir Valley. Hisdismissal and re-imposition of a coalition government of National Conference andCongress under Farooq Abdullah proved counter-productive yet again.

Farooq Abdullah in 1987 Assembly polls displayed his naked lust for power byblatantly rigging the polls through his officials and state machinery. 24 elected MLAs of the Muslim United Front were declared defeated. Amongthese candidates, many took up the guns and became militants. Many of those are still holding guns against India.

This was another factor that is counted among the number of the entries inthe genesis of Jammu and Kashmir situation. Elections were rigged, democracy wasdemolished, corruption became the rule of law and those who stood up against thetyranny of the state were accused as anti-nationals and secessionists.

The judicial system failed to deliver justice. I can quote hundreds ofexamples of those who suffered at the hands of the draconian laws and arroganceof the state. The judiciary almost turned to be an organ of the stateadministration.

[The judgement of the Supreme Court in my own case in 1984, (1985) SCC 677)awarding compensation of Rs.50,000/- from the state government headed by Mr.Jagmohan’s favourite Chief Minister for my illegal arrest and wrongfulconfinement provides an eye opening account of the genesis of the J&Ksituation.]

Pakistan

The two-nation theory made Pakistan desperate as the doctrine collapsed andmet its waterloo on the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan.

Pakistan’s survival as a fanatic state is in danger as long as Indiacontinues a secular state. Pakistan has been using nearly 30% of its resourcesto arm, finance, abet and support the mercenaries from across the border tosabotage peace in Jammu and Kashmir and create communal fiasco in order todestabilise India as a secular state.

The two hostile doctrines are also one of the factors responsible for thepresent situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Alienation

Kashmiri Muslims, no doubt, remained ignored in various fields of developmentand representation to various institutions and in the departments manned andcontrolled by the Union of India in Jammu and Kashmir. The Muslims, the Dogras and the Ladakhies could not find any place in thesecentral-run departments.

The central money which was flooded from the centre to the state for thedevelopment of the people did not reach them. The people of the state were not provided any incentive to interact with thenational mainstream in the field of culture, politics, science, sports and othersuch areas.

This led to widening the gap between the people and the administration on theone hand and the people of the state with the rest of the country on the other. The political hierarchy at the centre ignored the genuine aspirations of thepeople of the state and left them at the mercy of the state wolves resultinginto chaos, anarchy and distrust.

Discriminatory Neglect

The Ladakhies and Jammuwalas were taken for granted in the name of falsesense of nationalism. The most sensitive and urgent problems of the refugeesfrom POK and Pakistan residing in Jammu region were not attended to at all. Nearly 100,000 Hindu refugees (Mostly Harijans) from Pakistan have beenwithout any citizenship rights though they were legally settled by thegovernment of Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah 1948.

Neither Parliament nor Indian judiciary has cared to redress their mostgenuine grievances.

Two successive commissions appointed by the state government, each headed bya former Chief Justice of India had made recommendations for the removal of thediscrimination against the people of Jammu and Ladakh regions. Both wereignored.

Recommendations made by the government Wazir Commission in 1982 to set upthree additional districts in Jammu province, namely, Kishtwar, Riasi and Sambahave been ignored by the National Conference Government.  That is one of the reasons that led the Doda Youth to take up guns againstthe state.

There has been a record of discrimination in the field of development,recruitments at the gazetted and non-gazetted level, allocation of funds againstJammu and Ladakh.

The 50 years’ history has shown that Kashmir has always dominated thepolitical hierarchy in the state and the Muslims of Jammu too have beenprinciple victims of the state repression who constitute 30% of the populationin Jammu province.

The recent act of the state government by recommending ‘trifurcationof Jammu’ province through its unilateral autonomy resolution hasaggravated the conflict and boosted the morale of the fundamentalists aided andsponsored by ISI.

The Kashmiri leadership has never reconciled to the spirit of the Treaty ofAmritsar that brought Jammu province including POK (which Pakistan calls as AzadKashmir) within the state of Jammu and Kashmir. This is natural because the 'Kashmiris' as such constituted only 21.5% of thetotal population of the state of Jammu and Kashmir as it existed on 16th August,1947 under the Maharaja.

Anglo-American Axis

What needs to be done to resolve the situation is the fundamental issue notonly for the people of India but for all peace loving nations of the world. TheAnglo-American Axis has always been hostile to India’s growth as a big power.Describing Kashmir as a ‘Nuclear flash-point’ reveals their agenda inthe sub-continent.

The proposition of the Dixon Plan to divide Jammu and Kashmir on communallines by creating a so-called Greater Kashmir by uniting the Valley with theMuslim majority areas of Jammu that are situated on the Northern side of theChenab River is still active in the minds of the Anglo-American Axis.

That is the dangerous doctrine being supported by the USA through theiragents. This reflects the ultimate agenda of the USA vis-à-vis Himalayas. TheUSA is adamant to establish their military base in the Northern Areas (Gilgit-Ladakh)to watch their interest on the Chinese borders.

USA’s interest in Pakistan is strategic, in India a market and in the WestAsia, oil.

They have succeeded in establishing their military bases in the Arab landsand waters. They now are working to reach Gilgit-Ladakh region.

This is the main background for establishing an independent buffer state ofKashmir to create a comfortable bedroom for the Anglo-American Axis inSouth-East Asia.

It is important to note that Gilgit region remained under the lease withthe British government from 1935 to 1946. That is why they understand thestrategic importance of this part of Jammu and Kashmir better than many.

Grievance Redressal

What needs to be accomplished to heal the wounds of the suffering people, isa pertinent question which needs to be addressed to all the principle actors aswell as victims of the situation.

The short-term measures to restore confidence of the people need to be takenat war footing for the redressal of the genuine and urgent grievances of thepeople. Schools, medical clinics, rural development projects, bridges and otherpublic welfare schemes need to be brought on the working level.

To fight growing isolation of the public from the political process, thepolitical and the social activists should start an aggressive programmes tointeract with masses.

Nearly 500,000 Kashmiri migrants need to be rehabilitated in the Valley byensuring them physical, social and financial security by the state.

This requires involvement of the people of the Valley through socialinteraction and political will. Nearly 150,000 migrants of Doda, Udhampur,Rajouri and Poonch Districts suffering at different places of Jammu shouldimmediately be rehabilitated by providing them same facilities which theKashmiri migrants are entitled to.

The electronic media should adopt a positive and constructive role to helpcreate awareness among the people against the dangers posed by the militants andthe terrorists to the very culture and identity of the people.