Adv Rameshwar Singh Jamwal
In May 1946, Sheikh Abdullah launched ‘Quit Kashmir Movement’ and asked Kashmiris to prepare for last battle against Dogra rule.
This however was not to the liking of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, the Home Minister in the interim Government. However Sheikh Abdullah continued his vituperative against the Maharaja and his family and it led to communal clashes in Amira Kadal locality of Srinagar (Saxena, Dr H L,1975. P.453).
Sheikh Abdullah was arrested and in his defence, Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru along with some others like Asaf Ali, Dewan Chaman Lal, Mohammaed Yunus decided to reach Srinagar.
He also sought immediate release of Sheikh Abdullah but the administration believed that such a course would complicate the surcharged atmosphere and the District Magistrate ordered for removal of Pt Nehru without permission. Pt Nehru defied the ban and was forced to spend a night in Dak Bunglow at Kohala. This act of Pt. Nehru was also not liked by the Indian National Congress and President of Congress, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad asked him to return to Delhi. Maharaja Hari Singh provided all facilities, including his car, for return of Pt. Nehru to Delhi but Nehru made it a point for his disliking of Hari Singh though the ban imposed for entry of Pt Nehru in the state had been lifted. Sheikh Abdullah was convicted in the case but was released after giving an assurance of loyalty to the Maharaja.
In May 1947, Congress President Acharya Kriplani visited Srinagar and denounced ‘Quit Kashmir Movement’ as Maharaja was not a foreigner like the British. Lord Mountbatten announced the plan for division of India on communal lines and gave just 73 days to divide a country of the size of Europe, minus Russia.
He also visited the state of J&K, as the fate of Gilgit, which was on a sixty year lease with the British and having British forces, was at stake. British were convinced that if Jammu and Kashmir joined Indian dominion, it would be difficult to continue their military base in Gilgit.
Mountbatten went to the extent of giving an assurance that if Kashmir acceded to Pakistan, it would not be treated as unfriendly act by Government of India.
However Maharaja Hari Singh disappointed Mountbatten by not meeting him on the day he had to convey his decision. Maharaja Hari Singh was in catch-22 situation.
He had his support base in Jammu Dogras but the state had an overwhelming Muslim majority.
There were thousands of Dogra families in Kashmir and the surcharged atmosphere, as witnessed in recent past could have been catastrophic.
Large scale killings had already started in the neighboring areas.
On August 12, newly appointed Prime Minister, Major General Janak Singh Katoch, sent a telegram of Stand Still Agreement to the Dominions of Pakistan and India, which suggested that the existing agreements should continue pending settlement of details and execution of fresh agreements.
Government of India invited the emissary of state to come to Delhi for negotiation but Pt. Nehru declined to meet him as his friend Sheikh Abdullah had been rearrested as a preventive measure.
It was intransigence of Pt. Nehru which delayed the accession of state with Dominion of India. One Ibrahim Khan from Poonch, with support from Pakistan Government started a direct action against the move of Maharaja to join India.
A lot of them had become supporters of Pakistan due to religious factor. It was in these circumstances; Maharaja Hari Singh was forced to leave Srinagar by road, and signed the instrument of accession, paving the way for Indian forces to enter Jammu and Kashmir. Manipulated history created a negative image about this bright, reformist King but now the Jammu people have realized the mistake and started celebrating his birthday in a big way and he is emerging as the rallying point for all pro Jammu voices in the region.
Here is an example as to how foreign authors, have tried to blame Hari Singh, and which effort has been thwarted in the review of a book, written by an Australian, by Satish Kumar.
According to him, ‘sensitive and volatile international disputes have a way of prolonging themselves not merely because the parties concerned find it difficult to resolve differences but also because foreign governments, international organizations, scholars and commentators queer the pitch.
Often, due to poor understanding of the issues involved and sometimes also for vicious reasons, they tend to suggest solutions that complicate the final resolution’. He then cites the case of Christopher Snedden, an Australian scholar, whose recent book under review has aroused controversy and then comes to the conclusion that because its analysis of the reasons for the dispute is faulty and the solution he offers is highly unimaginative.
According to Satish Kumar, the author seems to have begun with the hypothesis that Pakistan is not to be blamed for causing the Kashmir dispute, and has taken great pains to prove this hypothesis. Unfortunately, the evidence provided to prove it is slender.
Only Chapter 2 of the book pertaining to the Poonch uprising can be said to be new in the sense that so much detail is not available elsewhere.
The rest of the book covers familiar ground except that the largest section of the book on so-called Azad Kashmir brings together at one place in a consolidated form well-known facts pertaining to the political, constitutional and economic development of the area.
The book makes much of the point that the Poonch uprising remained unreported in the press and even the Pakistani government did not emphasize its importance.
The Indian government deliberately ignored it. Otherwise, this would have been regarded as the main cause of the Kashmir dispute, not the Pakistani aggression. This is a highly questionable assertion given the voluminous evidence to the contrary.
Poonch is a Muslim-dominated district of Jammu province and at the time of partition it was part of kingdom of Maharaja Hari Singh, as decided by the British and its residents had no right to decide the future of Poonch on their own, as per the terms of the Indian Independence Act.
The region saw an anti-Maharaja revolt by few persons, which later took the character of an anti-India revolt, between 15 August 1947, that is, the date of Indian independence, and 26 October 1947, that is, the date of J&K’s accession to India. According to the author, many Poonch is raised Pakistani flags on 14 August, the day when Pakistan was created.
They had started anti-Maharaja activity in February 1947. In June, they mounted a no-tax campaign. Towards the end of August, it became an armed revolt. In six weeks, the whole district except Poonch city was in rebel hands.
The author himself qualifies this by saying that Maj. Gen. Scott, Chief of Staff of J&K State Forces, had reported to the J&K Deputy Prime Minister on 4 September 1947 that about 400 Muslim residents from Kahuta Tehsil of Rawalpindi district had infiltrated into J&K, and this report can be regarded as factually correct. And yet, he maintains that the Poonch uprising was a totally indigenous affair.
(To be continued…..).
