[Reader-list] Kashmir Dispute, The Myth - Part VI

[Pawan Durani]

Kashmir Dispute, The Myth-VI

"History vindicated Maharaja Hari Singh's Stand"

By Dr. M.K. Teng

Few in-depth investigations and inquiries have been undertaken so far
to unravel the forces and factors, which shaped the events in Jammu
and Kashmir, during the fateful days following the transfer of power
in India. No investigations were ever carried out in the actions of
men, who were at the helm of affairs in India, Pakistan and Jammu and
Kashmir, their motivations and their personal prejudices. Much of what
happened those days, has been covered under false propaganda by the
Government of India as well as the  Government of Pakistan and the
Interim Government which was instituted in Jammu and Kashmir after the
accession of the State to India. A widespread disinfor-mation campaign
was launched by the Interim Government in collusion with the
Government to find scapegoats for their failures and to apportion
blame, where it did not belong. The sordid story of what happened in
the state, those days, is yet to be told.

Pakistan sought to bend the procedure laid down by the Indian
Independence Act for the transfer of power in India, to grab the
Muslim majority states as well as the states ruled by Muslim Princes.

The Indian Government failed signally to counteract the stratagem,
subversion and military intervention, Pakistan employed to achieve its
objectives. Perhaps the British, who had quit India, still cast a
shadow on the Indian outlook. The Congress leadership with its
liberalist tradition which denied the civilisational boundaries of the
Indian nation, continued to play the Muslim card, to prove that Jammu
and Kashmir would be more Islamic than the Muslim State of Pakistan
after its inclusion in the Indian Dominion.

The Congress leaders wanted Maharaja Hari Singh to follow what they
did in collusion with Mountabatten to retrieve Junagarh and bring
round the Nawab of Hyderabad to come to terms, with India. Gandhi
advised Hari Singh, during his visit to Kashmir, towards the close of
July 1947, to (a) transfer the powers of the State Government to the
representatives of his Muslim subjects, who formed a majority of the
population of the state; (b) hold fresh elections to the Praja Sabha,
the State Legislative Assembly, on the basis of universal adult
franchise and (c) entrust the Praja Sabha with the task of taking a
decision on the accession of the state. The meeting between Hari Singh
and Mahatma Gandhi was held on the lawns of the Gupkar Palace,
situated on the eastern bank of the Dal Lake in Srinagar. Maharani
Tara Devi and the Heir-Apparent Karan Singh were present in the
meeting. The only other man present in the meeting was a senior
officer of the state army, who acted as an aide to the Maharaja and
prepared the situation report of the meeting for the military archives
of the state.

Gandhi had lost touch with the developments in the princely states. He
was not aware of the dangerous  situation in Jammu and Kashmir. He did
not know that an armed rebellion was brewing in the Muslim majority
districts of the Jammu province, where arms and ammunition were being
dumped by the elements of the Muslim League from a  cross the border
of the state with the Punjab. He was hardly aware of the sharp divide
between the Kashmiri speaking Muslims and non-Kashmiri speaking
Muslims. He did not know that the non-Kashmiri speaking Muslims, who
constituted nearly half the Muslim population of state along with a
small section of the Kashmiri-speaking Muslims owing loyality to the
Mirwaiz, the chief Muslim divine of Kashmir, supported the Muslim
Conference, which spearheaded the struggle for Pakistan. He was
completely unaware of the fact that the Kashmiri-speaking Muslims
constituted about half the population of the Muslims of the State and
together with the Hindus, the Sikhs and the Buddhists they formed more
than sixty percent of the population of the State. The Hindus, the
Sikhs and the Buddhists, a million people, constituted more than a
quarter of the population of the State. Gandhi was completely unaware
of the impact of the partition on the leaders and cadres of the
National Conference, which had its main support bases in the community
of the Kashmiri-speaking Muslims, largely concentrated in the Kashmir
province. He did not know that an influential section of the leaders
and cadres of the National Conference favoured a reconsideration of
the commitment of the National Conference to the unity of India.

Gandhi believed that by seeking to divest Hari Singh of his powers to
determine the future affiliation of the State in respect of its
accession and empowering his Muslim subjects to take a decision on the
accession of the state, he would be able to create a precedent for the
rulers of the Muslim ruled states, to entrust their powers to
determine the future affiliations of their states their Hindu
subjects, who formed a majority of their population. Nearly all the
Muslim ruled states, barring a few of them situated within the
territories delimited for the Muslim State of Pakistan, nearly all the
Muslim ruled States in India, including the major states of Hyderabad,
Junagarh, Bhopal, were populated by preponderant Hindu majorities.

Perhaps, Gandhi believed that the Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir
committed to support the accession of the state to India, would opt to
join India after power was transferred to them and they were empowered
to  determine the future affiliations of the state. He was convinced
that the transfer of power in Jammu and Kashmir would provide him a
moral ground to bring round Pakistan as well as Mountbatten to
persuade the Muslim rulers to abnegate from their power to determine
the future affiliations of their states and entrust their subjects and
of whom the Hindus formed a majority, to opt for India.

Gandhi and the other Indian leaders did not even get the wind of the
secret preparations in Pakistan for military intervention in the Jammu
and Kashmir State in the name of the Jehad for the liberation of the
Muslims from their subjection to the Dogra Rule, while Gandhi went on
a indefinite fast to prevent communal violence in India which
threatened the Muslims, Pakistan prepared feverishly for the invasion
of the state. Pakistan planned to reduce the state by military force
and then deal with India from a position of strength in respect of
Junagarh and Hyderabad. Junagarh had acceded to Pakistan and Hyderabad
was plotting the align itself with Pakistan to remain out of India.

Had Hari Singh accepted Gandhi's advice he would have provided open
ground for Pakistan and the Muslim League to grab the state by
stratagem and force. Gandhi's suggestion to hold the elections to the
Praja Sabha would have enabled the Muslim Conference and the flanks of
pro-Pakistan Muslim activists, operating underground, to sabotage the
National Conference and use religious appeal for Jehad to pack the
Praja Sabha with the Muslim Conference. Any stringent measures adopted
by him to prohibit religious propaganda in the elections would have
brought him the blame of having settled the expression for the will of
the Muslims. In case he did not take effective measures to prohibit
the use of religious propaganda in the elections he would virtually
leave the field open for the Muslim Jehad to take over.

Hari Singh had borne the ravages of Muslim communalism. He had also
faced the scourage of the Paramountcy. The Congress leaders had
installed Mountbatten as the first Governor General of the Dominion of
India. Hari Singh had rebuffed Mountbatten and refused to abide by his
advice to join Pakistan. Mountbatten, later events proved, had not
forgotten the slight Hari Singh had caused to him. The Maharaja did
not allow himself to be arranged before the man, who had spared no
efforts to push his state into Pakistan for his management. He refused
to accept Gandhi's advice.

Hari Singh contested Gandhi's views on the accession of the state and
refused to abnegate from his rightful obligation to determine the
future of his state. He told Gandhi, in measured words in the presence
of Maharani Tara Devi, who regarded the Mahatma in awe, that the
safety and the security of the Hindus and the other minorities in the
state was uppermost in his mind, and he would not abandon them at any
cost. He insisted upon the recognition of his rights as the ruler of
the state to determine the basis of his future relations with India.
He reminded Gandhi that nor only had the lapse of the Paramountcy
vested in him the right to determine the future of the State, the
Indian States Ministry had recognised the rights of the rulers of the
States as the basis of their accession to India and he could not be
treated in a manner different from the way, the rulers of all other
acceding states had been treated.

Gandhi gave expression to his feelings in a statement he gave to the
press in Punjab, on his way back to Delhi. He said that Jammu and
Kashmir was a Muslim state and therefore, its future must be
determined by Muslims who formed a majority of its population. He
denounced the treaties between the Princes and the British as
"parchments of paper" and decried the claims made by the Princes to
any rights arising out of such treaties.

Hari Singh did not accept the surrender to a Muslim majority identity
as the basis of a settlement of the accession of the state. He refused
to become part of the process to consolidate the borders of the Muslim
state of Pakistan, which Mountbatten and the Congress leaders
visualised as the guarantee of the unity of India.

Later events proved Hari Singh right. Pakistan strove hard to hold
Junagarh and openly supported Hyderabad in its endeavour to remain out
of India. Pakistan invaded the State, irrespective of the procedure
laid down by the Indian Independence Act, for the lapse of the
Paramountcy, showing little regard for the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir
and the people of Junagarh and Hyderabad.



Source: Kashmir Sentinel, Panun Kashmir publication