In mid-1940s the Kashmiri nation was fighting against three enemies at one and the same time. On the one hand the Kashmiri nationalists had launched in May 1946 the “Quit Kashmir” Campaign under the banner of Jammu and Kashmir National Conference led by Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah and on the other hand Indian Muslim League led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah was advancing its design to incorporate the Muslim majority princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in future Pakistan in the name of Two-Nation Theory. Similarly the Indian National Congress led by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was viewing the future of democratic Jammu and Kashmir within the asymmetrical federal structure of independent India.The conversion of Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference into Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on 11th June 1939 much before the passing of Pakistan Resolution at Lahore in 1940 had made Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as the natural allies against the Muslim communal politics and undemocratic alien rule. Following the approval of Partition Plan by British Crown on 3rd June 1947, Mohammed Ali Jinnah being a lawyer by profession wanted to have the signature of Maharaja Hari Singh on the Instrument of Accession of the Muslim dominated Dogra Kingdom with Pakistan, so he ignored the role of National Conference in the Kashmir politics. Contrary to it Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru a lawyer by profession but a farsighted democratic leader honoured the leadership of Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah as a secular leader of Kashmiri nation.The secularism was the practical need of both multi- religious British India as well as multi-religious princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Both Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah were convinced about the utility of an inclusive secular ideology in the empirical situations of British India and the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. So out of the realization of need for secular ideology by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah and the inter-dependent nature of Congress and National Conference, the Kashmiri nationalists and Indian nationalists developed a close association from 1939 onwards in general and during the post-partition period in particular.The Pakistani tribal raid in Kashmir on 22nd October 1947 as well as the declaration by local warriors in Poonch-Mirpur area on 24th October 1947 to have formed the Azad Government of Jammu and Kashmir compelled Maharaja Hari Singh to seek military assistance from India following the signing the Standstill Agreement/ Instrument of Accession of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir with Indian Union with respect to defence, foreign affairs and communication on 26th October 1947. Maharaja Hari Singh had made it abundantly clear in his covering letter of Instrument of Accession to the Government of India that apart from the subjects covered by the Instrument of Accession, the provisions of the future Constitution of India would not be a binding on his government.
On the insistence of both Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallab Bhai Patel, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah was appointed as the Emergency Administrator by Maharaja Hari Singh on 29th October 1947 and even after upgrading him as the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on 5th March 1948, the princely state was still headed by an autocratic Dogra ruler. In order to fully abolish the Dogra autocracy, Hindu landlordism and forced labour known as Kar-e-Sarkar with the help of New Delhi, the constitutional relationship of Jammu and Kashmir with Indian Union was very much needed. In order to achieve these goals four members from Jammu and Kashmir including Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, Maulana Mohammad Syed Masoodi, Mirza Mohammad Àfzal Beigh and Moti Ram Baigra represented the princely state in the Constituent Assembly of India in 1948 and 1947 to develop the constitutional relationship of Jammu and Kashmir State with Indian Union with special reference to Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.The establishment of the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly in October 1951, the Nehru-Abdullah Accord on 24th July 1952, known as the Delhi Agreement, ratification of accession of Jammu and Kashmir State with Indian Union on 6th February 1954, introduction of Article 35-A in the Constitution of India in 1954, financial integration of Jammu and Kashmir State with Indian Union to secure financial assistance from New Delhi, the adoption of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir State by the J&K State Constituent Assembly on 17th November 1956 and the implementation of the Jammu and Kashmir State Constitution by Bakhshi Ghulam Mohammad Government on 26th January 1957 were the requirements of Jammu and Kashmir State to transform itself into an internally sovereign, democratic, secular and socialist state.
The step by step erosion of the internal sovereignty and the repeated murder of democracy in Jammu and Kashmir State from 1957 onwards by New Delhi in collaboration with the local leadership alienated the people of Kashmir from the Government of India which ultimately compelled the Kashmiri youth to join Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front led by Amanullah Khan to start armed in July 1988 to struggle against the Indian control over Jammu and Kashmir State.Keeping in view the circumstances under which the Muslim dominated Jammu and Kashmir State had a limited accession with Indian Union, the honest solution of Kashmir conflict is to restore the actual provisions of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir State as they existed on 26th January 1957. The violation of actual provisions of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir State either by the Government of India or by the Kashmiri nation amounts not only to dishonesty on their part but has also serious negative consequences for the peace and security in Jammu and Kashmir State.
Prof. G.M.Athar can be reached at ghathar@yahoo.co.in
