Kashmir has been a sovereign country till the Mughal army invaded it in 1586 A.D. Subsequently Kashmir was made part of Afghan, Sikh and Dogra empires to be ruled by the monarchs based in Kabul, Lahore and Jammu respectively. After the creation of India and Pakistan as the two sovereign countries in the immediate neighborhood of the erstwhile Dogra kingdom in mid-August1947, Kashmir became a pawn state for the two hostile neighbours sharing the history of bloodshed during the partition based on religious composition of the constituent regions of the two sovereign federations.The princely state of Jammu and Kashmir ruled by Maharaja Hari from 1925 onwards was technically an independent country, established by the Treaty of Amritsar on 11th March 1846.The lapse of British paramountcy on15th August 1947posed an actual threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Jammu and Kashmir State. So the political and diplomatic parlays began by the leadership of the state to retain the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the erstwhile princely state as an independent country free from both India and Pakistan.On the basis of the changing character of the leadership struggling for an independent Jammu and Kashmir the ongoing freedom struggle can divided into three distinct phases which include: (1) the Manoarchical Phase; (2) the Collaboratoration Phase; and (3) the Nationalist Phase.A brief account of all the three phases of Kashmiri freedom struggle is given very systematically as under:. THE MANOARCHICAL PHASE:-
The efforts for an independent Jammu and Kashmir were initially made by Maharaja Hari Singh, the last autocratic ruler of the Dogra princely state and his Prime Minister, Pandit Ramchandra Kak. Soon after the partition plan of British India was approved on 3rd June 1947 the two important leaders began to talk about an independent Jammu and Kashmir. Their main objectives were to secure the autocratic rule and the territorial integrity of Muslim dominated princely state with significant non-Muslim population in Jammu and Ladakh regions. On 18th July 1947 the British Parliament approved the Indian Independence Act under which the 565 princely states were given the option to accede to India or Pakistan on the basis of their geographical contiguity and demographic composition.The princes being the allys of British Crown since the Treaty of 1858 was signed with them, were also given the option to remain independent of course with proper arrangements of defence and communication.Four days before the lapse of British paramountcy, Pandit Ramchandra Kak got replaced on by Meherchand Mahajan on 11th August 1947, after senior Congress leadership prevailed upon Lord Mountbatten, the Governor General of India to remove the Kashmiri leader from the scene. In order to ensure the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir to be retained, Meherchand Mahajan send an identical Standstill Agreement to both India and Pakistan on 12th August 1947.The Government of Pakistan accepted the Standstill Agreement in principle, pending details but the Government of India suggested Maharaja Hari Singh to send some of his cabinet minister to New Delhi to workout the details of the Standstill Agreement. Maharaja Hari Singh sent his Deputy Prime Minister to New Delhi with a proposal to accede to India following the blockade of civil supplies to Kashmir including petrol and edible items by Pakistan to force Maharaja Hari Singh to accede to Pakistan but the Government of India insisted on establishment of a democratic government in Jammu and Kashmir State prior to accession of the state with Indian Union.The Pakistan however denied the allegation but held communal violence responsible for delay in delivery of the civil supplies to Kashmir.The Pakistan sponsored tribal raid in Kashmir on 22nd October 1947, the revolt of the local warriors led by Sardar Mohammad Ibrahim Khan in Poonch-Mirpur and the announcement of formation of Azad Government of Jammu and Kashmir on 24th October 1947 as well as the massacre of people mostly non-Muslims by tribal raiders compelled Maharaja Hari Singh to seek military assistance from the Government of India. After surrendering his control over defence, foreign affairs and communication of Jammu and Kashmir State to the Indian Union by submitting the Instrument of Accession on 26th October 1947 and also being obliged to fulfill the demand of New Delhi to induct Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah the popular leader of Kashmir in the Jammu and Kashmir Government, the Maharaja was in a position to secure military assistance from India. Early in the morning on 27th October 1947 the Indian troops landed at Srinagar Airport to drag out the Pakistani tribal raiders from Kashmir. After the United Nations Security Council recommended the two-option plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir, the Government of India removed Singh from the power and made his son Karan Singh as the regent because he was legally a minor at that time.Subsequently after the incorporation of the Article 370 in the Constitution of India implemented on 26th January 1957 and the Nehru-Abdullah Accord of 24th July 1952 the former Maharaja was exiled from the state to end the monarchical resistance to Indian rule in Kashmir.Maharaja Hari and Pandit Ramachandra Kak can be thus considered as the manoarchical leaders of the freedom struggle in Jammu and State.
THE COLLABORATION PHASE:-
After the killing of 22 Kashmiri Muslims and injuring several dozen people on 13th July 1931 by the Dogra forces outside the premises of Srinagar Central Jail, who had assembled there to express their solidarity with a revolutionary orator Abdul Qadeer facing the trial within the jail itself, the political atmosphere in Kashmir was surcharged with anger against the Dogra rule.The educated Muslim middle class established the Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference led by Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah in 1932. The Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference was established to struggle for ending the discrimination against the Muslims and have democratic transformation in the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. After coming in contact with towering Indian National Congress leaders like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan in mid-1930s, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah wanted to conduct secular and inclusive politics to expand the support base of his political party. Accordingly he converted the Muslim Conference into National Conference on 11th June 1939.The National Conference released the “Naya Kashmir” Manifesto in 1944 supporting the system of constitutional monarchy and democratic transformation in Jammu and Kashmir State. Meanwhile Choudhry Ghulam Abbass left National Conference and joined Mirwaiz Molvi Mohammad Yusuf Shah to revive the Muslim Conference to abandon the pro-Congress policy and especially the Nehruvian politics of Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah.The Muslim Conference allied with Indian Muslim League led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah.Thus both the parties became the collaborators of political forces in the British India. The arrival of Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Kashmir in 1945 gave a moral boast to Muslim Conference. In order to retain the popularity of National Conference, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah launched his Quit Kashmir Movement against Maharaja Hari Singh in May 1946 for which the Maharaja sent him to the prison. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru tried to come to Kashmir to plead Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah’s case but Pandit Ramchandra Kak got him arrested at Domel. So both Nehru and Jinnah began to gain the sympathies of Kashmiries and the Sher-Bakra battle lines became more clear. On 19th July 1947 the Muslim Conference led in Kashmir by Moulvi Mohammad Yusuf Shah passed the resolution to support accession of Jammu and Kashmir State with Pakistan with respect to defence, foreign affairs communication.The National Conference Working Body met under the chairmanship of Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah on 4th October 1947 and passed the resolution to support state’s accession with Indian Union. When Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah was released from jail on 29th September 1947, Mirwaiz Molvi Mohammad Yusuf Shah did left Kashmir for Pakistan at the night similarly when Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah got the message of tribal raid in Kashmir he left for New Delhi to seek defence for Kashmir and bargain with Congress Government the internal sovereignty of Jammu and Kashmir State and the assurance to be installed as the ruler of the state in exchange for his support for Maharaja Hari Singh’s accession of Jammu and Kashmir State with Indian Union.Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah became the Emergency Administrator of Jammu and Kashmir State on 29th October 1947 and was elevated as the Prime Minister of the state on 5th March 1947.The pro-India mainstream politicians in Kashmir represent the legacy of Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah as the collaborators of India. Since the pro-India National Conference Government led by Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah and Bakhshi Ghulam Mohammad was in a position to abolish Dogra autocracy and landlordism, as well as to remove socio-economic backwardness and infrastructural underdevelopment, so in the first decade of Indian rule in Kashmir the people were comparatively satisfied with Indian military presence in Kashmir. However, the step by step erosion of the internal sovereignty of Jammu and Kashmir State and the murder of democracy in Kashmir made the collaborators of Pakistan relevant in Kashmir politics.The rigging of the elections by National Conference-Congress alliance against Muslim United Front candidates during the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislative Assembly elections in 15 Assembly segments in Kashmir on 23rd March 1987 as well as the police repression of the Muslim United Front workers compelled the frustrated youth to seek arms training in Pakistan controlled Azad Kashmir to launch armed struggle in Kashmir in mid-1988.The Kashmiri youth have been misled by Pakistani agencies ever since Mohammad Maqbool Bhat and Amanullah Khan launched the National Liberation Front in mid-1960s and Al-Fateh in early 1970s. The HAJY Group of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front that started armed struggle in Kashmir was denied arms training and supply of arms and ammunition within two years because of its pro-independence agenda.The creation of United Jehad Council led by Hizbul Mujahideen Chiief Commander Syed Salahuddin and recognition of Huriyat Conference by Pakistan as the genuine representative political leadership of Kashmir is the affirmation of the fact that the leadership of liberation camp is in fact the collaborator of Pakistan.
THE NATIONALIST PHASE.
The nationalist phase has in fact started at the grass roots level because the masses protesting in the streets in Kashmir raise the slogan”We Want Freedom”. The irony of the Kashmiri nation is that there is no true nationalist leadership in Kashmir that can direct the Kashmiri freedom struggle in proper direction to take it to its logical conclusion.The nationalist leadership provided by Maharaja Hari Singh and Pandit Ramchandra Kak was a top-down strategy to rule over the Kashmiri masses in the name of freedom from India and Pakistan.The strategy adopted by the Indian and Pakistani collaborators in Jammu and Kashmir State has been to keep alliance with their neoimperial masters at New Delhi and Islamabad but sell Greater Autonomy, Self-,Rule, Aazadi and Nizam-e-Mustafa to the people at the grass roots level. The collaborators represent the fusion between the top down and bottom up strategy to have access to the political power in the state.In order to politically eliminate all kinds of collaborators from the political space of Jammu and Kashmir there is a serious need to adopt the bottom-up strategy meaning that the aspirations of the people at the grass roots level need to be reflected in the top leadership. The nationalist leadership representing the political aspirations of the people alone can help in establishing an independent Kashmiristan through a sustained political struggle free from religion, violence and any involvement of Pakistan. As Kashmiri nationalists the policy of Kashmiri nationalist leadership should be to maintain friendly ties with neighboring countries, but if any country is hostile to the sovereign existence of Kashmir, in the situation like Afghanistan’s and Bangladesh’s policy towards Muslim Pakistan, Kashmir should not desist from allying with non-Muslim neighbors to defend its core national interests. Thus religious sentiments of Kashmiri Muslims need not to exploited to create the justification for Kashmir’s future integration with Pakistan. So the Kashmiri educated youth must come forward to launch a peaceful political struggle to establish a sovereign, secular, democratic, liberal, and plural Republic of Kashmiristan.
Prof. G.M.Athar can be reached at ghathar@yahoo.co.in
