The accession of erstwhile Dogra princely state of Jammu and Kashmir with Indian Union by Maharaja Hari Singh on 26th October 1946, is ideologically the brain child of Kashmiri secular nationalists led by Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah and the Indian secular nationalists led by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. However, the internationalisation of Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan from1948 onwards, the opposition of Hindu nationalists to Delhi Agreement from1952 onwards and the erosion of internal sovereignty of Jammu and Kashmir State from 1957 onwards cumulatively led to the loss of Muslim dominated Kashmiristan to India at international, national and state levels.There is no exaggeration in it to state that India is holding control over Kashmiristan for the last seven decades purely with the help of its military might, political engineering and diplomatic propaganda.
The United Nations Security Council dashed to ground the wishes of both Nehru and Abdullah on 21st April when it passed the resolution calling for two-option plebiscite in the Muslim dominated Jammu and Kashmir State. National Conference protested against the UNSC resolution in 1948. Although, Nehru in his public statements on Kashmir initially reiterated his stand to hold plebiscite in the state, yet the examination of his confidential correspondence with Abdullah reveals that both the leaders were not in favour of holding any plebiscite in the Muslim dominated Jammu and Kashmir State.To avoid the two option plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir State Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah began to work clandestinely for the creation of an independent country with the help of United States from the dey he met privately Warren Austin, the U.S. permanent representative at UN to point out his third option for Jammu and Kashmir. Abdullah’s criticism of New Delhi during a public address at R.S. Pora in Jammu prompted Jawaharlal Nehru to discuss the future centre-state relationship and sign up the ‘Delhi Agreement’ with the Kashmiri leader on 24th July 1952.The opposition to ‘Delhi Agreement’ by the Hindu nationalists led by Dr Shama Prasad Mukherjee frustrated Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah.On 13th July 1953 while addressing a public gathering at the martyrs graveyard at Srinagar Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah declared parting ways with the rulers at New Delhi.The negative reporting by the Indian intelligence agency in Jammu and Kashmir State and the Soviet pressure on India finally compelled New Delhi to make use of Karan Singh, Sadr-e-Riyasat of the autonomous state to dismiss Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah from Prime Ministership and put him immediately behind the bars on 9th August1953.
The dismissal and arrest of Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah was a big humiliation for his supporters in the state. So the supporters of Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, pro-Pakistan Muslim nationalists and Islamists joined to strengthen the separatist movement launched by Jammu and Kashmir Plebiscite Front established by Mirza Mohammad Àfzal Beigh on 9th August 1953 through the moral and financial support of Pakistan. For more than two decades the separatist leadership of Kashmir struggled for plebiscite in the Muslim dominated territory but the defeat of Pakistan by India in East Pakistan in December 1971 demoralised the separatist camp in Kashmir, so after signing the Beigh-Parthasarthy Accord in late 1974 the Plebiscite Front was dissolved and Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah made re-entry into the Indian political mainstream.The stuanch supporters and hard core leaders of Plebiscite Front like Sofi Akbar and others could not digest the volteface by Àfzal Beigh. Although Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah was neither a member nor an office bearer of Plebiscite Front, yet he exerted pressure on his separatist colleague to wind up his organization without achieving anything except for Chief Ministership for Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah and three cabinet berths for himself, Dev Das Thakur from Jammu and Sonom Nurbu from Ladakh in the Congress supported government in the state. Although Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah revived his National Conference and got the two-third majority in 1977 elections, the seeds of separatism sown by his anti-India propaganda for more than two decades sprouted again after his death in 1982.
The Muslim Nationalists and Islamists of Kashmiristan established Muslim United Front an umbrella organization to contest the State Assembly elections in March 1987.The MUF candidates wanted the resolution of Kashmir issue under the framework of Shimla Agreement of 1972 and made erosion of the internal sovereignty of Jammu and Kashmir State by New Delhi in collaboration with the Kashmiri secular leadership as the main election issue.The National Conference-Congress alliance resorted to rigging of the elections in 15 Assembly segments against the Muslim United Front candidates in Kashmir on 23rd March 1987. They misused the divisional civil administration head by Hamid Banhali and police adminstration headed by Ali Mohammed Watali who resorted to repression of MUF candidates and their political workers during the electoral process.The rigging of elections in Kashmir exposed the Indian procedural democracy in 1987.The Pakistani intelligence agencies took advantage of the frustration among the defeated MUF candidates and their political workers by seeking the cooperation of Amanullah Khan, supreme leader of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front. Four JKLF members from Kashmir code named as ‘HAJY’Group were initially given arms training and arms and ammunition to start armed struggle in Kashmir. On 31st July 1988 the JKLF started its armed struggle in Kashmir. Within a period of two the militant organizations mushroomed in KASHMIRISTAN and about 50,000 youth crossed the Line of Control to seek arms training and arms and ammunition to participate in the armed struggle against Indian control over Jammu and Kashmir State.The Islamists, Muslim nationalists and Kashmiri nationalists joined the armed and political struggle for liberation of Kashmiristan from India.The Kashmiri secular nationalist politicians and their political workers either resigned or migrated from Kashmiristan or were killed by the militants. For more than six years the Election Commission of India was unable to hold elections in the state. The first State Assembly Election was held in 1996 in which National Conference promised the people to struggle for the restoration of Greater Autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir State. Although the National Conference won the election but the voter turnout in Kashmir was in a single digit.The people of Kashmiristan have boycotted the elections from 1996 to 2014 and there has been a fractured mandate, signifying the erosion of the popularity of pro-India secular forces in the state.
The above mentioned facts make it very clear that India has lost the popular support in Kashmiristan because of the continuing liberation struggle in the Muslim dominated territory.The emergence of Hindu nationalism in India and the dilution of secularism in the country has defeated the logic of Muslim dominated Kashmiristan’s accession with Hindu majority India. The minorities in India in general and the Muslims in particular are facing unsafe in many parts of India. After the Pulwama attack on CRPF on 14th February 2019 many Kashmiri Muslims were attacked outside Kashmir, with the result around 5,000 Kashmiri students studying outside the state left their educational institutions due to fear psychosis. Thus it becomes clear that India has lost the moral justification to keep Kashmiristan with its territory. The international community has supported the holding of plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir State but India is reluctant to take any practical steps in this regard. The dependence of New Delhi over its collaborators in Kashmiristan has reached the saturation point because the Kashmiri Muslims have rejected them time and again during the elections. Given the rise of Hindutva forces in India, the country has lost the ideological basis and moral strength to keep Muslim dominated territory appended to itself. If Kashmiristan is still with India, it is because of India’s military might, political permutations and combinations in the state and the diplomatic propaganda that Kashmiries are happy with India and Pakistan is sponsoring terrorism in the Indian part of Jammu and Kashmir State.
Prof.G.M.Athar can be reached at ghathar@yahoo.co.in
