This research paper attempts to explain that the crimes committed on Kashmiri Muslim in Jammu and adjoining areas by Hari Singh, Hindutva terror organization population.
One million Kashmiri Muslim refugees were uprooted and an estimated 2,500,00-300,000 were massacred in the Jammu region alone in August-October 1947.More than 25000 Muslim women were abducted and raped. Violence was directed in the main by the Dogra Hindu state troopers aimed at driving them out from fear of death.
On 6 Nov 1947, 2.5 lac more Kashmiri Muslims were massacred and Mahatma Gandhi condemned this act by Hindu terrorist wing RSS as unforgivable.
Citizens of Jammu and Kashmir are fortunate enough that if we have had collaborators of oppression like Mehbooba Mufti who justify mass blinding of Kashmiri kids by pallets guns , to a query on mass blinding of innocent kids ,she is on record to say , “Did these childrens go to army camps to buy toffees “,. We have great souls like Dr.Karan Singh aswell, who roared in Indian parliament for the rights of people of J&K and told them to abstain from stating that the political instability in J&K was an internal matter of India .
MAIN AIM :
The main aim of Dogra king Hari Singh and his administration was to alter the demographics of the region by eliminating the Muslim population in order to ensure a Hindu majority in the region.
(A) Ved Bhasin (17 November 2015). “Jammu 1947”. Kashmir Life. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
B ) Noorani, A.G. (25 February 2012). “Horrors of Partition”. Frontline. 29 (04).
SOURCES
Let me establish, the genocide of Kashmiri Muslim first from achieves of the authoritarian world recognized organization like United nation, world leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, historian and biggest media hubs.
1) Mahatma Gandhi : Father of India ,” Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi “was so disgusted with the carnage that on two occasions (27 November and 25 December 1947), he made a mention of it in the following word, “The Hindus and Sikhs of Jammu and those who had gone there from outside (referring to Hindutva terrorist organization like RSS from Gurdaspur and surrounding areas) killed Muslims there. Their women have been dishonored. This has not been fully reported in the newspapers. The Maharaja of Kashmir is responsible for what has happened there”
- a) Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, volume 90, page 115 and 298).
- b) Document Twenty”. The second assassination of Gandhi? by Ram Puniyani. Anamika Pub & Distributors. 2003. pp. 91.
It is no wonder, then, that when Gandhi was killed by an RSS Hindu fanatic Nathram Godse, sweets were distributed throughout Jammu in special thalis supplied from the Maharaja’s Palace.
2) United Nation: The reporter of The Times, London, dated 10th August 1948, has reported: “2,37,000 Muslims were systematically exterminated — unless they escaped to Pakistan along the border — by the forces of the Dogra State headed by the Maharaja in person and aided by the Sikhs. This happened in October 1947, five days before the Pathan invasion and nine days before the Maharaja’s accession to India”. (Confirmed in UNSC, Meeting No. 534, March 6, 1951 Role of RSS: Ved Bhasin, Editor, Kashmir times, is on record to say,” The activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) played a key role in planning and executing the riots.
- A) Ved Bhasin (17 November 2015). “Jammu 1947”. Kashmir Life. Retrieved 4 June 2017.
B)Chattha, Partition and its Aftermath 2009, p. 182, 183; Chattha, The Long Shadow of 1947 2016, p. 149
3 ) According to Indian historian Das Gupta and Jyoti Bhushan: 2 lac was murdered
Das Gupta, Jammu and Kashmir 2012, p. 97.
4) Snedden, Kashmir: The Unwritten History 2013, p. 56.
5) London times about Jammu Massacre :
British daily,” The London Times” quoting its special correspondent in India stated that the Maharaja, under his own supervision, got assassinated 2,37,000 Muslims, using military forces in the Jammu area. The editor of Statesman, Ian Stephen, in his book Horned Moon writes that until the end of autumn 1947, more than 200,000 Muslims were murdered in one go. Horace Alexander wrote in the Spectator (16 January 1948) that the killings had “the tacit consent of State authority” and put the figure at 2,00,000.
6) The times, London: That there was a design to change the demographics is evidenced by another well-reported incident. Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehr Chand Mahajan, upon arrival in Jammu told a delegation of Hindus, which met him in the Palace, that now when the power was being transferred to the people they should better demand parity. When one of the delegation members wanted to know how that was possible, Mahajan, pointing to the Ramnagar natural reserve below, where Muslim corpses were still lying said, “the population ratio too can change” like that (“Elimination of Muslims from Jammu” II, The Times, London, 10 August 1948, page 5.)
6) Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, who was appointed “Chief Emergency Administrator” on 30 October 1947 could not prevent the carnage. He writes in his autobiography Atish-e-Chinar (page 312) that the carnage got impetus after the arrival of Union Home Minster Sardar Patel, Union Defence Minster Baldev Singh along with the Maharaja of Patiala, a person known for his anti-Muslim bias, in Jammu. The trio met various Hindu organizations and delegations, after which the massacre attained a great momentum. Hindu fanatics, aided and abetted by government forces, started burning down village after village inhabited by Muslims. Women were raped at will. Weapons were distributed freely to marauders from the Kachi Chawni house of Pandith Prem Nath Dogra and motivated by Balraj Madhok.
7) Daily Telegraph of London: Almost 95 percent of left-over properties, which should have in the normal course been taken over by the State government were allowed appropriated by looters and rioters (Daily Telegraph of London dated 12 January 1948).
8) Indian intelligence agencies: Sir Dalip Singh, Agent-General of Government of India in Jammu in the month of November 1947. Dalip Singh (1885-1971) came from the Kapurthala royal family. He was one of eight children of Raja Sir Harnam Singh (1851-1930) and his siblings included Raja Sir Maharaj Singh (1878-1959) – who had been a Prime Minister of Kashmir for a short while in early-1940s and went on to become the first Indian Governor of Bombay Province from 1948 to 1952 – and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur (1889-1964) – co-founder of All-India Women’s Conference in 1927, first and long-serving Health Minister of independent India and the first woman and Asian to become President of the World Health Assembly in 1950. Dalip himself represented India at various forums of the UN including the Committee on the Progressive Development of International Law and its Codification, where he was, ironically, involved in the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide on 9 December 1948 [See H Abtahi and P Webb, The Genocide Convention (MN Publishers, 2008 ), pp. 150, 171, 183-4, 198, 208].
9) Sardar Patel: The RSS’ agenda was mooted almost from the time of the State’s accession to India. Its prime mover was none other than Maharaja Hari Singh, as Nehru wrote to Vallabhbhai Patel on April 17, 1949, after reading an intelligence report from Kashmir: “In this report, among other things, a reference was made to a growing Hindu agitation in Jammu province for what is called a zonal plebiscite. This idea is based on the belief that a plebiscite for the whole of Kashmir is bound to be lost and, therefore, let us save Jammu at least. You will perhaps remember that some proposal of this kind was put forward by the Maharaja some months back. It seems to me that this kind of propaganda is very harmful, indeed, for us.
“This propaganda for a zonal plebiscite is going on in Jammu, in Delhi and elsewhere. It is carried on by what is known as the Jammu Praja Parishad. Our intelligence officer reported that this Praja Parishad is financed by the Maharaja. Further, that the large sums collected for the Dharmarth Fund, which are controlled by the Maharaja, are being spent in propaganda for him” (Sardar Patel’s Correspondence 1945-50; volume 1, page 262).
Culprits and their accomplices
9) Hari Singh the ‘“Hitler from Jammu”: As proved in point number one, Mahatma Gandhi squarely blamed Hari Singh for the genocide of Kashmiri Muslim in Jammu and adjoining areas.
A)Governor-general of India blamed Hari Singh for genocide: The topic of the annual meeting of East India Association London on 29 June 1948. Last Viceroy of the British India Mountbatten was among the participants. In his address, he expressed concern over the ‘unwise policy of the state’ and asserted that ‘Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir took a clue from Kapurthala State and decided to follow the same suit. In Kapurthala where Muslims formed 63 percent of the total population, not a single left within a few weeks’.(For Mountbatten’s address to the East India Association London on a topic ‘Maharaja verses the People: Genesis of the Kashmiri Dispute’, The Civil and Military Gazette, 10 September 1951, pp.3-4.)
- B) To quote the 10 August 1948 report published in The Times: the forces of the Dogra State headed by the Maharaja Hari Singh in person and aided by Hindus and Sikhs. This happened in October 1947, five days before the Pathan invasion and nine days before the Maharaja’s accession to India.”(Snedden, Kashmir: The Unwritten History 2013, pp. 55, 330.)
C ) The daily Times of London reported the events in Jammu with such a front page headings: ‘Elimination of Muslims from Jammu’ and pointed out that the Maharaja Hari Singh was ‘in person commanding all the forces’ which were ethnically cleansing the Muslims.32(Elimination of Muslims from Jammu’, Part II, The Times, (London), 10 August 1948, p. 5.
ACCOMPLICES OF GENOCIDE : –
10.A) Prime Minster and governor of dogras : Bhasin says that the massacres took place in the presence of the then Jammu and Kashmir’s Prime Minister Mehr Chand Mahajan and the governor of Jammu, Lala Chet Ram Chopra and that some of those who led these riots in Udhampur and Bhaderwah later joined the National Conference with some of them also serving as ministers.
(Ved Bhasin (17 November 2015). “Jammu 1947”. Kashmir Life. Retrieved 4 June 2017.)
10.B) For Jammu, Samba & Kathua-Prem Nath Dogra-Retired SDM was the organizer of training camps for RSS cadres. Bulk arms were stores & distributed from his house at Kach Chawni and armed training Camps were organized at Vaid Mandir, Raghunath Mandir, Talab Rani, & Gurdwara Pacci Dhaki.
10.C) In Udhampur: Dev Raj Dogra, Tehsildar, Lachman Dass Ex-SP, and Chaman Lal, S.I were the organizers of RSS training
10.D)In Ram Nagar: Chander Ubay Singh-Tehsildar & Darshan Singh-S.I were in charge of training camps.
10.E) In this macabre game of bloodbath, Hari Singh received logistical support from two Maharajas of nearby states M/s Yadavindra Singh & Jagjit Singh Bhadur of Patiala & Kapurthala respectively, at the instance of Union Home Minster Sardar Patel & Defence Minster Baldev Singh who enjoyed strong rapport & friendly relations with these two Maharajas. Psychological support was provided by Golwalker & other RSS functionaries like B.R.Agrekar, provincial President RSS. The administration consisting of Prime Minster Mehr Chand Mahajan & Governor Jammu Chet Ram Chopra got the plan executed with military precision through Dogra Army, Patiala forces & RSS cadres from Jammu & neighboring areas. That the middle & lower rung officials of the administration were fully involved in the pogrom is established by following instances.
10.F) Almost immediately, the disgruntled Dogra refugees backed by their relatives from Jammu started a general clearing of the Muslim population. They were provided with arms and ammunition by the state officials. Sikh deserters of the Sialkot Unit, who migrated in Jammu and also had taken away with themselves rifles and ammunition now utilized them.( The Punjab Police Abstract of Intelligence for the week ending of August, 1947, p. 612, NIHCR)
10.G) In this macabre game of bloodbath, Hari Singh received logistical support from two Maharajas of nearby states M/s Yadavindra Singh & Jagjit Singh Bhadur of Patiala & Kapurthala respectively, at the instance of Union Home Minster Sardar Patel & Defense Minister Baldev Singh who enjoyed strong rapport & friendly relations with these two Maharajas. Psychological support was provided by Golwalker & other RSS functionaries like B.R.Agrekar, provincial President RSS. The administration consisting of Prime Minster Mehr Chand Mahajan & Governor Jammu Chet Ram Chopra got the plan executed with military precision through Dogra Army, Patiala forces & RSS cadres from Jammu & neighboring areas.
10.H). Important RSS leaders like Balraj Madhok, Kedar Nath Sahni, Vijay Malhotra, and Madan Lal Khurana remained stationed in Jammu as in-charge of RSS during the 1940s. Violence against Muslims could not have taken place if the Maharaja and his wife had not actively supported it. The anti-Muslim violence was organized. Governor Chet Ram Chopra and DIG Police, Bakhshi Udhay Chand, also played a vital role. The Administration too participated in the massacre
Result of Hindutva Fascist state-led Muslim genocide: Demographic change
11) As a result of the State-sponsored genocide, 61% Muslim population of Jammu division was reduced to 38%.
- A) Other reporters have put the number of massacred Muslims either less [2, 00,000, per Horace Alexander’s article in The Spectator, dated 16-01- 1948)
- B) Indian Prime Minster Jawahar Lal Nehru blamed Hari Singh : With the support of RSS, Maharaja Hari Singh’s involvement in the massacre was evident from a letter Jawaharlal Nehru wrote to Vallabhbhai Patel on 17 April 1949 (quoted in Frontline magazine): ‘In this (intelligence) report, among other things, a reference was made to a growing Hindu agitation in Jammu province for what is called a zonal plebiscite.
This idea is based on the belief that a plebiscite for the whole of Kashmir is bound to be lost and, therefore, let us save Jammu at least. You will perhaps remember that some proposal of this kind was put forward by the Maharaja some months back. It seems to me that this kind of propaganda is very harmful, indeed, for us.
- C) More than 5,00,000 according to Ian Stephens, Making of Pakistan, New York, page 200 & 6,00,000 per Christopher Sneden
- D) In an interview on October 26, 1947, the former editor of Kashmir Times, GK Reddy, calls the “mad orgy of Dogra violence against unarmed Muslims as an episode (that) should put any self-respecting human being to shame.”
- E) Qudratullah Shahab, Shahab Nama
- D) Syed Naqvi, Being the other: Muslim in India citing Ved Bhasin’s document of 2003 presented at Jammu University, Gandhi’s comment on the genocide of Muslims in Jammu on 25th December 1947 finding mention in volume 90 of his Collected Works & Nehru’s letter dated 17-04-1947 to Vallabhbhai Patel quoted in Frontline magazine.
- E) Alaister Lamb, Birth of a tragedy: Kashmir 1947; Alaister Lamb, Kashmir a disputed legacy
- F) Joseph Korbel, Danger in Kashmir
G)Victoria Sheffield, Kashmir in conflict
- H) Stanley Wolpert, Shameful Flight.
- I) Hector Bolitho, Jinnah the Creator of Pakistan.
- J) Blazing Chinar, SMA).
- i) In an interview on October 26, 1947, the former editor of Kashmir Times, GK Reddy, calls the “mad orgy of Dogra violence against unarmed Muslims as an episode (that) should put any self-respecting human being to shame.”
12) History of Hindutva Fascist movements in Kashmir: Shudi movement Under Maharaja Pratap Singh’s patronage, the movement led by Swami Sharvanad was aimed at reverting those who had become Muslims.
“But the so-called purification movement (Shudi movement) faced resistance when Chowdhary Ghulam Abbas and his comrades formed the Young Men’s Muslim Association,” says ZG Mohammad.
They wanted to start the Shudhi Movement in the Valley, too,” ZGM says. “But they faced a tough resistance, despite opening an office in the Arya Samaj School near Iqbal Park in Srinagar. Their rally already faced a counter-rally in Srinagar.”
“After failing to convert Muslims, the alternative was to change the demography,” ZGM continues.
13) The rise of islamophobe RSS ideologue Swami Sant Dev and Tara Devi Maharani :
That October had sent the Dogra Maharaja Hari Singh, his durbar and his mourning Maharani packed from Srinagar. Upon reaching Jammu, the fallen monarch’s queen decried the lost of the throne to Muslims in Kashmir and at once stirred the ‘massacre mood’.
Other than Tara Devi’s laments, the defeat of Dogra army at Poonch by Azad Kashmir army and other parts of Pir Panjal had created a grudge against Muslims was one among many influential persons close to the palace accused of instigating large-scale violence against Muslims in Jammu. He was a strong supporter of the RSS in J&K. Shiri Ram Bakshi, Kashmir- Valley and its Culture, p 251.
Meanwhile, Tara Devi, the “warm and gregarious “fourth wife of Hari Singh and the only to bear him an heir, had taken full control of the palace affairs since 1945. She was under the “overpowering influence” Sati Sahni, A Conversation, (http://ikashmir.net/pakraid1947/sahni2.html). When Maharaja Hari Singh, under the influence of his Rajguru Swami Sant Deo who floated the idea of Dogristan, chased away Congress President Acharya J B Kripalani, sent Viceroy Lord Mountbatten trout fishing and even made Gandhiji wait before seeing him
MUSLIM MAJORITY JAMMU TO MUSLIM MINORITY JAMMU: DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE
Between 1941 and 1961, the Muslim population of Jammu fell from 61 percent to 38 percent
14) According to Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal’, Prejudice in Paradise’, Communalism Combat, Vol. 11: 104 (January; 2005), There was a design to change the demographics is evidenced by another well-reported incident. Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehr Chand Mahajan told a delegation of Hindus who met him in the place when he arrived in Jammu that now when the power was being transferred to the people they should better demand parity. When one of them associated with the National Conference asked how they could demand parity when there were no much differences in population ratio. Pointing to the Ramnagar natural reserve below, where some bodies of Muslims were still lying, he said, ‘the population ratio too can change’.
Census of India
- B) Census may help us to understand how many Muslims were killed in Jammu. According to 1941 census, Jammu Province which included areas of Azad Kashmir (minus Muzaffarabad) had a total Muslim population of 1212405( 61.19% )and 736,862 Hindus 37.19%. People of Jammu and Kashmir classified themselves in the Census as, Dogras, Rajputs, Brahmins, Jats, Thakkars, Gujjars, Bakarwals, Untouchables, Poonchis, Syeds, Afghans, Punjabis, Maliks, Mians, Sikhs, Kashmiris, Pundits, Budhs, Baltis, Shias, and Yashkins. So apart from religious loyalty, people had tribal and ethnic loyalty too. Within the Jammu Province, there were Districts and Sub Districts which had a clear Muslim majority.
- C) In Jammu province, for example, about 123 villages were ‘completely depopulated’, while the decrease in the number of Muslims in Jammu district alone was over 100,000. The Muslims numbered 158,630 and comprised 37 percent of the total population of 428,719 in the year 1941, and in the year 1961, they numbered only 51,690 and comprised only 10 percent of the total population of 516,932. Kathua district ‘lost’ almost fifty percent its Muslim population.42 (The Census of India, 1961, Vol. V1, cited in M. H. Kamili, Census of India (Srinagar, 1968), p.42, p. 157 and pp. 359-60)
D)273000 Kashmiri Muslims murdered: The Maharaja of the Dogra Hindu state was complicit in the targeted violence against Kashmiri Muslims. Out of a total of 8 lakhs who tried to migrate, more than ‘ 237,000 Muslims were systematically exterminated by all the forces of the Dogra State, headed by the Maharaja in person and aided by Hindus and Sikhs’. ‘Elimination of Muslims from Jammu’, II, The Times, (London), 10 August 1948, p. 5
REFUGEES FROM JAMMU
14) According to, Maintenance and Resettlement of Jammu and Kashmir Refugees, File No. B132, 169/CF/ 53, NDC, Islamabad, p. 4, the total number of refugees who were forced to leave Jammu by Hari Singh and his Hindutva accomplices were 161,966
Sialkot 11, 0,143
Gujrat 37,474
Gujranwala 4,625
Rawalpindi 5,384
Lahore 1,101
Total 161,966
The majority had far less choice except to escape from violence. The Kashmiri refugee population not surprisingly became the most visible community in the city. The most fortunate occupied properties abandoned by the Hindus and Sikhs. Many others thronged camps, schools and military barracks platforms for many years. They squatted on railway platforms, footpaths, and every conceivable space. The least fortunate were accommodated in the ‘most appalling’, ‘de-humanized’ and ‘like cattle’ condition in the evacuee factories. Water and sewerage arrangements were usually non-existent and unhygienic conditions caused health problems. Almost all 20000 Kashmir refugees in Sialkot’s Ganda Singh School caught small pox and very less among them survived.
ABDUCTION AND RAPE OF 25000 KASHMIRI MUSLIM WOMEN :
15.A) An unspecified number of Muslim women was abducted from different parts of Jammu Province. Most of them were not returned to their families and in many cases, Hindus and Sikhs forcibly married them. The abducted women were raped and smuggled out to different parts of India. Although the number of such unfortunate victims will be never known there are some estimates which say that 25,000 women were abducted from Jammu Province. However, Muhammad Yusuf Saraf considers this figure on the higher side and “a liberal estimate”.( lxvii] Muhammad Yusuf Saraf, Kashmiris Fight for Freedom, Vol II, p 818; Civil & Military Gazette, December 2nd 1947.)
15.B)On October 22, 1947, when reportedly 14,000 people were massacred in Samba, “all the Muslim women in the village were apparently taken away by the State troops, and the men were slaughtered with the exception of fifteen survivors, who escaped to Sialkot”. Likewise, during the massacre at Maogaon on October 23 in which 25,000 Muslims were slaughtered, their women and all their personal belongings were taken away from them by the Dogra troops.
PRESENT STRATEGIES TO DRIVE OUT KASHMIRIS
16.A )Asifa rape case by Hindutva forces : Rape of 9-year-old Kashmiri gujjar girl ,Asifa by Hindutva terrorist gang in Kathua was not a normal rape but a war strategy by Hindutva groups to drive out community from these areas as per charge sheet of JK police ( times of India report, April 12, 2018, ‘Rape-murder in Kathua meant to drive out Muslim tribe’ http://toi.in/dz6Teb/a24gk via @timesofindia) . it was more vicious than a rape because rapist not only planned it but has also assigned it a socio-political motive in the name Hindutva and nationalism.P public rallies were held influential Hindutva groups HINDU EKTA MANCH to rally support for rapists.BJP ministers organized rallies to support rapist, among the supporters of rapist were BJP ministers Chander Prakash Ganga and Lal Singh. As per the report, reported on 17 Feb 2018.
16.B) Lal Singh threatened Kashmiri Muslim of the massacre on the pattern of Nov 1947.(Indian Express).He told the deputation of Muslim, have you forgotten1947(http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/choudhary-lal-singh-forest-minister-jammu-and-kashmir-1947-muslims-massacre-2814531/ via @Indian Express.Not only this Lal Singh also warned Kashmiri journalists of serious consequences if they persist to write against oppression, he warned them to draw a line or face the fate of ‘Rising Kashmir’ editor Shujaat Bukhari.
16.C ) Leader of BJP Ashok Khajuria asked Muslim to vacate: In an article entitled “Being Muslim in Jammu”, Zafar Chaudhary writes: “There was hardly any family in the region which escaped” it. Those “events permanently changed the way the Muslims of Jammu would live or think” (Economic & Political Weekly; August 23, 2008). Some decided to make peace with the BJP agitators. The BJP’s State president, Ashok Khajuria, said at a press conference on July 26: “Muslims vacate your houses… I am warning you… else, Jammu people are ready to throw you out.”
16.D : HINDUTVA LEADER PROPAGANDIST SUSHIL PANDIT TERMED MUSLIM COLONIES AS THREAT :
MLA Mendhar and senior National Conference (NC) leader Javed Rana Monday while reacting to speeches appealed Governor Satya Paul Malik to order a probe into how a “conference on communal lines was organized in Jammu where hate speeches were given against Muslim community”. He said that administration allowed such a communal conference in Jammu “which has openly spread venom against a community and termed Muslim colonies as a threat to Dogras”. (http://risingkashmir.com/news/provocative-speeches-at-jammu-seminar-evoke-sharp-criticism)
Dr.Eshraf Zainulabideen can be reached at zainlala69@yahoo.com
