Secularism is the modern political philosophy developed in Europe under the influence of Englightenment Movement in18th century C.E.Secularism is the state policy of separation of religion from public life and making it a personal and private affair. Since, the topmost political leadership of Indian freedom struggle was educated in Europe, so the Western values of secularism, democracy, pluralism and liberalism were imbibed in them.Given the ethnolingual and religio-cultural diversity of Indian subcontinent, the secular and inclusive politics of Indian National Congress suited the ground reality in the British India.In the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, the political and economic power was concentrated in the hands of Hindu minority and the Muslims constitutIng 77% of the state population were socially,economically and politically marginalized.It was in the first quarter of 20th century that a group of educated Muslims established All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference to struggle for socio-economic and political empowerment of the Muslims of princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. However, from 1937 onwards Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah , the President of Muslim Conference came in contact with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, who inspired him to pursue an inclusive and secular political ideology.
POLITICAL RELATIONSHIP OF KASHMIR AND INDIA:
The conversion of All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference into All Jammu and Kashmir National Conference in October 1939 by Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah made the paradigm shift in the politics of Kashmir and brought National Conference ideologically closer to secular and socialist vision of Indian National Congress led by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.The members of National Conference were secular Kashmiri nationalists, many among whom were influenced by Marxist ideology.The red colour and plough of National Conference flag symbolised the Communist ideological roots of the Kashmiri nationalist party.The “Naya Kashmir” Manifesto of National Conference released in 1944, was compelled by B.P.L.Bedi a stuanch leftist scholar. The Naya Kashmir Manifesto is being considered as a duplicate copy of the Communist Manifesto of former Soviet Central Asia.The “Quit Kashmir” campaign against Maharaja Hari Singh launched by Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah on 20th May 1946 was started on the pattern of “Quit India” Movement against the British rule launched by Mahatma Gandhi in 1919. After the arrest of Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru tried to cross the border of Dogra princely state of Jammu and Kashmir to defend the Kashmiri leader in the court but Pandit Ramchandra Kak, Prime Minister of the Dogra ruler got him arrested at Domel.Through his letter of apology while in prison on 27th September1947, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah assured full support to Maharaja Hari Singh against the enemy, an indirect reference to Pakistan, because at that point of time, there was a threat perception, that before onset of winter, Pakistan may invade the Muslim dominated Kashmir. Soon after his release from the prison on 29th September 1947, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah addressed a public gathering at Hazuribagh Srinagar on 2nd October 1947, in which he declared,”As long as there is a single drop of blood in my body, I will oppose Jinnah’s two-nation theory”.On 3rd October 1947, the Working Body of National Conference met under the Chairmanship of Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah and passed the resolution supporting the accession of Jammu and Kashmir State with Indian Union. Once the Pakistani tribal raiders invaded Kashmir on 22nd October 1947, the National Conference organized 10,000 volunteers to guard the Srinagar city. When Maharaja Hari sent his Prime Minister, Meherchand Mahajan to New Delhi on 24th October1947 for seeking military assistance against the tribal raid in Kashmir, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah who was already sitting at Nehru’s residence, sent a slip to the Indian Prime Minister requesting him to send troops to Kashmir to evacuate the territory from Pakistani tribal warriors.The Government of India in addition to the precondition of accession of Jammu and Kashmir State with Indian Union, insisted on induction of Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, the popular leader of Kashmiri nation in the Dogra administration.
LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL RELATIONSHIP OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR WITH INDIAN UNION: The Dogra autocratic ruler of Jammu and Kashmir princely state was obliged to accede to Indian Union with respect to defence, foreign affairs and communication with Indian Union on 26th October 1947 to seek Indian military support against the tribal invasion. Maharaja Hari Singh appointed Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, as the Emergency Administrator of Jammu and Kashmir State on 29th October 1947. Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah defined the Indian troops, who landed at Srinagar Airport on 27th October 1947, like the ‘tuiran ababil’ the heavenly saviours, referred to in Quran. Once the Kashmir issue was discussed at UN in March 1948, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, then Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir State, represented India and publicly favoured Kashmir’s limited accession with India, although in private he met Warren Austin the U.S. permanent representative at UN to point out the ‘third option’ for Jammu and Kashmir State. Once the UN passed its first resolution on Jammu and Kashmir State, on 21st April 1948, calling for two-option plebiscite in the state, the National Conference launched protest in Srinagar against the UN interference in Jammu and Kashmir. Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah and his three other party colleagues namely Mirza Mohammad Àfzal Beigh, Maulana Mohammad Syed Maudoodi and Moti Ram Baigra, represented Jammu and Kashmir State at the Constituent Assembly of India and consented inclusion of Article 370 and other relevant Articles in the Constitution of India in 1949. Similarly, while addressing the first session of Jammu and Kashmir State Constituent Assembly on 5th November 1951, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah praised India for being a secular, democratic, socialist, federal and modern republic, whereas labelled Pakistan as a feudal and conservative theocracy. On 24th July 1952 Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah and the Indian Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru signed the historic ‘Delhi Agreement’ defining the future Centre-State relationship between Srinagar and New Delhi. Although following the opposition to Delhi Agreement by Hindu nationalists under the banner of Jansang led by Dr Shama Prasad Mukherjee, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah was avers from 1953 to 1974 to Indian control over Jammu and Kashmir State, but following the signing of Beigh-Parthasarthy Accord in 1974, he joined again the Indian mainstream politics to become the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir State in 1975. After the dismissal of Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah from Prime Ministership and his immediate arrest on 9th August 1953, the National Conference Government in the state was led by Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah’s Deputy Prime Minister, Bakhshi Ghulam Mohammed who was elevated as the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir State. The 61 members unanimously out of a total of 75 members of the Indian Administered Jammu and Kashmir State Constituent Assembly ratified the accession of Jammu and Kashmir State with Indian Union on 6th February 1954.The Jammu and Kashmir State Constituent Assembly recommended in 1954 the introduction of Article 35-A in the Indian Constitution to protect the preexisting citizenship rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir State. The Jammu and Kashmir State Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir State on 17th November 1956.The Jammu and Kashmir State Constituent Assembly also made the financial integration of the state with the country to arrange the required financial resources for the purpose of governance and development in the mountainous state. After the concurrence of the President of India the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir was implemented on 26th January 1957 by Bakhshi Ghulam Mohammed, then Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir State.Thus the secular minded Kashmiri nationalists under the banner of Jammu and Kashmir National Conference finalized the Centre-State relationship during the first decade of Indo-Kashmir legal and constitutional from 1947 to 1957.
MUSLIM SEPARATISM IN KASHMIR:
Unfortunately, the centralizing tendency of New Delhi in Jammu and Kashmir State, and the murder of democracy in the. state led to the erosion of internal sovereignty and lack of governance in the Muslim dominated state. From 1957 onwards the step by step erosion of the autonomy, rigging of elections and promotion of corruption, favouriteism and misrule alienated the people of the state from Indian way of governance in the state.The anti-India propaganda by Plebiscite Front led by Mirza Mohammad Àfzal Beigh as well as the communalism and religious fundamentalism engineered both within India and Pakistan had very negative consequences for Indo-Kashmir relationship.The rigging of the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislative Assembly elections by National Conference-Congress alliance against the Muslim United Front candidates in 15 Assembly segments and the police repression of the MUF candidates and their political workers on 23rd March 1987 frustrated the defeated candidates and their political workers in Kashmir. The Pakistani agencies took advantage of the internal political injustice and misrule in the state to motivate the Kashmiri youth to start guerrilla warfare against the Indian troops in Kashmir. So in late 1980s and early 1990s about 50,000 Kashmiri youth crossed the Line of Control to seek arms training and arms and ammunition from across the border to launch armed struggle in the Indian Administered Jammu and Kashmir State. Ever since the first militant act was committed in Kashmir by the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front youth on 31st July 1988, upto the 31st May 2019, more than 100,000 people have been killed in the state, thousands have been seriously injured, miamed and blinded over the past three decades. Property worth billions of rupees has been destroyed, and the tourist, health, education and indurial sectors have been very badly affected because of the conflict situation in the Jammu and Kashmir State.
WAY FORWARD IN KASHMIR
The secular minded Kashmiri nationalists have taken an initiative to establish Jammu and Kashmir National League as a nonviolent, secular, democratic and political organization on 29th May 2016. The fundamental vision and mission of Jammu and Kashmir National League is to restore peace with dignity in the conflict-ridden state in the light of the political history of the state as well as the pragmatic realism and natural justice. Keeping in view the fact that the original Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir State has been amended time and again to make it very much hollow and toothless, the Jammu and Kashmir National League has resolved to struggle for the restoration of the provisions of the original Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir State adopted by Jammu and Kashmir State Constituent Assembly on 17th November 1956 and implented by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir State on 26th January 1957 to give the people of Kashmir a sense of political achievement.
The Author can be reached at ghathar@yahoo.co.in
