Prof. G.M.Athar
After Maharaja Hari Singh demanded freedom from the British in the first Round Table Conference held at London in November1930, Abdul Qadeer Khan from Northwestern Frontier Province in service of an English Military Officer, Mr Butler; Choudhary Ghulam Abbas Khan, leader of the Jammu based Young Men’s League; and Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah a much discriminated Muslim, an underemployed government school teacher and the leader of Srinagar based Reading Room Party were planted by the British Political Department to start political turmoil in the Muslim dominated Jammu and Kashmir State in1931.The British plan was to create communal tension in the state to replace Hari Singh the Hindu ruler of the Muslim dominated state of Jammu and Kashmir by Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who was a well qualified Muslim and a strong critique of the Dogra autocracy. In the early 1950s there was a proposal being put forward to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to either appoint Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah as the Deputy Prime of India or nominate him as his successor, but B.N. Mullick Director of Intelligence Bureau in Jammu and Kashmir State, informed Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru about the allegations against Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah to be a British agent. However, once Hari Singh agreed to give Gilgit Agency once again on lease for 60 years to the British Government in 1935, the political support of the British Political Department to Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah began to decline tremendously. Meanwhile the Government of India Act 1935 was passed and the proposal for establishment of an All India Federation was granted approval by the Government of India, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah joined the Indian State’s Peoples Conference in1937 and converted his All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference into All Jammu and Kashmir National Conference to throw open the membership of his political party to the non-Muslims of the state on 11th June 1939.
Following the announcement of Partition Plan by Lord Mountbatten Governor General of India on 3rd June 1947, the Indian Muslim League leader, Mohammad Ali Jinnah in a meeting of the Joint Defence Committee on 13th June 1947 stood for the rulers of the princely states to decide the future of their respective kingdoms, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah appreciated Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who stood for the people of the princely states to determine the future of their respective states, although both Indian National Congress and Indian Muslim League were actually eyeing the princely state of Hyderabad, but only their respective strategies were different.Thus Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah became a strong ally of the Indian National Congress and the Interim Government of India led by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in1947. Following the Pakistan sponsored tribal raid in Kashmir and the legally invalid accession of non-existent Jammu and Kashmir State with Indian Union by Hari Singh on 26th October 1947, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was illegally appointed as the Chief Emergency Administrator of Jammu and Kashmir State by Hari Singh on 29th October 1947 and subsequently upgraded illegally as the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir State on 5th March 1948 through the political support of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
The reference of Kashmir Question to the United Nations on 31st December 1947, made Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah to feel insecure about his political career. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah travelled to the United States as a member of the Indian Delegation to the United Nations in January 1948. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah privately met Mr Warren Austin, Permanent Representative of the United States at the United Nations at New York, to point out that an independent country was the best option for the people of Jammu and Kashmir State. Subsequently, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah talked to foreign media about an independent country and had several secret meetings with Loy Handerson and his wife as well as the opposition defeated candidate for the post of American President, Adlai Stevenson at Srinagar, perturbing both New Delhi and Moscow. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s resistance to ratify the accession of Jammu and Kashmir State with Indian Union and his aspirations to establish an independent country with the help of American support became the main reasons for his removal from the Prime Ministership and arrest on 9th August 1953.
Once Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was released on 8th April 1964, he was deputed by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to Pakistan to explore the possibility of establishing a Confederation of India and Pakistan, but the sudden demise of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on 27th May1964 compelled Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah to leave his political goal unrealised and return back to New Delhi in an emergency situation.The next year Pakistan launched a war against India in Kashmir to spoil the opportunity of a negotiated settlement of the Kashmir issue. Subsequently, India defeated West Pakistan in East Pakistan on16th December 1971 to establish Bangladesh as an independent country and took 90,000 soldiers of Pakistan as the war hostages, which completely demoralised Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah to such an extent that from1972 onwards he left the separatist political agenda.
Since Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah because of the Cold War within his Cabinet in 1953 and also because of underestimating the power of the Indian state had spoilt his Important years of life in confrontation with New Delhi wanted now to assume political power in the old age through the goodwill of Mrs Indira Gandhi the Prime Minister of India. Therefore, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah re-entered empty handed into the Indian political mainstream just to be the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir State on 25th February 1975. However, the Congress leadership in Jammu and Kashmir State was reluctant to make Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the President of State Congress Committee, so Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah re-established his Jammu and Kashmir National Conference to contest the Legislative Assembly elections in1977 to rule the state for the next five years till his death after a brief illness on 8th September 1982 .Thus the political career of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah spread over more than half a century came to an ultimate end.
The author can be reached at ghathar@yahoo.co.in
(Views expressed are author’s own)