POLITICS IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR ON THE EVE OF THE TRANSFER OF POWER PART 3

 POLITICS IN KASHMIR TO 1947

 From the moment of its birth the Muslim Conference faced the problem of internal discord. Almost immediately after the Abdul Qadeer crisis Sheikh Abdullah and Mirwaiz Mohammed Yusuf Shah had begun to quarrel with each other. The origins of their differences are obscure. There is some evidence that Sheikh Abdullah, abetted by the other Mirwaiz in Srinagar, Mirwaiz Ahmad Ullah Hamadani of Khanqah-i-Mualla, had showed himself to be too sympathetic towards the Ahmadiya (Qadiani) community which Mirwaiz Mohammed Yusuf Shah considered, as had his uncle before him, to be heretical, thus reviving the controversy which had SO disturbed Srinagar religious society in the mid 1920s. Mirwaiz Mohammed Yusuf Shah, it has been reported, even came to believe that Abdul Qadeer, the hero of 13 July 193 1, was an Ahmadiya, and in consequence modified considerably his attitude towards the whole protest movement which had arisen. Be that as it may, there can be no doubt that by the middle of 1932 there was developing an active, and at times violent, political rivalry in the Muslim ranks in Srinagar between bands of supporters of Sheikh Abdullah, the Shers or "~i~~~"'"~fter Sheikh Abdullah who was increasingly being referred to by his admirers as the "Lion of Kashmir"), on the one hand and followers of Mirwaiz Mohammed Yusuf Shah, the Bakras or "Goats" (after the beards worn by Islamic clerics), on the other. A major consequence of this quarrel was the growing secularisation of Sheikh Abdullah's outlook. Clear evidence of this process was detected by Srinagar political society in 1933 when, immediately after his release from a term of imprisonment at the Maharaja's pleasure, Sheikh Abdullah married the daughter (her mother was Kashmiri) of Harry Nedou, the European proprietor of a chain of hotels including Nedou's Hotel in srinagar.li Begum Akbar Jehan Abdullah was a Muslim; but it is unlikely that she, and her background (which included a previous marriage when she had lived in cosmopolitan Bombay), would have fitted in easily with the orthodoxy represented by Mirwaiz Mohammed Yusuf Shah. The financial advantages of the marriage were evident at the time; and it marked an early (but, perhaps, crucial) step in Sheikh Abdullah's progress towards becoming the richest man in the State. There were also, of course, financial advantages in a sympathetic attitude towards the Ahmadiyas (whose commercial acumen was proverbial) which may have influenced the young Sheikh Abdullah in the evolution of his attitude towards the Mirwaiz Mohammed Yusuf Shah. In the development of his secular approach to politics Sheikh Abdullah was supported by a number of Kashmiri Pandit opponents of the Maharaja's autocracy, like Prem Nath Bazaz; and when in 1938 Sheikh Abdullah met for the first time that descendent of Kashmiri Pandits who was rapidly becoming such a dominant figure in the Indian National Congress, Jawaharlal Nehru, the process of secularisation was greatly accelerated. Sheikh Abdullah became deeply involved in Congress politics, particularly in the movement to extend its scope from British India to the Princely States; and at the same time he increasingly saw his own movement, the Muslim Conference, as an extension of the Indian National Congress in Jammu and Kashmir. In 1939 the Muslim Conference was formally dissolved: it was replaced by the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference. This was a body far more concerned with social and political issues, such as land reform, than with matters of Islamic theology. The process of secularisation was not welcomed by the more conservative Muslim elements in Kashmiri politics. In 1941 some of Sheikh Abdullah's earlier associates like Chaudhri Ghulam Abbas joined with Mirwaiz Mohammed Yusuf Shah in reviving the old Muslim Conference which now became to all intents and purposes allied to M.A. Jinnah and the Muslim League in British India. 111 1939 the Maharaja introduced a new Constitution. in large  measure in response to a campaign of protest and representations organised by the Muslim (about to become National) Conference and its supporters outside the State. The number of elected seats in the Legislative Assembly was increased to forty to give the elected members a theoretical majority. However, the communal constituencies remained; and the restricted franchise of the 1934 Constitution was retained." Careful scrutiny of nominations ensured that the Maharaja exercised considerable control over the nature of the elected component of the Assembly. The Muslim seats of the Assembly under the new Constitution were at first dominated by the National Conference; but in 1941, with the revival of the Muslim Conference, the National Conference was left with but ten members in the Assembly. At this point the remaining members of the National Conference were instructed to resign from the Assembly; but only the resignation of the leader of the party in the Assembly, Mian Ahmad Yar, was accepted. The Maharaja declared that the War prevented the holding of fresh elections in the foreseeable future: members already elected should stay where they were. In 1944 the Maharaja, seeking to broaden the base of his popular support, decided to appoint two members of the Assembly as Ministers in his Government, one Hindu and one Muslim (an experiment, it was said, in "dyarchy"). The Muslim Minister, assigned the portfolio of Public Works and Municipalities, was Mirza Afzal Beg, the deputy leader of the National Conference (and the Hindu Minister was Wazir Ganga Ram, who had received the highest vote in the Hindu constituencies). Mirza Afzal Beg had already become one of Sheikh Abdullah's closest associates (which he was remain until the two men fell out in 1978); and his collaboration with the Maharaja no doubt reflected the policy of his leader. It was, however, to be a short lived experiment. In March 1946 Mirza Afzal Beg resigned. Soon the Maharaja and the National Conference came into direct conflict during the so called "Quit Kashmir" movement when Sheikh Abdullah declared (at the moment when the British Cabinet Mission was in India) that the sale by the British of the Vale of Kashmir to Gulab Singh in 1846 was an invalid act. The Dogra Dynasty, therefore, should leave Kashmir forthwith.'" The Dynasty's response was to arrest Sheikh Abdullah yet again (he had been in and out of the maharaja's prisons since 1931). In reply to the public protest which this action aroused, during which hundreds were arrested and at least twenty killed, the Maharaja's Prime Minister, Pandit R.C. Kak, placed the State under martial law. Sheikh Abdullah and a number of his colleagues in the National Conference were put on trial, and eventually Sheikh Abdullah was sentenced to three years imprisonment for 5etlition. Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed and G.M. Sadiq, however, miinaged to evade the Maharaja's agents and make good their esc ;ape to the Punjab. The "Quit Kashmir" agitation by the National Conference was accompanied by a certain amount of supporting activity on the part of the revived Muslim Conference. Officially, the Muslim Conference adopted a policy of non-involvement in what it perceived to be a political ploy on the part of Sheikh Abdullah's faction in alliance with the Indian National Congress outside the State in British India: some of the Muslim Conference leaders were definitely parochial in their political outlook. In the event, many of its members, including some who were close associates of Mirwaiz Mohammed Yusuf Shah, did energetically in public demonstrations in support of the "Quit Kashmir" movement. The Mirwaiz, however, had been persuaded by Pandit Kak, who had great skill in handling the more traditional Kashmiris with his mastery of the Kashmiri language, that the whole affair was a bit of trouble making by Sheikh Abdullah; and the Mirwaiz temporarily allowed his personal animosity towards Sheikh Abdullah to get the better of his political judgement. The relative quiescence of the Muslim Conference at this time undoubtedly did much to reinforce Jawaharlal Nehru's conviction (which was to be such an important factor in the following year) that Sheikh Abdullah's National Conference alone had any significant popular following in the State. This was certainly a false impression as Pandit Kak well knew: he did not hesitate to take the Muslim Conference leader Chaudhri Ghulam Abbas into custody at this time. It was against this background that at the end of 1946 the Maharaja decided upon fresh elections to the Legislative Assembly (Praja Sabha) to be held in January 1947. They were boycotted by the National Conference but contested by the Muslim Conference (despite many of its leaders being in prison). The Muslim Conference won fifteen of the Muslim elective seats in the Legislative Assembly, the remainder being unfilled because of nomination screening by the Maharaja's Government. On 19 July 1947 the Muslim Conference, with the largest elected representation in the Legislative Assemblv, passed a resolution advocating accession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan, though a faction within the Conference, inclltding its Acting President Chaudhri Hamidullah Khan, preferred the option of the State remaining independent. By 1947, as has already been noted, Sheikh Abdilllah had become a close friend of Jawaharlal Nehl-u. The two men had first met in Peshawar in earlv 1938, and through Nehru Sheikh Xbdullah had become involved in the affairs of the All-India States' People's (;onference (\vhicli been founded in the late 1920s to be to the Princely States what the Indian National Congress was to Britistl India). In 1$)40 Nehru, accompanied b\. Khan ,.\bdul (;haffar Khau (the "Prontiel. Ciandhi"), toured Kashmil- ;lnd in the pl.ocess helped establish Sheikh Abdull;~h's wider political repr~tiltion. I;~\\.nll~~.l;ll Nehl-u \\]as enormoi~sly taken with Slieikli .-\bdullall \i9110. Ile noted at  the time, was a true leader of this people. His followers loved him. He possessed a broad political vision and was not distracted by transient disputes. Kashmiri political life had started as a communal movement; but Sheikh Abdullah, Nehru believed, had extricated it from that impasse and transformed it through his statesmanship from futile communalism into infintely more fruitful nationalism.*O In 1945 the National Conference held a session at Sopur (a town in the Vale of Kashmir some forty miles or so to the north-west of Srinagar): Jawaharlal Nehru, along with Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, attended at Sheikh Abdullah's invitation." 1946 saw Jawaharlal Nehru's last direct encounter with both Sheikh Abdullah and the affairs of the State of Jammu and Kashmir before the outbreak of the great Kashmir crisis in 1947. Sheikh Abdullah had just been elected Vice-President of the All-India States' People's Conference while Jawaharlal Nehru was President of that body. Sheikh Abdullah was actually on his way to Delhi at Nehru's invitation on business in connection with the All India States' People's Conference when, on 21 May 1946, he was arrested, as we have already seen, by the Maharaja's Government for his part in the "Quit Kashmir" movement. After bombarding Pandit Kak with representations on behalf of his friend Sheikh Abdullah, Nehru decided to go up to Srinagar himself and sort things out. He was refused entry to the State on 20 June 1946 and detained, gently and comfortably enough, for a couple of days in Uri Dak Bungalow near the Punjab border. Jawaharlal Nehru never forgave Pandit Kak for his exclusion from his ancestral home, which he took as a personal insult." In order to save face, he resolved to repeat his attempted entry to the State in the near future; and this time he would not be turned back. A number of leading Congress politicians persuaded the Viceroy, Lord Wavell, to approach the Maharaja and smooth the way. When Nehru tried again in July 1946, he experienced no difficulty in reaching Srinagar, where he was able to visit Sheikh Abdullah in prison and to attend part of his trial. The Maharaja, however, refused to meet Nehru on grounds of ill health.'" Jawaharlal Nehru saw in Sheikh Abdullah, a fellow Kashmiri, something of a reflection of himself; and he firmly believed that they shared the same goal of a secular independent India incorporating all the territory that had been part of the British Raj. To ~awaharlal Nehru there could he no doubt that this objective also represented the will of the bulk of the people within Kashmir as elsewhere in India. It was a conviction which was to contribute enormously to the shape of' the history of the State of Jamrnu and Kashmir from 1947 until the present day, as will be seen from the Chapters which follow. Kashrnir, of' course, had long before 1947 also attracted the attention of' those nationalist leaders who advocated Partition and the  creation out of portions of the former British Indian Empire of a Muslim State, Pakistan. Indeed, the K in the PAK part of the word Pakistan was generally taken to represent Kashmir. As we have seen, one of the creators of the idea of Pakistan, Sir Muhammad ~~bal, himself of Kashmiri origin, had been active in drawing the Government of India's attentions to Kashmiri misgovernment following the events in Srinagar of July 1931. The true founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, had personally investigated the state of Kashmiri politics during a private visit to Srinagar in 1936. He came to Srinagar again in 1944 when he was offered the thankless task of trying to sort out the differences between the Muslim Conference and the National Conference (leaders of both bodies having first called on him in Lahore and Delhi). After failing to mediate successfully, he made it clear that he disapproved of Sheikh Abdullah's secularism and that the only body in Kashmir which truly represented the Muslim majority was the Muslim conference." M.A. Jinnah, unlike Jawaharlal Nehru, was extremely reluctant at this period to involve himself directly (or the Muslim League which he headed) in the internal affairs of a Princely State: such action would in his eyes have been constitutionally most improper.""he record, however, leaves one in no doubt that in his own mind M.A. Jinnah believed that the Muslim Conference enjoyed the support of the overwhelming majority of the population of the Vale of Kashmir at least, and in all probability the rest of the State as well. This, then, was the political situation in the Vale of Kashmir on the eve of the Transfer of Power in 1947. There was a profound divide between the revived Muslim Conference and Sheikh Abdullah's National Conference which was in significant measure rooted in the quarrel between Sheikh Abdullah and Mirwaiz Mohammed Yusuf Shah. Neither party could demonstrate a true popular mandate. The electoral system provided for by the 1934 and 1939 Constitutions only permitted the representation of less than 10% of the population; and it was subject to considerable manipulation, particularly in the matter of nominations. In 1947 many of the leaders of both parties were in prison and the National Conference, having boycotted the 1946 elections, occupied no seats in the State Legislati\.e Assembly where the Muslim C:onference had a strong presence. Sheikh Abd~~llah's secular approach was supported by a number of representatives of the Kashmiri Pandit community and others; but it is likely that among the non-Muslims in the State the majority (man\, of whom had pokverful vested interests in the Dog1.a regime) supported the authority of the Maharaja rather than the ideals of Sheikh Xbdullah. On the eve of the Transfer of Power. of course. no one knea for sure what would happen were the question of the future of the St.~te of Jammu and Kashn~ir to be put to the entire electo~.nte in n fail. and free manner. It was unlikely tll;~t the proposition th;~t the llnll;~r;~j.~'s autocracy be permitted to continue as it was would win a majority of votes. Less certain would have been the outcome of an unfettered electoral contest between the views represented by Mirwaiz Mohammed Yusuf Shah, imprecise though they might be, on the one hand and those of Sheikh Abdullah on the other. Sheikh Abdullah's faction was well organised and had considerable attraction for the intelligentsia. It also advocated land reform which could well have appealed to the poorer sections of society." The Islamic fundamentalism, moderate though it was, of Mirwaiz Mohammed Yusuf Shah probably attracted that bulk of the population of the Vale of Kashmir which had no voice at all in the electoral system of the 1934 and 1939 Jammu and Kashmir State Constitutions.