Some Thoughts on the 1947 Accession of Jammu and Kashmir

Ram Chandra Kak and Maharaja Hari Singh - the maligned duo (picture courtesy Frontline)

With his speeches at the 1930 Round Table Conference in London, Maharaja Hari Singh had more made than made it clear that the interests of the province of Jammu and Kashmir were very much aligned with those of an independent India. That it is still proclaimed that the state of Jammu and Kashmir was vacillating on the idea of which state to join in 1947 remains a facetious attempt to ignore history.  A few thoughts that have been on my mind, which have been learnt from the various sources that have come to light over the past two decades, put a lot of things in context about the delays, the actual thoughts and the motivations of driving an altogether different agenda.

The Myth of the Muslim Massacre in Jammu During 1947

To date, this myth of Muslims being massacred in Jammu in 1947 keeps getting peddled. Fact of the matter remains that the British Resident, who was attached to the Commonwealth Office of Her Majesty’s Government of Britain, had been repeatedly filing reports about the ongoings in the region.

Journalist Prem Shankar Jha has repeatedly pointed this out in his book –Kashmir 1947. What he also pointed out is conveniently hidden from the public narrative, which was also brought to light by Professor Kuldeep Chand Agnihotri in his book Jammu Kashmir ki Ankahi Kahaani – the Muslims in the border areas were being continually provided arms by the Pakistani forces to incite communal violence on the lines of what was going on in Western Pakistan around Sialkot at the time. It was the repeated pressure of the J&K Light Infantry that this could never escalate, thanks to their alertness and repeated raids to seize such arms.

The rioting in Jammu effectively started only when there was a major influx of refugees in Jammu from the Sialkot region. However, to their credit, it was swiftly brought under control. Statistics pointed out from census studies before and after clearly put such false claims to rest.

Another thing – while the raids of the tribal irregulars was well known, what is not highlighted is what happened in the so called Azad Kashmir, which is effectively Jammu, with a sliver of the Kashmir region, there was massive pillaging and rioting against Hindus and Sikhs in Mirpur, Kotli and Muzaffarabad, who like the West Pakistan refugees, fled towards Jammu to save their lives. Sadly, this pillaging and murderous spree has been almost whitewashed by people, but for memory. I leave a link here for those wishing to learn more about it.

 

J&K Had Decided to Be a Part of India – Only the Conditions of Accession Were to be Finalized

At least two distinct authors from different leanings can now be shown to be saying the same thing – that the terms of accession were the real hindrance, and Maharaja Hari Singh had actually agreed to make the state a part of India. What were the drivers behind it, and what were the hurdles? Answers to both make for fascinating read.

Jammu Kashmir as a state was known as a Muslim majority state; however, with the Sunni, Shia, Barelvi cauldron of its own, the Maharaja had already witnessed in the Northern Areas from new found Pakistan’s treatment of certain sects that the state would be torn apart not by Muslim-non Muslim violence, but by Muslim-Muslim violence. This was a key driver behind a reaffirmation of his faith in a plural India, which has been discussed in detail by Prem Shankar Jha.

Of course, what was the hurdle? The Maharaja, represented by his Prime Ministers, first Ramachandra Kak and then Justice Meher Chand Mahajan, were trying to thrash the terms of accession, not for the Maharaja but to keep the interests of the state’s Hindu-Buddhist minority at stake, something that has now turned up in a document prepared by Ramachandra Kak and analysed by Radha Rajan in the book Jammu and Kashmir: Dilemma of Accession. The insistence of Jawaharlal Nehru to install Sheikh Abdullah, who was recognized for his communal positions for long, at the helm of affairs was utterly unacceptable to the Maharaja, and of course Nehru played his part in ensuring the stalemate with his obdurate behaviour.

 

The Nefarious Role of Britain and US in the Game

Mountbatten, contrary to being a friend of India, was more than keen to ensure that Kashmir became a part of Pakistan. His insistence on an early decision kept the cauldron boiling. Why was it being pursued? The answer is a very clear one in retrospect – the Great Game.

With its borders with Afghanistan and China and proximity to Soviet Union, Jammu and Kashmir remained the ideal outpost for keeping an eye on Communists. Narinder Singh Sarila, prince and diplomat, has argued that the intention of creating Pakistan and supporting its existence was only to continue the game from where it was left during the Second World War. In the words of a review of Sarila’s book:

Mountbatten’s instructions when he went to India as the last Viceroy were categoric: ‘It is the definite objective of His Majesty’s Govern- ment to obtain a unitary government for British India and the Indian States.’ Sarila maintains that this was eyewash, that Attlee from the first was bent on creating Pakistan: ‘Working behind a thick smoke screen, he wove circles around Indian leaders and persuaded them to accept partition.’ This analysis assumes, first that Attlee was paying far more attention to the issue than in practice he had time or inclination to do, and, second, that he was pursuing a policy directly opposed to that which he professed in public. In terms of his own character or according to the demands of realpolitik, this does not seem remotely probable.

Jammu and Kashmir’s merger into Pakistan was critical in such a scenario. Has anyone wondered why British general led troops suddenly decided to rebel in the Gilgit region, or why there was only disastrous air drops of weapons that ended up arming Balti rebels undertaken in Skardu during the six month siege?

This was not the first time that Jammu Kashmir had fallen victim to the machinations of the Great Game. Maharaja Pratap Singh had to face the ignominy of being stripped of most of his powers thanks to a plot to connect him with the thwarted plans of Dalip Singh’s failed uprising against the British. You can read more about it here, in my earlier entry Maharaja Pratap Singh - Victim of the Great Game.           

The US too was more than sympathetic to the idea of Kashmir being a part of Pakistan, and was all but ready in the UN intervention to do so; the only reason it could not proceed as per the plan during the ceasefire was that an international team had discovered that there were army regulars in Pakistan occupied regions of Jammu and Kashmir, which was contrary to the international claims of Pakistan and had actually proven Indian claims about aggression right. However, the pot was never allowed to cool down. One can read more about the US stand during the UN interventions in American diplomat Joseph Korbel’s memoir on the incidents – Danger in Kashmir.

Hopefully, this will put to rest any notions about what the Maharaja's position on accession to India was, and the circumstances surrounding it to an extent.