How Kashmir joined Indian Union?

Kashmir

The State of Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India legally on October 27th 1947 when the Maharaja, His Highness, Sir Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession to India and gave it to V P Menon, Secretary in the Ministry of States[Home] who flew with it to Delhi. Menon had earlier gone to Jammu, the winter capital of the state at the request of the Maharaja who had run away from his summer capital, Srinagar in the face of the invaders from Pakistan. In Jammu the Maharaja contacted [on phone] the Governor General, at night and requested for military help to stem the invasion. He was told that army could be sent only if the state acceded to India and became legally part of India. On his agreeing to sign the document Menon was commissioned to get it.

Under the Instrument of Accession the states acceding to India ceded only four subjects to the “ Federal Government”

These were: Defence, External Affairs, Communication and Currency.
In other matters the States were independent.

Jawharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister, insisted that the Maharaja hand over power to people’s representatives. Consequently Sheik Mohammad Abdulah, the President of the National Conference, the largest party in the state was made the Adminstrator of the state pending elections to a properly elected assembly. Sheik Abdullah, who flew to Srinagar with the first regiment of Indian troops had to set up an emergency administration.
Earlier administration had disintegrated with the departure of the Mharaja from Srinagar [the Summer capital of the state] in a cavalcade of twenty cars along with his entire family and movable assets. Maharaja’s flight in the face of the advancing hordes from Pakistan is graphically described by his son Dr. Karan Singh, who was part of the motorcade in his book titled the Heirapparent.

It is interesting to know why the people of Kashmir valley chose to join India rather than Pakistan in 1947 when India was partitioned by the British on communal lines. Here was a state with a Muslim majority and a Hindu Maharaja who was unwilling to join India whereas the National Conference, the most popular party with a very large Muslim base was keen to join India. Part of the answer is in the history of Kashmir before the advent of the Dogra rule. When Maharaja Gulab Singh of Jammu offered money to the Sikh Durbar to enable it to pay reparations to the British, the valley was ruled by a Muslim who owed his allegiance to Kabul. The Pathan rule in the valley was despotic and the people rebelled against it at one time. This was followed by brutal repression by the Pathan soldiers.

The Dogra army was equally brutal but with the stationing of the British Resident in Srinagar a government with certain rules and regulations and a system of justice was soon established.

The people of Kashmir were very impressed with the Independence movement spearheaded by the Indian National Congress and the demand for the establishment of a responsible government. They agitated for a free and independent assembly and forced the Maharaja, Sir Hari Singh to establish a diarchy in the state. Two of the ministers were chosen from among the partly elected assembly. Mirza Afzul Beg, one of the ministers, belonged to the National Conference. The Prime Minister was a nominee of the Political Department of the British Government in Delhi. Sir Gopala Sawmi Ayyangar, who was respected in Kashmir, was one of the last such Prime Ministers.

By this time the Independence Movement had become very vibrant in India and the Mahatma launched the ‘Quit India’ campaign in August 1942.Followimg the Quit India movement Sheik Abdullah, President of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference launched ‘Quit Kashmir’ movement. He asked the Maharaja to end the Dogra rule and hand over power to an elected assembly. He was promptly arrested and put in jail and tried for treason. Jawaharlal Nehru went to Kashmir to defend Sheik Abdullah but was not allowed to enter the territory of the state. He was stopped at Kohala the border.
I had a chance in Delhi to talk to the then Prime Minister Ram Chand Kak about that incident and his answer surprised me. He said neither the Maharaja nor he thought that the British would relinquish power completely on leaving India on August 1947.

The people of Kashmir had great faith in Nehru who used to say ‘sovereignty lies with the people and not the Princes’. Jinnah on the other hand had said that it was the prerogative of the Princes to choose either India or Pakistan or Independence. He was thinking of Hyderabad, and his plan to carve out a corridor through India with the connivance of Nawab of Bhopal and some other Princes.
Nehru’s insistence to pass on power to the people of Kashmir before accepting the accession made him a darling of the people who were keen to get rid of the Dogra rule and establish a popular Government.

Autonomy for the internal matters in Jammu and Kashmir was not a gift of India but part of the instrument of accession. Nehru, responding to the will of the people in Kashmir, only gave recognition to it. A Pakistani author Sufi Mohammad Akbar has written about it in his book ’Kashur’ published by the Oxford Press. Both, Sufi Mohammad Akbar and Sheik Mohammad Abdullah were together in Aligarh University. After 1947 they met in New York as both were members of their country’s delegations to the UN Security Council. Sufi Mohammad Akbar asked Sheik Abdullah why did he choose India and not Pakistan, Abdullah told him because ‘ Nehru promised us Azadi’. He was referring to autonomy, the azadi to choose their own government freely.
It was the denial of this freedom for four decades which led to militancy in the valley. Once free elections were held in the state, the people of Kashmir lost interest in fighting the Indian forces. Today the terrorists come from across the borders from Pakistan. They are supported by the ISI, the inter services intelligence agency of Pakistan. India demands that Pakistan should dismantle the training camps set up on Pakistani territory. Even the US President, Obama has asked Pakistan to wind up the terrorist infrastructure so that peace can be restored in the entire region including Afghanistan.