Political movements in Jammu and Kashmir (princely state)

Under Dogra rule, people in the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir launched several political movements. Despite ideological differences and varying goals they aimed to improve the status of Muslims in a state ruled by a Hindu dynasty.

Background

The princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was created in 1846, through the Treaty of Amritsar, between the British Empire, who had taken the Kashmir Valley, Ladakh and Gilgit Baltistan from the earlier Sikh rule, and Gulab Singh, a Dogra from Jammu who subsequently initiated the Dogra dynasty which ruled Jammu and Kashmir as a princely state of British India for the next century. The state had been constituted between 1820 and 1858 and became one of the largest princely states in British India.[1]

The princely state combined disparate regions which were ethnically, culturally and linguistically different to each other. In the south was the Jammu region with a population ethnically related to Punjabis[2] and comprising a mix of Hindus, (Sunni)[3] Muslims and Sikhs. In the center of the state was the Kashmir Valley, whose population was ethnically Kashmiri and overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim with a small Hindu Brahmin minority known as Pandits, while in the east was Ladakh whose population was ethnically and culturally Tibetan and practised Buddhism. In the northeast of the state was Baltistan where the people were ethnically related to Ladakhis but practised Shia Islam while in the Gilgit Agency the population was a mixture of diverse, mostly Shia groups.[4]

The princely rule was an overwhelming Hindu state.[5] Under the Hindu rule, Muslims were subject to heavy taxation, institutionalized discrimination and forced labor without wages.[6] A Hindu elite ruled over a vast, impoverished and exploited Muslim peasantry who were deprived of organised political representation until the 1930s.[7] A significant number of Muslims from Kashmir Valley migrated to the Punjab province of British India due to such conditions in the princely state.[8]

Pre-1931 developments

Kashmir's native Hindu Pandits dominated the revenue department which collected taxes from Muslim cultivators. Due to their dominance in the revenue department, the Pandit community came to hold large landholdings. Despite being a small percentage of the Valley's population, the Pandit community possessed 30 percent of land in the Valley. Their authority increased under Maharajah Ranbir Singh. In 1862, Ranbari Singh introduced the chakdari system under which uncultivated land or waste could be allotted under very easy terms.[5][9]

Shawl Bauf agitation

On 29 April 1865, a major agitation, commonly referred to as 'Shawl Bauf agitation' took place. Weavers in Kashmir's shawl industry went on strike to protest high taxation by the Dogra rule. The weavers gathered to protest outside the house of Raj Kak Dhar, the Kashmiri Pandit official who headed the Shawl Department. Kashmir's Governor, Kripa Ram, decided to use force to crush the uprising. Dogra troops, led by Colonel Bijoy Singh, fired at the unarmed protesters and killed 28 and injured 100 people.[10][11][12] 4000 weavers subsequently left the Kashmir Valley and migrated to Punjab.[13]

Developments in the late 19th century

Kashmir was hit by a severe famine in the 1877-79 period which took a heavy toll on the population, with three-fifth of the population of the Kashmir Valley perishing according to some authorities.[14] The ban on leaving the state was lifted and many Kashmiris subsequently left the Valley and migrated to the Punjab. During the famine, Pandits claimed lands left by Muslim cultivators who had migrated to the Punjab as uncultivated land and took ownership under the chakdari system.[5][9]

Apprehensive of developments in Afghanistan, the British colonial authorities in 1895 called on the Dogra state to attend to the Muslim population's needs. Colonial authorities had already been thinking in 1884 if the British government had delayed in intervening on behalf of the Muslim population.[15]

1931 agitation

Prior to 1931, Muslims in the state were divided into several groups, each with its own demands. In 1920 workers in the silk factory went on strike and demanded an increase in wages. Four years later, they launched an even bigger agitation due to poor working conditions.[13] Educated young Muslim men in Srinagar demanded better educational facilities and jobs in the state administration while the Muslim Young Men's League in Jammu was engaged in underground activities or the state's political and economic independence.[16]

Earlier agitations were limited in scope but in July 1931 Kashmir's Muslims launched their first massive agitation against the Dogra regime.[17] Inspired by the ulama, Kashmiri Muslims agitated against what they saw as iniquitous Hindu rule.[18]

On 13 July 1931, several Kashmiri Muslims protesting the arrest of Abdul Qayyum (a non-Kashmiri arrested for inciting people to revolt against the state) were killed by police firing. The protests gained momentum after the killings and for the first time in the Valley communal rioting broke out in which three Hindus were killed, Muslims called the anti-Dogra agitation a 'religious war'.[17] Maharajah Hari Singh appointed the Glancy Commission to address Muslim grievances although this move was vehemently opposed by the Kashmiri Pandits.[13]

After this major agitation Hari Singh reluctantly instituted democracy in the state following British intervention.[19] In what political scientist Ishtiaq Ahmed describes as a 'positive' development, the Maharajah agreed to allow the formation of political organisations.[18] However, the democratic system was very limited, offering only restricted freedoms, and did not allow universal adult franchise with only five percent of state subjects being given the right to vote for an essentially powerless Praja Sabha (People's Assembly).[19] Only six percent of Muslims in the state had the right to vote, compared with 25 percent of non-Muslims who did have the right.[20]

Formation of Muslim Conference

Kashmiri Muslims organised themselves politically under the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference in 1932, which was founded by Sheikh Abdullah and Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas. The organisation commanded the support of the Muslim intelligentsia, clergy, peasantry, artisans and laborers. The organisation demanded a bigger share in the civil service for educated Muslims, rights of land ownership for Muslims, better working conditions and a return of mosques to Muslims. The organisation wished to represent all the state's Muslims in their demands for more rights and the leadership of the organisation was composed of Muslims from both the Kashmir Valley and the Jammu region.[21]

Transformation into National Conference

In its earlier stage the Muslim Conference was an organisation for Muslims which wanted to politically unite all of the state's Muslims on the basis of belonging to the Islamic community.[22] According to historian Mridu Rai, the religious aspect of the movement was a reaction to the state exerting its 'Hinduness' and discriminating against Muslims due to their religion.[23]

However, Maulana Sayeed Masoodi, Ghulam Muhammad Bakshi and Sheikh Abdullah wanted the Muslim struggle to turn into a secular movement for the political and economic uplift of all the state's residents. Their desire was abetted by the emergence of secular labor unions such as Kashmir Youth League, Kisan Sabha (Farmer's Union), Peasants Association, Students Federation, Government Sericulture and Silk Labor Union, Turpentine Labor Union and Telegraph Employees Union.[21]

In a special session in June 1939 the Muslim Conference was converted into the All Jammu and Kashmir National Conference to represent all Kashmiris regardless of religion. This move brought the National Conference closer to the Indian National Congress which also favored a secular and non-communal approach to politics.[24] This move towards secularizing the movement was apparently reinforced by the advice of Dr Saifuddin Kitchlew, a prominent personality of the Kashmiri diaspora in the Punjab, to Sheikh Abdullah.[25]

Split of National Conference

A section of the Muslim Conference leadership, based in Jammu, had reservations about the National Conference's move towards secularizing Kashmir's politics and some Muslim Conference leaders and cadres in Mirpur, Kotli and Poonch broke away and with the Azad Muslim Conference (led by Mirwaiz Yusuf Shah) established a local unit of the All India Muslim League.[16]

At the same time, struggles within the National Conference increased. As the organisation increased its move towards secularism there also increased tensions between members who stressed a stronger Muslim identity and those who stressed secularism. Tensions between the two factions increased until the National Conference split on the question of the Pakistan Resolution in 1940.[26] The factionalism was also indicative of regional tensions within the state's Muslim population. Muslims in the Jammu region were Punjabi-speaking and felt closer affinity to Muslims in Punjab than those in Kashmir Valley.[27]

Muslim leaders from Poonch, Mirpur and Muzaffarabad districts supported the Pakistan resolution and in 1941 formally broke away and revived the Muslim Conference, with Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas. The Muslim Conference aimed to establish a Muslim state with Islamic laws and although its support in the Kashmir Valley was limited, it enjoyed considerable support from Muslims in Jammu, Mirpur, Rajouri, Poonch and Bhaderwah.[26]

Struggle of National Conference

The National Conference retained its popularity in the Kashmir Valley and coordinated its struggle closely with that of the Indian National Congress. Sheikh Abdullah demanded that the Treaty of Amritsar be repudiated, paramountcy dissolves and the Dogra rule ended. Sheikh Abdullah described Kashmir's struggle as an 'outer flank' of the Indian freedom struggle. In 1944 the National Conference adopted a New Kashmir manifesto whereby it extended its demands from Muslim welfare to political and economic restructuring of the state. In the National Conference's annual session in 1945 it adopted a resolution recognising Indian unity and demanding Indian independence and self-determination for India's cultural nationalities.[28]

In the Quit Kashmir Movement the National Conference resorted to demonstrations after Maharajah Hari Singh decided to use force against the movement. These demonstrations were met with mass arrests and firing. Sheikh Abdullah, Maulana Masoodi and Sardar Budh Singh were tried for sedition against the Dogra rule. Despite Jawaharlal Nehru's support to the Quit Kashmir movement, the poor organisational preparation of the National Conference as well as the Dogra regime's use of force led to the Quit Kashmir movement petering out.[26]

Struggles within National Conference

Despite the religious and secular factions of the National Conference having formally split earlier, the remaining National Conference was still left in turmoil between its Muslim and Hindu members. The Dogra government used divide and rule policies; prohibiting all communities in the state except for Dogra Rajputs from possessing firearms and this brought to the fore tensions between Hindu and Muslim members of the National Conference.[21]

Hindu and Muslim members of the National Conference were further estranged when Sheikh Abdullah entered into secret negotiations with Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the Muslim Conference in October 1943 without the knowledge of Sardar Budh Singh: the party's president. Jinnah's speech in Kashmir in which he encouraged Muslim unity caused deep divisions in the rank and file of the National Conference. The party did not split further, primarily because Hindu and Sikh leaders realised the value of the party's political platform. Due to Jinnah's insistence that Abdullah accept Abbas' leadership, unite under the Muslim Conference banner and support the Muslim League, thereby going against every principle Abdullah had upheld till date, the National Conference completely gave up on building any bridges with the Muslim League.[21]

Activities of Muslim Conference

Members of the Muslim Conference demanded a transfer of power to the majority community's political leadership in a rejection of the Hindu minority's rule. In its 1945 manifesto the Muslim Conference committed the state's Muslims to the Muslim League's struggle for a Muslim homeland and reiterated faith in Jinnah. The Muslim Conference opposed the Quit Kashmir movement and charged that the National Conference was colluding with the Congress to divide Muslims so that it could perpetuate Hindu hegemony in the state.[29]

The Muslim Conference launched its own civil disobedience movement knows as Direct Action. With most of the Muslim Conference's leadership behind bars, the organisation's activities came to a halt due to differences developing between Chaudhry Hamidullah and Mirwaiz Yusuf Shah who eventually expelled each other from the party. The imprisoned Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas frantically appealed from the sidelines for the revival of the civil disobedience movement but Hamidullah convinced Jinnah to abandon it.[29]

Developments in 1947

Although the main members of both the National Conference and Muslim Conference were imprisoned, the state administration held fresh elections in January 1947 for the state assembly (Praja Sabha). The electorate was limited. The Muslim Conference, which was under duress at the time, won 16 out of 21 seats reserved for the state's Muslims in the Assembly.[30] The National Conference boycotted the elections and presented the low turnout in the election as evidence for their boycott being successful. The Muslim Conference attributed the low voter turnout to snows and claimed that the boycott call was virtually ignored.[31]

The main parties on the state were divided on the question of the state's future after the independence of India and Pakistan. The National Conference agonized over whether to join Pakistan, India or seek independence. Its priority, however, was ending the Maharajah's rule and replacing it with self-government. 17 days before the Maharaja finally acceded to India, Sheikh Abdullah said ''Our prime concern at this stage is the emancipation of the four million people living in this State. We can consider the question of joining one or the other Dominion only when we have attained our objective''. In reality, Abdullah was in agreement with the Maharaja that the state should not join Pakistan, where both their positions would become weaker.[32]

The Maharajah himself was interested in preserving the state's independence and in this decision he had the support of the Jammu and Kashmir Rajya Hindu Sabha and the Muslim Conference. The Muslim Conference favored the accession of the state to Pakistan but had temporarily adopted a ruse by championing independence for the State and further cautioned Hari Singh from joining India. Acting Muslim Conference President, Chaudhry Hamidullah, claimed that the Muslim Conference still wanted to join Pakistan but would 'sacrifice' this ambition to allay the fears of Hindu and Sikh minorities in the state. However, the Muslim Conference quickly dropped this ruse by 22 July and from then on openly demanded the Maharajah to join Pakistan.[32]

The second party supporting the accession of the state to Pakistan was Prem Nath Bazaz's Kisan Mazdoor Conference which, according to the Civil Military Gazette, enjoyed popularity in the southern portion of the Kashmir Valley. However, the National Conference was said to be the premier popular party in the Kashmir Valley due to Sheikh Abdullah's popularity for advocating land reforms. Abdullah's secularism is also said to have resonated with the ethnic Kashmiris of the Valley, while the Muslim Conference enjoyed popularity among Muslims in Jammu province. But neither parties attracted interest or support in the Frontier Districts Province.[32] According to Yaqoob Khan Bangash,[33] the population in the Gilgit Agency and surrounding areas disliked the State rule and considered themselves to be ethnically different from Kashmiris and favored joining Pakistan.

Role of Kashmiri diaspora

Kashmiri Muslims who had fled the Kashmir Valley to the Punjab retained emotional and familial links to their homeland and felt morally obliged to struggle for their brethren against the Dogra administration.[34] Through the All India Kashmir Muslim Conference, founded in Lahore, the Kashmiri community in Punjab campaigned in support of Kashmiris although the organisation's primary function was to financially assist poor Kashmiri Muslim students seeking education outside the state.[35] The Kashmir Muslim Conference provided Kashmiris in Punjab with a venue to complain of the lack of equal opportunities for Kashmiris in the Punjab and also to vent grievances against the Dogra rule in Kashmir. In its fourth annual meeting in Gujranwala the Kashmir Muslim Conference demanded that Maharajah Pratap Singh address Muslim grievances. Educated Kashmiris in Punjab such as Muhammad Iqbal gave their support to the Kashmiri cause through the Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam and the Anjuman-i-Kashmiri Musalman.[36]

References

  1. ↑ Panikkar, Gulab Singh 1930, p. 111–125
  2. ↑ "Jammu and Kashmir | Geography, History, & Points of Interest". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2017-04-18.
  3. ↑ Christopher Snedden (2015). Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris. Oxford University Press. pp. 7–. ISBN 978-1-84904-342-7.
  4. ↑ Bowers, Paul. 2004. "Kashmir." Research Paper 4/28 Archived 2009-03-26 at the Wayback Machine., International Affairs and Defence, House of Commons Library, United Kingdom.
  5. 1 2 3 Mridu Rai, Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects 2004.
  6. ↑ Kashmir. OUP
  7. ↑ Talbot & Singh 2009, p. 54
  8. ↑ Sumantra Bose (16 September 2013). Transforming India. Harvard University Press. p. 211. ISBN 978-0-674-72820-2.
  9. 1 2 "Pandits In Power - Lost Kashmiri History". lostkashmirihistory.com. Retrieved 2017-04-18.
  10. ↑ Chitralekha Zutshi (January 2004). Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. pp. 84–. ISBN 978-1-85065-694-4.
  11. ↑ "On labour day Kashmir remembers shawl traders martyred in 1865". Greater Kashmir.
  12. ↑ Rasool, Rayees. "The Unsung Heroes Of Kashmir The Labor Revolution in Kashmir (Shawlbaf Movement)".
  13. 1 2 3 Rekha Chowdhary (5 October 2015). Jammu and Kashmir: Politics of identity and separatism. Taylor & Francis. pp. 20–. ISBN 978-1-317-41404-9.
  14. ↑ Rai, Mridu (2004). Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 149. ISBN 9781850657019. The death toll from the famine had been overwhelming by any standards. Some authorities had suggested that the population of Srinagar had been reduced by half (from 127,400 to 60,000) while others had estimated a diminution by three-fifths of the population of the entire valley.
  15. ↑ Rai, Mridu (2004). Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. pp. 142–3. ISBN 9781850656616. The Afghan debacles of 1878 and the early 1880s had rekindled this apprehension of the British, leading (as mentioned earlier) Lord Ripon to fear that 'any disturbances which continued misgovernment in Kashmir would be acutely felt on the frontiers of Afghanistan,' Clearly, the influence of European balance-of-power strategies, focussed on blocking Tsarist Russia, also remained instrumental in driving colonial interference in Kashmir. By 1884, when the appointment of a Resident seemed possible, colonial officials at the highest level were asking 'whether, having regard to the circumstances under which the sovereignty of the country was entrusted to the present Hindu ruling family, the intervention of the British government on behalf of the Muhammadan population had not already been too long delayed.' And in 1895, upon inaugurating the Jammu and Kashmir State Council, the colonial government stressed once more the 'desirability of Muhammadan interests in Kashmir being attended to'.
  16. 1 2 Behera; Behera Navnita Chadha (2007). Demystifying Kashmir. Pearson Education India. ISBN 978-81-317-0846-0.
  17. 1 2 Chowdhary 2015, p. 6.
  18. 1 2 Ishtiaq Ahmed (1998). State, Nation and Ethnicity in Contemporary South Asia. A&C Black. pp. 140–. ISBN 978-1-85567-578-0.
  19. 1 2 Snedden 2015, p. 131.
  20. ↑ Christopher Snedden (2005) Would a plebiscite have resolved the Kashmir dispute?, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 28:1, 72, DOI:10.1080/00856400500056145
  21. 1 2 3 4 Behera 2007, p. 21.
  22. ↑ Rekha Chowdhary (5 October 2015). Jammu and Kashmir: Politics of Identity and Separatism. Routledge. pp. 7–. ISBN 978-1-317-41405-6.
  23. ↑ Rekha Chowdhary (5 October 2015). Jammu and Kashmir: Politics of Identity and Separatism. Routledge. pp. 8–. ISBN 978-1-317-41405-6.
  24. ↑ Behera 2007, p. 17.
  25. ↑ Syed Taffazull Hussain (7 March 2016). Sheikh Abdullah-A Biography: The Crucial Period 1905-1939. 2016 Edition. Syed Taffazull Hussain. pp. 253–. ISBN 978-1-60481-603-7.
  26. 1 2 3 Behera 2007, p. 19.
  27. ↑ Behera 2007, p. 16.
  28. ↑ Behera 2007, p. 18.
  29. 1 2 Behera 2007, p. 20.
  30. ↑ Christopher Snedden (2015). Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris. Oxford University Press. pp. 132–. ISBN 978-1-84904-342-7.
  31. ↑ Schofield, Victoria. Kashmir in Conflict. I.B. Tauris. p. 24.
  32. 1 2 3 Snedden, Christopher. The Untold Story of the People of Azad Kashmir (PDF). London: Hurst & Company. pp. 24–25.
  33. ↑ Yaqoob Khan Bangash (2010) Three Forgotten Accessions: Gilgit, Hunza and Nagar, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 38:1, 125—7, DOI: 10.1080/03086530903538269
  34. ↑ Zutshi, Chitralekha (2004). Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. pp. 191–192. ISBN 9781850656944. Kashmiri Muslim expatriates in the Punjab had retained emotional and familial ties to their soil and felt compelled to raise the banner of freedom for Kashmir and their brethren in the Valley, thus launching bitter critiques of the Dogra administration.
  35. ↑ Chowdhary 2015, p. 7.
  36. ↑ Ayesha Jalal (4 January 2002). Self and Sovereignty: Individual and Community in South Asian Islam Since 1850. Routledge. pp. 352–. ISBN 978-1-134-59937-0.
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