Day 481

 

These days, a new film is rocking the entire Bollywood. Its name of the movie is “The Kashmir Files” and it’s based on the killings and migration of Kashmiri Pandits in late 1980s and early 1990s from the Kashmir valley. Actually, Kashmir issue has always a hot topic of discussion since 1947. Well, this issue has been created by handful of politicians of that time to fulfil their political agenda and propaganda. But now this issue has taken many lives since early 1990s. First, it was killing and migration of Kashmiri Pandits followed by the terrorist’s attacks sponsored by our neighbouring country.

I agree that in 1947, post-independence, there were a lot of problems who needed immediate attention to solve them. Actually, all these problems were created by the British empire so that there will be chaos always in Indian subcontinent. They were successful also for a limited period of time. Well, after all, they were master players of divide and rule game. Anyway, lets begin with the post-independence scenario. There were about 562 princely states in India and they had been given option to chose one of the three options. The options were to join either India or Pakistan or remain independent. As we all know that almost all the princely states agreed to join India due to diplomatic effort of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, then Home Minister of India. Well, few states like Kashmir in north and Hyderabad in south decided to remain independent. Both of them refused to go with India or Pakistan. Its another story how nizam of Hyderabad agreed to Sardar Patel’s conditions.

Well, its clear that Raja Hari Singh was the last ruler of Kashmir. Although, he was a Hindu king but the majority public in his kingdom were Muslim. This was the key issue on which Mohammad Ali Jinnah proclaimed that Kashmir should be part of Pakistan instead of being an Indian state. At that time, Raja Hari Singh was having political differences with Jawahar Lal Nehru, then Prime Minister of India. That’s why he preferred to be independent instead of joining either India or Pakistan. But Nehru’s friendship with Sheikh Abdullah, a prominent leader of Kashmir. To have a square political situation with Raja Hari Singh, Nehru called Sheikh Abdullah as his blood brother.

Actually, Sheikh Abdullah had a dream to rule Kashmir. He had formed a political party also which was called Kashmir Muslim Conference which later turned into National Conference. Obviously, his dream was to remove the king and to become ruler of the Kashmir. That’s why the party was formed and since 1946, he started Quit Kashmir Movement just like Quit India Movement. Ironically, in 1945, Jawahar Lal Nehru made a statement in a session of National Conference that if non-Muslim wants to live in Kashmir, then they should join National Conference or say goodbye to the country. If Kashmiri Pandits doesn’t join National Conference, then no safeguard will save them. I think this was a clear threat being made by Nehru to the people of Kashmir.

For the rest of India, Nehru portrayed himself as Kashmiri pandit but for Kashmiri pandit he doesn’t belong to their clan. After all, he was blood brother of Sheikh Abdullah. To safeguard his political interest, Raja Hari Singh arrested Sheikh Abdullah in 1946 which was taken as personal insult by Nehru. Actually, Nehru and Abdullah were having their political issues connected. There was logic behind this also. Well, Sheikh Abdullah didn’t want to be a part of Pakistan because there were differences between Sheikh Abdullah and Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Jinnah considered Sheikh Abdullah as a traitor and an agent of Congress party. So, Sheikh Abdullah wanted to be a part of the Indian side. This was going to fulfil his political ambition of ruling the Kashmir. Maybe this was the political interest which was a driving force to get inclined towards Nehru. Nehru also wanted Kashmir to be in India.

Actually, all these differences were due to inter political interests. Raja Hari Singh also had a political interest that he didn’t want to leave his throne. His problem was that if he joined Pakistan then his state will be under an Islamic nation and in an Islamic nation, he won’t be treated well because he is Hindu. If Hari Singh joined India, then his state will come under the democratic system of government where the ruler will be elected from the general public through election process. This also was unacceptable to Raja Hari Singh. That’s why he wished to be independent. He didn’t want to be a part of either India or Pakistan.

But Mohammad Ali Jinnah had different plan. He wanted Kashmir to be a Pakistani state because the majority of the population were Muslims. On the basis of religion, he thought to get Kashmir merged into Pakistan. But with refusal from Raja Hari Singh, it was difficult for Jinnah also to claim Kashmir as Pakistani part. It was crystal clear that Jinnah didn’t have friendly relation with Sheikh Abdullah so there was attack on Kashmir by the Pakistani side. Jinnah thought that having Kashmir by force will solve the problem. So, Pakistani forces comprising of Pakistani Pashtun tribal militias crossed the border to take control of Srinagar. They thought that by taking control of Srinagar they will have the control of entire state. But by that time, Maharaja Hari Singh sought help of Indian government by signing Instrument of Assession to India. Then Indian forces fought the war with the Pashtun tribal militias and saved Kashmir from going into Pakistani control.

But Nehru made a mistake by going to United Nations to solve the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan. Till date, this is a disputed case between both countries without any decision. With the influence of United Nations, a ceasefire was made and it was said that the forces will remain where there were. That’s how Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK) came into existence.