Restructure Jammu and Kashmir

Dr. T.H. Chowdary

At the time of Independence, two ‘native’ states posed special problems for India. One was Hyderabad ruled by the Nizam, having 92 per cent Hindu population. The Razakars, a rabidly Muslim rag-tag organisation held the Nizam in thrall. It proposed the idea that Hyderabad should be an independent Muslim kingdom and that it should be allied with Pakistan and the Nizam favoured it. Even after signing a ‘standstill’ agreement which gives him enough time to decide whether he should accede to India or Pakistan as wanted by the Viceroy, he sent his emissaries to the United Nations complaining about India’s aggression against his State. Sardar Patel knew what danger the Nizam and Razakars could pose. Despite objections from the British officers in the Indian Army and the hostility of Jawharlal Nehru to any military action, Sardar Patel ordered the Indian army to march into the Nizam’s territory. Within four days, the Nizam surrendered and unconditionally acceded to the Union of India. Sh. Patel put an end to their separatism and treachery to India and the oppression of the Hindu subjects. In the next few years the state was broken-up and its three linguistic parts were merged with Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. There was no preservation of a legacy i.e. the Nizam acquiring some territories and wanting to preserve its uniqueness the Hyderabadi culture or the Nizamiat or the Deccani ji-huziriyat.

Another state that posed threat was the J&K. Here, the population was predominantly Muslim but the ruler was a Hindu, late Hari Singh, scion of the proud Dogras. Jawaharlal Nehru disliked him strongly. Within the state, the National Conference, which formerly was Muslim Conference, led by Sheikh Abdullah, was waging a struggle against the Maharaja for representative government. Sheikh Abdullah was in jail. The Maharaja would have liked to accede to the Union of India. Pakistan was deadly against it. The then British Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten tried to discourage such a move. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the President of Pakistan sent emissaries to Hari Singh offering him extraordinary favourable terms if he acceded to Pakistan. The Maharaja was wavering. Jinnah wanted to force his hand. His government unleashed armed tribals as well as Pakistan soldiers camouflaged as tribals to invade J&K. The Muslim soldiers of the J&K State deserted the Maharaja’s army and joined the invaders. They came almost up to the gates of Srinagar. The Maharaja wanted Indian forces to intervene. India said that unless he acceded to the Indian Union, no forces could be sent. The Maharaja very reluctantly acceded to the Indian Union. The then Minister for State Affairs, Sardar Patel was not allowed to look into the affairs of J&K.

The then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, claiming to be a Kashmiri came forward to deal with the issue. He got Sheikh Abdullah released. Not only that, he also gave the uncalled for public announcement that the accession was subject to ratification by a referendum when peace returned to J&K. When the Indian forces were able to repulse the invaders and were about to go on the offensive to liberate the areas already occupied by the invaders, Jawharlal Nehru succumbed to the advice of Lord Mountbatten, the Governor General of India and referred the case to the United Nations! That was an excellent opportunity for England and America who were dominating the United Nations to play their game for control of both India and Pakistan. A ceasefire was implemented and since then i.e. from 01-01-49 we have been having armed ‘truce’ and two subsequent wars in 1965 and 1971 with Pakistan.

When the Constitution of India was being written, a special provision was made-Article 370, which was of a temporary nature providing for autonomy to J&K. What was supposed to be temporary became, more or less, permanent by its non-withdrawal in the last 52 years. Unlike any other state in the country, J&K is having its own Constitution! Unlike any other state in the country, no Indian can buy land and own it in J&K. Unlike in no other state in India, a J&K woman marrying an Indian gets disinherited.

Sheikh Abdullah wanted to become independent and carve out a Sultanate for himself with India having the liability to defending it from Pakistan and pouring billions of rupees for enjoying the privilege of defending Sultanate of Kashmir from Pakistan. He had to be deposed to prevent secession of J&K from India.

Sardar Patel solved every problem including the Hyderabad issue but Jawharlal Nehru left behind the J&K imbroglio. We have poured and continue to pour billions of rupees into J&K. It has received the highest per capita development investment and yet, on and off, the political parties including the ruling Abdullah dynasty revive the demand for greater autonomy, for reversion to the pre-1952 status (but not the pre-1947). They also talk of “Kashmiriat” saying that it is entirely different from Indianness or Hindutva or even Pakistaniat. The National Conference, which in effect means the Sheikh Abdullah dynasty’s pocket party, says it is “secular”. It is not that every region in what is J&K under India is having Muslim majority. Jammu has predominantly Hindu and Ladakh has predominantly Buddhist population. 70 per cent of the revenue of the state comes from Jammu but less than 20 per cent is spent on the Jammu region. The Hindus and Buddhists constitute about 40 per cent of the population but in the J&K State government, they get less than 15 per cent of the jobs. All top posts are held by the Muslims belonging to Kashmir valley. Jammu and Ladakh want autonomy but the National Conference and its government deny it, while demanding autonomy for the J&K as a whole. Claiming to be secular, the National Conference government did nothing to stop the ethnic cleansing of Hindus and Sikhs from the Muslim majority Kashmir valley. When they talk of the will of the Kashmiri people, the will of the Hindus and Buddhists does not count. Whether it is National Conference or Hurriyat Conference or several other outfits, J&K for them means only Muslims. How then can Jammu and Ladakh be in peace with the Muslims there?

When India was to be partitioned, Mohammed Ali Jinnah wanted Punjab and Bengal provinces as East Punjab was a Hindu-Sikh majority area. In the western part of Bengal majority of the people were Hindus. The Congress wanted that there should be a referendum in all the provinces that were to form part of Pakistan as proposed by Jinnah. Jinnah dismissed the idea as sheer nonsense. He said Muslims were a separate nation and it was Muslims who want to separate. If there was to take a referendum, it should be one wherein Muslims-only vote and not Hindus. “Pakistan was the demand of Muslims, not of Hindus, why should then Hindus vote? The Congress was stumped. It was then suggested by Mountbatten, the Congress demanded the partition of Punjab as well as Bengal provinces so that the Hindu majority areas could be part of the remnant India.

It is an undeniable fact that India was partitioned totally on the basis of religion and nothing else. The Muslim majority areas formed Pakistan. If in 1947, had the J&K also been divided, just like Punjab or Bengal, into the western Muslim dominated Kashmir valley and the eastern Hindu Buddhist majority area comprising Jammu and Ladakh, the former would have acceded to Pakistan and the latter to India. And now there could not have been a J&K problem. Unfortunately Jawaharlal Nehru did not allow any solution and the Indian Independence Act which Mountbatten was implementing did not envisage the possibility of breaking up of, what were called Indian States on the basis of religion just like the rest of India.

By keeping J&K together, injustice is being done to Jammu and Ladakh. Not only have all Hindus and Sikhs been expelled from the Muslim majority Kashmir valley but Muslims from that area and even from across the Line of Control (LoC) have come to settle down in Jammu as well as Ladakh to convert them into Muslim majority areas. This type of demographic aggression is a standard weapon in the armoury of Muslims. When Lebanon gained independence from France in 1945, the Christians were in a slight majority. But within the next 30 years, the Muslim population increased so fast that they outnumbered the Christians and the constitution which distributed power between Christians and Muslims reflecting the then demographic content, was doneaway with Muslims resorted, backed by the Muslim Syria, to civil war. Now the Christians are reduced to a hopeless and powerless minority. They have been immigating in large numbers to the US and Europe. In Malaysia, Muslims were less than 45 per cent at the time of its independence. But in the next 24 years, they had grown to 60-65 per cent and declared Malaysia as an Islamic state. Within what is now India, Muslims were seven per cent in 1948. But now they claim to be anywhere between 15-20 per cent. That they have been furiously growing is very well known because many a city and district are turning to be Muslim majority. Therefore, the fears of non-Muslims in Jammu and Ladakh are very real and they face an immediate danger. It is therefore absolutely necessary in the interest of their preservation and continued habitation in their own land for millennia, that Jammu and Ladakh should be reconstituted into separate states. We have reorganised Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to carve out Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal for the distinct ethnic groups of population in those areas. We have reorganised Assam into several small States-Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura. Such restructuring has not posed any threat to the integrity or unity of India. Restructuring J&K to reflect the ethnicity of different regions is logical and most necessary. The fact that no minority can be safe in a Muslim majority state is proved by the ethnic cleansing of Hindus and Sikhs from Muslims majority Kashmir valley despite the state being the part of India and guarded by the Indian armed forces. Hindus and Sikhs have been totally kicked out of Pakistan.

From East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, the Hindu-Buddhist population has been decreased from 35 per cent to below 10 per cent. The ethnic cleansing continues. It may be recalled that in 1947-48 when millions of Hindus were being squeezed out of East Pakistan, Sardar Patel went to Calcutta and warned Pakistan that if such type of expulsion continued, he would liberate a part of East Pakistan and settle down all Hindus from East Pakistan in a safe area so liberated for Hindus. Pakistan became really scared because they know that, unlike Nehru, Sardar Patel was a man of action and that he demonstrated it with regard to Hyderabad. He would not fail to implement his words, if Pakistan failed to stop the harassment of Hindus. Unfortunately, to our bad luck Sardar Patel died soon thereafter and India became a Dharmsala into which all the Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists could be kicked by Pakistan. Muslims from Bangladesh are also infiltrating into India facilitated by their vote-seekers especially the Communist parties.

From every historic experience and the imminent danger, the demand for reconstructing J&K into four areas is right. Jammu could be a full-fledged state just like Andhra Pradesh, or Rajasthan or Himachal Pradesh. Ladakh and a part of the Kashmir valley, a safe zone created for the return of Hindus-Buddhists who had been cleansed out of Kashmir Valley, could be two Union Territories like Chandigarh or Andaman and Nicobar Islands or Pondicherry. Remnant Kashmir valley could dbe the fourth state. The continuance of Article 370 can only help in burning the fire of separatism forever.

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