STORY OF KASHMIR
This particular episode deals with the story of another Indian princely state named by Kashmir.
During that point of time Kashmir was happens to be a Muslim majority based
state under the kingship of a Hindu king named by Maharaja Hari Singh. Maharaja
Hari Singh was amongst those who did not wanted to merge with either India or
Pakistan, he also wanted to rule over his own state Jammu and Kashmir. He was
in close contact with Mountbatten and that is why Lord Mountbatten personally
went to Kashmir to meet and make the king understand over the issue of his
state being an independent entity. As it was a matter of fact that Kashmir was
the original intention of Pakistan, so just after independence and when Kashmir
didn’t merge with any of the two country India and Pakistan. Finally, Pakistan
just extended its military force through the corners of Kashmir and it was
becoming a major issue for not only Kashmir as an individual state but also to
India as a country as well. So on this matter Jawaharlal Nehru took the opinion
of Sardar Patel by writing a letter to him and making him aware about the
uprising issue in Kashmir. In the story of Kashmir there were another important
character whose role was equally inevitable and he was none other than Seikh
Abdullah. He was very much close to India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal
Nehru. But during that point of time after the independence he was under sail
because he was leading a campaign called Kashmir Chhodo Andolan against the
king Maharaja Hari Singh. He was from a poor family and he completed his M.Sc
from Aligarh Muslim University. But he failed to get a job in Kashmir and that
impacted him a lot. He raised a question before the Kashmir government that in
a Muslims majority state why most of the government post are being occupied by
Hindu people. Is it because of the Hindu king? This was how he came into the
limelight by raising question against the government. By 1938 he could
understand that his fight and struggle is not against of a Hindu king but
against a dictatorial government. During that period of time he was chairing
the session of National Conference at Kashmir. And he created a secular
platform where in the national conference he talked about the problems which
are being faced by Muslims, Hindus and Sikh’s in Kashmir and he tried to uplift
the momentum among the common masses of the Kashmir that we all should raise
our voice against the filthy and irresponsible government. He had no interest
of merging with Pakistan or to be see Kashmir as a separate dominion. And the
most important factor was that the common people of the state were with the
voice of Abdullah. Jawaharlal Nehru was personally from Kashmir and he
personally wanted that there has to be a good and popular government in Kashmir
and Kashmir should spontaneously decide whether it will be merging with India
or Pakistan. But the king’s intention
was not to merge with any of these countries. And on the other side the maker
of Pakistan Mohd. Ali Jinha didn’t wanted Kashmir as a separate dominion. When
Kashmir didn’t merge with Pakistan after independence then Pakistan firstly
cancelled the Stand steel agreement with Kashmir, then Pakistan stooped
supplying food, oil and other essential things to Kashmir. Sole intention of
Pakistan was to occupy Kashmir by force and it came into public sphere when
Pakistan attacked Kashmir on dated 22nd October 1947. The attackers
were moving forward with a single aim to capture Kashmir and the most painful
thing was the Muslim soldiers of the Kashmir merged with the attackers. After
reaching Uri the attackers captured the Mahora Electricity Hall in order to off
the total electricity in Srinagar. When the attackers reached Baramula, their
original intention came to the public space they looted people, raped the
females of Hindu, Sikhs and even Muslims as well. Due to this the whole of
Baramula got devastated and as a result the speed got stable for two days and
it gave a chance to the king of Kashmir and India to make a plan to tackle that
particular situation. The king realised that it is quite impossible on his part
to face the attackers so in order to stop the attackers from capturing Kashmir,
finally he appealed before government of India on dated 24th October
1947 that to allow the military forces to save Kashmir from the hands of the
attackers. Next day the meeting of defence committee held and it was decided
that VP Menon will be going to Srinagar to meet the king. According to the
suggestion of VP Menon the king moved towards Jammu because if the attackers
will catch the king then they will capture the whole of Kashmir. And then
attackers covered the Srinagar area and as a result VP Menon had to leave
Srinagar as well. So at that point the whole hope was on Delhi to save Kashmir,
but Mountbatten was sticking to the point that unless and until Maharaja Hari
Singh will sign the instrument of accession, till that moment there will be no
support given from India’s side to save Kashmir. Then at last 0n dated 26th October
1947 Maharaja Hari Singh signed the instrument of accession and Jammu and
Kashmir merged with India. And then Kashmir became a part of India and it was
the responsibility of India to save Kashmir from the attackers. On 27th
of October Indian army got forwarded to Srinagar and that operation was not
going to easy for the army because they didn’t have the knowledge that whether
the airport was free or under the control of the attackers. It was not only the
Indian army which was fighting against the attackers but also the supporter of
Seikh Abdullah joined their hands and made the people aware that they are not
alone. And that thing raised the tension of Pakistan but general of Pakistan
army was happening to be a Britisher, so without the permission from his
supreme commander he couldn’t able to move his troops for Kashmir. So only way
was remaining that Jinha called Mountbatten and Nehru to Lahore to talk on the
issue of Kashmir. Both Nehru and Mountbatten were willing to go Lahore but
Sardar Patel didn’t want any of the two to go Lahore cause according to him Jinha
can come to Delhi to talk over Kashmir issue. But due to health issue Nehru
couldn’t able to go Lahore. Before Mountbatten to move for Lahore, Jinha
commented that it was a conspiracy and cheating on the part of India to merge
Kashmir with India, so Pakistan do not accept that and it hurts a lot to Nehru.
Then on 1st November Mountbatten met Jinha and discussed over
Kashmir, which was regarded as the first official meeting between India and
Pakistan. But one problem caused by Nehru at that moment by giving a public
speech in Radio on Kashmir issue that after the establishment of law and order
in Kashmir, then under the supervision of UNO plebiscite will be done and the
fate of Kashmir will be decided. India raised this Kashmir issue in UNO on dated
31st December but India got disappointed by the results of UNO. And due
to this disappointing happenings Nehru got highly depressed and he thought
about to resign from the post of PM and the hiss letter to Mountbatten was the
evidence to that. Then Indian was not willing to go for any further discussion
on Kashmir issue, so with the help of Seikh Abdullah and his supporters India
did everything at the possible manner and the time came Maharaja Hari Singh
announced before eth masses Seikh Abdullah as the Prime Minister of Kashmir.
Then on 13th August 1948 UNO proposed to ceasefire before India and
Pakistan. Finally, on 1st January 1949 ceasefire imposed on both the
countries but there were still few placed got captured by Pakistan and it is
popularly known as Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). Still lot of controversies
are on and the issue of Kashmir is still alive.
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