Under a Nehruvian Illusion

National conference under the leadership of Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah in particular disillusioned Kashmiri Hindus and the pro-India Muslims. Placing the entire trust upon Sheikh Abdullah and depending upon him exclusively and to an unreasonable extent, Jawaharlal Nehru made Himalayan blunder about Kashmir. He also made unwarranted commitments, perhaps forgetting that he was not only a public leader but also the Prime Minister of India.

When the Pakistani tribesmen were knocking down the villages of Kashmir massacring people after much deliberation Maharaja Hari Singh had sent emissaries to seek help from New Delhi to intervene and accept the document of accession but Nehru didn’t oblige. He demanded that the request must come from Sheikh Abdullah only then he would accept the proposal of accession putting the lives of people at risk by the growing minute. He was adamant, overlooking the national interests and unheeding the cries of the innocent and worried population for the sake of Sheikh Abdullah.

This denigrated Indian interests on one hand and the other created a wrong impression in the minds of Muslims that accession to India could not have been possible without the might of Sheikh Abdullah and his colleagues which became the added source of trouble. It also created an impression on them that the accession would last only till they wanted it. How Maharaja Hari Singh was deposed and the autocracy in the state was abolished, smacked of personal vengeance, unfairness and political shortsightedness.

Nehru’s misplaced reliance on Sheikh Abdullah brought the people of Kashmir under rough weather. Congress and Nehrus were responsible for the deteriorating condition of Kashmir Hindus who could never feel mentally eased and otherwise secured in Kashmir. It was, however, Nehru with his unprecedented popularity, status and stature who could mould and handle any situation even worse and get out of trouble.

The golden ideal of secularism widely cherished by PM Nehru virtually marked the end of community politics. As it were so, in 1947, with the advent of national conference government, Sanatan Dharm Yuvak Sabha (All state Kashmiri Pandits Conference as it later came to be called) held a convention of the community members in Srinagar in 1950 and passed a resolution under the chairmanship of its leader, Sri Narayan Fotefar eschewing politics and aligning politically with National conference. PM Nehru while acknowledging the receipt of the resolution, expressed satisfaction over it and lauded the decision in a communication addressed to the secretary of sabha Prof Lakshmi Narayan Dhar. Thus leading to the derecognition of Hindus politically.

A deputation of two Kashmiri Hindu leaders Sheonarayan Fotedar and Janki Nath Bhat went out of Kashmir in 1949 on a specific mission. The deputation was to have assessed and ascertained the feasibility and necessity of shifting the Kashmiri Hindus outside the state of Kashmir to some suitable area in the country with a temperate climate. Jawaharlal

Nehru during those days visited the Sapru family in Allahbad on the demise of Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru. Nehru had emphatically expressed and convinced the Saprus and others in clear terms that Kashmiri Hindus should not leave Kashmir as they were safe there and their future secured, the deputation was conveyed. This guarantee was given by Prime Minister Nehru on the assurance extended to him by Sheikh Abdullah.

Nehru believed and relied on the assurance of Sheikh Abdullah as he was the secular leader, according to Nehru. Given the talk of holding a plebiscite, the deputation also met Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and expressed some misgivings to him in that regard. PM Nehru clarified “There will be no plebiscite in Kashmir” When Prime Minister was suggested to concentrate on Jammu, he stressed, “Kashmir valley is the prize.” On deputation’s asking PM about the stability of Kashmir’s relationship with the rest of the country, Jawaharlal Nehru quipped “I will send the whole world to wreck and ruin but will not leave Kashmir” as affirmed by Justice Janki Nath Bhatt.

The loyalists of the mainline political parties of the country in Kashmir had pinned hopes on Prime Minister Nehru about their safety and security in Kashmir, notwithstanding, the Himalayan blunders made by him. The demise of Jawaharlal Nehru on May 27 1964 shocked these elements in Kashmir.

Due to the passing away of Jawaharlal Nehru, matters continued to be in melting ot. It was this awareness of the situation and apprehensions that the Kashmiri Pandit ladies, perhaps for the first time in the history of Kashmir came out voluntarily in the streets of Srinagar in large numbers. They took out large processions to mourn the death of Nehru. The Kashmiri Hindus felt that their future remained unsettled. The ladies procession was the desperate expression of that feeling. They paraded from Habba Kadal to civil lines areas consecutively for two days lamenting and bewailing the death of Nehru, although his apparent policies were not helpful to Kashmiri Hindus as those were helpful to Kashmiri Muslims, yet the panditanis openly and publicly mourned Prime MInister Nehru’s death.

Katoo ghave sonye Jawahar lal ( O! Tell us where thas gone our Jawaharlal)
Tavith haa asseh ghav Jawahar lal (Ah! Jahawarlal has parted from us)
Katyu Zahhandun wane panun Jawahar lal (where will we now look for our Jawahar lal)
These were the slogans raised during his mourning procession carried out by Kashmiri Hindu women.

Hindus in Kashmir lived for a long under a Nehruvian illusion. They were squeezed politically and economically by the government. They never imagined and thought that their genocide of the kind committed would ever take place in Kashmir. In this regard, the Hindus remained complacent due to the presence of huge national army and security forces in Kashmir. Indian forces were deputed in several countries of the world as a peacekeeping force. They went to those countries to save the innocent people and to render help and keep the peace. Yet it could not be instrumental in breaking down the wave of Muslim fundamentalists.

While Sheikh Abdullah and his successors proved that Nehru’s trust in him was misplaced. the native Muslim terrorists, their supporters and sympathisers also committed breach of the trust reposed in them by the native Hindus. In a Friday prayer congregation at Hazratbal Mosque Sheikh Abdullah empathetically said, “Kashmiri Pandits should not depend on Indian Army. They should know that Indian army cannot save and protect them. it is only the “farzandan-i-Tawheed” (followers of the prophet) who can save and protect them”
He or any other Muslim leaver never treated Kashmiri Hindus as full-fledged citizens of Kashmir with equal rights and. They regarded them only as a minority with a concession of holding them in trust which could live on the concession only and not in their own right.

The Kashmir issue that we know is a testimony to the bankruptcy of congress statesmanship and also its incompetence and shortsightedness in handling the situation firmly. Nehru was instrumental in creating this conflict and uncertainty, rightly or wrongly, among the Muslims regarding the accession issue which the nation faces with its added dimensions.

There was no logic in granting preferential treatment and special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir other than to appease Sheikh and Muslims. It worked as discrimination not only against the other states but also against the people residing within J&K.

The result of which was the fundamentalist Muslim psyche that treated this status as recognition of their political superiority as well as a separate and autonomous entity from the national mainstream.

Nehru made a sentimental approach to a political problem; flattered as he was by the ephemeral friendship of Sheikh, he lacked was the vision of a statesman and thrust of an administrator.