The Princely States of India,
including Jammu & Kashmir State, were on the agenda of partition of India
in 1947, is a travesty of history and a part of diplomatic offensive, Pakistan
has launched to mislead the international opinion about its claim to Jammu
& Kashmir. Distortion of the history of the partition of India, false
propaganda and lies, shroud the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India in
1947, as well as the exclusion of the State from the Indian Constitutional
organization by virtue of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution in 1950.
The
Indian political class in its attempt to substitute “greater autonomy” of the
State for the “right of self-determination” that Pakistan and Muslim separatist
forces have been demanding during the last six decades, has undermined the
national consensus on the unity of India and the secular integration of the
people of the State and the people of India on the basis of the general right
to equality.
Today,
the whole nation is confronted with a situation which threatens to disrupt the
unity of the country and endanger its territorial integrity. The people of
India need to stand up as one man to expose the perfidy which has virtually
pushed the State of Jammu and Kashmir to the brink of disaster. Nearly half of
the State is under the occupation of Pakistan. To allow the reorganization of
the other half into a separate sphere of Muslim power, will eventually pave the
way for the disintegration of the civilizational boundaries of the Indian
State.
The
creation of two Dominions of India and Pakistan was restricted to the division
of British India and the separation of the British Indian provinces of Sindh, Baluchistan,
North-west Frontier Province, the Muslim majority contiguous regions of the
province of the Punjab, the Muslim majority eastern region of the province of
Bengal, along with the Muslim majority regions of the Hindu majority province
of Assam. The princely States, which formed an integral part of the British
Indian Empire, were not brought within the scope of the partition plan.
The
Indian Independence Act did not lay down any provisions in respect of the
procedure for the accession of the princely States to the two dominions and the
terms on which the accession would be accomplished. After the 3 June
Declaration of 1947, the States Department of the Government of India was
divided into two sections: the Indian Section which was placed under Sardar
Vallabhai Patel and the Pakistan Section which was placed under Sardar Abdur
Rab Nishtar of the Muslim League. The task of laying down the procedure of the
accession of the States to India was entrusted to the Indian Section and the
task of laying down the procedure for accession of the States to Pakistan was
entrusted to the Pakistan Section. The Indian Section drew up an Instrument of
Accession for the accession of States to India, so did the Pakistan Section for
the accession of States to Pakistan. The Instrument of Accession enshrined the
procedure and the terms in accordance with which the rulers acceded to either
of the two Dominions.
The Instrument of Accession drawn up by the
Indian Section laid down two sets of terms and procedures, one for the larger
princely States and the other for the smaller princely States. It is important
to note here that the States were provided no option, except to accede to India
on the terms and conditions laid down by Indian Section, or to accede to
Pakistan on the terms and conditions laid down by the Pakistan Section of the
Indian States Department. All the larger princely States which acceded to
India, including Jammu and Kashmir, signed the same standard form of the
Instrument of Accession and accepted the terms it enshrined. The Instrument of
Accession enshrined acceptance by the rulers of princely States to unite their
domains with the Dominion of India on terms and conditions and in accordance
with the procedure laid down by it. The princely States were never recognized
by the British as independent entities. They formed a subsidiary structure of
the British colonial organization of India which was subject to the British
Crown. The lapse of Paramountcy did not alter their status. The Instrument of
Accession signed by the rulers of the princely States, including Jammu and
Kashmir, stipulated the unification of the States with the two successor States
of the British Empire in India. The transfer of power in India underlined the
creation of only two successor States of the British Indian Empire: the
Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The lapse of the Paramountcy
put the States on the inevitable course which led them to accede to either of
the two successor States.
The
rulers located within the geographical boundaries of the Dominion of Pakistan,
acceded to Pakistan. The ruler of Kalat, who was opposed to the accession of
Kalat to the Dominion of Pakistan, was smothered into submission by the Muslim
League with the active support of the British, included Bahawalpur as well. All
other princely States were situated in the geographical boundaries earmarked
for the Dominion of India. The State of Jammu and Kashmir was contiguous with
both India and Pakistan. Its borders stretched along the boundaries of the
Dominion of Pakistan in the West and South-west, while its borders in the East
and South-east rimmed the frontiers of the Dominion of India. The ruler,
Maharaja Hari Singh, harboured no illusions about the accession of his State to
Pakistan and eagerly awaited a clearance from the Congress leaders, who had
secretly advised him not to take any precipitate action in respect of the
accession of his State, till Hyderabad and Junagarh were retrieved. He himself
was aware of the dangers of any wrong step on his part, which he knew would
lead to a chain reaction in the States ruled by the Muslim rulers. He did not
want his State to be used as a pawn by Pakistan.
Pakistan had no special claim to Jammu and
Kashmir on the basis of the Muslim majority composition of its population. As
already mentioned, the Muslim League strongly opposed any suggestion to
recognize the right of the people of the princely States to determine the
future of the States. It was only when Pakistan failed to grab Jammu and
Kashmir after it invaded the State in October 1947, and the Indian military
action frustrated its designs to swallow Hyderabad and Junagarh, both States
located deep inside India, that Pakistan raised the bogey of self-determination
of the Muslims of the State of Jammu and Kashmir on the basis of their
numerical majority. The Instrument of Accession was executed by the ruler of
Jammu and Kashmir State on the terms specified by the Dominion of India.
Neither the ruler of the State, Maharaja Hari Singh, nor the National
Conference leaders played any role in the determination of the terms the
Instrument of Accession underlined. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and many National
Conference leaders were in jail when the transfer of power in India was
accomplished by the British. Sheikh Abdullah was released from jail on 29
September 1947, about a month and a half after the British had left India.
Three days after the release of Abdullah,
the Working Committee of the National Conference met under his presidentship
and took the decision to support the accession of the State to India. The
decision of the Working Committee was conveyed to Nehru by Dwarka Nath Kachroo,
the Secretary General of the All India States Peoples’ Conference, who was
invited to attend the Working Committee meeting of the National Conference as
an observer. Kachroo was a Kashmiri Pandit who had steered the movement of the
All India States Peoples’ Conference during the fateful days in 1946-1947, when
partition and the transfer of power in India were on the anvil.
Interestingly,
the National Conference leadership kept the decisions of the Working Committee
a closely guarded secret. Within a few days after the Working Committee
meeting, the National Conference leaders sent secret emissaries to Mohammad Ali
Jinnah and other Muslim League leaders. While Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah held
talks with a number of Muslim League leaders of the Punjab, who had come to
Srinagar after his release, he sent two senior most leaders of the National
Conference, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad and Ghulam Mohammad Sadiq, to Pakistan to
open talks with Muslim League leaders. Jinnah spurned the offer of
reconciliation the National Conference leaders made and refused to meet the
emissaries. Sadiq was still in Pakistan when Pakistan invaded the State during
the early hours of 22 October 1947.
Hari
Singh upturned the whole game-plan of Pakistan. While the invading army spread
across the State, Hari Singh sent his Prime Minister, Mehar Chand Mahajan to
Delhi to seek help to save his State from the invasion and offered accession of
the State with India. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah had already reached Delhi. He
made no secret of the danger the State faced and asked Nehru to lose no time in
accepting the accession and ensuring the speedy dispatch of Indian troops to
the State. The instrument of Accession was taken to Jammu by V.P. Menon, where
it was signed by the Maharaja. Menon then rushed back to Delhi and got the
Instrument accepted by Mountbatten. Next day, the air-borne troops of the
Indian Army reached Srinagar. On November1, 1947, the Gilgit Scouts, a local
Muslim militia raised by the British for the defenses of Gilgit Agency,
revolted and declared the accession of Gilgit Agency to Pakistan. Major Brown,
a British adventurer who commanded the Gilgit Scouts, hoisted the flag of
Pakistan over the Agency. The Governor of Gilgit, Gansara Singh was put into
prison. The State army garrison at Bunji in Askardu, mostly Muslim, followed
the Gilgit Scouts, opening the way for the invading forces of Pakistan, to take
hold of Baltistan.
Hari Singh laid no conditions for the
accession of the State to India. The National Conference leaders were nowhere
in the process of the Accession of the State, to lay down any condition for the
accession of the State to India. The Congress leaders including Nehru made no
promises to the National Conference leaders. The terms of the Instrument of
Accession were not altered in any respect by the Viceroy. Neither, Nehru,
Patel, nor any other Congress leader gave any assurance to the Conference
leaders about autonomy or Special Status of the State. In fact the National
Conference leaders did not make any such demands at any time, while the process
of accession was in progress. The Instrument of Accession was an act performed
by the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir to unite his domains with the State of India.
Mountbatten, in his capacity as last Viceroy and first Governor General of
India, had only one power in this respect: to accept the Instrument of
Accession executed by the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir. His power derived from the Indian Independence Act, which was
strictly limited to his acceptance of the accession of Jammu and Kashmir that
Hari Singh offered. It is important to note that Mountbatten could not refuse
to accept the Accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India, or indeed, of any other
princely state. Hence he did not refuse to accept the accession of Junagarh, which
was accomplished in a political crisis caused by the rebellion of the people of
the State against the ruler. The Nawab of Hyderabad was keen to align his
State to Pakistan against the wishes of his people. Hyderabad lay deep inside
the Indian mainland, south of the Vindhyas; Junagarh was situated in the midst
of Kathiawad States which had acceded to India. The accession of Junagarh to
Pakistan and the insistence of the Nawab of Hyderabad threatened to disrupt the
unity of India and balkanize it. Nehru and Patel pleaded with the Nawab of
Hyderabad to ascertain the wishes of his people in respect of the accession of
his State. Nehru and Mountbatten repeatedly requested the leaders of Pakistan
to agree to refer the accession of Junagarh to Pakistan, to the people of the
State. While Mehar Chand Mahajan was pleading with Nehru to accept the
accession offered by Hari Singh, Junagarh was in a state of civil war and the
Nawab of Hyderabad was secretly plotting with Pakistan the course of action he
would take after Hari Singh had acceded to India. Nehru sought to reinforce his
interests in Hyderabad and Junagarh by repeating the offer of eliciting the
opinion of the people of Jammu and Kashmir in respect of their accession. The
withdrawal of the invading army of Pakistan from territories of the State under
its occupation was the precedent condition, laid down by Mountbatten, Nehru and
the Security Council, for any reference to the people of Jammu and Kashmir,
National Conference leaders
demanded the exclusion of Jammu and Kashmir from the Indian constitutional
organization in the summer of 1949, when the Constituent Assembly of India was
in the midst of framing the Constitution of India. This was the time when
foreign power intervention in Jammu and Kashmir had just begun to have its
effect on the deliberations of the Security Council as well as the developments
in the State. Pakistan refused to withdraw its forces from the occupied
territories of the State. It has so far distorted the discourse regarding the
accession of the State to suit its denial.
The
Instrument of Accession was a political instrument and the accession of Jammu
and Kashmir was a political act, which had international implications as it
formed a part of the process of the creation of the State of India. As such,
the Instrument of Accession executed by Maharaja Hari Singh was irreversible
and irreducible, irrespective of the circumstances and events in which it was
accomplished.
Finally,
the princely states were not required to execute any Instrument of Merger. The
claim made in some quarters in Jammu and Kashmir that the State had not signed
the Instrument of Merger, which such quarters insist, saved Jammu and Kashmir
from being integrated in to the constitutional organization of India, is a
travesty of history. The State Department of India laid down a procedure for
the integration of smaller princely States into administratively more viable
Unions of States. To complete the procedure of this integration, the State
Department drew up an Instrument of Attachment, erroneously described as an
Instrument of Merger. The major Indian States, including Jammu and Kashmir,
were not required to sign the Instrument of Attachment. Moreover, the
Instrument of Accession had no bearing on the integration of the States into
the Indian Constitutional organization.
Dr. Mohan Krishen
Teng (Co-Chairman)
& Chaman Lal Gadoo (Co-Chairman)
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