Building a New Kashmir: Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad and the Politics of State-Formation in a Disputed Territory (1953-1963) by Hafsa Kanjwal A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History and Women’s Studies) in The University of Michigan 2017 Doctoral Committee: Professor Farina Mir, Co-Chair Professor Mrinalini Sinha, Co-Chair Professor Kathryn Babayan Professor Fatma Muge Gocek © Hafsa Kanjwal 2017
[email protected] ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5879-9906 Table of Contents Abstract iii Introduction 1 Chapter One: State-led Developmentalism and the Pursuit of Progress 44 Chapter Two: Creating a Modern Kashmiri Subject: Education, Secularization and its Discontents 97 Chapter Three: Jashn-e-Kashmir: Patronage and the Institutionalization of a Cultural Intelligentsia 159 Chapter Four: The State of Emergency: State Repression, Political Dissent and the Struggle for Self-Determination 205 Chapter Five: Remembering Naya Kashmir in Post Militancy Srinagar 249 Conclusion 304 Bibliography 310 ii Abstract This dissertation is a historical study of the early postcolonial period in the Indian- administered state of Jammu and Kashmir (1953-63). It traces the trajectory of “Naya [New] Kashmir,” a leftist manifesto of the National Conference (NC). The NC was a secular nationalist Kashmiri political party that came to power in the state in 1947, in the aftermath of Partition and the accession of Kashmir to India. This dissertation recuperates the relevance of Naya Kashmir during the rule of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed (1953-63), the second Prime Minister of the state. Naya Kashmir originated as a progressive project of state and socio-cultural reform, emanating from the particular context of the Jammu and Kashmir princely state in the late colonial period.