Iwasiter of ^I)Iios(Opiip in HISTORY
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INDIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT AND THE FREEDOM STRUGGLE OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR (1931-1947 A.D.) DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF iWasiter of ^I)iIos(opIip IN HISTORY BY SUHAIL-UL-REHMAN LONE UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF PROF. SHIREEN MOOSVI CENTRE OF ADVANCED STUDY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (INDIA) 2013 ^<**S/n.i ...»vtK»»i^ DS4338 CENTRE OF ADVANCED STUDY Shireen Moosvi DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY Professor of History (Retd.) ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH-202 002 (U.R) Tel. Off.: (0571) 2705792 Res.: (0571) 2701539 Mob.09358210674 E-mail: [email protected] Certificate This is to certify that the Dissertation ""Indian National Movement and the Freedom Struggle ofJammu and Kashmir (1931-1947 A.D.) " by Mr. Suhail-ul-Rehman Lone is the original research work of the candidate, and is suitable for submission in partial fulfillment of the award of the Degree of Master of Philosophy in History. ?rof Shireen Moosvi (Supervisor) Contents Acknowledgements Introduction i Chapter 1—First Phase of Dogra Rule 1 Chapter 2—Early Phase of the Struggle: Political Mobilization 19 Chapter 3—From Community Politics to National Struggle (1930-32) 52 Chapter 4—From Community Politics to National Struggle (1932-38) 82 Chapter 5—Towards Freedom: Dissensions and Dilemmas 111 Bibliography 141 Acknowledgments In writing this dissertation I have benefitted immensely from several persons to whom I would like to express my gratitude. I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to my mentor Prof Shireen Moosvi from whose supervision I have benefited enormously. She has been very generous with her time. She persistently pushed me towards making my research better by reading and correcting numerous drafts with care and patience, and saw me through this project. I am deeply grateful to renowned historian Prof (Emeritus) Irfan Habib for his insightful comments and suggestions. I am also obliged to Prof Tariq Ahmed, Chairman Dept. of History, who has been supportive at all times. I am extremely grateful for the kind assistance provided to me by the staff of the Seminar Library, Department of History (AMU), Maulana Azad Library (AMU), Allama Iqbal Library (University of Kashmir), Seminar Library, Department of History (University of Kashmir), National Archives of India (New Delhi), Jammu and Kashmir State Archives (Jammu), Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (New Delhi), and the Central Secretariat Library (New Delhi). I owe a lot to my esteemed teachers. Prof M. Ashraf Wani, Dr. Abdul Majid Pandith, Dr. Javeed-ul-Aziz and Mr. Yunus Rashid, whose guidance and counseling during my days in the Kashmir University helped a lot to refme my mental faculty. I am immensely grateful to my friends, colleagues and family whose encouragement and support has sustained me during this long process. I am particularly indebted to them, for they continued to believe in my ability to accomplish this project even when my own faith faltered. Suhail-ul-Rehman Lone Introduction: Objective and Sources The fundamental endeavour of this study is to understand the relationship between the anti-Dogra struggle of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the National Movement. There has been in vogue a trend of discussing the pre-independence political discourses in Kashmir exclusive of the impact of the all-India political milieu at that time, thereby neglecting the influences of the freedom struggle and the leaders of the National Movement on the liberation struggle of Jammu and Kashmir. The nature of the problem of post-independence Kashmir has often led the writers of Kashmir's modern history to continue to follow this approach. This approach portrays the resistance movement in Kashmir as if it had happened in a sandbox, detached from the world surrounding it. The present study is a modest attempt to reveal the existence of an evolutionary link between the freedom struggle of Jammu and Kashmir and the Indian national movement in which the former not only drew considerable moral and ideological support from the latter but even formally affiliated itself with the latter in the fight against the British. An attempt has been made to cull information from the records of the Foreign Department, Foreign and Political Department, and Home Department of the British Government of India housed in the National Archives of India, New Delhi. I have explored official documents, reports, memoranda, and press cuttings from the records of the Political Department, General Department, Education Department, Vernacular Department, Old English Records and Publicity Department of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir available in the Jammu repository of the Jammu and Kashmir State Archives. Besides these, official correspondences used in this study have also been taken from the aforementioned archival storehouses. It is perhaps necessary to mention that in many cases the official documents presenting the official viewpoint of the events vary from the unofficial and dispassionate versions, and a fair degree of circumspecfion has been exercised while using the accounts. Moreover, to overcome the limitations of the official documents 1 have tapped extant but mostly unused contemporary sources like newspapers, pamphlets, booklets and diaries. These have been obtained from the Archives—sometimes existing individually and sometimes embedded within official files—as well as tlirough access to the digitally- preserved pages on a few reliable online sites, such as the ProQuest and the Digital Library of India. The newspapers mostly used in this study are the Times of India (Bombay), the Muslim Outlook (Lahore), Siyasat (Lahore), the Tribune (Lahore), Young India (Ahmedabad), Al-Fazal (Qadian) and Hamdard (Srinagar). The pamphlets and booklets published by the All India States' People's Conference, such as Indian Princes as Their People See Them (1933), What do the Slates' People Want of the National Congress? (1934), Indictment ofPatiala (1939), and Kashmir (1939), besides being indispensable for a basic understanding of the conditions in different princely states, are essential to understand the attitude of the leaders of States' people's towards the nationalist leadership and the national movement as well as helpful for gauging the popular mind. For broader themes of economic structure, population and general conditions, I have relied on Gazetteers, Census Reports, and Administrative Reports, which are not only indicative of the official perceptions but also the indicators of the governmental policies. For ascertaining the chronology of events and the immediate events preceding or succeeding some particular incidents, I have also used several volumes of The Indian Annual Register. I have adopted an approach which is both chronological and thematic; chronology ensures continuity in discussing the occurrences while thematic considerations are useful in contextualizing them. In order to analyze the basic stand of leadership on significant issues and the interaction between different leaders, I have utilized the correspondences of the leaders of Kashmir with the national leaders, and of letters exchanged between the national leadership themselves. Among these sources mention may be made of the letters between Sheikh Abdullah, Prem Nath Bazaz, Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi. Collections like Sapru Papers, Moonji Papers and the Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, as availed from the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, have been of immense help. Besides, the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, containing his speeches, letters besides the information about different sessions and resolutions of the Congress. Ill A number of works written by contemporary leaders namely, Prem Nath Bazaz, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, Chaudhary Ghulam Abbas, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Pattabhi Sharamayya, Abul Kalam Azad and N. N. Raina have been used in this study to catch a holistic view of the important episodes in the freedom struggle, the perceptions of the leadership regarding the happenings and the applied line of action. For the later period of this study (mid 1930s and onwards) not many archival documents have been cited primarily due to their non-availability—or denial to researchers supposedly on security grounds—by the National Archives. It is also unfortunate, as well as surprising, that several significant and rare documents are available in the India Office Library, London but not in the Archives of our own country which makes it impossible for the researchers to go through them. Consequently, at many places in this dissertation facts have been quoted from some secondary works exactly as slated by their respective authors. For the later part, therefore, the reliance on the newspapers, documents of political organizations, and leaders' addresses at sessions, while passing over the official opinions, was inevitable. Even then, I have tried my level best to cross-check facts from the different sources accessible to me. Chapter 1 First Phase of the Dogra Rule The foundation of the state of Jammu and Kaslimir was laid down in 1846 A.D. when a number of principaHties, viz. Kashmir, Jammu and their adjoining hill territories,' otherwise possessing a disthictive geography, ethnicity, social and cultural backgrounds, were merged into a single political unit by an arrangement between the British East India Company and Gulab Singh, a vassal of Ranjit Singh who was in possession of Jammu and Ladakh at the time, and had a commanding influence in Kashmir after 1839 A.D.^ The