THE EMERGENCE and DEVELOPMENT of the MUSLIM POLITICAL IDENTITY in KASHMIR 1846-1947 Ghulam Q
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J. S. Asian Stud. 07 (01) 2019. 09-18 DOI: 10.33687/jsas.007.01.2616 Available Online at EScience Press Journal of South Asian Studies ISSN: 2307-4000 (Online), 2308-7846 (Print) https://esciencepress.net/journals/JSAS THE EMERGENCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MUSLIM POLITICAL IDENTITY IN KASHMIR 1846-1947 Ghulam Q. Bhat * Centre of Central Asian Studies, University of Kashmir, Srinagar-190006, Kashmir. *Corresponding Author Email ID: [email protected] A B S T R A C T The century long Dogra rule in Kashmir was tyranted and undemocratic that provoked resentment among the Muslim subjects. During this rule, the socio-economic conditions of the Muslims became unsympathetic which finally led to the political consciousness among them. The Muslims in the state started organizing themselves to raise their demands for reforms in education, employment, the structure of taxation, and constitutional changes among various other things. Eventually, the state witnessed the politicization of the Muslim community in the form of a series of protest against the Dogra rule from 1930 to 1947. As a result, Kashmir during Dogra rule saw the emergence and development of the Muslim political identity. This paper attempts to trace the formation of the sense of political identity of the Muslim community and the emergence and role of the religio-political groups in sharpening the political identity of the Muslims in Kashmir. The present Kashmir crisis lies in the hundred years before when Kashmir was ruled by the succession of Hindu Dogra rulers. Keywords: Muslim Identity, Politicization, Political Mobilization, Dogra Rule. INTRODUCTION reforms had a powerful impact on the political psyche of The origin of the political identity of the Muslims in Kashmiris. Religious identity for them was not anymore, Kashmir goes back to1930s when mostly the Muslim a serious issue, as people shifted their attention from subjects openly defied the Hindu Dogra rule. Under this religious to economic matters. rule, the Muslim population was as Prem Nath Bazaz Shaikh Abdullah’s adherence to secularism brought him puts it as ‘. a [Kashmiri] Muslim peasant presented the closer to the Indian National Congress, whereas the appearance rather of a starving beggar than one who Muslim of Jammu were influenced by the politics of the filled the coffers of the state.’ The significance of mass Muslim League. It is interesting to note that the conflict agitation in the political consciousness of the Muslims between the National Conference and the Muslim that erupted in Kashmir in connection with the alleged Conference was also a consequence of the difference in desecration of the holy Quran in 1931. The episode gave the attitude towards the events in British India. Though birth to the Muslim Conference, which was subsequently the two political groups were not directly involved in converted into National Conference. The base of this what was happening in British India, the National party was secularism, it tried to bring the people of all Conference supported the Congress’s Quit India religions in its fold to struggle for democratic Kashmir. Movement, while the Muslim Conference backed The party was successful in its efforts of the Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s call for a separate Muslim secularization of political identity by channelizing the homeland. Thus, these two political groups became the peasantry grievances into the radical demand of land to part of larger politics of India and Pakistani nationalism the tiller. This programme of land reforms were in the post-partition era, where National Conference and designed to consolidate the peasantry ties with India as Muslim Conference claimed accession of Kashmir into Shaikh Abdullah had warned the peasantry that such India and Pakistan respectively. The Indian claims were type of reforms would not be possible in Pakistan. These based on the fact that the Kashmiri identity was secular 9 J. S. Asian Stud. 07 (01) 2019. 09-18 DOI: 10.33687/jsas.007.01.2616 and thereby National Conference favored secular India. in civil administration (Bose, 2003: 16). Right from the Pakistan, on the other side, claimed that it was a Muslim beginning Dogra rule over Jammu and Kashmir was majority state and that the elements of its indigenous harsh and oppressive. The policies adopted by them political elite, grouped around the Mirwaiz Moulvi were markedly favorable to the Hindus (Copland, 1981: Yousuf Shah under the banner of the Muslim Conference 234). Religious conversion legally banned was in favor of favored the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Hindu interest, the killing of cows was made capital The objective of this paper is to examine the process of punishment and goat killing was banned on a few the formation of the political identity of Muslims and to specific days of the year. In Jammu, Azan (call to prayer) see how this identity became the part of larger politics of was sometimes prohibited. Moreover, newspapers were India and Pakistani nationalism in the post-partition era. censored, and political parties were banned. Urdu THE DOGRA RULE AND ITS IMPACTS newspapers, printed at Lahore and mostly read by the The state of Jammu and Kashmir came under the Dogra Muslims, were targeted by press censorship. A Bengali rule by signing the treaty of Amritsar between the Christen, Sir Albion Banerjee, who was employed as British and Maharaja Gulab Singh on 16 March 1846 Foreign and Political Minister in the State in 1929, (Lamb, 1991: 8). By selling Kashmir and bringing it declared that Kashmiri Muslims were treated like ‘dump under the subjugation of Gulab Singh, the British driven cattle’ (Copland, 1981: 235). Therefore, it was in government did not even care to ascertain the wishes the backdrop of these adverse socio-economic of the poor and helpless people of Kashmir (Thorp, conditions of the Muslim community that the political 2011: 13). After purchasing the valley of Kashmir, movement started against the Dogra rule during the Maharaja Gulab Singh declared that he was the sole 1930s. owner of all lands, forests, mountains etc. in the valley The 1930s is considered as the era of popular politics in (Thorp, 2011: 13). Kashmir. During this period two main events marked the The century-long Dogra rule in Kashmir was harsh and historical importance of the political consciousness of tyrant that provoked resentment among the Muslim Muslims. First, the formation of the Reading Room Party subjects. The last Dogra ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, and second the Revolt of 1931. The educated Muslim continued to rule over Kashmir with an iron fist. youth after returning from the (British) Indian Agriculture, for the majority of the population in rural Universities, actively participated in the politics of the areas, was the main source of livelihood and yet they did state. Prominent among them was the Sheikh not have property rights to land (Sufi, 1949: 19). The Mohammad Abdullah, who had earned his degree at revenue assessment of the Sikh period was continued by Aligarh Muslim University. Disappointed by the the Dogra rule under which the state took half share of recruitment rules for civil services and finding only a the Kharif crop, i.e. four tracks per kharwar from Muslim few opportunities to accommodate their newly earned peasants (Zutshi, 2003: 64).i Rabi crop was taken at the educational qualification, these men began to meet at half share of the produce, i.e. three tracks per kharwar. Reading Room at Srinagar. They gradually coalesced into In short, the cultivator had to pay more than half of the the Reading Room Party (Rai, 2004: 257). The party was total produce to the state as tax. The cultivator had to mainly formed to demand adequate jobs for Muslims. It feed the Darbar and the whole contingent of the revenue became a forerunner to the political movement and had officials. The peasants thus ended up paying out of every the effect of early politicization of Kashmiri middle class 32 tracks of each Kharif crop, 21 tracks and 11 ¾ seers Muslims. The feeling of hatred against the government as revenue in kind; and out of 32 tracks of each Rabi was so strong that even the traditionally non- political crop, 20 tracks 6 ¾ seers as revenue in kind (Zutshi, figures, like Mirwaiz Yousuf Shah and Mirwaiz Hamdani- 2003: 65). Many landless laborers worked as serfs of the two religious heads of Jamia Masjid and Khanqah-e- these absentee landlordsiiwhile others left the state and Mohalla, attended the meetings of this party. The Party worked as laborers in neighboring Punjab (Sufi, 1949: worked in full cooperation with these two prominent 22). religious figures who had used Mosques to organize Moreover, Kashmiri Muslims generally were not meetings and protests against the Maharaja’s permitted to become military officers that was mainly government (Saraf, 2009: 361). Thus, the Reading Room led by Rajputs and Dogras and were also unrepresented Party and the institution of Mirwaiz, initiated a new 10 J. S. Asian Stud. 07 (01) 2019. 09-18 DOI: 10.33687/jsas.007.01.2616 political culture in the state. The sense of grief and anger among the Muslims reached THE ROLE OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS its nadir when they found the pages of Quran in the At the beginning of the twentieth century, the evolution drain. The situation became worse by the arrest of Abdul of the institution of Mirwaiz marked a new era in the Qadir, a Punjabi Muslim who had delivered an religious history of Kashmir and played a new and inflammatory speech during the meeting of Kashmiri dynamic role. Since the construction of Jamia (grand) Muslims held at the shrine of Shah-i-Hamadan. He was Masjid in 1402, the institution established a single arrested on charges of sedition and the date of his trial centre of religious authority (Chowdhary, 2008: 82).