Building a New Kashmir: Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad and the Politics of State-Formation in a Disputed Territory (1953-1963)
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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. However, this dissertation argues that it was still utilized by Bakshi in his project of state building and reform nearly a decade later. In moving the manifesto out of the context of its own production, and into the period of Bakshi’s government, we are able to see the durability of the ideas that undergird the project, and the ways in which the local leadership attempted to fulfill its aims of economic, educational, and cultural transformation, even after the state was divided and became part of a new political reality. Naya Kashmir’s trajectory also reveals the tensions within the state building project. While the government was attempting to produce a secular modernizing Kashmir, it was also dealing with the realities of Kashmir’s unresolved political context, as the region remained a disputed territory between India and Pakistan in the international arena. This dissertation argues that while Naya Kashmir had the potential to revolutionize Kashmiri society, its actual impact iii was constrained by Kashmir’s unresolved political context. As a result, these policies cultivated an opposition from the very class they meant to integrate into the Indian Union, evidenced by the mass movement for self-determination that erupted against the state during the Holy Relic Incident, just a few months after Bakshi’s rule had ended in 1963. This dissertation allows us to see developments in Kashmir outside the framework of India-Pakistan relations or India-Kashmir (center-state) relations. Under Bakshi, Naya Kashmir’s trajectory constituted a local logic, borne out of local concerns and needs. It also foregrounds the perspectives of a diverse set of Kashmiri political and social actors, as they sought to resolve the problems of their diverse and marginalized society. In doing so, it contributes to a growing body of South Asian historiography that examines governance and state-building in the immediate aftermath of decolonization, as well as the everyday postcolonial state and state-society relations. iv Introduction A Radical Manifesto On September 29, 1944, leaders of the National Conference, an anti-monarchical, secular nationalist Kashmiri political party, convened their annual meeting in Sopore, a town in the Baramulla district of the Kashmir Valley. The National Conference was at the forefront of leading the opposition against the Dogra monarchy that governed Kashmir in the British colonial period (1846-1947). Led by Sheikh Abdullah, who was to become the first Prime Minister of the Jammu and Kashmir state (1947-1953), the purpose of the meeting was to adopt the party’s “Naya [New] Kashmir” document, a manifesto that had been drafted with the help of prominent leftists in the subcontinent.1 In the period of decolonization in the Indian subcontinent and around the world, the party sought to pave the way for an independent, modernizing, socialist welfare state that would reduce the monarch to a titular figurehead. In this document, the Jammu and Kashmir state was a distinct country, with a Muslim-majority, but significant provisions for its Hindu, Sikh, Christian and Buddhist minorities.2 The forty-four-page manifesto outlined an ambitious program for a future secular and democratic state, borrowing heavily from Soviet-style models of governance and a planned economy. Geographically, the manifesto covered the regions of Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh and the frontier regions, the areas that constituted the Dogra princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Its authors declared that they were building a Naya 1 Until 1965, the chief executive of the Jammu and Kashmir state was known as the “Prime Minister,” as the state had some autonomy in its internal affairs. Under the government of G.M. Sadiq, the nomenclature became “chief minister,” along with the other Indian states, in a move towards greater integration with the Indian Union. 2 Rajesh Kadian, The Kashmir Tangle: Issues and Options (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993) 58. 1 Kashmir in order to “raise ourselves and our children forever from the abyss of oppression and poverty, degradation and superstition, from medieval darkness and ignorance into the sunlit valleys of plenty ruled by freedom, science and honest toil.”3 Nearly a decade later, the state of Jammu and Kashmir faced a vastly different political context. From being a princely state under the Dogras, it was now a disputed territory between the newly formed Indian and Pakistani nation-states after the Partition of the Indian subcontinent. Two-thirds of the former princely state was controlled by India, after a controversial accession in 1947 that brought Sheikh Abdullah and the National Conference to power, while one-third of the state was controlled by Pakistan, which gained the territory as a result of a war between the two countries in 1948. On August 9, 1953, Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad, the second Prime Minister of the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir state, broadcast a policy speech on Radio Kashmir. Bakshi, who previously served as Deputy Prime Minister under Sheikh Abdullah’s administration, had, on the order of the Government of India, come to power after arresting and deposing Sheikh Abdullah. In his speech, he reassured the people of the state that his government would be committed to the ideals of the Naya Kashmir manifesto, and would urgently pay attention to the economic and social reconstruction of the state.4 Blaming the Sheikh for creating economic and political mayhem, he reaffirmed the National Conference’s pledge to “build anew the economic and social life of the people of the state in accordance with our genius traditions and resources, with the help of and in partnership with the people of India and those other states who are friendly towards us.”5 Members of the new state legislature also made reference to the manifesto, declaring that under Sheikh Abdullah’s government, “the New 3 New Kashmir, New Delhi: Kashmir Bureau of Information, no date, 10. 4 “Crisis in Kashmir Explained,” Directorate of Information and Broadcasting (Srinagar: Lalla Rookh Publications, 1953) 8. 5 “Crisis in Kashmir Explained,” 9. 2 Kashmir programme [had] remained confined to paper plans only.”6 It was now the task of Bakshi’s government to implement its vision, to finally produce the new Kashmir. Overview This dissertation traces the relevance of the Naya Kashmir manifesto through time and foregrounds its importance for Kashmir’s early postcolonial history, especially under the decade- long rule of Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad (1953-1963).7 Naya Kashmir was a progressive project of state and socio-cultural reform located in the particular context of the Jammu and Kashmir princely state in the late colonial period; however, as we see above, it was still utilized by Bakshi in his project of state-building and reform nearly a decade later.8 Why do I wish to resurrect a manifesto and its afterlife that, as some scholars have argued, is a “distant memory now?”9 Why did Bakshi’s government continue to take recourse to the Naya Kashmir manifesto, put into motion by the man he would eventually come to take power from? How did his government implement its multiple objectives, and to what ends? What constraints were placed upon this reform project by Kashmir’s post-Partition status? What kind of future did it enable, and what did it foreclose? And finally, how was this reform project received within the state; how did people respond to it and how were they shaped by it? In attempting to answer these questions, this dissertation argues that the trajectory of the Naya Kashmir manifesto has critical insight for understanding the history of Kashmir, especially as it relates to its postcolonial state formation. In moving the manifesto out of the context of its own production, and into the period of Bakshi’s government, we are able to see the duration and 6 “Unanimous Vote of Confidence in Bakshi Government,” Directorate of Information and Broadcasting, Jammu and Kashmir Government, October 5, 1953. 7 When referring to the entire state, I use the terms “Jammu and Kashmir” and “Kashmir” alternatively. I will use the term “Kashmir Valley” when referring specifically to one of the regions within the state.