Tag: first war

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Nehru on Plebiscite to Sheikh, 1947

Dwarkanath [Katju] writes to me that there is strong feeling in the leadership of the National Conference against referendum. I know this and quite understand it. In fact I share the feeling myself. But you will appreciate that it is not easy for us to back out of the stand we have taken before the world. That would create a very bad impression abroad and more specially in U.N. circles. I feel, however, that this question of referendum is rather an academic one at present. We have made it clear and indeed it is patent enough that there can be no referendum till there is complete peace and order in Kashmir State and all the raiders have been pushed out. As far as I can see this desirable consummation will be be achieved for some months yet. In the Pooch area it is quite possible that these raiders might continue to function in the hills and it might not be worthwhile for us to make a major effort to push them out during the winter. Thus for some months the question of referendum does not arise in any practical form.
These months will be full of developments and those developments will govern future events including the possibility of having a referendum. If this struggle lasts for several months, the chances of referendum automatically fade out.
If we said to the U.N.O. that we no longer stand by a referendum in Kashmir, Pakistan would score a strong point and that would be harmful to our cause. On the other hand, if circumstances continue as they are and the referendum is out of the question during the next few months, then why worry about it now? Indeed I have seen an argument in an English newspaper partly supporting out viewpoint about the referendum and saying that other events are deciding the issue and that in any event there can be no referendum before the spring.
There is no difference between you and us on this issue. It is all a question of the best tactical approach. I would personally suggest to you not to say anything rejecting the idea of a referendum but to lay stress on the fact that the people of Kashmir, by their heroic resistance, are deciding the issue themselves; also that it is a little absurd for people to carry on a little war in Kashmir and, when defeated, to want a referendum. If there is any serious intent on their part, they should have stopped this war and drawn back the raiders.

~ 21 November 1947. Nehru writes to Sheikh Abdullah on murmurs inside NC against referendum. These guys knew as long as Pakistan was the aggressor there was going to be no referendum. For them it was just an academic exercise.   

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Above. Selective mishmash quotes of Nehru often peddled in Pakistan Propaganda. The objective being to fool present day self declared Nehruvian about their legacy. 
Below: Full context of “If we did anything of the kind”, provided by Stanley Wolpert
Nehru’s ambassador to Pakistan had suggested that India hand over Pakistan for the sake of peace.
Nehru explaining what it would mean for India.  

“you hinted at Kashmir being handed over to Pakistan…if we did anything of the kind our Government would not last many days and there would be no peace…It would lead to war with Pakistan because of public opinion here and war-like elements coming in control of our policy. We cannot and we will not leave Kashmir to its fate…The fact is that Kashmir is of the most vital significance to India…[H]erelies the rub…We have to see this though to the end…Kashmir is going to be a drain on our resources, but it is going to be a greater drain on Pakistan.”

That Kashmir was going to be drain was becoming a pitch in certain circles in India. In 1952, Ambedkar naively said, “the matter is within the charge of the UNO and I do not think that Pakistan would be so foolish as to invade Kashmir or to invade this country in the teeth of the U.N.O. decision on the subject. Therefore, again, why are you maintaining this Army?”
 In Feb 1954, Pakistan started getting weapons and training from America. A decade later they were ready with Operation Gibraltar, an exercise straight from CIA’s Bay of Pigs cookbook.
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Ronald Searle’s Nehru cartoon. Punch Cartoon. 1957. Peacekeeper in Egypt, asking for UN and US intervention. Painted Warmonger (like Modi) when it comes to Kashmir. All driven by world politics and individual interests of power countries.

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Portrait of a Raider


One of few works which gives a name and a face to the anonymous horde of ‘Kabailis’ that descended upon Kashmir in 1947-48. 
Gulmar, though his big hawk-like nose rather marred his good looks, had the attraction of youth, and was divertingly Mahsud. He asked direct, practical questions on everything. Like Rahim he had admirable manners – Pathans may prove the best servants in the world.; but he was restless, a piece of quicksilver, you could never ignore him. Possessor evidently of a strong character, you felt that, if you didn’t look out, he would soon have complete control of your affairs.
He did not seem physically very tough. Within days he fell a victim to Karachi belly, and I was doctoring him with liver pills; he also blistered his feet accompanying me on walks, not yet vigorous ones because of my recent operation. Admittedly he had a new pair of chaplis – the heavy, sandal-like shoes worn by Pathans; they had been bought in honour of his fresh employment, and eventually of course would be paid for by me. But, like Rahim, he plainly thought physical exercise crazy. If you had no need to walk you didn’t do it; you sat around and got fat.
During these strolls he soon became a keen and adept helper in my photographic efforts. It was a new form of shikar or sport. From just behind me he would crack jokes ingeniously with the victims, diverting their attention from the lens, keeping their faces alive until the moment of the shot – and then, the deed done, would laugh delightedly at their surprise.
When we were out shooting in this fashion one day, he spoke of his own shooting in Kashmir; real shooting.
“Shooting at what?”
“Men, of course, Sahib.”
I looked at him astonished. “But you only seem about seventeen”
“Yes, Sahib.”
“But you can’t have been fighting the Indians when thirteen?”
“Yes, Sahib” – and enquiry left no doubt that he had, and thought it not at all remarkable. He gave details of where he had gone and they made geographical sense. He had been bombed and rocketed by Indian planes, machine-gunned by Indian infantry. He had been half smothered by the blood and entrails of a mule, blown up a few yards away. He spoke of having spent a night on a snowy hillside – without socks or coat – to snipe Indian troops at dawn.

“Carrying a man’s rifle was rather tiring for me sometimes”, he grudgingly admitted. Remembrance of my facile thoughts on his stamina made me ashamed.

~ Ian Melville Stephens, ‘Horned moon: An account of a journey through Pakistan, Kashmir, and Afghanistan’ (1953). Back then, Ian Stephens, former editor of ‘The Statesman’, was one of the first person allowed to cross into India from Pakistan by walking across LOC. Back then, he was also one of the few person’s sympathetic to Pakistan (even quit his job possibly because he thought Pakistan was getting a raw deal), someone who believed that the country had a shot at been a progressive nation. Stephens would meet these simple natives, men capable of abominable deeds in bouts of mass madness, and yet he found them admirable as that is how things were region between Delhi and Karachi, a region he lovingly re-christened ‘Delkaria’.

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thousand widows 51





“Section of the thousand widows of our Kashmir Jawans -each of whom received Rs. 51/- for the loss of her husband. Rs. 51, 000/- collected from the public were distributed to these widows. Sardar Baldev Singh and General Criappa, of course made speeches. When the rupees are spent, the widows can still live on the words.”

~ August 1949, Filmindia Magazine. The magazine over the years kept sliding to right of political spectrum. And was about a decade later banned in Kashmir.


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Defending Kashmir (1949)

Free give away rare book this month for SearchKashmir Free Book Project. This is the tenth book released this year.


Defending Kashmir (1949)

Gives account of fighting in all the major sectors in Jammu and Kashmir in year 1947-48. Appendix for the books gives timeline of events starting from September 1947 leading to war. Also, the conditions and the terms of various ceasefires before the end of war, alongwith the first UN documents, letters and resolutions on India and Pakistan dealing with ‘Kashmir Questions’.

Two Tempests on a reconnaissance flight over the Kashmir valley


Read/Download:

http://goo.gl/HYLnXu

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Raids in Ladakh, 1948


It is rather strange that when most narratives talk about the 1947-48 war, Poonch, Uri, Jammu Baramulla, Srinagar, all are remembered but seldom is Ladakh mentioned. It is almost as if people have forgotten the scale of the war.

Kashmir Lama Murdered
Raiders killed the Lama of Ganskar Padam Monastery, one of the biggest in the Ladakh valley in Kashmir after carrying him off to their headquarters at Kargil, according to a report from Leh.
The Ladakh district lies in South Eastern Kashmir. Leh, chief city of the valley, stands near the upper waters of the Indus, some seventy-five miles west of the Tibetan border.
According to Kashmir Government estimates, raiders have put to the sword about 100 Buddhists in the Ladakh valley, desecrated and sacked Ringdon Gompha, the second biggest monastery in the district, and looted and destroyed several other monasteries. 

The Press and Journal

August 23, 1948


Came across it while scavenging though British Newspaper Archives.

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She of Gilgit


In summers, our small garden would come alive with colors of red amarnath, yellow marigold, purple salvia, white alyssum and roses of all colors. At that time of the year, an old woman from Delhi would come visit us in Kashmir. She would stay with us for weeks and then return. I remember it used to take her forever to cross the courtyard, walk past that garden and get to the house. Even with her sleek brown walking stick with a cursive handle, it would take her ages. My grandfather and his brothers would walk patiently behind her, watching her steps anxiously, one of them always holding her hand. At the door everyone would dutifully lineup to greet her. Calls of warm ‘Wariays’, would ring out. Once inside, happening of the year would be passed on to her.

I learnt her story only a couple of years ago.

Ben’Jighar was my grandfather’s elder sister. She was the only sister of four brother. Since, my grandfather’s father died at a young age, my grandfather and his brothers were raised by his mother and the elder sister. After the death of their mother, Ben’Jighar, even though already married, was the titular head of our family. She was loved and respected by the brothers for all she had done for them. Since my grandfather was the youngest, he was especially fond of her. She look out for him. And in his own way my grandfather looked out for her.

In 1947, when war broke out between India and Pakistan, Ben’Jighar was in Gilgit along with her husband who was a minor government employee, a teacher in Bunji. As the news of war reached Srinagar, people started counted their losses, all those caught on the other side were considered as lost.

The general narrative of the conflict in that region tells us this story:

There was uprising against the Maharaja in Poonch, and much bloodshed. Masood tribemen were preparing for Srinagar. The Maharaja was still fiddling with his options. The news of partition violence from Punjab was to add further fuel to this combustive situation. Meanwhile, Gilgit, remote from these happening, but not untouched, was starting to rumble. Gansara Singh, the Wazir of Gilgit, a cousin of the Maharaja, acknowledging his vulnerable position tried negotiating with locals. The local feared an attack from Maharaja’s garrison at Bunji in Astor. In October 1947, when Maharaja finally went with India, the people of Gilgit decided to act fast. On 1st November, after taking their two young British officers in confidence, the Gilgit Scout staged a coup. Telephone lines were cut, the Governor was put under house arrest and the Hindus interned. Soon, India, probably thinking less about regaining the region and probably more thinking about cut-off the support Gilgit Scout were providing to raiders in Ladakh region, was air dropping 500 Lb bombs on Gilgit. Gilgit’s transfer to Pakistan was simple affair compared to other war zones in the region. People representing Pakistan arrived two weeks later to take charge of the treasury on 16th. After almost a year of fighting and a UN intervened ceasefire, a political prisoner exchange program was carried out. As part of this deal, Gansara Singh finally reach India in 1949. On reach back, much to the embarrassment of India, he refused to state that he was ill-treated by the enemy side.

In all these official narratives, I try hard to imagine Ben’Jighar in Gilgit. Did she hear the bombs drop?

After a certain time, a conflict becomes a summation of moments in lives of the lead actors of the war theater. The common people and their woes, apparently the good basic cause over which a conflict usually starts, in the end just become a dead mass of props on the grand stage, a number, of dead, wounded, killed, missing, looted, stabbed, burnt, raped; a date, of wins, defeats and ceasefire.

Even we don’t remember. This all history becomes just another vague family anecdote told in passing.

Her brothers had given up hope of finding Ben’Jighar alive. These were desperate times. But after months of fighting refugees from the other side started tickling into Srinagar. This was taken as a sign of hope in distressing times. Return of someone from the other side was treated as a second coming. ‘Duba’re Yun’, as they say in Kashmiri.

Ben’Jighar and her husband reached Srinagar almost after eight months. How? What did they experience? Nothing is told, or remembered. What is remembered is the state in which they arrived and how they were welcomed. The first thing my grandfather did was to hire a tailor and have them measured. They were to be given new clothes. They arrived destitute. A Shamiyana was set, cooks hired, relatives invited, a feast was organised. It was like organising a marriage. This part was important to get them back into the family and the society. Similar procedures were followed by other pandits housing refugee relatives. Kashyap Bandhu set up a group of volunteer in Srinagar to look after the refugees. Given the strict caste rules of Pandits, it was important to show publicly that they were welcome. That the refugees were ready for a new life.

Then it was all forgotten like a bad dream. 
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