On the Kashmir issue, quite a few chroniclers, more so political adversaries, have spread a message that it was Nehru who bungled the Kashmir integration and only Sardar Patel could have done everything right to keep Kashmir as a fully-integrated part of India. After Independence, the British left 565 princely states fully free to choose merger with the nation of their choice or continue as independent kingdoms.
The new independent union of India was actually a small geographic region. The huge tracts of the subcontinent were owned by 565 states, which though slowly, merged with the new union. Interestingly, Hyderabad and Junagadh had Muslim rulers and Hindu-majority subjects. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s father Shah Nawaz was the prime minister of Junagadh. Nawab Muhammad Mahabat Khanji was keen to merge with Pakistan. But the frightening protest by the dominant Hindu subjects convinced Shah Nawaz to persuade the Nawab to give up the idea.
Eventually, the Nawab boarded a ship to flee with loads of precious portions of his wealth to set up home in Pakistan.
Similarly, after some skirmishes and militant protests by a few Nizam-supporting Muslim miscreants, Hyderabad too tamely merged with India. Sardar Patel had indeed played a crucial role with strategic support from an exceptionally clever bureaucrat, VP Menon in effecting the merger of most states. So, Pakistan had demanded Jammu and Kashmir which had a Hindu king and Muslim-majority subjects.
But somehow, Hari Singh had loathed both the Muslim League and the Congress outfits. He was confident that an independent kingdom of J&K would flourish well. But people had become hateful of monarchies as most royal rulers were mercilessly dictatorial. It is because of this public sentiment that Sheikh Abdullah had become popular among the Kashmiris.
The Sheikh also knew pretty well that Pakistan, with its nascent political establishment, would suffer for long on development fronts. It was his main desire to overthrow the king and rule the State because masses trusted him. Nehru could not sniff the sinister design and took the Sheikh for a saviour ally.
Coincidentally, King Hari Singh was rendered helpless in the wake of the Pakistani invasion carried out by Pashtoon tribal militants. So, the king dropped the idea of a great kingdom and sought to merge with India only if India helped him thwart the Pakistani attack. India kept request and Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession making J&K lawfully an integral part of the Indian union. But because of constant irritation by Pakistan on the borders and because Nehru knew Sheikh had the mass following, he took the matter to the UN, which routinely prescribed plebiscite.
Pakistan openly backed out as Prime Minister Liaqat Khan knew well the Kashmiri Muslims would follow Sheikh Abdullah who was in favour of India. Nehru had never said ‘no’ to plebiscite. So, Sheikh tricked Nehru into agreeing to a special status for the time being as he persuaded Nehru to believe that the public fury was high at the time.
Trusting the Sheikh, Nehru had no other alternative than agree to Article 370. The king had by this time degenerated into a commoner for practical purposes. The Sheikh called all shots after being made PM. So, it is true that Nehru had never committed any ‘Kashmir blunder’.
Sheikh Abdullah slowly emerged as an unchallenged ruler who had no fear of Pakistan and never worried about India with Article 370 in place. He even got Article 35 A inserted using his super diplomatic skills.
Nehru facilitated that too. Slowly, Sheikh’s true colours started showing up. He had slyly taken advantage of the Praja Parishad agitation of 1952-53 to go back on the promise to turn Kashmir completely Indian in spirit and sentiment. He also openly challenged India’s secularism on this incident and told Indian authorities that the integration of J&K, particularly Kashmir, would hurt the interest of Muslims.
Further, as was revealed later, he had surreptitiously ganged up withsome pro-Pakistani elements to keep India off as master. Pir Maqbool Gilani, a confidant of Sheikh, had secretly established contacts with Pakistan to back Sheikh if India made any coercive attempt to subjugate him. Nehru came to know everything and dismissed Sheikh’s Government and had the betrayer arrested.
What today’s Nehru detractors do not seem to know is that the decision to go to the UN on the Kashmir issue was taken by the Cabinet which included leaders like BR Ambedkar, Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Defence Minister Baldev Singh. Their claims that Nehru referred Kashmir to the UN ignoring Patel’s protests have no foundations at all.
Patel’s trusted lieutenant VP Menon has cited that a series of meetings between Jinnah-Mountbatten and Liaquat Ali-Nehru had taken place. But Pakistan went from brazen denial to defiance through avoidance, after which India had no alternative but seek UN help to avoid aggression that caused a great deal of pain to the Kashmiri people.
Everyone in the establishment including Law Minister Ambedkar, Sardar Patel, Syama Prasad Mookerjee were aware of everything. Some of the right-wingers had only left the Cabinet on the flimsy excuse that Nehru and Liaquat Ali decided to set up Minority Commissions in their respective countries.
The truth is Mookerjee had remained absolutely quiet when the Kashmir issue was being referred to the UN. Fortunately, Nehru was wholeheartedly assisted by Gopalaswami Ayyangar, Minister for States after Patel’s death. Ayyangar knew Kashmir a lot more than Patel.
Today, the BJP keeps claiming that Sardar Patel could have solved the Kashmir problem right then. Patel had no interest in Kashmir because he was keen on Hyderabad, Junagadh and hundreds of inland and landlocked states merging with the new union. Kashmir was a distant and border Sate with too many problems.
On September 12, 1947, Patel wrote to Baldev Singh that he would have no qualms if Kashmir went to Pakistan. In August 1947 at Amritsar, Patel appealed to Pakistan to take Kashmir but leave Hyderabad. VP Menon writes that Patel sent a personal message in June 1947 through Governor General Mountbatten to Maharaja Hari Singh that India would not take offence if Singh decided to merge with Pakistan.
Nehru promised self-determination not only to Kashmir but also the entire nation. He delivered the promise by January 1950 through the new Constitution.
Before 1947, India was partly under colonial rule while the rest of the country was under the feudal control of monarchs who pledged allegiance to the colonial rulers. Elections were held in 1952 in all States, including J&K, and MPs/MLAs were elected.
This representative democracy was what Nehru promised as opposed to dictatorial rules by Maharajas, Nawabs, Governors and Governors General. Nehru never promised a separate country for Kashmir and that was not the self-determination he ever promised anybody.
The current Kashmir problem started in 1989, more than 25 years after Nehru’s death. Until then, all Hindus lived happily and even demanding self-determination and autonomy themselves! In 1947 when communal riots ravaged India, not a single riot took place in Kashmir.
There are even sillier claims that “Iron Man” Patel sent the Army to Kashmir. If the Army really went to Kashmir on orders of Patel, why would they stop their “hot pursuit” on Nehru’s order? Why didn’t Patel overrule Nehru again and order the Army to continue their hot pursuit? Patel had no more military experience than Nehru. PM Narendra Modi’s claim that ‘entire Kashmir would be ours today if Patel had been the PM’ is neither factual nor rational.
A fulltime war waged on Pakistan, rather than occasional and unsubstantiated surgical strikes, would be far more fitting tribute to the great leaders of yore who fought to build India than building statues.
The Modi administration has done wonders on the Kashmir issue. Whole sensible world hails him as Hero! But demonising Nehru on the wrong foot would mean ‘sacrilege’. Even God will feel upset over the falsehood!