Kashmir: A violation of modesty and the 1947 war

On the twenty-second of October 1947, the Pakistanis staged an all-out invasion of Kashmir and blatantly violated the State’s modesty.

It is important to note that the Indian and Pakistani militaries were under British control for a brief period of time post-independence, perhaps in order to avoid any breakout of violence between the two newly formed Dominions. This is perhaps why the invading force not only consisted of soldiers of the Pakistani army, but mostly tribes like the Afridis, Wazirs, Mahsuds and Swathis, in two to three hundred trucks.

Having advanced into Kashmir from Abbottabad (N.W.F.P) and captured Garhi and Domel, the Pakistani forces first encountered the Kashmiri army in Muzaffarabad. The Muslim portions of the Kashmiri battalion, having fled the battle scene, Muzaffarabad was captured with ease. Having further advanced to Uri, Brigadier Rajinder Singh and his one hundred and fifty men destroyed the only connecting bridge that led to Srinagar. Having lost their lives, their sacrifice perhaps delayed the enemy’s advancement by two days, which was an integral step towards Indian “victory”.

Pakistani forces further advanced towards Baramulla, cutting off the power supply to Srinagar from the Mahura Power House. The atrocities that these Pakistani tribesmen and forces committed in the city of Baramulla may be best termed as “Barbaric”. This included gang rapes, not just of Hindu, Sikh and Christian women, but also of Muslim women. In the words of J. Sai Deepak, “They were very egalitarian in that sense”. Having reduced the city’s population from about 14,000 to 1,000, the Pakistani “army” wished to proceed towards Srinagar.

In the interim, the Maharaja of Kashmir was forced to move to Jammu with his valuables and family due to concerns about his safety. V. P. Menon, having consulted with Lord Mountbatten, Nehru, Sardar Patel and the Defence Committee, presented the instrument of accession to the Maharaja, now in Jammu. The Instrument of Accession, having its legal basis in Section 6 of the Indian Independence Act of 1947, was the legal agreement of sorts that was to be signed by a Princely state, to accede to the Indian Dominion. The Maharaja readily signed the instrument and was said to have instructed his guard to shoot him in sleep if Indian forces didn’t reach Srinagar by dawn.

When we discuss the relevance and importance of the British in this entire conflict, it is important to reflect on Lord Mountbatten’s stand on this particular issue before the Pakistani invasion. Quoting the “Jammu and Kashmir State in 1956-47 Dilemma of Accession - The Missing Link in the Story”, by Pandit Ramchandra Kak,

Pandit Kak asked him(Lord Mountbatten) point-blank to state as to which Dominion he advised Kashmir to accede. Lord Mountbatten, avoiding the direct reply, said “That is entirely for you to decide. You must consider your geographical position, your political situation and the composition of your population and then decide”. Kak rejoined “That means that you advise us to accede to Pakistan. It is not possible for us to do that; and since that is so, we cannot accede to India”.

It must be noted that the Instrument of Accession signed by the Maharaja of Kashmir was exactly the same as the ones signed by the rulers of Mysore and other Princely States. This being the only legal document signed by the Maharaja during the accession, lays testament to the fact that Kashmir is indeed as integral a part of India as Mysore or Hyderabad or any region acceded by any other Princely State to the Indian Union.

The Indian Government, having received the Instrument,signed by the Maharaja on 26 October 1947, immediately instructed the Defence Committee to take action. The Indian Military flew in with the help of not just R.I.A.F aircrafts, but also over a hundred civilian aircrafts and immediately took control of Srinagar and the Airport. V. P. Menon described the magnitude of the Air support that reached Srinagar by stating,

Lord Mountbatten, who had been Chief of Combined Operations and Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia, said that in all his war experience he had never heard of an airlift of this nature being put into operation at such short notice and he complimented all concerned on the astonishing performance.

Sheikh Abdullah, having been released from jail in September, played a substantial role in assisting the Indian military on its arrival.

The Indian forces,having landed in Srinagar, Jinnah requested the Acting Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army, General Gracey to simultaneously rush troops into Kashmir. However, these requests/orders were rejected as they didnot have the approval of the “Supreme Commander”. The accession of Kashmir by India, the Maharaja having signed the Instrument of Accession was characterised by Pakistan as being “based on fraud and violence and as such cannot be recognized”.

In the meantime, Sheikh Abdullah had been invited by the Maharaja to form an interim ‘emergency administration’. Major-General Kalwant Singh, leading the counter attack, pushed the tribesmen all the way back to Uri by 11 November. The tribesmen were outnumbered to the extent that ‘they gave up Tangmarg and Gulmarg without firing a shot’.

While on papernothing differentiated Kashmir from any other Princely State that acceded to India, Pandit Nehru’s declaration on 2 November 1947, did make a semi-permanent dent in Kashmir’s integration with India. He declared “his readiness, when peace and the rule of law had been established, to have a referendum held under some such international auspices as that of the United Nations”. In his defence, a referendum of a similar kind - a vote to let the people decide if they wanted to accede to Pakistan or India - was in order after the accession of Junagadh around the same time. This was done because India didn’t want to make the impression that it had illegally occupied the Princely State of Junagadh. Without doubt, as the majority population was Hindu, the vote was 99.95% in favour of Junagadh joining the Indian Union.

Perhaps along the same lines, since Pandit Nehru’s administration was on rather good terms with Sheikh Abdullah, the popular leader in Kashmir at the time, he assumed that a plebiscite would be in favour of India and would negate any doubt over India’s legitimate claim over Kashmir.

On 8 December 1947, a meeting of the Joint Defence Council was held in Lahore, where Lord Mountbatten, along with the two Prime Ministers- Pandit Nehru and Liaquat Ali Khan. While the meeting was inconclusive to a large extent, it was there that Lord Mountbatten suggested the intervention of the United Nations “to fulfil the third-party role”.

The post of Governor-General was held by Mr. Jinnah for the Dominion of Pakistan while Lord Mountbatten was retained as India’s Governor-General post his role as Viceroy at the time of Partition. This meant that the Indian administration had a British official in its high rankings (for whatever reasons) while Pakistan’s administration was largely comprised of Muslim League members with the exception of the Army chief, who was British. Thus a substantial amount of decision making in the newly “independent” India could be attributed to the presence of an Englishman in the Administration.

Probably owing to Article 33 of the UN Charter (Chapter VI - The Pacific Settlement of Disputes), which said

The parties to any dispute…..shall, first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice

The Indian Government formally asked the Pakistani Government to deny the tribesmen (whom they claimed had no communication with the Pakistani Government) the following:

1. Access to Pakistani territory to perform any operation against Kashmir
2. Any Military and other supplies
3. Any sort of Aid that would aid the conflict

Having received no reply to the above demands by 31 December 1947, India made a formal appeal to the United Nations Organisation on the matter.

Having discussed the Matter in the United Nations Security Council, the Council (whose resolutions are legally binding on all its members) adopted Resolution 47 on 21 April 1948. The Resolution comprised of three parts -

1. Ceasefire order - demanded both Nations to issue necessary orders to their forces to immediately establish a ceasefire. Note that the ceasefire line that was established is now what we know as the “line of control”
2. Truce Agreement - Obliged Pakistan to withdraw its tribesmen while India would maintain “within the lines existing at the moment of the cease-fire the minimum strength of its forces… …necessary to assist local authorities in the observance of law and order”.
3. Referendum - Both parties/States having fulfilled their obligations under the first 2 parts of this resolution (Ceasefire order and the Truce Agreement), a referendum was to be held

Those who argue that a plebiscite/referendum must have been held must first note that Pakistan never withdrew its Nationals from Kashmir as obliged under the Security Council Resolution.

Having explained in great detail the various nuances of Kashmir’s accession and even the legalities of the UN Resolutions, the next article shall discuss the Integration of Kashmir into India that is Bharat.

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