Jammu and Kashmir’s Accession to India Is Final<\/p>\n
By Mahesh Kaul<\/p>\n
The partition of the Indian subcontinent should be seen in the perspective of the Anglo-Muslim
\n alliance that was forged by the British to retain their strategic foothold in the Indian
\n subcontinent to have an access to the Russian activities and the appreciable influence on the
\n Central Asian region mainly in terms of oil reserves. As the oil reserves were in the domain
\n of the Central Asian and Middle Eastern Islamic countries and regions, the British encouraged
\n the separatist Muslim sentiment in India to impress the Muslim world and at the same time kept
\n the nationalist movement for the Indian independence under check, which the British viewed as
\n the \u2018Hindu Nationalist\u2019 upsurge.<\/p>\n
Kashmir problem is the outcome of the \u2018Great Game\u2019 which the British played to keep the
\n separatist Muslim element alive to keep its stakes high even though World War II had changed
\n the dynamics of the strategic world order. This move was further meant to make the north-
\n Indian borders weak and pregnable forever and the result is the present Kashmir crisis. It was
\n a clear move to sow the seeds of the balkanisation of the Indian Union.<\/p>\n
The process of maintaining the checks and applying brakes on the Indian nationalists had been
\n devised by the British well before 1947 and Jinnah was a British prop to materialise the
\n separatist Muslim claims for the partition of India.<\/p>\n
These ploys and what was going on in the British mind has been revealed by Krishna Menon, who
\n was close to the British circles, in the following words to Lord Mountbatten well before the
\n partition on June 14, 1947, \u201dIs this frontier of (the northwest of India abutting Afghanistan
\n & Iran) still the hinterland of the Imperial Strategy? Do British still think in terms of
\n being able to use this territory and all that follows from it? There is considerable amount of
\n talk in this way; and if Kashmir, for one reason or another, chooses to be in Pakistan, that
\n is a further development in this direction. I do not know of British policy in this matter. I
\n do not know whether you know it either. But if this be the intent, this is tragic \u2026 As it
\n becomes more evident, the attitude of India would be resentful and Britain\u2019s hold on Pakistan
\n would not improve it.\u201d (pp.15-16, The Untold Story of India\u2019s Partition)<\/p>\n
Menon was pointing towards the British strategy of using West Pakistan as a base to stop the
\n Soviet expansion towards the Indian Ocean, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf and secondly he
\n implied that British policy was so \u2018subterranean\u201c that even the Viceroy was ignorant of it?
\n These intrigues shaped the Kashmir problem and result is the present state of chaos and
\n desperation.<\/p>\n
Accession of the Jammu & Kashmir State to the Indian Union needs to be understood by keeping
\n in mind the traits of the British and the separatist Muslim mindset of the Muslim League
\n nurtured by the imperial policy makers to divide India to suit their strategic hold on the
\n subcontinent.<\/p>\n
There is a false premise on which Jammu & Kashmir\u2019s accession to India is always understood by
\n certain vested interests: \u201cThat the Radcliffe Boundary Commission award giving Gurdaspur
\n District to the Indian East Punjab was announced on August 17, 1947, two days after the new
\n Dominions of India and Pakistan had already come into being.\u201d This is totally absurd.<\/p>\n
The demarcation of the areas that would go to Pakistan had already been decided by the British
\n well before 1947, the year of the partition. Its blueprint was prepared by the Viceroy Lord
\n Archbald Wavell in 1946 to forge an alliance with Jinnah\u2019s Muslim League, the foundation of
\n this unholy alliance was laid in 1940-41 by his predecessor Linlithgow to project Jinnah as
\n the sole spokesman of \u2018Muslim India\u2019.<\/p>\n
The same blueprint was kept under cover till the opportune time came in 1947 for the British
\n withdrawal. It was deliberately kept in abeyance so that the finger of suspicion for the
\n vivisection of India is not raised against the British Empire.<\/p>\n
Narender Singh Sarila, who was an ADC to the last Viceroy Lord Louis Mountbatten, was a
\n witness to the British decisions and policy. Has observed candidly in his book The Untold
\n Story of India\u2019s Partition that \u201csecret archives cannot be depended upon to reveal the entire
\n picture. Many decisions that are taken by government are never committed on paper or, if so
\n committed, are not revealed even after the probationary period for keeping them under wraps
\n has lapsed. For instance, Lord Mountbatten\u2019s reports to London, sent after August 15, 1947,
\n while he was the governor-general of India, have not been unsealed even after almost sixty
\n years, thereby depriving us of information surrounding British policy on Kashmir\u201c.(pp.168,The
\n Untold Story of India\u2019s Partition)<\/p>\n
Lord Wavell was constantly in touch with the Secretary of State in London. His blueprint for
\n the partition was being taken seriously in London. On January 29, 1946, the Secretay of State
\n revealed the British policy by stating, in a telegram to Wavell, that \u201dIt would help me to
\n know when I may expect to receive your recommendation as regards definition of genuinely
\n Muslim areas if we are compelled to give a decision to this (Partition)\u201d. (pp.194-195,The
\n Untold Story of India\u2019s Partition)<\/p>\n
Gurdaspur district was not incorporated into the Indian Union after the partition, Wavell\u2019s
\n partition plan forwarded to London on February 6-7, 1946 makes it clear as to what was in
\n store for millions of people of the Indian subcontinent. His partition plan which was
\n implemented by his successor Lord Mountbatten reads \u201d1) If compelled to indicate demarcation
\n of genuinely Moslem areas I recommend that we should include (a) Sind, North-West Frontier
\n Province, British Baluchistan and Rawalpindi, Multan and Lahore Divisions of Punjab, Less
\n Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts \u2026 2) In the Punjab the only Moslem\u2013majority district that
\n would not go into Pakistan under demarcation is Gurdaspur. Gurdaspur must go with Amritsar for
\n geographical reasons and Amritsar being the sacred city of Sikhs must stay out of Pakistan\u2026\u201d
\n(pp.195,The Untold Story of India\u2019s Partition)<\/p>\n
Therefore it becomes clear that the decision regarding the Gurdaspur district was taken well
\n before partition and the argument regarding its inclusion in the Indian Union after the
\n partition does not hold any ground as it is far from the historical fact made amply clear by
\n Lord Wavell\u2019s partition plan.<\/p>\n
So the point raised by the fifth columnists and other left liberal intellectuals that
\n\u201cMaharaja Hari Singh could not accede to the newly created Indian Dominion and the Indian
\n Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru could not accept such a request on or before August 15, 1947
\n because under the provision of July 1947 Indian Independence Act passed by the British
\n Parliament, Pathankot tehsil at that time, the only geographical link of Jammu & Kashmir, was
\n located in Gurdaspur District of west Punjab which had been notified under the aforesaid Act
\n as part of Pakistan\u201cis falsification of the reality.<\/p>\n
Another observation by these individuals that \u201cThe Maharaja Sahib had therefore no other
\n option than to think of Standstill Agreement with both new dominions of India and Pakistan and
\n making Jammu & Kashmir an Eastern Switzerland of Asia\u201c is another misinterpretation of
\n constitutional realities and the facts. As India under the British was composed of British
\n India and the Princely States which accepted the British rule, the rulers of these States were
\n thus bound to accede to one of the dominions and there was no provision for their independent
\n existence. The celebrated political scientist MK Teng, in the preface to his book titled
\n Kashmir: the Myth of Autonomy has cleared this misconception regarding the accession of Jammu
\n & Kashmir and other Princely States to the Indian Union. He writes, \u201cThe partition of India
\n did not envisage the accession of the Princely States to the dominion of India and Pakistan on
\n the basis British India was divided. The partition of India left the States out of its scope
\n and the transfer of power accepted the lapse of the Paramountcy: the imperial authority the
\n British exercised over the States. The accession of the States to India was the culmination of
\n a historical process which symbolised the unity of the people in the British India and the
\n Indian States\u201d. (pp.VII, Kashmir-Myth of Autonomy)<\/p>\n
It is a populist view in order to cover the truth regarding the accession that Maharaja Hari
\n Singh was trapped and was hence indecisive to accede to India. To clear this misconception
\n further Teng writes, \u201dIn 1947, when Jammu & Kashmir acceded to India, the ruler of the State,
\n Maharaja Hari Singh signed the same standard form of the Instrument of Accession, which the
\n other major Indian States signed. The accession of the State to India was not subject to any
\n exceptions or pre-condition to provide for any separate and special constitutional
\n arrangements for the State. Neither Nehru nor Patel gave any assurances to Hari Singh or the
\n National Conference leaders that Jammu & Kashmir would be accorded a separate and independent
\n political organisation on the basis of the Muslim Majority character of its population.\u201d
\n(pp.VII, Kashmir-Myth of Autonomy)<\/p>\n
Thus it is crystal clear that the accession of the Jammu and Kashmir State to the Indian Union
\n is complete in the Constitutional manner.<\/p>\n
******(Writer writes on geo political issues,Northern Frontier,Strategic Affairs,cultural
\n ,historical,heritage and tourism related issues with special emphasis on Jammu and
\n Kashmir and territorial integrity of the Indian nation.He is pursing PhD from
\n SHTM(School for Hospitality and Tourism Management),Faculty of Business
\n Studies,Univeristy of Jammu,Jammu )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jammu and Kashmir’s Accession to India Is Final By Mahesh Kaul The partition of the… more