Tracing history of Valley war

Why did the British partition colonial India Declassified British archives are a reservoir of information, which not only answers this but also provide inputs on a plethora of related events that elaborate on the genesis of the Kashmir issue. This is what Aman Hingorani, a fourth generation lawyer, decided to do when suggested by his father.

These archives reveal that the British needed the predominantly Islamic and strategic north-western slice of undivided India to add on to and extend the ideological Islamic barrier stretching from Turkey to the Chinese border, to prevent the then Soviet Union from dominating Central Asia. Partitioning this crucial region to create an accommodating and reliable sovereign state in the Indian sub-continent, ‘Pakistan’, would complete this crescent, as Britain’s master ploy in the Great Game.

Post 1857, the British propped up the Muslim League to counter the political threat of the Congress to their colonial rule. The idea was to use the Muslim League to demand ‘Pakistan’ ostensibly on the basis of the two-nation theory, which asserted that Hindus and Muslims could not live peacefully together in one country and were to be considered as two separate nations in every respect. On January 28, 1933, Choudhary Rahmat Ali in Cambridge wrote and published a pamphlet titled “Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever”, in which the word ‘Pakstan’ (without the letter ‘i’) was used for the first time. This pamphlet was presented at the Round Table conferences the same year, at the behest of Winston Churchill.

Floating several plans to partition the Indian sub-continent, the British identified and handpicked the politically ambitious (and secular) barrister M.A. Jinnah to propound the two-nation theory. For pork-eating and religiously non-pious Jinnah, ‘Pakistan’ was more a means of grasping power, than any conviction of creating an Islamic state.

At the 1945 Simla Conference, the British projected Jinnah of the Muslim League as the sole representative of all Indian Muslims, even though he had little or no support among them. The British outwitted the Indian leadership into letting the Congress-ruled NorthWest Frontier Province go to Pakistan and were complicit in Jinnah's 'Direct Action' leading to a bloodbath in Bengal, Punjab and other parts of the country that ultimately compelled the Indian leadership to accept partition. They set people against each another, like they did to disintegrate the Ottoman Empire. They encouraged traditional Hindu-Muslim differences to deteriorate into a killing frenzy.

Both India and Pakistan were partitioned by creations of British statutes enacted to give effect to the political agreement driven by the British and the Muslim League, and eventually accepted by the Congress. As per the agreement, the provinces were to be partitioned according to the two-nation theory conceived by the British to create Pakistan. However, all the princely states were to regain full sovereignty and this sovereignty was to be vested in the ruler, regardless of the religious complexion of the people of that state. It was the ruler alone who could offer accession. These British statutes were accepted by India and Pakistan. However, the accession of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) to India would adversely impact the Great Game for the British and defeat the very rationale of creating ‘Pakistan’.

The British did not need all of J&K. They only needed the northern areas of J&K, including Gilgit, for the Great Game with the Russians and the portion known as ‘Azad Kashmir’ to protect Pakistan from liquidation should India go to war with Pakistan.

J&K acceded to India on October 26, 1947. On October 30 the same year, the British effected a coup in strategically located Gilgit to hand it over to Pakistan. Pakistan-led tribals with the collusion of the British, whose officers headed both the Indian and Pakistani armies, captured ‘Azad Kashmir’. India remained a British dominion till 1950. Mountbatten, heading the Emergency Committee and the Defence Committee of the Indian Cabinet, formulated India’s Kashmir policy till 1948.

The author observes that it was overlooked by Nehru that once a political decision has been crystallised into law, the executive has to accept it because it cannot act beyond its power. New Delhi acted beyond the scope of its power by promising self-determination and plebiscite in J&K. Terrorist movements in the guise of a freedom struggle continues because Nehru said that Kashmiris had the right to self-determination. We created the problem in the first place. Since then, the Indian policy seems to be of territorial status quo and of converting the LOC into the international border. That is, India would give up the territory of J&K occupied by Pakistan and China.

Since Independent India’s government created doubts about the unconditional nature of the accession of J&K to it, internationalised the Kashmir issue and conferred a disputed territory status on J&K, India needs to confirm its title deeds to J&K. This would show that the whole of erstwhile J&K belongs to India. The only body that can look into this issue is the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Why India never went to the ICJ despite various acts by Pakistan, including barbarism by its army and sheltering terrorists (who have spread terrorism globally)

A finding from the ICJ will be binding on both India and Pakistan and all other members of the UN. Otherwise, no one is going to listen to us. If ICJ gives a verdict in India’s favour, then other nations will no longer be in a position to say that the current situation in J&K is related to ‘freedom struggle’. They will have to ask Pakistan and China to vacate the territory of J&K under their occupation. A confirmation of the correct legal position by the ICJ will help alter the current political discourse, swing political opinion in India's favour and create a momentum to win the confidence of J&K people.

But law alone will not resolve the Kashmir issue. Past mistakes need to be undone as mentioned in the book, which uncovers important history painstakingly hidden by some of India's founding and floundering leaders. Unravelling the Kashmir Knot is a ‘must read’ for all on either side of the Indo-Pak border.

Book: Unravelling the Kashmir Knot By Aman M. Hingorani SAGE Wisdom Village 386 pages, Rs 995

The writer, a retired Army officer, is a defence and security analyst based in New Delhi