What role exactly did Nehru play in the accession of Kashmir to India?

Earlier this year, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had also attacked Nehru for internationalising the Kashmir issue by taking it to the United Nations on the advice of the British, an act she said was being misused by the neighbouring country of Pakistan till today.

Kashmir before Independence

When the British decided to exit the Indian subcontinent, the fate of the 500-odd princely states was yet to be decided. The Congress had announced its decision of integrating the princely states within the Indian union by the late 1930s itself. Consequently, a new states department was set up with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as its head and V P Menon as the secretary. They worked together under the guidance of Lord Mountbatten to strategise and convince the princely states to accede to the Indian union.

Of the 500 princely states, the most important was Jammu and Kashmir. It was the largest in India and also the most strategically located, sharing borders with both the newly born dominions of India and Pakistan. The state with a predominantly Muslim population was being ruled by Maharaja Hari Singh, a Dogra king who ascended the throne in September 1925. The king, however, is known to have spent most of his time in race courses and hunting.

By the 1930s, the Kashmiri political scene saw the emergence of Sheikh Abdullah, son of a shawl merchant, who graduated from Aligarh Muslim University with a degree in science. Abdullah’s inability to find a government job in Kashmir led him to question the treatment of Muslims in the state administration which was dominated by Hindus. “We constituted the majority and contributed the most towards the state’s revenues, still we were continually oppressed…I concluded that the ill-treatment of Muslims was an outcome of religious prejudice,” he is known to have said as quoted by historian Ramachandra Guha in his book, ‘India after Gandhi’.

In 1932, Abdullah along with other Muslims of the state opposed to the ruler formed the All-Jammu Kashmir Muslim Conference that later became the ‘National Conference’. It consisted of Hindus and Sikhs apart from Muslims, and demanded a representative government based on universal suffrage. During this time, Abdullah came into contact with Jawaharlal Nehru and they warmed to each other instantly, mainly on account of their shared ideological commitment to Hindu-Muslim harmony and socialism.

Through the 1940s, Abdullah’s popularity in Kashmir kept increasing. He demanded the Dogra dynasty to quit Kashmir, and the Maharaja responded by sending him to jail on more than one occasion. In 1946 when he was sentenced to three years imprisonment for sedition, Nehru rushed to his rescue, but was prevented from entering the state by the Maharaja’s men.

The accession of Kashmir to India

When the question of Kashmir’s accession to India or Pakistan arose, the Maharaja made clear his intention of remaining independent. “He loathed the Congress, so could not think of joining India. But if he joined Pakistan the fate of the Hindu dynasty might be sealed,” wrote Guha. The Maharaja disliked Nehru, who was openly supporting Abdullah’s ‘Quit Kashmir’ movement.

But for Nehru, the issue of Kashmir was a most crucial one. While the responsibility of convincing the states to join India was left in the hands of Patel, a task that he performed with near full autonomy, in the case of Kashmir, Nehru was personally involved.

Geographer Simrit Kahlon in her article, ‘Kashmir and Nehru: Contours of a troubled legacy’ (2020) noted Nehru’s fondness for Kashmir in his writings which included both his personal and well as official correspondence. In a letter to Abdullah in September 1947, Nehru wrote, “For me Kashmir’s future is of the most intimate personal significance.”

In the days preceding Independence, however, it was Mountbatten who tried to convince the Maharaja to accede to India. An old acquaintance of the Maharaja, he set off for Kashmir in June 1947, largely to forestall Nehru or Gandhi from doing so. In Srinagar, Mountbatten first met the prime minister Ramchandra Kak, who reiterated the state’s decision to remain independent. Mountbatten then fixed a private meeting with the Maharaja on the last day of his visit. However, on the day of the appointment, Hari Singh stayed in bed with an attack of colic, most probably a way to avoid the encounter. Hari Singh’s son, Karan Singh, in his autobiography has described this decision of his father to avoid meeting Mountbatten as a “typical feudal reaction to a difficult situation”. “Thus the last real chance of working out a viable political settlement was lost,” he wrote.

On August 15, Kashmir had neither acceded to India or Pakistan, but it offered to sign standstill agreements with both countries to allow movement of people and goods across borders. While Pakistan agreed to sign the agreement, India decided to wait and watch. However, Kashmir’s relations with Pakistan began deteriorating as the latter expected its accession on account of a largely Muslim population.

Guha in his book noted that while Nehru always wanted Kashmir to be part of India, Patel at one time was inclined to allow the state to join Pakistan. But he changed his mind on September 13, when Pakistan decided to accept the accession of Junagadh, a Hindu-majority state in the Kathiawar region with a Muslim ruler.

On September 27, Nehru wrote to Patel about the ‘dangerous and deteriorating’ situation in Kashmir and that there were rumours of Pakistan preparing to send infiltrators. He also wrote that releasing Abdullah was a necessity now to ensure popular support for the Maharaja.

Soon after Abdullah was released, he announced his demand for a popular government in Kashmir consisting of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. The Maharaja, on the other hand, was still harbouring thoughts of an independent government. “The only thing that will change our mind is if one side or the other decides to use force against us,” he is known to have said.

Two weeks later, several thousand armed men crossed into the state from the north, making their way to the capital. The fact that these were Pathans from Pakistan has remained undisputed, but why they came and on whose orders has remained at the heart of the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan. While India believed that these were Pakistani infiltrators sponsored by the state, Pakistan denied any involvement. They claimed that these were Pathans who rushed to the aid of Muslims in Kashmir being persecuted by a Hindu administration.

As the tribesmen marched on killing and looting everything in sight on their way to Srinagar, the Maharaja wired the Indian government for military assistance. On October 25, V P Menon flew down to Srinagar and advised Singh to move to Jammu for his safety. Once Menon flew back to Delhi, a Defence committee meeting was convened consisting of Nehru, Mountbatten, Patel and Abdullah. It was decided that India would immediately send troops to Kashmir, but before that it would secure Hari Singh’s accession to India.

The following morning, Menon flew to Jammu where the Maharaja had taken refuge. The Maharaja, exhausted from his turbulent escape, agreed to sign the instrument of accession immediately.

From October 27, several planes carrying Indian soldiers and supplies left from Delhi to Srinagar to fight back the infiltrators and restore peace in the valley.

Kashmir after accession

The entry of Indian troops into Kashmir left the Pakistan government fuming. When Mountbatten met Jinnah in Lahore in November 1947, the former described Kashmir’s accession to India as being based on ‘fraud and violence’. Mountbatten, however, suggested that the aggression had come from raiders from Pakistan.

With the Indian military securing Srinagar and clearing infiltrators from the other parts of the valley, the focus of the Indian government shifted to the internal politics of Kashmir. Nehru wrote to Singh asking him to place full confidence in Abdullah and make him head of the administration. With the support of Gandhi, Nehru was able to get Abdullah appointed as head of an emergency administration by the Maharaja.

As far as the impasse with Pakistan was concerned, Nehru suggested a plebiscite be conducted to decide on which dominion the people of the state wanted to join. Guha noted in his book that Nehru was also open to an independent Kashmir or the state being divided with Jammu and the valley being with India and the rest of the territory going to Pakistan.

With no decision being taken on the matter, On January 1, 1948, India decided to take the Kashmir issue to the United Nations on the advice of Mountbatten who was then the governor-general of India. But at the UN, India was surprised to see the British support for the Pakistan position. Nehru deeply regretted taking the matter to the international stage. Meanwhile, the Pakistan and Indian armies engaged in battle through the later months of 1948 in the northern and western parts of Kashmir.

Abdullah, who had by now become the most important political figure in Kashmir, insisted on the ties that Kashmir shared with India. In May 1948 he organised a weeklong celebration of freedom in Srinagar, in which several leading figures of the Indian government were invited.

In the autumn of 1948, Nehru visited Srinagar. Newspaper reports of the time noted thousands of people thronging to watch Nehru and Abdullah taking a two-hour ride down the river Jhelum. Hundreds of shikaras gathered in the lake and showered Nehru with flowers. During his visit, Nehru unfurled the national flag at Lal Chowk. In a historic gesture, he promised the people of Kashmir a chance to vote to decide on their political future.