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Journalism of Courage
The symbolism of the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty by India, following the April 22 Pahalgam attack, goes beyond the fact that it is one of the rare pacts between India and Pakistan which has survived three wars and persistent hostility between them.
The river, lending its name to one of the world’s oldest settlements as the Indus Valley Civilization, also played a significant – if little-known – role in a significant chapter in India’s political history soon after Independence. That was the 1951 reconsecration of the Somnath Temple, which put the secular principles of the fledgling government of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to its first test.
The trust behind the consecration sought soil, flora and water from across the world to offer at the temple. This included 12 ounces of water of the Indus river from Pakistan.
Documents preserved at the National Archives show what followed.
On February 20, 1951, the Jam Sahib of Nawanagar wrote to Khub Chand, the Acting Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan, saying: “We have been advised that for the (Somnath) ceremony, not only waters, vanaspati (flora) and soils from all over India but… from all over the world (are needed). So far as Pakistan is concerned, we need – 12 ounces of water from the river Sindhoo (Indus)… The packet should be directed to be labelled indicating its contents and sent by air mail, so as to reach me not later than the 15th March, 1951 (the day of the consecration).”
Acting promptly, Chand sent a packet containing Indus water a fortnight later to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in Delhi and informed the South Block. “I enclose a copy of the correspondence exchanged with His Highness the Jam Sahib of Nawanagar regarding supply of some water from the river Sindhu (Indus) for ceremonies connected with the restoration of the Somnath Temple… Would you please have it sent to His Highness by air mail… Please treat this letter as IMMEDIATE,” Chand wrote to MEA Deputy Secretary S K Banerji on March 7.
The same day, Chand wrote to the Jam Sahib of Nawanagar, informing him that he had sent the water, adding: “I take this opportunity to offer you my very best wishes for the success of the functions connected with the restoration of the Somnath Temple.”
In Delhi, Banerji forwarded the Indus water packet to K M Munshi, then Minister of Food and Agriculture, and wrote to Jam Sahib telling him that the latter would carry the water for the installation of the Ling ceremony at the Somnath Temple.
However, the archives show, a week after the Indus water packet was received in Delhi, Chand started worrying about how this may be received in Pakistan. “There must, under no circumstances, be any publicity to the effect that Sindhu (Indus) water was sent by the High Commission for India to Pakistan… (or its) utilization for the ceremonies. Such publicity is bound to cause much bitter comment in Pakistan,” Chand wrote to Banerji on March 19, 1951.
Banerji forwarded Chand’s no-publicity request to Munshi, even while asking the Acting High Commissioner, in a letter on March 28, what possible objection could Pakistan have to Indus water being used in Somnath consecration.
Two days later, Chand replied: “The Pakistan Government is not going to take any objection but there is likely to be some comment in the Pakistan Press. This may be somewhat on the following lines:- (a) India ‘pretends’ to be a secular democracy. Yet She indulges in great pomp and ceremony connected with restoration of a temple destroyed by a Muslim conqueror. (b) India has not reconciled herself to Partition. The Indus is no longer an Indian river. It is the lifeblood of Pakistan. The use of Indus water shows that India still considers this river sacred to her.”
Chand added: “This is, of course, a historic occasion for us to be able to restore the Somnath Temple. But I should personally much prefer if no mention is made of the fact that the High Commission sent the Indus water. That Indus water was used in connection with the celebration, along with water and earth from various other places in the world, may be modestly advertised if considered desirable… It is not so much the effect in Pakistan that is important but the effect on foreign opinion conditioned by observations in the Pakistan Press or by their propagandists.”
The issue eventually reached Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who expressed his disapproval through Foreign Secretary K P S Menon. (Nehru had been opposed to any association of his government with the consecration, though many Congress leaders wanted it.) Conveying Nehru’s message, Menon wrote to Chand on April 25, saying that the PM wanted to convey that the request for Indus water by the Jam Sahib of Nawanagar “does not have his approval”, and that “if any such request is received in the future, you should bring it to our notice before complying with it”.
Chand wrote back to the MEA on April 30, 1951, saying: “We sent the Indus water through the Ministry of External Affairs so that proper screening of the request could be made if desired. IN this connection I may add that I have already made a request that no publicity should be given to the fact that the High Commission supplied Indus water for the consecration of the Somnath Temple.”
Chand’s concerns about negative publicity of the consecration ceremony proved valid. On May 21, 1951, a 12-page dossier for the MEA compiled by Deputy Principal Information Officer V R Bhatt detailed reports in the Pakistani Gujarati press accusing India of religious bias and revanchism. Bhatt noted that the Somnath ceremony had become a pretext for intense anti-Hindu and anti-India propaganda.
