Daily Times

My impressions regarding Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s arrest and the Kashmir Conspiracy Case became more coherent after reading the monograph by Y. D. Gundevia. The Chicago Daily Tribune was just as unequivocal in its criticism of the Sheikh’s detention as other international commentators and political analysts. The editorial in the Tribune underlined that the Sheikh’s arrest was under the Nehru government’s Preventive Detention Act, which gave Indian authorities free rein to hold a suspect for a period of up to ten years without either lodging formal charges or a formal warrant. The Sheikh, the editorial explained to its readers, had been “making himself unpopular by demanding that the people of Kashmir be permitted to decide their own future by a plebiscite.” It further noted that the significant and exemplary role played by the Sheikh in India’s freedom struggle and the arduous work of nation-building had won him disapprobation from the British authorities. In the days of British rule, the Sheikh’s “record of arrests rivals that of Nehru himself.”The editorial observed that in a recent letter to Nehru, the Sheikh had drawn an analogy between a Nazi concentration camp and the political morbidity in the Valley of Kashmir. He had also expressed his consternation at the halted march toward democracy after political stalwarts in the Indian subcontinent had campaigned and fought against the British colonial power. The commentator concludes, “All that has happened is that Abdullah has become a martyr in the cause of liberty under Britain’s heir” (May 5, 1958). It did not take a skeptic to question whether articles in newly ratified constitutions of sovereign nations, which pledged to protect the fundamental rights of citizens, had a real impact on institution building.

The editorial observed that in a recent letter to Nehru, the Sheikh had drawn an analogy between a Nazi concentration camp and the political morbidity in the Valley of Kashmir. He had also expressed his consternation at the halted march toward democracyafter political stalwarts in the Indian subcontinent had campaigned and fought against the British colonial power

Gundevia was Special Secretary handling Kashmir Affairs in the United Nations, then Commonwealth Secretary handling Kashmir Affairs, and Jawaharlal Nehru’s Foreign Secretary, all in the 1960s. Gundevia’s monograph is appended with The Testament of Sheikh Abdullah (1974). I quote portions of Gundevia’s astute observation about the Sheikh’s ouster and arrest in 1953. Gundevia observes that the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir [Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah], at this stage, was contending with the rabidity “of Muslim communalism of the pro-Pakistan variety and Hindu communalism of the strongly entrenched Praja Parishad (today’s Bharatiya Janata Party, a right-wing ultra-nationalist organization) in Jammu.”The increasing communalization of Indian politics was a juggernaut that questioned the myth of secularism in India, and the increasing religiosity in Pakistan was just as damaging. Punitive measures taken against Muslim communalists were welcomed with quiet sighs of relief and approval in India, but any attempt to crack down on the divisive politics of the ultra-nationalist, right-wing Praja Parishad met with strong denunciation.

Mullick, in his intransigence and determination to close the chapter of Kashmiri self-determination and autonomy, argued that without Akbar Jehan in the trial the prosecution would be unable to corroborate the charge of seditious conspiracy leveled against her, the Sheikh, and their political colleagues. He insisted that without the prosecution of Akbar Jehan, they would “miss one of the main connecting links with Pakistan and this would greatly weaken our case; but on this question Bakshi would not budge; and Pandit Nehru [Prime Minister of India] also agreed that the Sheikh should not be prosecuted.” The Intelligence Bureau and the Ministry of Home Affairs [India] were in a state of perplexity and uncertainty over how to proceed in this rather difficult situation, because they had moved mountains to prepare a “proper charge-sheet.” But, to their utter dismay, they were categorically told that, “he [Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah] should not be put on trial.” The Intelligence Bureau, however, persevered, in its attempt to bring Akbar Jehan and the Sheikh to book. Mullick’s vitriolic outbursts, rancor, and vicious endeavors to vindicate the unwarranted incarceration of the Sheikh and his political colleagues proved futile, as Prime Minister Nehru was averse to detaining a leader against whom no substantive evidence could be garnered. The evidence fabricated by Mullick and his cohort was fragmented, contradictory, and could not hold water. India, a young nation-state in the late fifties and early sixties, sought the approval of the international community and could not brook the corrosive criticisms of world powers and intergovernmental organizations.

While harboring his heritage, culture, and values of the past, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was well-aware of the exigencies of the present and had the courage to translate his vision into reality, thereby, opening a new chapter of peasant emancipation, and further instituting educational and social schemes for marginalized sections of society. Despite his flaws, I find an incredible depth of thought and strength Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s politics, manifested in the dialectic of resistance and accommodation. I say this not as a granddaughter, but as a student of his life and politics. The Sheikh’s nationalism was premised on geography and history, not on religion. He clearly did not subscribe to the notion that a powerful global ideology, like pan-Islamism, communism, or fascism, could effectuate universal liberation. He advocated the creation of a political structure in which a popular politics of mass mobilization would be integrated with institutional politics of governance.

The writer is the author of Fiction of Nationality in an Era of Transnationalism, Islam, Women, and Violence in Kashmir, The Life of a Kashmiri Woman, and the editor of The Parchment of Kashmir. Nyla Ali Khan has also served as guest editor working on articles from the Jammu and Kashmir region for Oxford University Press (New York), helping to identify, commission, and review articles. She can be reached at nylakhan@aol.com

Published in Daily Times, November 24^th 2018.