Communal tension has been increasing in Kashmir due to increasing demand of Pakistan. Ripple effect of the same can be heard from Kashmir as well. There have been many attempts to create unrest in Kashmir on the pretext of ruler being “unjust” and “oppressive” towards majority community i.e. Muslims.
In this detailed report we will see the actual situation of 1931 and of the “oppressed” Muslims.
Incidents of “oppression”
Don’t get surprised if you find striking similarity in tactics used by them almost 90 years ago and now. The thing is they remember the past learn from it while we never really care about the past.
False accusations of Namaz obstruction
On 29th April 1931, in Jammu City, Muslims offered their Eid Namaz in the government garden, Mufti Ishaque then started giving political lectures in the name of Khutba. He mentioned Pharoah, Egyptian monarch, and their cruelty-tyranny and their defeat. Thereby referring to the King of Jammu and Kashmir.
On duty SP Babu Khemchand Sharma on hearing this stopped Mufti and asked him to continue with Khutba and not the political lecture. People told SP that there will be Khutba now and no political lecture. SP told them to continue then. On this Mufti refused to start citing interference in their religious affairs. On that day processions-cum-meetings were held, press reports were broadcasted, posters were put up with the message of “Islam in danger”, “Hindu government destroying Islam”.
Administration was prompt in action, they along with suspension set up a departmental inquiry against that SP. A case was also registered against him for disturbing religious assembly. At the end of 6 week marathon trial on the account of lack of evidence SP was acquitted.
Similar incident at Dagore village of Jammu
On the same day a similar incident happened at Dagore village of Jammu, there was a tank which was used by Hindus and Muslims both, but Hindus have always stuck to the fact that it was theirs, courts have also favored them, still they allowed Muslims to use it.
Muslims were doing Wuju at that place. SP of that area, out of apprehension, just inquired about past practice of the usage of tank water. On finding out about past usage by Muslims as well, he let them do their Wuju. Muslims objected to this and raised it by saying “Namaz was deliberately stopped by Hindu SP”. They took this matter with Young men’s Muslim Association, an radical Islamist outfit.
By that time many posters and papers were circulated in the state like Kashmiri Musalman, Maktoob-i-Kashmir, Mazloom-i-Kashmir, Inquilab, etc. They kept repeating the messages of “Islam in danger”, “Hindu ruler destroying Islam”. These things added the tension and kept the fury alive.
False accusations of insult to Quran
On 4th June 1931, a Muslim constable reported that his senior, a Hindu head constable, have disrespected Quran by throwing it on ground and asking him to not read that trash. Public meetings, papers, posters citing the same messages as mentioned above were now more frequent than usual.
Government formed an inquiry committee for this issue containing, Mr. Wakefield and two Mir Waizes from Muslim community. After detailed inquiry by the committee it was found that Muslim constable was late on duty and was sleeping, seeing this head constable, in order to wake him up, pulled his bedsheet. Along the bedsheet there was a book named Panj Surah, and accidentally it fell on the ground. Muslim constable manufactured this story to create an environment of “Hindus disrespecting Quran”. Other than this what could be the possible reason for him to sleep with that book?
Muslim constable was dismissed and Hindu head constable was sent on compulsory retirement for being Hindu. Responsibility of convincing their community about this incident fell on two Muslim committee members and they did pretty well job, of making situation worse. They did exactly the opposite.
Alleged mentioning of another insult
On the day of return of Committee Chairman Mr. Wakefield from investigation of Quran insult to Jammu, a Muslim man reported that he has found pages of Holy book in toilet of city. There was no solid evidence of this whatsoever. This issue seems to have been propped up maliciously and deliberately to prove of a point of repeated insult to Quran and to Islam.
A trigger
A public meeting at Khanqah-i-maula
During upcoming days many public meetings were held by Muslims to choose leaders for dialog with “oppressive” rule. King Hari Singh himself asked Muslim community to choose their leaders for talks regarding their issues. A meeting was held at Khanqah-i-maula on 21st June 1931 for the same.
Abdul Qadeer, a military cook, attended it. He was asked to speak from the podium. This person looks suspicious, from being a cook he rose to a podium. He started giving speeches. Some believe that he was planted by the British to create unrest in Kashmir, otherwise why would a cook stationed in Peshawar be visiting Srinagar? Be that as it may, his facile speeches filled of references to supreme authority of Quran and danger to Islam not only were seditious but calculatedly given to worsen the already worse communal situation of Kashmir.
On 21st June 1931, addressing a public meeting he spoke these words verbatim.
“Muslim brothers: the time has now come when we should not meet force by great force to put an end to the tyrannies and brutalities to which you are subjected, nor will they solve the issue of disrespect to Holy Quran to your satisfaction. You must rely on your own strength and wage a relentless war against oppression“; pointing his finger towards the palace he shouted, : “raze it to the ground. We have no machine guns. But we have plenty of stones and brickbats.“
He was a menace to law and order. Police registered a case against him under 124A and 153. He was to be tried by a Sessions Judge. Muslims were very aggressive during these days, on every hearing which fell in the first two weeks of July they crowded court premises and obstructed traffic of roads. On 11th of July DM of Srinagar as a preventive measure suggested to keep trial in jail itself.
Planning of 13th July riots
On 12th July night at Gaukadal, Srinagar, meeting was held by Muslims to go in large numbers to jail on the next day, “Islam in danger” was main topic of the meeting. House to house calls were made to assemble at jail, strike, use violence, riot, loot on the next day.
Now on 13th July, crowds started gathering at Jail in the late morning itself. Till afternoon thousands were assembled. Around 1 PM when Judge arrived and entered the Jail compound & around 200 people forcefully went inside along his car. Judge asked the jailor to inform the DM and DIG to send reinforcements. Crowd wanted to see Abdul Qadir and attend the trial. They have been told by their leaders that Qadir was to be sentenced on that day itself. So they wanted to see whether justice is being done or not, frankly, they wanted to pressurize the Judge.
DIG & DM arrived at around 1:15 PM and extra police force also came. Police strength was around 119 with 22 armed policemen and the rest were with lathis. The crowd became around 7000 strong as the time went.
People who forcefully entered the jail compound were, according to law, in an unlawful assembly, as they would restrict the judge from doing his duty. As they were attempting to break the iron gate of the jail building, the DM directed 2 CID officers (Muslims) to arrest people who were rioting. For very suspicious reasons both of them said that they can’t identify rioters from the mob, were they part of JK Police or Brotherhood without banners?
Governor directed other officials to make arrests. After some(four to five) arrests were made, the crowd started pelting stones. Slogans were chanted, “Allah-hu-akbar”, “Islam Zindabad”. Due to stone pelting many constables were wounded and brought to Jail hospital. Other prisoners who were there for their hearing also got stone injuries.
Jail lines, press were set to fire and looted, kits of policemen were lying open, content of jail lines were thrown away, firemen were also attacked with stones and wounded. Prisoners inside of jail started to break windows, to utilize an opportunity made for an escape.
DM requested DIG to announce to the crowd that they are unlawful assembly, still after announcement none dispersed, they continued pelting stones. With fears of constables getting wounded, prisoners trying to break open, firemen attacked, jail lines-press set to fire and continuous pelting of stones, at the end DM ordered the use of fire on the lower part of the body starting with multiple warning fires in air.
Arguments made on use of fire
Argument 1 : Police opened fire on people who were doing Namaz.
Rebuttal : A man came to Wakefield and told him, “Namaz padh rahe the, nahaq goli chaladi”, basically he said that they were offering Namaz and police started firing on them without reason. Wakefield asked him whether Namaz had anything to do with stone pelting, but he had no answer. There was a large quantity of stones in the jail compound as mentioned by Wakefield and Sutherland.
Argument 2 : There was continuous firing for a long period of time.
Rebuttal : Firing was not for a long time, a total of 11 firing happened, in the group of 2 or 3 rounds. With each fire DIG waited to see if stones were stopped but they increased each time with greater intensity. Warnings were given before firing, shots were fired in air as well (~5 rounds). Crowd didn’t stop pelting stones then they were fired upon.
Argument 3 : Crowd of peaceful assembly gathered for protest, police fired on them while they were dispersing without reason.
Rebuttal : Crowd was throwing stones, with each round of fire stones increased with greater violence. Crowd was attacking, not dispersing. With every round the crowd did not disperse but entered the compound again with a greater amount of stones.
Argument 4 : Firing was done continuously like a machine gun.
Rebuttal : Policemen had rifles and those rifles needed reloading after every fire, and there were tall compound walls so firing could be only done after coming through the gate and turning right and there were gaps between fires. So there was no possibility of firing shots like automatic guns. Actually the gaps between firing were there to see whether they had dispersed or not, but they didn’t. Firing stopped as soon as the crowd dispersed.
The loot
After the incident of firing, in all localities across the city loot of Hindu shops were followed. Roads of Maharajgunj were filled with goods like glass, grains, etc looted from Hindu shops, houses. Goods worth 40 Lakhs(which is equal to at least 40 crore today) looted, women molested, riots done. Srinagar was encircled and held hostage for three hours. Localities like Maharajgunj, Biijibhira, Bhurikadal, Kanikadal, Safakadal, Alikadal, Nawakadal, Hariparbat, Sher Garhi, Garhbazar, Chattabal, Sahiyar, Budgate, Nowshera, Vicharnag, etc. If you mark it these all form a major part of a city and it forms a boundary of the city as well.
“It culminated in riots, arson, loot, ravaged homes, murderous assaults on men and unspeakable atrocities on women”, GS Raghavan, The warning of Kashmir.
Ornaments were stolen, account books of bankers-lenders torn to avoid repayment of debt, ransoms were taken for protection of Hindu houses, iron safes containing lifelong savings were lying on the road, amounts kept for marriages and other occasions were wiped out in minutes. Kailash Bhatt, Srikanth Khar, Vidh Lal, Karam Chand, etc were the first hand victims, their testimonies were very difficult to read.
Allegations on Hindus and military
Allegations were made that Hindus also looted Muslim shops with military help to discredit military. One Doctor and Maulvi stated that their houses were looted by Hindus with military help, they said military men frightened them with rifles, but Brigadier refuted it as no rifles were used within city limits. These allegations against the military were there to discredit them and prove them biased, so in future they can escape the military recruitment and cry about disproportion in the military, thereby proving it’s bias. See the planning.
Loot was planned
According to Jia Lal Koul, planning of loot was done seven-eight days prior to 13th July. After the news of firing, Muslim shop owners closed their shops Gongs of mosques were ringed, people from Muslim majority areas like Sovroo came in cars and bikes to attack. Muslim shop owners supported the loot.
Hindus suffered loss of life and properties for being Hindu
Muslims in retaliation to firing attacked innocent Hindus, three Hindus were killed and 163 wounded for being Hindu. Hundreds of houses and shops were looted. 300 were arrested of which 217 were released for lack of evidence. All of this raises questions on the army, police, administration and mainly on the man who was responsible for it. Wakefield.
Wakefield: The mastermind
Wakefield played a mysterious rather suspicious role all along from the start of his tenure. We will see some of his deeds that created unrest rather than peace.
- He did not attack quickly enough on information about the attack on the jail given by IGP.
- He arrived at the attack spot at 3 PM.
- He was Minister of Police but he did not give correct orders at the correct time.
- He even did not send the military on time, help sent by King himself came quickly.
- He was allegedly there at a public meeting where Abdul Qadir made that seditious speech.
- He lied to incite Muslims on Quran insult issue, it was said by Muslims that he told them that insult to Quran has happened in Jammu, while it was not mentioned in the inquiry report chaired by himself, so why did he tell a lie to Muslims? To worsen the situation?
- He ordered the military to stop house searches which were started after loot to recover properties, Peer Yahya told to Muslims that they need to worry as Mr. Wakefield told him that there will be no searches so they don’t need to return properties.
- It was said that he was prominent in reinstatement of capital punishment to Rajputs and Brahmins
- Even after so much violence, agitations, riots, at the end there was always a compromise and in each of which Wakefield was there. Criminals were often ignored, reinstated in services and pardoned, possibly under his advice.
- After the riots 2 bridges were burned down, IGP told the commission that he informed Wakefield and informed him to provide military support beforehand but this was ignored and bridges were burned.
British Interest
This unfortunate incident was an opportunity for the British, they will not miss it. False reports were published calling this incident a “butury” and “massacre”. Number of deaths increased to many fold in these reports. Reports also toed the malicious line of “peaceful assembly gathered for prayer has been mercilessly shot down”. State police and eventually the government were accused of homicide. These reports have adopted the classical Muslim line of unfair treatement towards Muslims. Leading and reputed newspapers of that time have readily ignored the commission reports just to malign the Kashmir government ruled by a Hindu King.
For the British activities done with the help of the media, GS Raghavan says this in his book The warning of Kashmir.
“For a movement now directed against Kashmir there is not even a semblance of justification, it has frankly and purely been sectarian, disruptive and deliberately designed to overthrow the ruler”
“In the annals of journalism in British India, there has been nothing so disgraceful, so stultifying, so utterly bereft of decency or proprietary as the gleeful and unjust attempt made by certain newspapers to traduce Kashmir Administration and promote or prolong a disturbance resulting in loss of lives, destruction of property, ruin of women and murder of children”
“Fundamental basis of present attack on Kashmir is that it is a Hindu state”
These organizations of Muslims, across the state and beyond, were set up by the British, there was an intelligence exchange between them, they were working on the direction. People of Kashmir, out of all incidents, remember this day because they were encouraged to do so. And rest of Indians also have heard about this incident only because of biased press reports, other incidents were less, perhaps never, reported. It is enough to suggest that this incident was used by the British to prolong the unrest in Kashmir, even after independence, to take Kashmir under global set-up like the UN for its geopolitical importance.
Read this article to know more about British involvement in Kashmir https://www.dailyexcelsior.com/13th-july-1931-a-black-day/
Demands of Muslims against this “Oppressive” rule
- Their first unofficial demand was to allow cow slaughter. So they started to spread rumors. King has to officially clarify that such permission will not be given.
- One more demand was to allow land inheritance even after conversion of a Hindu person to Islam. But according to joint family tradition in Hinduism, on conversion of a person’s faith, land goes to other family members because if a person converts he is dead for the family. It should be kept in mind that Muslims had the highest chunk of lands in the state and such demand was not for the well being of newly converted but to reduce the Hindu share of land which was already less.
- They wanted exclusive forest contracts, contracts were given to highest bidders but they wanted reservations here in doing which state has to bear losses and it was not a good precedent to set.
- They wanted admission in Rajput training schools which run on Dān given to Rajputs. So along with reservations in public schools, jobs, contracts they wanted reservations in private Hindu schools as well. They went to the extent that this school is not according to Hindu philosophy as Dān is given to Brahmins only and there are Rajput Muslims as well so they should have fair share in school running for Rajputs.
- They wanted 75% reservations in govt services, which was not possible citing their educational backwardness. They formed almost ~99% of the population but out of all educated people in the state 80% were Hindus. So it is obvious that Hindus will be there in services.
- They mentioned that the administration favored Pandits in services, but we have already seen that it was not a favor, it was statistics, and Muslims are becoming unemployed. But there were only 50, at most 100, educated unemployed Muslims. Number of unemployed pandits would go up to five times more. So how does this Administration favoring Hindus and unemployment hold?
- They objected that Pandits have monopolized services so they needed reservations. But Muslims have monopolized agricultural, arts, crafts and manufacturing industries. Did Hindus ever demand reservations in industries?
- It was said that procession and public meetings were not allowed to Muslims. But everyone was treated equal in Hari Singh’s rule. There was a lathicharge on antim yatra procession of a 10 year old raped girl just after alleged Quran insult incident. So the administration cannot be accused of partiality. Reason of firing happened on 13th July 1931 was due to stone pelting, Hindus never pelted stone even after lathicharge on antim yatra.
Real reason of unrest
As we have now debunked every argument from “oppression” to “injustice” to “partiality”. So what was the real reason for these radical movements? There were of course British interests but they were using these radical movements of Muslims to further their interest. What was the reason for Muslims though?
During these agitations there was a song being sung by people,
Asi gachi asun shah sultan, Begonah mara gai asi mussulman, Adi ladikh kilas tai adi jail khan, Asi gachi asun panun sultan.
Which roughly means,
We want none but a Muslim ruler Innocent folk, we musalmans have been killed, Some have been interned in fort, some fling in jail, We want none but our own ruler.
Nothing left for me now to explain the reason for unrest in Kashmir.
Conclusion
Look at these people, did they deserve to die? No.
What needed to die was religious extremism, poison, hate, intolerance and ambition of leaders like Shaikh Abdullah who used these people’s body as a ladder, as a stepping stone to advance their political career.
After using these dead bodies as a collateral they did compromise and enjoyed power. Thinking of people like Shaikh Abdullah is, “The road to power is paved with hypocrisy and casualties, never regret”. They use religion as a weapon & people fall for it.
Sources
- Srinagar Riots Inquiry Committee Report
- Srinagar Riots Inquiry Committee Evidences
- Inside Kashmir, Prem Nath Bazaz
- The warning of Kashmir, GS Raghavan
