RSS Feed
Twitter
Quaid-i-Azam and Kashmir is a very vast subject. Much has been written on it but much remains to be written.
Mr. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was not the leader of Pakistan only. In fact he was the leader of the Muslim Ummah of the South Asian subcontinent, which was called India in pre-partition days. Then again, there was two Indias, namely British India and “Indian India” which was the name given to the native states, ruled by nawabs and rajas. These natives states were internally independent, but their defence and foreign affairs were with the British Indian Government. None of these states, including Hyderabad and Kashmir, could conclude any treaties with any foreign country, except through the British Indian Government. They could not issue passport, though there is evidence of the Jammu Kashmir Maharajah’s government having issued passports in certain circumstances but these also were subject to recertification by the British Indian authority in the subcontinent.1
Scope of the activities of the All India Muslim League, which was formed in 1906, at the residence of a Kashmiri of Bengal, Sir Salimullah Khan of Dhaka, was limited to the British Indian province. In his book on Quaid-i-Azam, Dr. Riaz Ahmad has made it clear that there were days when the Quaid-i-Azam used to say that there were four powers in the sub continent and they were the British Government, the Hindu Congress, the Muslim League and the native states. This was the Quaid’s reply to the leaders of the Hindu Congress who used to claim that there were only two powers in the sub continent, the British and the Congress.2
The population of the native states was about one fourth of the entire population of the subcontinent.
This does not mean that the Muslim League or its leaders considered the native states as something untouchable. But as a constitutional and legal organization, the Muslim League did not directly interfere in the affairs of the states. There was, however, the All India States Muslim League, which looked after the affairs of the native states. Then there were political organizations in the states, which had the same creed as the Muslim League and were based on two-nation theory. They were receiving all out support and guidance from the Muslim League. It was Allama Iqbal, who, as Chairman of the India Committee, said in August 1934, in an appeal to the Muslims of the whole subcontinent, that they should observe 14th August 1934 as Kashmir Day. In a life-size poster he argued that the dream of the Muslim India would be incomplete without the freedom of the Islamic States of Kashmir.3
Mr. Jinnah visited Kashmir for the first time in 1926.4 There was absolutely no political awakening in the State at that time. Practical parties could not be formed nor could political meetings be held. In fact when some noted Kashmiris dared to submit a memorandum to the Viceroy of India (Governor General) requesting him to advise the government to redress the grievances of the Kashmiri Muslims in the educational and economic sphere, the signatories to the memorandum were victimized. Some of them were externed from the states, others were deprived of their jagirs and some were warned of drastic actions.5 But when soon after the meeting of the All India Muslim League Working Committee was held in Lahore, at the behest of Mr. Jinnah, a resolution was passed unanimously, drawing the attention of the Maharajah’s Government towards the educational and economic backwardness of the Muslims of Kashmir; it was demanded that Muslims be given a better deal by the administration. This was in 1926, when there was hardly any political awakening in Jammu and Kashmir. But the Muslim League, headed by Mr. Jinnah, even then tried to help the Muslims to Kashmir.6
Posts
