Jinnah opposed plebiscite

India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru is the favourite whipping boy in most discussions on the origins of the Kashmir problem, blamed primarily for proposing a referendum to let the people of Kashmir decide the question of the state’s merger with India or Pakistan.

Pakistan, too, rakes it up every now and then, accusing India of reneging on its offer. So do the pro-Pakistan elements and separatists in Kashmir. The fact is, it was Pakistan that opposed the proposal and was dead against the plebiscite. Today, Kashmiris particularly need to remember the role played by Pakistan then — and ever since — in Kashmir, including the part under its occupation.

Independence came with the trauma of Partition and birth of Pakistan. India also faced the task of political integration of over 560 princely states. While this was achieved for the most part, three states held out: Junagadh, Hyderabad and Kashmir. Since Pakistan was also interested in getting these states, Nehru suggested plebiscite as a means to resolve this issue.

Lord Mountbatten, who continued as the Governor General of independent India, discussed the issue with Pakistan’s founder and its first Governor General, Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He gave a detailed account of his talks in a letter to Nehru on November 2, 1947, a day after the meeting. Jinnah was sulking at the intervention of Indian troops in Kashmir to push back Pakistani infiltrators. This happened after Kashmir’s ruler Hari Singh, threatened by the invasion, had signed the instrument of accession to India. Pakistan had not bargained for this and its ‘strategy’ had come apart. 

Jinnah called it a fraud. To resolve matters, Mountbatten suggested the following formula: “The Governments of India and Pakistan agree that, where the ruler of a State does not belong to the community to which the majority of his subjects belong, and where the State has not acceded to that Dominion whose majority community is the same as the State’s, the question of whether the State should finally accede to one or the other of the Dominions should in all cases be decided by an impartial reference to the will of the people.” 

Mountbatten suggested that UNO be invited to undertake the plebiscite and send observers and organisers in advance to ensure that the necessary atmosphere was created for a free and impartial plebiscite. 

Jinnah rejected the idea outright. Mountbatten wrote, “I asked Mr. Jinnah why he objected so strongly to a plebiscite, and he said he did so because with the troops of the Indian Dominion in military occupation of Kashmir and with the National Conference under Sheikh Abdullah in power, such propaganda and pressure could be brought to bear that the average Muslim would never have the courage to vote for Pakistan.”

The fact was, the mood of Sheikh Abdullah and of the people of Jammu and Kashmir was dead against Pakistan. In 1944,  Jinnah, by then confident of creation of Pakistan, visited Kashmir. The only meeting that he addressed broke up amid shouts of “Go back Jinnah”. This was due to the popular support for Sheikh Abdullah’s National Conference (NC) which had followers from all communities and was opposed to the notion of a Muslim state. Supportive of Congress’ “Quit India” movement, it had launched a “Quit Kashmir” movement against the ruler Hari Singh for handing over power to the people. Hari Singh got Sheikh Abdullah jailed for this. 

Sheikh Abdullah was released on 29 September 1947. In his book The Kashmir Story, BL Sharma, Officer on Special Duty for Kashmir in India’s Foreign Desk from 1948-1965, says soon after his release, Sheikh Abdullah defined his attitude about the accession of the State to either Dominion. Speaking in Delhi on October 9, 1947, he said that the people’s first concern was “attainment of self-government, so that people armed with authority and responsibility could decide for themselves where their interests lay.” A few days later, he reverted to the subject to say Kashmiris would “naturally opt to go to that Dominion where our own demand for freedom receives recognition and support. We cannot desire to join those who say that the people must have no voice in the matter... At this time Kashmiris must come forward and raise the banner of Hindu-Muslim Unity.”

NC sent some of its leaders to Lahore to secure Pakistan’s cooperation. One of them, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed, subsequently disclosed that the Pakistan leaders were unwilling to let the Kashmir issue be decided by a referendum, unless Sheikh Abdullah pledged to Pakistan that the NC would solidly vote for the State’s accession to Pakistan. This was unacceptable to the NC. 

Another NC leader, Ghulam Mohammed Sadiq, confirmed this: “Before the invasion, the NC deputed me to approach the Pakistan Government at the highest level to recognize democratic rights of the Kashmiri people for self-determination and abide by the sovereign will of a free people on the question of free association with either of the Dominions. I met Pakistan’s Prime Minister and other Ministers, but it was of no use. We saw finally put, into operation a programme of first enslaving and then securing ‘yes’ in their favour from an enslaved people.”

When the invasion of Kashmir from Pakistan began, Shaikh Abdullah reacted: “The invasion of Kashmir is meant to coerce and compel the people of Kashmir to act in a particular way, namely, to accede to Pakistan. Every Kashmiri resents this compulsion on his will.”

Pakistan knew a referendum held at the time would go against it. Even later, it was Pakistan that failed to honour the UN Resolution for plebiscite that it brings up frequently. The Resolution adopted by UN Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) on August 13, 1948, required that all forces regular and irregular under the control of both sides shall cease fire; Pakistan would withdraw its troops, it would endeavour to secure withdrawal of tribesmen and Pakistani nationals and India will withdraw bulk of its forces once the UNCIP confirms that the tribesmen and Pak nationals have withdrawn and Pakistani troops are being withdrawn. India was also to ensure that the state government takes various measures to preserve peace, law and order. These preconditions were never fulfilled. 

With Pakistan’s intransigence and passage of time, the offer lapsed and was overtaken by events. Pakistan ceded a part of the state to China in 1963; it has also changed demography of POK by settling outsiders. Pakistan sponsored terrorism in J&K forced the minority Kashmiri Pandits to migrate out of the Kashmir valley to Jammu and other parts of India. As VK Menon had stated in the Security Council on 23 January, 1957, “If an offer is made and it is not accepted at the time it is made, it cannot be held for generations over the heads of those who made it.” At the time, it was a smart move no one could find fault with — tactically, legally or morally. 

The author is a senior journalist and commentator