Introduction
After the Partition of India, during October–November 1947 in
the Jammu region of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, a large
number of Muslims were massacred and others driven away to West Punjab. The killings were carried out by extremist Hindus and Sikhs, aided and abetted by the forces of
the Dogra State headed by the Maharaja Hari Singh. The
activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
played a key role in planning and executing the riots Observers state that a main aim of Hari Singh and his
administration was to alter the demographics of the region by eliminating the
Muslim population, in order to ensure a Hindu majority in the region. Historians say that the
killings carried out by the Hindu ruler's army and Sikh army was a "state
sponsored genocide" to bring out demographic changes in Jammu - a region
which had an overwhelming population of Muslims.
"The massacre of more than two lakh (two hundred thousands)
Muslims was state-sponsored and state supported. The forces from Patiala Punjab
were called in, RSS (a right-wing Hindu organization) was brought to
communalize the whole scenario and kill Muslims," said PG Rasool, the
author of a book The Historical Reality of Kashmir Dispute.The Muslims, who
constituted more than 60 percent of the population of Jammu region, were reduced to a
minority after the killings and displacement.
The reporter of The Times, London, dated 10th August, 1948, has reported: “2,37,000 Muslims
were systematically exterminated — unless they escaped to Pakistan along the
border — by the forces of the Dogra State headed by the Maharaja in person and
aided by the Sikhs. This
happened in October 1947, five days before the Pathan invasion and nine days
before the Maharaja’s accession to India”. (Confirmed in UNSC,
Meeting No. 534, March 6, 1951). Other reporters have put the number of
massacred Muslims either less [2, 00,000, per Horace Alexander’s article in The
Spectator, dated 16-01- 1948) or more ( 5,00,000 according to Ian Stephens,
Making of Pakistan, New York, page 200 & 6,00,000 per Christopher Sneden,
What happened to Muslims in Jammu, Journal of South Asian Studies, Vol.xxiv,
no.2 (2000)]. Whatever the actual number of the victims of that barbaric
savagery of Dogra Ruler let loose on his Muslim subjects, it is a fact that
human killings by State sponsored genocide are “statistics” & mere not
“numbers” as in usual killings.
Extracts
(Extracts from “Being
the Other: the Muslim in India”, Saeed Naqvi, Aleph Book Company).
What was the death toll in the
killing fields of Jammu? There are no official figures, so one has to go by
reports in the British press of that period. Horace Alexander’s article on 16
January 1948 in The Spectator is much quoted; he put the number killed
at 200,000.
To quote a 10 August 1948 report
published in The Times, London: “237,000 Muslims were systematically
exterminated – unless they escaped to Pakistan along the border – by the forces
of the Dogra State headed by the Maharaja in person and aided by Hindus and
Sikhs. This happened in October 1947, five days before the Pathan invasion and
nine days before the Maharaja’s accession to India.” Reportedly, as a result of
the massacre/migration, Muslims who were a majority (61 per cent) in the Jammu
region became a minority.
Mountbatten was in control in Delhi and had news of the genocide
of Muslims in Jammu filtered out of the media. Sadly, there has been precious
little discussion in India about this horrible phase of history.
Maharaja Hari Singh’s
involvement, with the support of the RSS, is evident from a letter Jawaharlal
Nehru wrote to Vallabhbhai Patel on 17 April 1949 (quoted in Frontline
magazine):
In this (intelligence) report,
among other things, a reference was made to a growing Hindu agitation in Jammu
province for what is called a zonal plebiscite. This idea is based on the
belief that a plebiscite for the whole of Kashmir is bound to be lost and,
therefore, let us save Jammu at least. You will perhaps remember that some
proposal of this kind was put forward by the Maharaja some months back. it
seems to me that this kind of propaganda is very harmful, indeed, for us.
Whatever may happen in the future, I do not think Jammu province is running
away from us. If we want Jammu province by itself and are prepared to make a
present of the rest of the State to Pakistan, I have no doubt we could clinch
the issue in a few days. The prize we are fighting for is the valley of
Kashmir. [This is what Nehru had dug in his heels for. The consequences are for
all to see to this day.]
This propaganda for a zonal
plebiscite is going on in Jammu, in Delhi and elsewhere. It is carried on by
what is known as the Jammu Praja Parishad. Our intelligence officer reported
that this Praja Parishad is financed by the Maharaja. Further, that the large
sums collected for the Dharmarth Fund, which are controlled by the Maharaja,
are being spent in propaganda for him.
The lid on these massacres was lifted by Ved Bhasin and a few journalists of that time. But like the collective silence over the pogrom in Hyderabad, the holocaust in Jammu has been a story hidden from public view by the machinations of the very people who covertly allowed the massacres to take place. These included many in the national leadership of the Congress party at the time. The events of Hyderabad and Jammu and Kashmir reveal the emergence in New Delhi of an establishment which was indifferent to Indian Muslims.
Consider the testimony of
journalist Ved Bhasin. Here I am again quoting from his paper presented at the
Jammu University in 2003.
Communal tension was building up
in Jammu soon after the announcement of the Mountbatten plan with the Hindu
Sabha, RSS and the Muslim Conference trying to incite communal passions.
Tension increased with a large number of Hindus and Sikhs migrating to the
State from Punjab and NWFP and even from areas now under Pakistan’s control.
Trouble was brewing in Poonch, where a popular non-communal agitation was
launched after the Maharaja’s administration took over the erstwhile jagir
under its direct control and imposed some taxes. The mishandling of this
agitation and use of brutal force by the Maharaja’s administration inflamed the
passions, turning this non-communal struggle into a communal strife.
The Maharaja’s administration had
not only asked all Muslims to surrender their arms but also demobilised a large
number of Muslim soldiers in the Dogra army and the Muslim police officers,
whose loyalty it suspected. The Maharaja’s visit to Bhimber was followed by
large-scale killings.
Bhasin reports the large-scale
killing of Muslims in Udhampur district, particularly in Udhampur proper,
Chenani, Ramnagar and Reasi areas. Even in Bhaderwah (about 150 kilometres from
Udhampur), a number of Muslims were victims of communal marauders. According to
Bhasin, the RSS played a key role in these killings, aided by armed Sikh
refugees “who even paraded the Jammu streets with their naked swords”. Some of
those who led the riots in Udhampur and Bhaderwah later joined the National
Conference and some even served as ministers. There were reports of Muslims
massacred in Chhamb, Deva Batala, Manawsar and other parts of Akhnoor, with
several of them fleeing to the other side or moving to Jammu. In Kathua
district too there was the large-scale killing of Muslims and reports of women
being raped and abducted.
As for the attitude of the state, Bhasin alleges that instead of
preventing these communal killings and fostering an atmosphere of peace, “the
Maharaja’s administration helped and even armed the communal marauders”. He
goes on to say that many Muslims living outside Muslim-dominated areas were
brutally killed by the rioters who moved freely in vehicles with arms and
ammunition even when the city was officially under curfew. “The curfew it
appeared was meant only to check the movement of Muslims,” he says.
Terrible carnage took place later
when the Muslims in Talab Khatikan area were asked to surrender.
They were shifted to the police
lines at Jogi gate, where now Delhi Public School is situated. Instead of
providing them security, the administration encouraged them to go to Pakistan
for safety. The first batch of several thousands of these Muslims were loaded
in about sixty lorries to take them to Sialkot. Unaware of what is going to
happen to them these families boarded the buses. The vehicles were escorted by
troops. But when they reached near Chattha on Jammu-Sialkot road, in the
outskirts of the city, a large number of armed RSS men and Sikh refugees were
positioned there.
They were pulled out of the
vehicles and killed mercilessly with the soldiers either joining [in] or
looking [on] as idle spectators. The news about the massacre was kept a closely
guarded secret. next day another batch of these Muslim families were similarly
boarded in the vehicles and met the same fate. [T]hose who somehow managed to
escape the wrath of killers reached Sialkot to narrate their tale of woe…
The state administration denied it had any role in the massacres. It even feigned ignorance of any plans to change the demography of the Jammu region. But Bhasin differs:
Though polite, he warned me of
dire consequences…he first warned me by saying that “I could have put you
behind bars for your nefarious activities. But since you also happen to be a
Khatri like me and are also related to me, i am simply giving you advice. It is
not the time to form peace committees and work for peace but to defend Hindus
and Sikhs from the Muslim communalists who are planning to kill them and
destabilise the situation. We have already formed a Hindu Sikh Defence
Committee. You and your colleagues better support it.” Then he added, “We are
imparting armed training to Hindu and Sikh boys in Rehari area. You and your
colleagues should better join such training.” When i sent a colleague to the
training camp the next day he found that some RSS youths and others were being
given training in the use of .303 rifles by soldiers.
Another incident that I recall is
about Mr Mehr Chand Mahajan (the then prime minister) who told a delegation of
Hindus who met him in the palace when he arrived in Jammu that now when the
power is being transferred to the people they should demand parity. [One] of
them associated with National Conference asked how can they demand parity when
there is so much difference in population ratio. Pointing to the Ramnagarrakh
below, where some bodies of Muslims were still lying he said “the population
ratio too can change”.
Mahatma Gandhi did comment on the
situation in Jammu on 25 December 1947 and his remarks have found mention in
volume 90 of his Collected Works: “The Hindus and Sikhs of Jammu and those who
had gone there from outside killed Muslims. The Maharaja of Kashmir is
responsible for what is happening there…Muslim women have been dishonored.”
Massacres
On 14 October, the RSS activists
and the Akalis attacked various villages of Jammu
district—Amrey, Cheak, Atmapur and Kochpura—and after killing some Muslims,
looted their possessions and set their houses on fire. There was mass killing
of Muslims in and around Jammu city. The state troops led the attacks. The
state officials provided arms and ammunition to the rioters. The administration
had demobilized a large number of Muslim soldiers in the state army and had
discharged Muslim police officers.Most of the Muslims outside the Muslim
dominated areas were killed by the communal rioters who moved in vehicles with
arms and ammunition, though the city was officially put under curfew.Many Gujjar men and women who used to supply milk to the city from the
surrounding villages were reportedly massacred en route. It is said that the
Ramnagar reserve in Jammu was littered with the dead bodies of Gujjar men,
women and children. In the Muslim localities of Jammu city, Talab Khatikan and Mohalla Ustad,
Muslims were surrounded and were denied water supply and food. The Muslims in
Talab Khatikan area had joined to defend themselves with the arms they could
gather, who later received support from the Muslim Conference. They were
eventually asked to surrender and the administration asked them to go to
Pakistan for their safety. These Muslims and others who wanted to go to
Sialkot, in thousands, were loaded in numerous trucks and were escorted by the
troops in the first week of November. When they reached the outskirts of the
city, they were pulled out and killed by armed Sikhs and RSS men, while abducting
the women.
There were also reports of
large-scale massacres of Muslims in Udhampur district, particularly in
proper Udhampur, Chenani, Ramnagar, Bhaderwah and Reasi areas.
Killing of a large number of Muslims was reported from Chhamb, Deva Batala,
Manawsar and other parts of Akhnoor with many people
fleeing to Pakistan or moving to Jammu. In Kathua district and Bilawar area, there was extensive killing of Muslims with
women being raped and abducted.
According
to Ved Bhasin and scholar Ilyas Chattha, the Jammu riots were executed by
members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) who
were joined by the refugees from West Pakistan, and were supported strongly by
Hari Singh and his administration with
a main aim to change the demographic composition of Jammu region and ensure a
non-Muslim majority. Bhasin states, the riots were "clearly"
planned by the activists of RSS. Observers have noted that the Akali Sikhs
and some former members of the Indian National Army (INA) also participated in this
violence along with the RSS and state forces
Bhasin
says that the massacres took place in the presence of the then Jammu and
Kashmir's Prime Minister Mehr Chand Mahajan and the governor of
Jammu, Lala Chet Ram Chopra, and that some of those who led these riots in
Udhampur and Bhaderwah later joined the National Conference with some of them also serving as ministers. The decline
in the Muslim population in Jammu can be gauged from the following.
Region
|
1941 Population
|
1941 Muslim proportion
|
Loss of Muslims
|
|
Jammu District
|
431,362
|
39.6%
|
7.1%
|
151,010
|
Kathua District
|
177,672
|
25.3%
|
10.4%
|
29,567
|
1,172,950
|
44.5%
|
27.9%
|
246,356
|
