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By E. M. S.
NAMBOODIRIPAD

[Ess ' e NEW DELHI

han’ six years ago, the
paris of Kashmir and Jammu
Eand guted by bands organized
their Tmed by British officers and

Collaborators in Pakistan.

ths meee of Kashmir, almost
fertj ae rose in defense of their
Tesista and. It was this people’s
of oo under the leadership
Nee, th ashmir National Confer-

a at forced the armed bands
treat iio the border to re-
Seize’ Ough they were able to
Th eral of the state. :
hearths heroic defense of their
invade and homes against the

ri the people of Kashmir
sup a heartfelt sympathy and
Who » of the people of India,
and areca to mind the long
dle of mes struggle of the peo-

er against the hated
lique. Ja and his feudal ruling

ing, dian People recalled the
mip © Slogan of “New Kash-
€nee pase the National Confer-
inception Taised ever since its
“Qui as well as the great
loge epshmir” movement of
erable € Pioneer of the innum-
dian pecttuseles which the In-
Of the ople waged after the end

‘ Second World War.
Teralle People of Kashmir, too,
Port whi the sympathy and sup-
the pp uch they had. received at
Congress’ of the Indian National
fighting «20d other organizations
ara reeoom and democ-
ahd hast imperialism, princes
a big landlor ir prin

; this Sense of common-
Years ce in the course of
Impen; 3: Mon struggle against
l tial ism and Penaaiien. that

Yb

ir hind the accession of Kash-
0 Thdig :

 Althoy

tional 8h the formal constitu-
by Ct of accession was done

hates natalia of Kashmir,
Kashmi

ir enemy, the people of
Were oa ecepted it because they
Thai, Tetdent that accession to
Dem ould enable them to im-
MShmir 2° . Program of New
lateg in Which they had formu-
and fo. 1° Years of struggle
tional Which the Indian Na-
Party fess the new ruling
Its aPproval. country, had given

Gian Warmly welcomed the In-
SUre that Y because they were
from th after liberating them
&y wou rien raiders that
28 the “ae help them in realiz-
bad tone wectives for which they
The tween fighting.
~ Wag is 7 accession of Kashmir
f the a ‘Merely an accession
S0ve €udal Maharaja to the
lining ng of India; it was the
the ary ecther of two streams of
Stryg le “IMperialist, anti-feudal
People at the Struggle of the
ation or Kashmir for the realiz-
r Ose slogans of de-
Aahting go" Which bey had been.
T several decades,

AS) last si

ix
> beli years have, how-
opie ried the hopes of the
th usione 7 Samir, as they have
0 e hundreds of
: Ndi: € common people
the coms, WhO. had hoped that
0 aed of the In-
abo lies Ongress would
aes Olition of princely rule,

What's behind the

struggle in Kashmir?

Under terms of a new agreement, 2 plebi

May among the 4,000,000 people o
whether they want to accede to In
be conducted by an administrator of
named. This picture shows Prime Mi
tan and Premiey Jawaharlal Nehru o

Dethi.

ending of landlord domination,
improvement in the living stand-
ard, reconstitution of the boun-
daries of provinces in order to
form linguistic states, and other
democratic demands which have
become inseparable parts of the
program of Indian democracy.

Abolition of the ruling dynasty
was one of the most important
items in the program of New
Kashmir. This hope, however,
failed to materialize because the
Indian government went back on
its earlier pledges of putting a
end to princely rule.

As soon as the Congress came
to power, it decided to “solve
the problem of princely states,
not by abolishing princely rule
and introducing democratic re-
forms, but by bringing about the
so-called “integration” and “mer-
ger” or states, under which the
biggest of the princes were made

rajpramukhs, and the rest were ©

paid huge amounts as PYivy
purses. ‘

The Congress wanted to intro-
duce this “reform” in Kashmir
too, by making the hated Maha-
raja of Kashmir the rajpramukh
of the state. It required long
and continuous resistance on the
part of the people and govern:
ment of Kashmir to force the
Indian government to make cer-
tain modifications in this Pro-
gram for Kashmir.

An equally important item in
the program of New Kashmir
is total abolition of landlordism
without corfpensation. The peo-
ple of Kashmir had hoped the
government and army of India
would help, them in realizing
this aim.

They, however, found that the :

Indian government was as hos-
tile to this as to abolition of
incely rule. ;
e The ‘ ponaarientel rights” in-
corporated in the Constitution of
the Indian Union which are
meant to be applicable to sall
states of India (and naturally,
therefore, to Kashmir when it
fully accedes to India) includes
the “right” of the landlords to
enjoy their present properties OF,
in the alternative, to sone

“equitable compensation.

‘cession to India

scite will be held next

f Kashmir and Jammu to determine
dia or Pakistan. The plebiscite will

a neutral country still tobe
nister Mohamméd Ali of Pakis-
f India in discussions at New

It was after long and contin-
uous negotiation on the part of
the government of Kashmir that
the Indian government agreed
to exempt Kashmir from these
and allow the Constituent As-
sembly of Kashmir to draft its
own fundamental rights.

The people of Kashmir wanted
for their government, full power
to plan their social and economic
life in accordance with their own
desires. Therefore they sought
the greatest degree of autonomy
in administration, although _in
certain spheres, such as foreign
policy and defense, the state of
Kashmir will be part of the In-
dian Union.

This too was resisted to the
utmost by influential sections of
ruling circles in the Indian Un-
ion. It was only after long and
continuous negotiations that the
Indian government agreed to. the
principle of “limited accession
in the case of Kashmir and allow-
ed her to enjoy several rights
denied to the other states.

This agreement, however, is
still partial and incomplete,
since India has not yet agreed
that Kashmir need not fully in-
tegrate its finances with those of
India. Several other questions
which are part of the principle of
limited as opposed to full’ ac-
cession are yet to be settled.

Certain influential elements out-
side the Indian government are
stoutly opposing even the con-
cessions already made.

demand that no excep-
re ngs made in the case of
Kashmir on any issue. _The In-
dian government’s decision to
abolish the institution of Raj-
pramukh in Kashmir; its decision
to allow Kashmir to have its oe
fundamental rights and not a
enforce the fundamental rig a
of the Indian senate ~
isi as. -
decision to a be SOS se
“full? — all these are
ae by these influential
circles. They demand full oa
cession to India,” which eae
restoration of the hated Mal Est :
of Kashmir as rajpramukh; ee
drawal of the land reforms; sn
full financial and administratt

integration with India, so “that
India’s ruling circles can seize
and exploit Kashmir’s resources.

*

While the program of New
Kashmir and the people’s efforts
to realize it are being frustrated
by Indian ruling circles, the
economic situation has been get-
ting more and more critical.

Continuation of -tension. - be-
tween India and Pakistan has
virtually disrupted the entire
economic life of Kashmir.

No other state in the Indian.

Union has suffered so much in
the last six years as Kashmir.

The government of Kashmir
too, has contributed its share to
the people’s misery. The gov-
ernment’s most popular act —
introduction of land reforms —
was carried out in such a way
that corrupt elements in the vil-
lages, in league with the bureau-
erats implementing the land re-
forms, were able to get land,
but the poor peasants were left
with little or no land.

The government, as well as the
National Conference, came down
with a heavy hand against those
who formed ‘Land to the Tiller
Committees” in an effort to com-
pel carrying through of land re-
forms in a democratic way. Con-
sequently, the land reform
scheme, which read well on paper,
proved otherwise in practice.

The coming to power of the
National Conference did lead in
Kashmir, as in all parts of the
Indian Union, to an anti-popular
gang-up of the local leaders of
the National Conference, the lo-
cal landlords and the bureaucrats.
Corruption and nepotism have
become the order of the day. .

So the coming to power of the
National Conference meant that
the organization which once in-
spired and led the democratic
struggles of the Kashmir people
degenerated into an organization

dominated by self-seeking and _

corrupt elements.
ein

It was this degeneration of the
National Conference, this accum-
ulation of the misery of the peo-
ple, that provided such fertile
soil for the reactionaries in ,Jam-
mu and Kashmir.

It was only because of the dis-
content among the people of the

Kashmir Valley that. the. pro-
Pakistan elements could raise
their pro-Pakistan slogan and or-
ganize the -so-called Political
Conference.

So it is that the bureaucratic
anti-popular policies of the gov-
ernment of Kashmir, and, of
course, the policies pursued by
the government of India, are re-
sponsible for the political situa-
tion in Kashmir. For Kashmir
has virtually become a state in
which there are pro-Indians, pro-
Pakistanis and those standing in
between them, and the spirit that
manifested itself in the resistance

to the invaders six years ago has -

wellnigh been destroyed.

The struggle of the democratic
people of Kashmir and India
has now become far more diffi-
cult. They have to combat the
theory advanced by pro-Pakistan
elements that ali will be well
if only Kashmir transfers itself
from India_to Pakistan. They
have to expose the real signifi-
cance of the plan for an “‘inde-
pendent” Kashmir.

The fact is that the ruling cir-
cles of Pakistan are as hostile to
implementation of the program
of New Kashmir. as their Indian
counterparts. Already, in Ben-
gal and other states, dissatis-
faction with the absence of aut-
onomy is leading to a demand for
the same status within Pakistan
as Kashmir is demanding of In-
dia. In the circumstances, ac-
cession to Pakistan in place of
accession to Indian would only
mean jumping from the frying
pan into the fire.

The idea that Kashmir, by re-
maining independent, can freely
negotiate with Britain and the
United States, not to speak of
bargaining with India and Pakis-
tan, is an_ illusion. Kashmir
would end up by receiving the
same kind of “aid” — with the
same strings attached—from the
imperialist powers that other
European and Asian countries
have received.— and with the
same .results to Kashmir’s “inde-
pendence.”

Such: “‘aid” would be contrary
to the spirit of real independence
with which the people of Kash-
mir carried out their great “Quit
Kashmir” movement and took up
arms against the invaders.

*

_In the Indian Union, democra-
tic élements are conducting. a
struggle against their own ruling
circles, both within. and outside
the government, to compel them
to accept the just demands of
the people of Kashmir.

They are taking issue with the
reactionary slogan, “Full acces-
sion of Kashmir to India.” They
are opposing the demand for ap-
plication of the pro-landlord, pro-
monopoly ‘fundamental rights”
of the Indian Constitution to the
one state whose people, by their
own struggle, have emancipated
themselves from these ‘funda-
mental. rights” of princes - and
landlords. And they are demand-
ing for the people of Kashmir
wide autonomy to arrange their
affairs according to their own de
sires. :

Their task: is to make the In‘
dian people conscious of the
fact that the efforts of Indian
ruling circles to impose . their
anti-democratic demands on Kash+
mir are responsible for the pre
sent extremely critical situation
in that state. i

A blow against those who de
mand full accession of Kashmit
to India will be a blow against
the princes and rajpramukhs of
India, against the big landlords
who are now being protected by
the Congress government, against

the feudal and monopolist ruling

circles who want to develop, a
highly centralized bureaucratie
state and use it to crush the free
development of all nationalities
and tribes of India.

The struggle of the people of
Kashmire is a struggle for de-
mocracy, not only in Kashmir but
in India itself.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE’: — OCTOBER 2, 1953 — PAGE 9

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