Few events in the modern history of Kashmir have shaped its political consciousness as profoundly as 13 July 1931. It was not the beginning of resistance against Dogra rule, but it was undoubtedly the moment when decades of suffering and scattered protests crystallised into an organised mass movement. The twenty-two martyrs of that day carried forward a struggle already inaugurated by generations of oppressed Kashmiris and sustained through the sacrifices of the martyrs of 1865 and 1924.
If the Zaldagar uprising marked the first organised labour revolt against feudal oppression and the Silk Factory agitation awakened the conscience of educated Kashmiris, 13 July 1931 transformed that awakening into an irresistible popular movement.
To appreciate the significance of 13 July, one must understand both the nature of the Dogra State and the long tradition of resistance that preceded it. Established under the Treaty of Amritsar in 1846, the Dogra regime rested upon a deeply unequal political and administrative order. The Muslim majority of the Valley remained politically voiceless, economically exploited and grossly underrepresented in government employment. Heavy taxation, inequitable land ownership, restricted educational opportunities and systematic exclusion from public administration created widespread resentment.
Shawlbafs Barefoot on Frozen Lakes
Yet even before the Dogra period, the burden of oppression had fallen with particular severity upon the shawlbafs, whose sufferings became one of the earliest expressions of Kashmir's struggle against exploitation.
The graveyards of Srinagar and its peripheries, filled with the remains of the ancestors of these shawlbafs, bear the imprints of sacrifices made at critical junctures of history in the struggle for freedom from want and deprivation. They fought for the improvement of their living conditions, reduction in the prices of shali (staple food) and salt, abolition of the oppressive dag-e-shawl regulations and the obnoxious rahdari system, and an end to the relentless cruelties inflicted upon them by their feudal masters.
Besides flogging and merciless thrashing, these humiliations included stripping them naked in public to shiver in shame before their tormentors. Even the shagirds, or apprentices, were not spared. They were subjected to soi shalak, or nettle beating, on their bare limbs and punished through kanapaker, or ear-gripping, for the slightest mistake.
The tragedy assumed even more horrifying proportions with the practice of tehteher-boel, under which shawl weavers were forced to stand barefoot upon the frozen waters of rivers and lakes during chela-e-kalan while the daroga dag-e-shawl and the karkhandars derived cruel satisfaction from their suffering. Faced with such inhuman conditions, many resorted to the desperate act of severing their own thumbs to render themselves permanently unfit for weaving, choosing physical mutilation over a life of perpetual degradation.
Oppression Nurtured Resistance
Yet oppression did not extinguish their spirit. Rather, it nurtured resistance. While fighting against these unparalleled hardships, the shawlbafs repeatedly paid a terrible price for their aspiration to live with dignity.
Barely eight years after the Revolt of 1857, they launched what may justifiably be described as Kashmir's first great revolutionary labour movement. In 1865, refusing to submit any longer to feudal tyranny, they marched in procession towards Zaldagar to seek redress for their suffocating grievances. As they crossed the bridge of Kete Kul, they were met with a hail of bullets from the forces of the state. Their martyrdom transformed the Zaldagar uprising into the first great chapter of organised popular resistance in modern Kashmir.
Coming nineteen years after the people's resistance against the sale of Kashmir to Gulab Singh in 1846, the Zaldagar rebellion gave the Valley its foremost martyrs - shuhada-e-awal. Their sacrifice laid the foundations of a collective struggle against poverty, feudal coercion and autocratic rule. That legacy was renewed in 1924 when the stormy Silk Factory agitation produced Kashmir's second generation of martyrs, shuhada-e-dowum. Their sacrifice awakened the conscience of educated Kashmiris and inspired leading citizens to submit their historic memorandum to Viceroy Lord Reading during his visit to Srinagar, thereby transforming scattered grievances into constitutional political demands.
Meanwhile, a small but articulate class of educated Kashmiris had emerged. Reading room, reformist organisations, shrines, barber shops and other public spaces became centres where ideas circulated freely. These humble institutions nurtured political awareness and connected local grievances with wider movements for justice and constitutional reform unfolding across the Indian subcontinent.
July 1931 Killings
The situation became increasingly charged and emotional when the Eid Khutba was disallowed in Jammu and Muslim religious scriptures were desecrated in Kashmir. The authorities' handling of these incidents further inflamed public sentiment and deepened the sense of injustice.
However, the immediate spark came with the arrest of Abdul Qadeer, whose speech denouncing the Dogra administration electrified an already restless population. Charged with sedition, he was put on trial inside Srinagar Central Jail. What began as a legal proceeding soon acquired immense political significance. Thousands assembled outside the prison, not merely to witness the trial but to demonstrate solidarity with a man who had dared to challenge an oppressive regime.
As proceedings continued on 13 July 1931, tension mounted outside the Central jail, Srinagar. When the time for the afternoon prayer arrived, one volunteer rose to call the Azan. Before he could complete it, he was shot dead. Another immediately stepped forward and met the same fate. Again and again, brave Kashmiris rose to complete the call to prayer, and each was struck down by bullets. Their extraordinary courage transformed an act of worship into an enduring symbol of resistance against tyranny.
The firing soon became indiscriminate. State forces opened fire upon the unarmed gathering, killing twenty-two people and injuring many others. Those who fell were not insurgents or armed revolutionaries. They were ordinary Kashmiris — labourers, artisans, traders and common citizens — whose only offence was to assemble peacefully in pursuit of justice.
The massacre sent shockwaves across the Valley. Grief swiftly gave way to determination. Markets closed, protest marches filled the streets and, for the first time, Kashmir witnessed a united popular movement demanding justice, dignity and political rights.
The martyrs of 13 July became the shuhada-e-swum, completing a trilogy of sacrifice that had begun with the shawlbafs of 1865 and continued through the Silk Factory martyrs of 1924. Together, these successive sacrifices transformed isolated resistance into an organized movement for representative government and constitutional reform.
Symbolism of Martyrs' Day
The impact of the tragedy extended far beyond the immediate protests. It accelerated the emergence of organised political leadership and directly paved the way for the formation of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference in 1932. Fear, which had long sustained autocratic rule, gradually receded. Kashmiris increasingly ceased to regard themselves merely as subjects of a princely state and began to see themselves as citizens entitled to justice, dignity and participation in public life.
The massacre also exposed the moral fragility of the Dogra administration. Although commissions of inquiry were appointed and limited reforms introduced, these measures could not restore the legitimacy shattered by the killings. The coercive foundations of the regime stood exposed before the world.
Although the victims were overwhelmingly Muslims, the movement itself was fundamentally a struggle against autocratic rule rather than against any religious community. Its demands of fair representation, equal opportunities, access to education, administrative reforms and justice were democratic aspirations. Given the demographic realities of the state, however, the movement inevitably acquired a religious dimension that would continue to influence Kashmir's politics for decades.
The martyrs of 13 July soon became enduring symbols of courage and sacrifice. Their memory entered Kashmir's collective consciousness through literature, poetry, folklore and annual commemorations. Like the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the tragedy converted state repression into political awakening. Silence gave way to protest; fear yielded to courage and submission was replaced by the demand for rights.
A Memory Contested
In recent years, however, the legacy of 13 July has itself become the subject of political contestation. The BJP has advanced a narrative portraying the day not as one of sacrifice against autocratic rule but as a "dark day" in Kashmir's history. Consequently, the official observance of Martyrs' Day has been discontinued, and political parties have frequently been prevented from assembling at the Martyrs' Graveyard to pay homage.
History, however, cannot be rewritten through administrative orders or contemporary political narratives. Historical events must be understood within the context in which they occurred, not through the prism of present-day political rivalries. One may legitimately debate the subsequent course of Kashmiri politics or the actions of later political leaders, but the sacrifices of those who laid down their lives in the struggle against feudal oppression and autocratic rule remain an undeniable historical reality.
Mature societies do not erase difficult chapters of their past; they examine them critically, preserve historical memory and draw lessons from them.
The martyrs of 1865, 1924 and 1931 belong not to any political party but to the shared history of Kashmir's long struggle for justice, dignity and political rights. The graves of the shawlbafs and the martyrs scattered across Srinagar continue to remind posterity that every stage of Kashmir's political awakening was purchased with sacrifice, and that the movement which reached its defining moment on 13 July 1931 had been forged through generations of courage, suffering and an unyielding quest for freedom from want, oppression and autocratic rule.
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