Until August 5, 2019, July 13 was commemorated officially and popularly as Martyrs Day as a tribute to the 22 unarmed persons killed by police on July 13, 1931, outside Central Jail Srinagar under Governor Raizada Traluk Chand's orders. This year, too, the Lt Governor declined the elected government's recommendations to declare a public holiday for Martyrs' Day in J&K, refusing permissions for political parties to pay tributes at Naqashband Sahib mausoleum.
The BJP views the martyrs of July 13 as "traitors" and claims that the uprising was a British conspiracy involving Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, Choudhary Ghulam Abbas, and PM George Edward Campbell Wakefield (the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir appointed by the monarch) to destabilise Maharaja Hari Singh's government through various strategic and political manoeuvres.
In support of the ‘conspiracy theory’, the BJP offers three reasons – a) the Maharaja’s assertive attempts for taking full control of Gilgit and its surrounding dependencies b) his powerful speech about freedom for Indians at the second Round Table Conference held from September 7 to December 1931 in London and c) British desire to destabilise the monarchy and pave way for appointment of British Officers in the State Council.
Historic facts, however, debunk these myths.
Control of Gilgit
After Gilgit's invasion in 1860, Gilgit Agency was formed in 1877 under Maharaja Ranbir Singh (1856-85) and made permanent in 1889 under Pratap Singh (1885-1925).
The British planned to use their foothold in Gilgit to monitor and check the suspected expansionistic activities of Russia and China. The Greater Gilgit Agency came into being in 1928 (Luv Puri in Across the LOC, Inside Pakistan Administered Jammu & Kashmir) but was established formally in 1935 following negotiations between British and the Dogra monarch. Evidently the latter failed to drive hard bargain.
The strength of military personnel and other war/defence centric arrangements in western-northern borders would have petered out within hours if Russia and China were, either jointly or individually, to decide occupying the region. The events from October 4, 1947, later demonstrated the vulnerability of the Maharaja's forces in the region.
Right from 1846, after transfer of territories forming erstwhile State of J&K under Treaty of Amritsar, the Dogra monarchs were conscious of their limitations - financial, manpower and armaments. To overcome the fallout of these strategic and logistical deficiencies, the successive rulers entrusted British government with Gilgit territory from 1877 to 1947 in one form or other.
The de-facto peaceful control over Gilgit Agency with active support from the then monarchs for 71 years establishes beyond doubt their compulsive acquiescence with presence of British in the region for strategic reasons.
The grant of lease of not only Gilgit Agency but entire Gilgit Wazarat including its dependencies in 1935 was based on the twin proposals offered by the State government out of which the British opted for the second option of total transfer of the region by owning the financial and defence related responsibilities for the entire region.
Perhaps due to the Maharaja’s naiveté, the twin proposals offered by him recklessly provided a golden opportunity to the British to obtain the entire region on lease for sixty years.
Given the historicity and consistent presence of British during Dogra rule in the region, the uprising and the killings outside Central Jail Srinagar on July 13, 1931 cannot be related to surrender of Gilgit Wazarat along with its surrounding dependencies in 1928 followed by formal enunciation act in 1935?
This was a non-issue in the freedom struggle against the Dogra monarchs from 1846 to 1948.
Second Round Table conference(RTC)
The second Round Table Conference (RTC) was held in London from September 7 to December 1931. Predating this were the agitations against the desecration of Holy Quran and other sacrilegious acts reported from Reasi and Jammu districts fuelling unrest and protests against it through out Jammu and Kashmir from early 1931. They reached a climax on July 13, 1931 in Srinagar.
Thus the speech delivered by Maharaja at any time between September to December 1931 in London in RTC is unrelated to the uprisings.
Blaming Maharaja's 1931 speech for British conspiracy ignores chronology as the events occurred in Jammu and Kashmir between April-July 1931, before his speech.
At the First Round Table Conference (Nov 1930-Jan 1931), boycotted by Gandhi and Congress due to civil disobedience, Maharaja delivered a brief speech as pro-Chancellor of Princes advocating India's honorable position in the British Commonwealth through Federation of British India and Indian States.
The speech lacked nationalist philosophy for complete independence and centralised India, offering no justification for ultra-nationalist celebration. The British, knowing local aspirations exceeded the 1919 Government of India Act reforms (Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms), used Hari Singh's speech to lay foundations for the 1935 Government of India Act.
This completely nullifies the Hindu right wing's assertion about the content of Maharaja’s speech.
Myth of Conspiracy
Like most other princely states, the Dogra dynasty enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with British East India Company. The Dogra rulers were thick with Britishers beginning with their tacit support to them, under the euphemism of neutrality against Sikh Empire of Punjab.
Writers and historians like Khushwant Singh, Dr Ganda Singh and Gurbachan Singh have extensively written about treachery and deceitful practices by Gulab Singh and his two brothers Dhyan Singh and Suchet Singh during Anglo-Sikh battles of 1845 to 1846.
The Treaty of Lahore (March 3, 1846) between the Punjab Kingdom and East India Company transferred Jammu, Kashmir, and other territories to the British as war reparations. These regions included principalities previously conquered by Gulab Singh as a vassal of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Under the subsequent Treaty of Amritsar, these territories were sold to Gulab Singh for 85 lakh Nanakshahi Sikkas (only half of the settled amount was deposited) as reward for the Dogra brothers' services to the East India Company, though only half the agreed amount was actually paid.
During the first war of independence of 1857, Maharaja Ranbir Singh supported the British with substantial troops to suppress the uprising. This established a strategic partnership that led to the creation of the Gilgit Agency in 1877 as a British outpost, formally established in 1889 under Pratap Singh's rule.
The final concession came under Maharaja Hari Singh, who allowed de-facto British control of the entire Gilgit Wazarat and its dependencies in 1928, followed by its formal lease in 1935, as mentioned by Kanwal Singh in ‘British takeover of Gilgit in 1935’.
Simmering Discontent Stemmed from Pathetic Governance
After 1846, widespread discontent and resistance emerged due to systematic discrimination against the majority community, oppressive taxation, exploitation of laborers and artisans, and lack of justice based on religious and racial bias.
Two major incidents resulted in workers' deaths at the hands of the harsh administration: April 29, 1865 (shawl weavers) and July 21, 1942 (silk factory workers). Both groups were killed simply for seeking relief for their legitimate grievances.
Given these brutal suppression tactics by the J&K monarchy, International Labour Day (May 1st) should commemorate not only the 1886 United States workers' strike for eight-hour workdays but also honour the blood of Srinagar's artisans and workers who sacrificed their lives before both 1886 and 1925 in the global struggle for workers' rights.
In the beginning of 1931, the sacrilegious acts in Reasi and lackadaisical approach of the administration to them had pricked the Muslim conscience. While its embers were alive and bruises unhealed, a sub- Inspector of police Babu Khem Chand, under the orders of DIG Choudhary Ram Chand, stopped Molvi Munshe M Ishaq from delivering Eid sermon on April 04,1931 in Eidgah (Municipal Park) Jammu, triggering a wave of unrest among Muslims who saw this as undue interference in the Muslim way of life.
This was followed by desecration of Holy Quran by sepoy Lolu Ram in Central Jail Jammu. Close on its heels, embargo was imposed on holding Friday prayers in Dugwar, a suburb of Jammu.
These series of incidents revived the dormant resistance across the state. In Jammu Young Men’s Muslim Association, under auspices of Anjuman Islamia, was revived in 1922, which eventually came to be led by Choudhary Ghulam Abass and gradually the forum became the focal voice of Muslims, starting from Jammu, Samba and Kathua belt.
Recognizing the intensity of unrest in Jammu and its cascading effects across the state, Prime Minister Wakefield met with a Muslim Association delegation in Jammu. Choudhary Abbas (1904-1967) provides a graphic account of this meeting in his autobiography "Kashmakash."
During discussions, Wakefield superciliously compared Kashmir to Hyderabad State, suggesting that Hindus in Hyderabad could retaliate against the Nizam in response to the anti-Maharaja activities in J&K by the Muslims. Choudhary cleverly outsmarted the prime minister by supporting equal treatment for Hindu activists if they faced the similar conditions as Kashmir's Muslim community. This response forced Wakefield to quickly change his tone.
The meeting concluded with Wakefield advising the Muslim delegation to abandon confrontation in favor of dialogue and constitutional methods for addressing grievances. He offered the possibility of a formal audience with the Maharaja to submit written demands.
As protests against religious desecration and interference in Islamic practices continued across Kashmir Province and Jammu District, prominent Muslim religious leaders and politicians from various community groups were informed about the potential audience with the Maharaja.
Eleven Muslim representatives, comprising different groups and chosen transparently by the community, seven from Srinagar and four from Jammu, gathered in Srinagar during the second week of July 1931 to build consensus on their memorandum before drafting and submitting it to the Maharaja.
While all of them were in Srinagar scheduled to call on the Maharaja with their memorandum, the carnage outside the precincts of Central Jail Srinagar happened. This was followed by a similar incident at Malakhnag Anantnag on September 23,1931, martyring 19 civilians returning home after participation in late evening public meeting in old Eidgah. Subsequently, dozens also laid down their lives in Shopian, Pulwama & Handwara.
Krishan Dev Sethi, member J&K Constituent Assembly, also spoke about resistance leaders being hanged to death in Mirpur (now in Pakistan administered Kashmir).
Absent Muslim Representation
Out of eleven Prime Ministers from 1927 to 1948, there were 2 Christian Britishers, 6 Hindu Indians and 3 Kashmiri Hindus (Pandits). There was never one from the Muslim community forming over 80% of the population of the State. All of them held office from three months to about 3 years, barring Gopalaswamy Ayyangar (7-8 years) and Eliot James Dowel Colvin (4-5 years).
This revealed the ruler as impulsive and inconsistent. He was fully backed by the British as heir to their former allies yet unwilling to acknowledge ground realities or reach out to the majority community.
A clear example of this was that in 1930, a Civil Services Recruitment Board was established for only 40% of vacancies. The written test could be taken in English, Hindi, or Sanskrit, despite Urdu being the official language and many educated candidates holding advanced degrees in Persian and Arabic. Only a handful of people had degrees or knowledge in Sanskrit and Hindi. This was clearly a deliberate strategy to prevent Muslim candidates from participating in the recruitment process.
Evolution of Resistance Movement
It was around this time that Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah returned to Srinagar after completing his Masters in Chemistry from Aligarh Muslim University on April 12,1930. Motivated by the bestiality the common masses countenanced in every sphere of life at the hands of bureaucracy, hand-picked by the Maharaja himself, prompted him to establish Reading Room Party in Srinagar for focused attention to development of the majority community.
His firm conviction, steadfastness, vision and undying inner resolve to transform socio- economic status of the people triumphed over personal ambitions, leading to his voluntary resignation from Government service and plunge into public life.
Within one year, he became a central figure around whom the underfed, poorly clothed, educated, and all others placed their hopes and dreams. Similarly, Choudhary Ghulam Abbas worked tirelessly against the repressive regime, deeply moved by his people's suffering. How could both men have chosen to become British proxies when they despised the British government for all the suffering it caused across the subcontinent? Such individuals were visionary rebels at their peak who could never have been mere tools of the status quo.
Decolonisation gained momentum after World War II, particularly due to the perceived impact of Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army, as acknowledged by former UK Prime Minister Attlee in a 1960s Kolkata interview.
Wakefield's defense of the Maharaja, first in his Jammu meeting with the Muslim Association led by Choudhary Ghulam Abbass, then in Srinagar with the two-member delegation headed by Sheikh, was unparalleled among other Indian states experiencing instability due to popular movements against despotic rulers.
The popular outrage following the developments of early 1931 and the brutal response of the government brought together for the first time the Young Men’s Muslim Association in Jammu, Srinagar based Reading Room Party, Dustoor Amal Islamabad, Nusrat ul Islam J&K and other sundry groups.
No documentary proof from either the State archives or de-classified documents released by the United Kingdom Government have so for provided any evidence of the assumptions and narratives of the Hindutva-anchored academia.
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