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The Print
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Print
Martyrs' Day row has reopened Kashmir's deepest wounds
For decades, leaders of Kashmir's pro-India parties have cast the 13 July massacre as the moment when the mass movement against the Dogra monarchy began, leading on to Independence. In 2020, though, Martyrs' Day was dropped from the list of official holidays, together with former J&K prime minister Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah's birth anniversary. The government then declared its intention to celebrate Maharaja Hari Singh's birthday instead. On Monday, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah defiantly scaled the walls of the martyrs' graveyard at the shrine of Khwaja Bahauddin Naqshbandi, where 22 protestors who were shot dead by soldiers of Maharaja Hari Singh on 13 July 1931 are buried. Local police, alleged to be acting on the instructions of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, had locked ministers and legislators into their homes and barred a procession to the graveyard. From his office on the banks of the Chenab, Inspector General BCA Lowther patiently watched the detritus of the storm wash up: Three hundred maunds of grain, a little over 11 tonnes, animals, quantities of gold, jewellery, utensils, and, strangely, one gramophone. In Kotli and Seri, Lowther reported , Hindus were 'almost completely destroyed.' Twenty men, or so, had been killed in the rioting of 1932, Dalits had been forced to embrace Islam, and some Sikhs had their hair shaved off. The brigand chief of the mountains, Khima Khan, had supervised the violence, with the help of village Lambardars, or headmen. This project of historical erasure is reopening Kashmir's deepest wounds. The truth is that the events of 1931-1932 were not, as ethnic Kashmiri politicians represent them, a secular revolt. Yet, the Dogra state was also a sectarian monarchy, determined to uphold the Hindu interest over its Muslim subjects. For many Muslims, the message from this Martyrs' Day is that it doesn't matter who the community votes for: Kashmir's identity and history will be decided by Hindu nationalist power, not their democratic choices. The debate Kashmir does desperately need — on identity, religion, and on the wounds that decades have done so little to heal — has been placed even further out of reach. The battle at the jail For much of the summer of 1931, tensions had been building up: First, a constable at the Jammu Central Jail was accused of desecrating the Quran, and then torn pages of the book were found in a Srinagar drain. Then, Abdul Qadeer, an ethnic-Punjabi cook serving a European visitor, was charged with delivering a seditious speech at the Shah-e-Hamdan shrine in Srinagar. Large crowds gathered to support Abdul Qadeer as he was driven to the trial court. An official inquiry into the events was recorded, and so authorities decided to conduct the trial inside the prison. Then, on the morning of 13 July 1931, police opened fire on thousands of protestors massed at the prison gates. The crowd, as it bore the dead bodies through Maharajganj, looted Hindu-owned shops. Local Muslims alleged that Hindus later retaliated by attacking their properties, with the help of troops. For a complete understanding of why tensions around religion exploded in 1931, historian Chitralekha Zutshi has argued, the broader context is key. From the late 1920s, the Great Depression had begun to choke Kashmir's economy. Agricultural prices fell, leading rural workers to seek work in the cities. The urban factories, though, were in crisis. Through the countryside, Zutshi writes, moneylenders were foreclosing loans and taking over the lands of peasants. Twenty-six years old in 1931, a graduate with a Master's degree in science from Aligarh and employed in Kashmir's education department, Sheikh Abdullah was part of an embryonic class of middle class Muslims seeking political representation and power. From the 1920s, Abdullah had been at the forefront of a group advocating for more job opportunities for Muslims. MK Gandhi's arrest in the summer of 1930 had seen Kashmir shut down in solidarity, a sign of emerging mass politics. From the court's perspective, there was another issue. In March 1931, Mirwaiz Atiqullah of Srinagar, the hereditary spiritual leader of the city's Muslims and a key supporter of the Maharaja, had passed away. A bitter succession struggle ensued, with Yusuf Shah battling Muhammad Ahmadullah Hamadani, the representative of a rival branch of the family. Even though the job was not one that had a genuine popular base, the rising tide of religious tension would propel him to leadership of a movement that was just beginning to form. Also read: India needs to focus on winning in Kashmir, not fighting Pakistan Fighting for the faith Like most of India's princely states, Kashmir had high taxes and spent more on the upkeep of the monarchy than on education, healthcare, and public infrastructure. This hurt both Hindus and Muslims, but, as historian Mridu Rai has written, the Dogra state went to some lengths to assert its religious credentials. For example, cow-killing carried a ten-year prison sentence, while goat sacrifices were banned except on just a few, specified days. Those who chose to convert to Islam lost their rights to inherit ancestral lands. Kashmir's foreign minister, Albion Rajkumar Banerji, famously said that the state's Muslims were treated like 'dumb, driven cattle.' Even though Muslims made up more than half of Kashmir's population, historian Ian Copland records, Hindus and Sikhs held 78 per cent of gazetted appointments compared to the 22 per cent for Muslims. The Tehsildars of Kotli and Rajouri, the Naib Tehsildars of Bhimber, Naoshera, Kotli and Rajouri, and the Superintendent and Deputy-Superintendent of Police at Kotli were all Hindu or Sikh. In Mirpur, over nine out of ten Patwaris, or land record keepers, were Kashmiri Brahmins. For a range of political forces in Punjab, this pool of resentment represented opportunity. The Khalifa, or chief, of the Ahmadiyya sect, Mirza Bashir-ud-din Mahmud Ahmad, ordered a concerted missionary push. Gurdaspur, the Ahmadiyya headquarters, was close to Jammu, and the sect claimed that Jesus Christ, revered by all Muslims as a prophet, had been buried in Srinagar. Funding from the Ahmadiyya enabled Sheikh Abdullah to resign his job, Copland writes, and commit himself full-time to politics. The Majlis-e-Ahrar — which, among other things, would spearhead the movement to proscribe Ahmadiyya as non-Muslims in Pakistan — similarly thought it had found an issue on which it could distinguish itself from other parties. The Muslim League and Punjab's powerful Unionists were allied with the Raj. The Majlis styled themselves as revolutionaries, opposing the presence of the British and the traditional rule of landlords and princes. Also read: Definite change in Kashmir. Violence exists only because terrorists have adapted, Army hasn't A problematic legacy Facing widespread resistance, the Dogra regime unleashed coercion. Late in September, Sheikh Abdullah was arrested. Five men protesting his arrest were shot dead in Srinagar, and another 22 Muslims were killed in Anantnag. The next day, Muslims in Shopian turned on the police, beating up guards posted outside the town's mosque for Friday prayers. Pandit Hari Kishan Kaul and his brother Daya Kishan Kaul, the Maharaja's key advisors, responded by imposing martial law. Local Muslims were forced to wear rosettes in royal colours, Copland writes, and over a hundred were publicly flogged. Events moved rapidly toward a crisis. The Muslims of Mirpur and Jammu came out on the streets in response to the state's violence, demanding Sheikh Abdullah's release. Large crowds demanded that the Maharaja concede to their calls for religious liberties, restitution for riot victims, and proportional representation in the civil services. The shaken British resident in Srinagar, Courtney Latimer, forecast 'widespread rebellion.' The legacy of the 1931-1932 crisis is profoundly complex. There's little doubt religion had played a key role in fostering political consciousness in Kashmir. For generations afterward, it would exercise an often-poisonous influence on public life. Few politicians in the region, either Hindu or Muslim, have made a serious effort to acknowledge, let alone exercise, the profound impact of communalism on Kashmir's public life. Yet, the events of 1931 were also the foundations on which Kashmir's accession to India was built. The end of the crisis saw the establishment of a legislature in Kashmir, although with a franchise limited to those paying Rs 20 a year in land revenue. Muslims made genuine gains, especially in education and representation. For his part, Abdullah transitioned away from the chauvinism of the forces that shaped 1931, allying himself with the Indian National Congress and the broader freedom movement. Seeking to erase 1931 killings from Kashmir's political memory is to tell the Valley's Muslims that they are condemned to suffer a lesser kind of citizenship. From there, the road heads inexorably back to an ugly, fractured past. The author is Contributing Editor at ThePrint. His X handle is @praveenswami. Views are personal. (Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)
NDTV
7 days ago
- Politics
- NDTV
"What A Shame": Omar Abdullah Slams House Arrests On Kashmir Martyrs' Day
Srinagar: Several ministers in the Omar Abdullah-led Jammu and Kashmir government, MLAs and top leaders of the ruling party and the Opposition were put under house arrest or detained to prevent them from observing Kashmir Martyrs' Day today. The administration of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha denied permission for any event to mark the anniversary of the 1931 July 13 killings in Kashmir during a protest against Hari Singh, ruler of the then princely state of Jammu and Kashmir under British paramountcy. The Union Territory administration imposed restrictions in several parts of Srinagar and warned of strict action against anyone who tried to proceed towards the Martyrs' Graveyard. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah strongly condemned the restrictions and house arrests. "13th July massacre is our Jallianwala Bagh. The people who laid down their lives did so against the British. Kashmir was being ruled under the British Paramountcy. What a shame that true heroes who fought against British rule in all its forms are today projected as villains only because they were Muslims. We may be denied the opportunity to visit their graves today, but we will not forget their sacrifices," Mr Abdullah said in a post on X. Mehbooba Mufti, PDP leader and former Chief Minister, said the "dil ki doori" Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about will truly end the "day you accept our heroes as your own just as Kashmiris have embraced yours, from Mahatma Gandhi to Bhagat Singh". "When you lay siege to the Martyrs' Graveyard, lock people in their homes to prevent them from visiting Mazar-e-Shuhada, it speaks volumes. July 13th commemorates our martyrs those who rose against tyranny, much like countless others across the country. They will always be our heroes," she said. Sajad Lone, MLA and chief of Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference, said he had been put under house arrest. "I don't know why the union government is so keen to redefine what is sacred for the people of Kashmir. The sacrifices rendered on July 13 are sacred for all of us," he said on X, adding, "Histories that are etched in blood don't vanish". Earlier, the National Conference wrote to the Lieutenant Governor, urging him to restore the public holiday on July 13 in memory of those killed in the 1931 protest. But this request was turned down, and the district magistrate denied permission to hold any event. What Happened On July 13, 1931 July 13 is an epochal day in the history of Kashmir. On this day in 1931, a group of Kashmiris were protesting outside the Srinagar jail. They were supporters of Abdul Qadeer, who had called on Kashmiris to rise against Dogra ruler Hari Singh. He was charged with sedition. On July 13, a large group of protesters gathered outside the prison where Abdul Qadeer was being held. Faced with the protesters, the Maharaja's forces opened fire, killing 22 people. The July 13 killings triggered massive protests and forced the Dogra ruler and the British to look into the grievances of the Muslim community in the Valley. The first Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir were also a political fallout of the July 13 killings. These polls marked the beginning of the democratic process in Jammu and Kashmir after centuries of autocratic rule, even though the Maharaja had sweeping powers. What Has Changed Earlier, police personnel gave a gun salute and floral tributes were offered at the Martyrs' Graveyard on July 13 every year. Political leaders would pay tributes and hold public meetings in memory of those killed in 1931. But ever since the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked in 2019 and the erstwhile state was bifurcated into two Union territories, the administration has prohibited any function at the Martyrs' graveyard. Since 2020, July 13 and December 5 -- former Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister and Chief Minister Sheikh Abdullah's birth anniversary -- have been dropped as official holidays. Instead, the birth anniversary of Hari Singh is now a public holiday in Jammu and Kashmir.
Express Tribune
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Israel will spread nuclear arms everywhere
Listen to article When ISIS started around 2014, many people opined that this terrorist group was created by the United States in order to further its interests in the Middle East. While that was not true, the United States actually created the conditions, which created the terror group. The US invaded Iraq and captured and tortured some of the men who had nothing to do with Al-Qaeda. Some of those men went on to create ISIS as a result of the humiliation they had faced at the hands of American occupiers. Similarly, the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty has been successful in preventing most of the states around the world from acquiring nuclear weapons not because the Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer, who was accused of selling the formula for nuclear bomb to US-designated rogue states, was confined but because most states did not feel the need to go nuclear. Nation states strongly believed that international laws, international bodies, and especially the United States would do the moral thing if these states ever faced aggression from other countries. That may have changed for good now if not before. Libya was one of those states that gave up its nuclear programme in exchange for benefits and guarantees from the United States. Gaddafi faced the result of that bad calculation and Libya is no longer there as we knew it. North Korea showed defiance in the face of similar pressure to give up its nuclear programme and while it is very poor, it has survived the American onslaughts and shenanigans. Pakistan is a vivid example as well. Iran signed the NPT. It allowed international inspectors on its soil to satisfy the needs of the world that it was not making a nuclear bomb. The result was that Iran was always accused of cheating and planning to rush toward making a bomb. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the world that Iran would become a nuclear armed state within 3 to 5 years. He first said that in 1992 and then in 1995. He said it in 2015 and before and after that as well. None of it was true. Every time an American president opened his mouth about Iran, he issued a threat against it. Obama said, "I don't bluff" and "all options are on the table" including the "military component". After the 1979 revolution in Iran, America has worked against Iran at every step. It provided chemical weapons to Iraq to be used against Iran. It has imposed sanctions on Iraq and deterred other countries from buying Iranian oil. All despite Iran choosing not to go nuclear or maybe because of it. The truth is Iran never wanted to make a bomb. But that may have just changed. Their calculus, if they have people who can do so much as add and subtract, would only come to one conclusion: Iran must have nuclear weapons in order to deter the world from acting against it. Israel and its unconditional supporter America criticise and impose sanctions on nations that are capable of fighting and defending their sovereignty. Bloody wars are waged against countries that are defenseless, that are not nuclear armed states. Israel would have never ever dared of attacking Iran, had Iran been a nuclear armed state. More importantly, Iran playing the nice guy and being the norms following player have not yielded any defence benefits for it. It has rather weakened its defence. And this is not just playing inside the mind of Iran but rather inside the mind of every nation state. Being in the good books of the US by giving up the thought of nuclear weapons isn't a currency strong enough to be banked upon to ensure defence should a US ally attack you. Israel is creating the desire for states to want to go nuclear. Despite the habit of the world to tap itself on the shoulder for being civilised, in the end survival comes down to brute power. Not values, not education, not anything else.
The Hindu
10-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Expert committee on education in Kalyana Karnataka submits interim report
The eight-member committee formed by the State Government to improve the educational scenario in the Kalyana Karnataka region submitted its interim report in Kalaburagi on June 9. The committee will submit its final report tentatively in the first week of September 2025. In its interim report, the committee has made major recommendations in three categories, including Immediate short-term recommendations to be implemented in the 2nd and 3rd examinations of this academic year and the next year; the short-term recommendations to be implemented by the 2025-26 academic year; and the medium-term recommendations to be executed in the next three-year period (2025-28). In immediate short-term recommendations, the committee suggested Additional classes in schools with less than 40% results Marusinchana and Kalikasare-based teaching Procuring the workbooks immediately Focusing on low performing subjects Continuous assignments to improve writing skills Weekly reports on activities, assignments, valuation and performance on each student End-to-end action to be taken by authorities (Deputy Director for Public Instructions) Teaching and learning interventions should begin from class 8 Adopting innovative methods, teacher accountability and community participation In short-term recommendations, the committee advised Improve the monitoring and supervision mechanism by establishment additional block education offices (BEOs) Establish 14 new BEOs in addition to 34 existing BEOs Fill up teacher vacancies Continuation of Akshara Avishkara scheme by establishing a project management unit for the programme The medium-term recommendations include Better positioning of existing government schools Establishing new 200 Karnataka Public Schools in the next two years Focus on increasing student enrolment, transition rate Check drop-outs at secondary level Improve learning outcomes The interim report stressed on initial assessment at the beginning of the school in June to diagnose students' grade specific learning abilities. BEOs should fix school specific targets and entrust the accountability to achieve targets. The report observed that capacity building of teachers should be a continuous process, reducing the non-academic workload on teachers, improving teaching-learning skills in English language, and improving learning and writing skills in Kannada language. The committee is led by economist Chaya Degaonkar. The members are Abdul Qadeer, Mallikarjun M. S., Fr. Francis Bashyam , Rudresh S., N.B. Patil, Yeshwanth Harsur and Ngabai B. Bulla.
Hans India
02-06-2025
- Health
- Hans India
Shaheen Group secures 500 MBBS seats for Indian students in Tajikistan
Hyderabad: As hundreds of students fail to secure MBBS seats through merit or management quotas, Shaheen Group of Institutions has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Medical Social Institute of Tajikistan, under which 500 students will be able to pursue MBBS degrees at the institute. As part of the collaboration, the Ambassador of Tajikistan to India, along with the Cultural Ambassador and other diplomatic representatives, visited the Shaheen Campus. Dr Zainab, the Tajikistan coordinator, assured that full security is provided to international students there. Dr Abdul Qadeer, Chairman of the Shaheen Group of Institutions, explained that this agreement offers such students a chance to fulfill their dream of becoming doctors. He further stated that students can complete the entire six-year MBBS course, including hostel accommodation and Indian food, for just Rs 32 lakh. Dr Qadeer shared that the course fee can be paid in easy installments. The registration fee is Rs 49,500, and registrations will remain open until the end of June. The Rs 32 lakh package also includes insurance coverage. In a significant move, Shaheen Group and its medical partners will provide FMGE (Foreign Medical Graduate Examination) coaching from the first day of the MBBS course. This ensures that students are well-prepared to obtain a license for medical practice after graduation. For more information, visit:
