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The True Story Behind 'Kashmir Martyr's Day'
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The 1931 riots were not an isolated eruption but rather the strategic outcome of decades of British intrigue and an Anglo-Muslim alliance
Every year, July 13 was commemorated as Martyrs' Day in Jammu and Kashmir with an official holiday till 2019 to establish a narrative that is questionable when one looks at the historical facts.
This year also this narrative was tried to be revived by the state government under the leadership of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Some other local political parties also support this narrative.
Keeping aside the political controversy, it is important to look at the developments around July 13, 1931, and decipher whether it was a 'Martyr's Day' or was it a 'black day' for Hindus of Jammu-Kashmir.
Even the hagiography of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the grandfather of the sitting Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, couldn't hide the fact that on July 13, the Muslim mobs took law in their own hands leaving no other option for the security forces but to fire upon them to prevent chaos, anarchy and bloodshed.
RN Kaul mentioned in 'Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah: A political Phoenix", clearly a hagiography, that in 1931 Abdul Qadir, a Muslim butler to a British officer, was arrested for sedition and was put into jail by the state administration. A huge Muslim mob gathered outside the prison on July 13, 1931.
The state forces fired on the mob following which this mob turned in huge processions from the jail looting and burning Hindu shops and also killing some of them. Sheikh Abdullah made his debut as an orator on this occasion when he declared 'Jihad,' writes Kaul.
Qadir was a non-Kashmiri Muslim, and he was sowing the seeds of insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir by giving inflammatory speeches. He was arrested on June 25, 1931.
The 'Srinagar Riot Enquiry Report' which was delivered by a high-level commission appointed to inquire into circumstances of the firing on July 13 by the state forces and the subsequent anti-Hindu violence clearly mentions a few things. One, the Muslims had held a significant meeting on July 12 that incited the crowd to gather at the jail, leading to violence.
Two, there was a very small police force at the prison.
Three, the Muslim mob had started pelting stones at the cops who were guarding the prison and the mob dangerously moved close to the gate of the prison. It didn't heed the warning of the police.
The committee examined 112 witnesses and collected written statements. Evidence indicated that the crowd's intent was to indulge in rioting, forcing entry into the jail.
After the firing at jail, Hindus were attacked by the Muslim mobs in a well- planned manner. The report says(pp14), 'Pandit Shri Kanth Khar (Witness number 65) gave reasons for his opinion that the loot was independent of the occurrence at the Jail. He said that all the looters came from the direction of Sovra, a suburb of Srinagar and did not come from the direction of the jail."
Quoting several witnesses as well as information gathered from the ground by the Inquiry Commission's members this report confirmed looting of Hindu shops and houses in Maharajgunj Bazar, Vicharnag, and other areas.
Eric Biscoe, Principal of C.M.H. School, witnessed looting in an alley near Alikadal. He described the street as filled with debris, including broken glass, bags of grain, and groceries, mostly from Hindu's shops.
The Commission said (pp13), 'We ourselves visited Vicharnag though long after the occurrence. A view of the house of Pandit Kailash Butt convinced us that everything in his house was ransacked, his property stolen and his Account-books torn. A large iron safe was carried out and broken there and was lying on the road when we went, in a broken condition."
British role
In fact, if one looks at the historical developments in Jammu and Kashmir, it becomes clear that these anti-Hindu riots that erupted in Srinagar on July 13, 1931, were not merely spontaneous reactions but rather the outcome of a long and calculated British strategy to undermine the Treaty of Amritsar (1846)—an agreement signed between the British and Maharaja Gulab Singh, the founder of the princely State of Jammu and Kashmir. The British had long desired to dominate the Northern Frontiers of India, both to monitor Russian expansionism and to control the tribal areas along the Himalayas. They recognised Jammu and Kashmir's immense strategic and civilisational value, particularly its role in securing India's northern border and its contribution to India's cultural identity rooted in the Himalayas.
But British ambitions were not just geopolitical—they also had a deeper political motive. By weakening the authority of the Maharaja, they aimed to subvert local rule through communal engineering. This plan took root as early as the mid-19th century and was aided by the developing Anglo-Muslim alliance, a tactic in the broader British divide-and-rule policy. The tragic events of 1931 in Kashmir were, in many ways, the culmination of these long-term designs.
The British resentment toward Maharaja Hari Singh also stemmed from his nationalist vision, a view that clashed with British imperial interests. Further exacerbating the situation was the emergence of the All India Kashmir Muslim Conference in 1928, which, though presented as a body advocating Muslim educational rights, had deeper roots in pan-Islamist mobilisation driven from Punjab. Most of its members had no personal ties to Kashmir, and their actual goal was to secure jobs for Punjabi Muslims in the J&K State administration under the pretext of Muslim representation—especially since many local Muslims remained educationally underqualified at the time.
The riots of July 13, 1931, thus, were not an isolated eruption but rather the strategic outcome of decades of British intrigue and an Anglo-Muslim alliance. Contemporary reports and eyewitness accounts show how imperialist manipulation, communal propaganda, and political engineering came together to orchestrate a crisis that served British colonial objectives while deeply unsettling this region and sowing the seeds of an anti-Hindu campaign that has unfolded rapidly since then.
The writer is an author and a columnist. His X handle is @ArunAnandLive. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views.
tags :
jammu and kashmir
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Location :
New Delhi, India, India
First Published:
July 18, 2025, 15:05 IST
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