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I am not interested in a personal defence and I
would not have undertaken it if I had not felt that my trial for "sedition" is
something far more than a personal charge against me. It is, in effect, a trial
of the entire population of Jammu and Kashmir though even some of them, being
content with their transient, personal interests, or out of fear, may not be
prepared to recognise or openly declare this.
Oppressed by the extreme poverty, misery and lack
of freedom and opportunity of the people of Jammu and Kashmir state, I and my
colleagues of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, many of whom are behind
prison bars or in exile today, have humbly sought to serve them during the past
sixteen years. We have endeavoured to give faithful expression to the growing
consciousness among the people of their rights, aspirations and desire for
freedom. This has attracted the penal and preventative provisions of law.
Where law is not based on the will of the people it
can lead itself to the suppression of these aspirations. Such law has no moral
validity even though it may be enforced for a while. There is a law higher than
that, the law that represents the people’s will and secures their well-being,
and there is the tribunal of human conscience which judges the rulers and the
ruled alike by standards which do not change by the arbitrary will of the most
powerful. To that law I gladly submit and that tribunal I shall face with
confidence and without fear, leaving it to history and posterity to pronounce
their verdict on the claims I and my colleagues have made not merely on behalf
of the four million people of Jammu and Kashmir, but also of the 93 million
people of all the princes’ states in India.
That claim has not been confined to a people of a
particular race, or religion or colour. It applies to all. For I hold that
humanity as a whole is indivisible by such barriers, and human rights must
always prevail. The fundamental rights of all men and women to live and act as
free human beings, to make laws and fashion their political, social and economic
fabric, so that they may advance the cause of human freedom and progress, are
inherent and cannot be denied, though they may be suppressed for a while.
Through past ages Kashmir has been famed throughout
the world for its entrancing beauty, the peaceful and intellectual pursuits of
its people and the skill of its craftsmen. Nature has bountifully endowed this
land and placed it as a lovely crown on the brow of India. And yet this land of
fable and romance and abounding resources continues to suffer in the grip of
appalling squalor, poverty and misery. Through starvation and want the bright
eyes of the people have lost their lustre and their faces have become dull and
lifeless.
When we who are of Kashmir look on this strange
paradox, we are moved to our innermost depths and an overwhelming desire seizes
us to do our utmost to change this unhappy scene and make of Kashmir what nature
designed it to be. Moved by this grim reality, the National Conference of Jammu
and Kashmir drew up a plan for the future government of Kashmir, in which it
embodied a charter of the people’s rights and obligations, a plan of
democratically organised and responsible Government with a constitutional head
and an economic structure of society, and called it "New Kashmir." It represents
the fundamental rights and aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and
it is in full concordance with the demands and policies of the rest of India and
the All-Indian States’ Peoples Conference, of which I have the honour to be
Vice-President. I have participated in the formation of the policy of the
Conference, and I agree with it now, as I have done in the past.
This Conference has clearly laid down that the old
treaties between the States and the British Government or with representatives
are obsolete and must end. That applies to all treaties, including the treaty of
Amritsar, which has some special and unhappy features, which make it a bond of
sales deed of the territory and people of Kashmir. This treatment of a people as
a commodity which can be transferred for hard-cash has all along been deeply
resented by the Kashmiris, whether Hindu, Sikh or Muslim. It hurts their
national dignity. In practice, the peculiar nature of the treaty of Amritsar has
led to all kinds of discriminations against the Kashmiris, resulting in their
treatment as some lower class.
It was clear that the old treaties between the
King-Emperor and the States had to go. They represented something that had no
relation to the modern world or to the India of today. They could not be
reconciled with the inevitable changes in India and the States. It thus was
clear to begin with, it became an accepted fact by the statement issued by the
Cabinet delegation of May 16 last; that statement declared that paramountcy
would go when the new constitution of free India came into being.
The future constitutional set-up in the State of
Jammu and Kashmir cannot derive from the old source of relationship which was
expiring and was bound to end soon. That set-up could only rest on the active
will of the people of the State Conference; the title and authority of the head
of the State could only be drawn from the true and abiding source of
sovereignty, that is, the people. The "Quit Kashmir" cry symbolised and gave
concrete shape to this demand for termination of a system of government which
was in process of dissolution.
Meanwhile developments in Kashmir had led to a
crisis. Certain constitutional changes were introduced in 1944 which were
glaringly inadequate and fell far short of the demand of the situation. Yet we
agreed to work them in order to expedite and facilitate further changes.
But our efforts ended in failure and these
constitutional changes were reduced to a futile shadow. The intolerable
privation and grievance of the people of Jammu and Kashmir found no relief or
remedy. A microscopic minority of variously graded Jagirdars* was, and
is, allowed to exercise indefensible rights over large sections of the people,
who live in appalling poverty. In Jammu province, especially in Chinani and
Poonch, the Jagirdari system presents a pathetic spectacle of degrading poverty
and heartless exploitation.
In recent years Kashmir province has been and is
still being, parcelled out in Jagirs, which are granted to a small group of
favourites. Thus when land reform is considered everywhere an essential
preliminary to progress , in this State a semi-feudal land system is actually
being extended with all its attendant evils.
The State has vast and rich natural resources, but
these have failed to relieve poverty and utter want. Indeed, no effort is being
made to develop these resources, for the common good, and in a changing world,
Kashmir continues static and unchanging, and steeped in misery. This can only be
due to the failure of human agency and the autocratic system of administration.
It can only be remedied by the representatives of the people undertaking the
tasks of planning and development for the betterment of the masses.
The percentage of literacy in the State is six, the
percentage of higher education is one and the average income per capita
is 11 rupees per annum. This by itself is an eloquent commentary on the system
and structure of government to which the slogan of "Quit Kashmir" is addressed.
Yet the real policy of successive premiers has been
to crush the popular movement as represented by the National Conference,
presumably because this great organisation was the strongest and the loudest in
voicing the people’s demands for political and economic change.
We have the authority of the present premier
himself for the statement that he started this policy immediately after taking
office. To a newspaper correspondent he stated soon after May 20 :
"We have been preparing for it for eleven months
and now we are ready to meet the challenge, there will be no more vacillation
and no weak-kneed policy. We shall be ruthlessly firm and we make no apology
about it."
It is this eleven months’ preparation and all that
went with it that are the direct cause of the happenings since May 20, not a few
speeches or some slogans shouted by a crowd. It is an ironical irrelevance to
discuss the merits or demerits of a speech and to ignore the patent and admitted
actions of the Kashmir State administration which inevitably led, and were meant
to lead, to recent events.
The climax of the prime minister’s
"ruthlessness" was reached after May 20, when men and women were dishonoured,
human beings were made to crawl or hop on one leg on the roads and sweep them
with their turbans, places of worship were desecrated and an attempt was made to
terrorise our whole people by methods of frightfulness. Eleven months’
preparations for the premier’s ruthlessness and all the careful thought that had
gone towards co-ordination of the military and police, had borne fruit.
Some allegations have been made that the "Quit
Kashmir" slogan and the demands for the abrogation of the treaty of Amritsar had
communal or Communist inspiration. This is a travesty of fact and I deny and
repudiate these allegations. The National Conference is essentially a national
organisation including in its fold all people who agree with its objectives, and
it co-operates with the All-Indian People’s States Conference with which it is
affiliated. It stands in the All India context for the independence and freedom
of India. It stands also for social and economic changes to end privilege and
raise the masses.
It is a small matter whether I am imprisoned and
tried and convicted, but it is no small matter that the people of Jammu and
Kashmir suffer poverty, humiliation and degradation. It has been no small matter
what they have endured during the violent repression of the past two months or
more and what they are enduring now. The very events have demonstrated the
justice of our demands, and our cry "Quit Kashmir." For a system of government
that can subsist only by pursuing such methods stands condemned. If my
imprisonment and that of my colleagues serves the cause to which we have
dedicated ourselves, then it will be well with us and we shall have happiness in
thus serving our people and the land of our forefathers.
Kashmir is dear to us because of its beauty and its
past traditions, which are common to all who inhabit this land, but it is the
future that calls to us and for which we labour, a future that will become the
heritage of all and in which we, as free men and women, linked organically with
the rest of India, will build the New Kashmir of our dreams. Then only shall we
be worthy of the land we dwell in.
* "Jagir" is a grant of land made by a Maharaja; a "Jagirdar" is the
recipient of such a grant, i.e., a landowner.
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