Did Nehru Plan for an Azaad Kashmir in an India-Pak Confederation?

Present-day Kashmir is perhaps far from the image Jawaharlal Nehru had in mind for the Valley.

The recent violence in Kashmir, triggered by the encounter of Hizbul chief Burhan Wani, has not only rattled the nation, but has also further accentuated the magnitude of conflict and the bloodshed the Valley is susceptible to.

The Kashmir issue began right after Independence in October 1947. Since then, it has been one of the most turbulent regions in the world. However, as Kashmir struggles to stand on its feet, torn between the political rigmarole of India and Pakistan, along with its own demands of Independence, a chapter from history asserts that this was not the fate the Indian politicians had in mind for Kashmir.

Interest of the Minorities

Ramachandra Guha’s India After Gandhi can be cited as an example in this context. The book carries out an adept analysis, if perhaps coloured with its own shade of Nehru-bias, of the Kashmir issue. During India’s nascency right after 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru grappled to include the interests of the Muslims, a stark minority in the country.

Essentially, therefore, this is a problem of psychological approach to the mass of the people and of making them feel they will be benefited by being in the Indian Union. If the average Muslim feels that he has no safe or secure place in the Union, then obviously he will look elsewhere. Our basic policy must keep this in view, or else we fail.

Jawaharlal Nehru

Nehru Predicted Violent Reaction to Military

The book also quotes Nehru predicting a violent backlash to military control over Kashmir.

...it is of the most vital importance that Kashmir should remain within the Indian Union... But however much we may want this, it cannot be done ultimately except through the goodwill of the mass of the population. Even if military forces held Kashmir for a while, a later consequence might be a strong reaction against this.

Jawaharlal Nehru

Nehru’s Growing Discomfort with Sheikh Abdullah

Quoting Nehru’s letter to his sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Guha points out the Indian Prime Minister’s growing discomfiture with Sheikh Abdullah, who was on his way to consolidating his power in Kashmir.

Dated: 18 July 1950. “Meanwhile, Sheikh Abdullah has been behaving very badly in Kashmir in regard to domestic affairs and he appears to be bent on securing a conflict with us. He has gone to wrong hands there and is being misled.”

Proposition of an Understanding Between India, Pakistan and Kashmir

Guha writes that Nehru had proposed a confederation between India, Pakistan and Kashmir as a potential solution.

The prime minister had apparently asked legal experts to explore the implications of a confederation between India, Pakistan and Kashmir, ‘as a possible solution to our present troubles’. Such an arrangement would not imply an ‘annulment’ of Partition. India and Pakistan would remain separate, sovereign states. Kashmir would be part of the confederation, with its exact status to be determined by dialogue. There might be a customs union of the three units, some form of financial integration and special provisions for the protection of minorities.

Guha, ‘India After Gandhi’