Accession Day

Partition of India posed many problems and these problems led to many conflicts in the aftermath of partition. Independence came with a cost as it divided India into nations. The grave problem that confronted India was the issue of accession of the princely states. It was British India that was to be divided. Princely states had only two options. Either to join India or Pakistan. There was no third option. This third option was later given credence by the spin doctors to generate the conflict. It was this controversy into which Jammu and Kashmir was dragged. Eminent political scientist late Prof.(Dr.) M.K.Teng in the preface to his book titled Kashmir the “Myth of Autonomy” has cleared this misconception regarding the accession of the J&K and other princely states to the Indian Union. He writes “the partition of India did not envisage the accession of the Princely states to the Dominion of India and Pakistan on the basis, the British India was divided. The partition of India left the states out its scope and the transfer of power accepted the lapse of the Paramountcy : the imperial authority the British exercised over the States .The accession of the states to India was the culmination of a historical process which symbolized the unity of the people in the British India and the Indian States”.(pp. VII, Kashmir-Myth of Autonomy). There is a false premise on which the J&K’s Accession to India is always understood by certain vested interests “That the Radcliffe Boundary Commission award giving Gurdaspur District to the Indian East Punjab was announced on august17, 1947,two days after the new Dominions of India and Pakistan had already come into being.” It is totally absurd. The demarcation of the areas that would go to Pakistan was already devised by the British well before 1947,the partition year. Its blueprint was already prepared by the Viceroy Lord Archibald Wavell in 1946 to forge an alliance with the Jinnah’s Muslim League, the foundation of this alliance was laid in 1940-41 by his predecessor Linlithgow to project M.A.Jinnah as the sole spokesman of the “Muslim India”. The same blueprint was kept under cover till the opportune time came in 1947 for the British withdrawal. It was deliberately kept in abeyance so that the finger of suspicion for the vivisection of India is not raised on the British Empire. Narender Singh Sarila, who was an ADC to the last Viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten was a witness to the British decisions and policy. Has observed candidly in his book titled “The Untold Story of India’s Partition” that “secret archives cannot be depended upon to reveal the entire picture. Many decisions that are taken by government are never committed on paper or, if so committed ,are not revealed ,even after the probationary period for keeping them under wraps has lapsed. For instance , Lord Mountbatten’s reports to London ,sent after 15 August,1947.while he was the governor-general of India, have not been unsealed even after almost sixty years, thereby depriving us information surrounding British policy on Kashmir”.(pp.168,The Untold Story of India’s Partition). Lord Wavell was constantly in touch with the Secretary of State in London. His blueprint for the partition was being taken seriously in London .On 29 January 1946, Secretary of State revealed the British policy by stating in a telegram to Wavell that “It would help me to know when I may expect to receive your recommendation as regards definition of genuinely Muslim areas if we are compelled to give a decision to this (Partition)”.”(pp.194-195,The Untold Story of India’s Partition) Gurdaspur district was not incorporated into the Indian Union after the partition, Wavell’s partition plan forwarded to London on 6-7 February 1946 makes it clear as to what was in store for millions of people of the Indian subcontinent. His partition plan which was implemented by his successor Lord Mountbatten reads “1) If compelled to indicate demarcation of genuinely Moslem areas I recommend that we should include (a) Sind, North-West Frontier Province, British Baluchistan and Rawalpindi, Multan and Lahore Divisions of Punjab, Less Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts………2)In the Punjab the only Moslem –majority district that would not go into Pakistan under demarcation is Gurdaspur. Gurdaspur must go with Amritsar for geographical reasons and Amritsar being the sacred city of Sikhs must stay out of Pakistan…….”(pp.195,The Untold Story of India’s Partition). Therefore it becomes clear that the decision regarding the Gurdaspur district was taken well before partition and the argument regarding its inclusion in the Indian Union after the partition does not hold any ground as it is far from the historical fact made amply clear by Lord Wavell’s partition plan. Thus the claim of the spin doctors who say that Maharaja Hari Singh could not accede to the newly created Indian Dominion and the Indian Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru could not accept such a request on or before August 15,1947 because under the provision of July 1947 Indian Independence Act passed by the British Parliament, Pathankot tehsil at that time, the only geographical link of J&K, was located in Gurdaspur District of west Punjab which had been notified under the aforesaid Act as part of Pakistan is the falsification of the reality. These revelations regarding the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India have been comprehensively explained and decoded by an eminent strategic analyst and the expert on India’s Northern Frontiers, Dr. Mahesh Kaul in his highly acclaimed book “Jammu and Kashmir –Breaking the Subversive Web and A Way Forward” and his seminal paper on the accession of Jammu and Kashmir that has been reprinted many times. Thus 26th October is the day that consolidated the Northern Frontiers of India in the Himalayas.