1947 Jammu massacres

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File:Jammu and Kashmir in 1946 map of India by National Geographic.jpg
The Jammu province of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir (1946) consisted of the Poonch, Mirpur, Riasi, Jammu, Kathua, and Udhampur districts

After the Partition of India, during October–November 1947 in the Jammu region of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, many Muslims were massacred and others driven away to West Punjab. The killings were carried out by extremist Hindus and Sikhs, aided and abetted by the forces of Maharaja Hari Singh.Template:Sfn The activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) played a key role in planning and executing the riots.[1][2] An estimated 20,000–100,000 Muslims were massacred.Template:Sfn Subsequently, many non-Muslims were massacred by Pakistani tribesmen, in the Mirpur region of today's Pakistani administered Kashmir,Template:EfnTemplate:Sfn and also in the Rajouri area of Jammu division.[1]

Background

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File:Sir Hari Singh Bahadur, Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, 1944.jpg
Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir

At the time of the Partition of India in 1947, the British abandoned their suzerainty over the princely states, which were left with the options of joining India or Pakistan or remaining independent. Hari Singh, the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, indicated his preference to remain independent of the new dominions. All the major political groups of the state supported the Maharaja's decision, except for the Muslim Conference, which declared in favour of accession to Pakistan on 19 July 1947.[3] The Muslim Conference was popular among Muslims in the Jammu province of the state. It was closely allied with the All-India Muslim League, which was set to inherit Pakistan.

Sardar Ibrahim, the Muslim Conference leader from Poonch used a raising head of unrest fuelled by economic grievances, turning it into a rebellion against the Maharaja and demanding accession to Pakistan. Soon Pakistan got involved. On 12 September 1947, the Pakistani prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan called a meeting in Lahore where it was decided to support the rebels and to launch an invasion from Pakistan. A 'GHQ Azad' was established under Major General Zaman Kiani (formerly of the Indian National Army) in Gujrat, which started conducting raids against the Jammu border.

Communal situation in the State

Maharaja Hari Singh was seen by informed observers as liberal and non-sectarian, even though, in the run-up to the Partition, he was believed to have come under the influence of the Arya Samaj.[4][5] At least a third of the state army and over half of its police force was Muslim. Both the army and police were headed by British officers until 3 October (Major General Henry Lawrence Scott, Chief of Staff, and Richard Powell, Inspector General of Police).[6]Template:Sfn After they stepped down, they were replaced by 'Hindu officers', according to British reports.Template:Sfn The Jammu Brigade and the Jammu police were still headed by Muslim officers (Brigadier Khuda Baksh, commanding the Jammu Brigade,[7] and Mian Abdul Rashid, Senior Superintendent of Police).[8][9]

From June 1946 onwards, the Muslim Conference is reported to have tightened its connections with Pakistan's Muslim League, importing its leaders into the state and starting to train 'National Guards'. Its new leaders (Agha Shaukat Ali for general secretary and Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas for president) were "working up anti-Hindu sentiments under the guise of uniting all Muslims", according to the British Resident in Kashmir.Template:Sfn The Resident also reported that, in March 1947, Pir of Manki Sharif (from the North-West Frontier Province) sent his agents to prepare the people for a 'holy crusade' to be carried out by frontier tribes soon after the departure of the British.Template:Sfn

Also in March 1947, following the massacres in Rawalpindi, large numbers of Hindus and Sikhs from Rawalpindi and Sialkot started arriving in Jammu, bringing "harrowing stories of Muslim atrocities in West Punjab". According to scholar Ilyas Chattha, this eventually provoked counter-violence on Jammu Muslims, which had "many parallels with that in Sialkot".Template:Sfn[10] Scholar Prem Shankar Jha states that, though the arrival of refugees caused considerable unease in Jammu, the city remained free of communal disturbances till the end of September 1947.[11]

During August–September 1947, roughly 100,000 Muslims from East Punjab and an equal number of non-Muslims from West Punjab were safely escorted through Jammu by Jammu and Kashmir State Forces.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfnp

Violence against Jammu Muslims

According to scholar Ian Copland, the Jammu and Kashmir administration carried out a pogrom against its Muslim subjects in Jammu partly out of revenge for the Poonch rebellion that started earlier.Template:Sfn

Some observers state that a main aim of Hari Singh and his administration was to alter the demographics of the region by eliminating the Muslim population, in order to ensure a Hindu majority in the region.[1]Template:Sfn[10]

Scholar Ilyas Chattha and Jammu journalist Ved Bhasin blame the mishandling of law and order by Maharaja Hari Singh and his armed forces in Jammu, for the large scale communal violence in the region.[10][1]

Massacres

On 14 October, the RSS activists and the Akalis attacked various villages of Jammu district—Amrey, Cheak, Atmapur and Kochpura—and after killing some Muslims, looted their possessions and set their houses on fire.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn There was mass killing of Muslims in and around Jammu city. The state troops led the attacks. The state officials provided arms and ammunition to the rioters. The administration had demobilised many Muslim soldiers in the state army and had discharged Muslim police officers.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Most of the Muslims outside the Muslim dominated areas were killed by the communal rioters who moved in vehicles with arms and ammunition, though the city was officially put under curfew.[12] Many Gujjar men and women who used to supply milk to the city from the surrounding villages were reportedly massacred en route. It is said that the Ramnagar reserve in Jammu was littered with the dead bodies of Gujjar men, women and children. In the Muslim localities of Jammu city, Talab Khatikan and Mohalla Ustad, Muslims were surrounded and were denied water supply and food. The Muslims in Talab Khatikan area had joined to defend themselves with the arms they could gather, who later received support from the Muslim Conference. They were eventually asked to surrender and the administration asked them to go to Pakistan for their safety. These Muslims and others who wanted to go to Sialkot, in thousands, were loaded in numerous trucks and were escorted by the troops in the first week of November. When they reached the outskirts of the city, they were pulled out and killed by armed Sikhs and RSS men, while abducting the women.[1]Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

There were also reports of large-scale massacres of Muslims in Udhampur district, particularly in proper Udhampur, Chenani, Ramnagar, Bhaderwah and Reasi areas. Killing of numerous Muslims was reported from Chhamb, Deva Batala, Manawsar and other parts of Akhnoor with many people fleeing to Pakistan or moving to Jammu. In Kathua district and Billawar area, there was extensive killing of Muslims with women being raped and abducted.[1][13]

On 16 November 1947, Sheikh Abdullah arrived in Jammu and a refugee camp was set up in Mohalla Ustad.[1]

Observations

"To recall those days of communal orgy my only objective is to point out that a communalist and killer has no religion. It was the humanity that was the victim of communal fanatics... we should better learn appropriate lessons from history and not allow the communal fanatics of one or the other community to vitiate the atmosphere and disturb communal peace and harmony."

— Ved Bhasin, who witnessed the Jammu violence in 1947.[1]

Mahatma Gandhi commented on the situation in Jammu on 25 December 1947 in his speech at a prayer meeting in New Delhi: "The Hindus and Sikhs of Jammu and those who had gone there from outside killed Muslims. The Maharaja of Kashmir is responsible for what is happening there…A large number of Muslims have been killed there and Muslim women have been dishonoured."[14]

According to Ved Bhasin and scholar Ilyas Chattha, the Jammu riots were executed by members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) who were joined by the refugees from West Pakistan, and were supported strongly by Hari Singh and his administration with a main aim to change the demographic composition of Jammu region and ensure a non-Muslim majority. Bhasin states, the riots were "clearly" planned by the activists of RSS.[1]Template:Sfn Observers have noted that the Akali Sikhs and some former members of the Indian National Army (INA) also participated in this violence along with the RSS and state forces.Template:Sfn[15][16][17]

Bhasin says that the massacres took place in the presence of the then Jammu and Kashmir's Prime Minister Mehr Chand Mahajan and the governor of Jammu, Lala Chet Ram Chopra, and that some of those who led these riots in Udhampur and Bhaderwah later joined the National Conference with some of them also serving as ministers.[1]Template:Efn

Estimates of people killed and displaced

An early official calculation made in Pakistan, using headcount data, estimated 50,000 Muslims killed.Template:Sfn A team of two Englishmen jointly commissioned by the governments of India and Pakistan investigated seven major incidents of violence between 20 October – 9 November 1947, estimating 70,000 deaths.Template:Sfn Scholar Ian Copland estimated total deaths to be around 80,000,Template:Sfn while Ved Bhasin estimated them to be around 100,000.[13] Scholar Christopher Snedden says, the number of Muslims killed were between 20,000 and 100,000.Template:Sfn Justice Yusuf Saraf estimates them to be between 20,000 and 30,000.Template:Sfn

Much higher figures were reported by newspapers at that time. A report by a special correspondent of The Times, published on 10 August 1948, stated that a total of 237,000 Muslims were either killed or migrated to Pakistan.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn The editor of The Statesman Ian Stephens claimed that 500,000 Muslims, "the entire Muslim element of the population", was eliminated and 200,000 "just disappeared".Template:Sfn Scholar Ian Copland finds these figures dubious.Template:Efn

The Pakistani newspaper Nawa-i-Waqt reported that more than 100,000 Jammu refugees had arrived in Sialkot by 20 November 1947.Template:Sfn Snedden, on the other hand, cites a "comprehensive report" in Dawn, which said that 200,000 Muslims went as refugees to Pakistan in October–November 1947.Template:Sfn An unidentified organisation in Pakistan counted refugees from Jammu and Kashmir during May–July 1949, and found 333,964 refugees from the Indian-held parts of the state.Template:Sfn Of these, an estimated 100,000 refugees returned to their homes in 1949–1950, leaving an estimated 233,964 refugees in Pakistan.[18] Based on the electoral rolls of Pakistan-administered Kashmir in 1970, the number that remained in Pakistan is estimated to be in the range 219,718 – 259,047.[19]

Violence against Hindus and Sikhs in Rajouri and Mirpur

Muslims in the western districts of Poonch jagir began an agitation against taxes in mid-1947, which escalated into an armed rebellion against Hari Singh's government, and expanded to Mirpur district.Template:Sfn In October 1947, a force of Pathan tribesman crossed into Kashmir from Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province and the adjoining princely states and tribal areas.Template:Sfn The rebels took control of most of the countryside in these districts by the end of the month, driving non-Muslims to seek shelter in towns where the State troops were garrisoned. Beginning on 24 October, the towns themselves fell to the rebels: Bhimber (24 October), Rajauri (7 November), and Mirpur (25 November).Template:Sfn

Rajouri

Rajouri was held by the "Azad Kashmir forces", or rebels from Poonch, and the raiders, until April 1948, when the town was taken by the Indian armed forces.Template:Sfn The Hindus facing this persecution included the town's residents as well as those displaced from the surrounding countryside.Template:Sfn Some Hindus were able to escape, while others were sheltered by sympathetic Muslims.Template:Sfn Mass suicides and killings, including by beheading or poisoning, occurred among women, sometimes at the hands of men in their family. These were the result of fears that they would be sexually abused by the raiders.Template:Sfn The capture of Rajouri from the raiders is commemorated on 13 April,[20] and a monument was erected to honour the incident in the town.Template:Sfn

Mirpur

After the Indian army repelled the Pashtun raiders from near Srinagar on 25 November, the raiders turned to Mirpur, in present-day Azad Kashmir.Template:Sfn Political scientist Christopher Snedden writes of unverifiable allegations that 20,000 non-Muslims were killed on and shortly after 25 November in Mirpur, and a further 2500 were abducted.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In the district of Mirpur and nearby regions of Poonch, Hindu and Sikh women were also raped and abducted.Template:Sfn November 25 is now commemorated as "Mirpur Day" in Indian-administered Kashmir.Template:Sfn

Population figures

The table below compares the 1941 percentage of Muslim population with the present percentage for the Indian-administered part of the Jammu province and gives figures for estimated 'loss' of Muslims, due to deaths as well as migration.

Region 1941 PopulationTemplate:Sfn 1941 Muslim proportionTemplate:Sfn 2011 Muslim proportion[21] Loss of Muslims (est)Template:Efn
Jammu DistrictTemplate:Efn 431,362 39.6% 7.1% 151,010
Kathua District 177,672 25.3% 10.4% 29,567
Udhampur District (inc. Chenani)Template:Efn 306,013 42.7% 41.5% 5,975
Reasi DistrictTemplate:Efn 257,903 68.1% 58.4% 59,804
Jammu province
(exc. Poonch and Mirpur)		 1,172,950 44.5% 27.9% 246,356
Poonch jagir 421,828 90.0% 90.4% –
File:Jammu & Kashmir Distrikte.svg
Present day district map of Jammu and Kashmir

Scholar Ian Copland tries to estimate how many Muslims might have been killed in the Jammu violence based on demographic data. If the headcount figure of 333,964 refugees from the Indian-administered parts of the stateTemplate:Sfn is used to calculate an estimate, one ends up with a surplus rather than a deficit.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn However, Justice Yusuf Saraf estimates that 100,000 Jammu refugees returned to their homes in 1949–1950.[18]Template:Efn If we deduct this 100,000 from the original headcount figure, the estimate of Muslims killed would be a few tens of thousands.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The table below compares the 1941 percentage of 'Hindu & Sikh' population (H/S population) with that in 1951 for the areas of Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir (comprising 89 per cent of the Mirpur District, 60 per cent of the Poonch Jagir and 87 per cent of the Muzaffarabad District).Template:Sfn Template:Clear

Region 1941 PopulationTemplate:Sfn 1941 H/S proportionTemplate:Sfn 1951 PopulationTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn 1951 H/S proportion[22] Loss of Hindus/Sikhs (est)
Mirpur District 386,655 19.6% 371,459 – 15,196
Poonch Jagir 421,828 10.0% 293,723 – 128,105
Muzaffarabad District 264,671 7.1% 220,971 – 43,700
Azad Kashmir DistrictsTemplate:Efn 1,073,154 12.7% 886,153 0.09% 113,210

The Government of Jammu and Kashmir rehabilitated 36,384 refugee families from Azad Kashmir territories.[23] With an average household size of 4.95,Template:Efn that gives an estimated population of 180,100 people that were killed or displaced from these territories.Template:Efn It would not cover the families that might have been completely eliminated by the Azad rebels and tribal raiders.

See also

Notes

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References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 Jammu 1947. Kashmir Life(17 November 2015).
  2. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Chattha, Partition and its Aftermath 2009 182, 183
  3. ↑ The Question of Accession(November 2010).
  4. ↑ Template:Harvnb: "Hari Singh, it may be said to his credit, was a liberal-minded ruler when he ascended the throne and remained so till 1931 when to his great misfortune, the political awakening among Muslims touched great heights and led to the demand for responsible government... Hari Singh was prepared to be liberal; he was prepared to give better treatment to his Muslim subjects than they had received before, but he was not prepared for radical political reforms."
  5. ↑ Template:Harvnb: "The Maharaja had always appeared to be free from religious prejudices. He was close to his Muslim courtiers especially Nawab Khusro Jung, Abdul Rahman Afandi and Sahibzada Noor Mohammad. But things took a drastic turn at the time when the shuddhi and tabligh movements gathered force.... the Maharaja moved closer to the Arya Samaj camp."
  6. ↑ Template:Harvnb: "Two-fifths of his state forces and the majority of his police were Muslims. The Chief of Staff--the second in command--of the state forces was a Muslim, as was the chief of police in Jammu."
  7. ↑ Fight for Kashmir. Tagore Memorial Publications.: A State government press release dated 16 October 1947 stated, "The State has already exposed the canard that the army in Jammu consisted only of Sikhs and Dogras by pointing out that the force is mixed in composition and commanded by Brigadier Khuda Baksh."
  8. ↑ Template:Harvnb: "One day when I came back from my morning prayers, I was told at home that Mian Aziz, brother of Mian Abdul Rashid, Senior Superintendent of Police, Jammu had come to my house and left a message for me to see him."
  9. ↑ Lok Sabha Debates, Volume 12, Issues 27–31. Lok Sabha Secretariat(January 1963).: Shri Kirit Bikram Deb Burman: Will the Minister of HOME AFFAIRS be pleased to state:
    (a) whether it is a fact that Ex-Inspector General of Police of Jammu and Kashmir State has migrated to Pakistan and his name is Mian Abdul Rashid; and
    (b) whether the said Ex-Inspector General has been appointed intelligence Chief of Azad Kashmir?
    The Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs (Shri Datar):
    (a) Yes.
    (b) The Government of India have no information. The Pakistan press has, however, denied this report.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Horrors of Partition. Frontline(25 February 2012).
  11. ↑ Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb
  12. ↑ Jammu 1947. Kashmir Life(17 November 2015).
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 circa 1947: A Long Story(5 November 2014).
  14. ↑ The second assassination of Gandhi? by Ram Puniyani{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Anamika Pub & Distributors(2003). ISBN 9788174951489
  15. ↑ Impact of Partition: Refugees in Pakistan: Struggle for Empowerment and State's Response{{#if:Hassan|, Hassan}. Regional Centre for Strategic Studies(2006). ISBN 9788173046988
  16. ↑ The Nation, the State, and Indian Identity{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Popular Prakashan(1996). ISBN 9788185604091
  17. ↑ Midnight's Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition{{#if:Hajari|, Hajari}. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt(2015). ISBN 9780547669243
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Template:Harvnb: "Towards the middle of 1949, a movement for return started on a small scale which gained momentum by the end of 1950. A fair estimate of the returnees is about a hundred thousand. Sheikh Abdullah's Government re-settled them on their abandoned properties, advanced taqqavi loans and appointed a special staff to look after their problems."
  19. ↑ Template:Harvnb: "In the 1970 elections for A.K. President as well as the Legislative Assembly, the number of voters from Jammu province, residing in Pakistan, was 2,29,152. The population percentage of voters for Pakistan elections which were held in the same year was about 50%. It would take the population figures of Jammu refugees in Pakistan in 1970 to about five lakhs." [Based on the population growth rates of Pakistan given (1941–1951: 17.9%, 1951–1961: 26.9%, 1961–1972: 52.1%), this corresponds to a population level of 219,718 in 1941 and 259,047 in 1951.]
  20. ↑ The day Rajouri was recaptured. dailyexcelsior.com(12 April 2015). Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  21. ↑ C-1 Population by religious community (2011 Census). Census of India Website : Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  22. ↑ Template:Harvnb: "By 1951, of the former approximately 114,000 non-Muslims who in 1941 had lived in areas that later came to comprise Azad Kashmir... only a paltry 790 non-Muslims remained."
  23. ↑ Naseer Ganai, The Forgotten Refugees From West Pakistan In Jammu, Outlook, 18 January 2024.

Bibliography

Template:Refbegin

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  • Revisiting India's Partition: New Essays on Memory, Culture, and Politics{{#if:Chattha|, Chattha}. Lexington Books(2016). ISBN 978-1-4985-3105-4
  • Political Inheritance of Pakistan{{#if:Copland|, Copland}. Springer(1991). ISBN 9781349115563
  • State, Community and Neighbourhood in Princely North India, c. 1900-1950{{#if:Copland|, Copland}. Palgrave Macmillan UK(2005). ISBN 978-0-230-00598-3
  • Jammu and Kashmir{{#if:Das Gupta|, Das Gupta}. Springer(2012). ISBN 978-94-011-9231-6
  • Kashmir, 1947: Rival Versions of History. Oxford University Press.
  • Free Kashmir. Central Printing Press.
  • [{{{url}}} The First Kashmir War Revisited](May 2008).
  • Across the Line of Control: Inside Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir{{#if:Puri|, Puri}. Hurst(2012). ISBN 9781849041737
  • War and Peace in Modern India: A Strategic History of the Nehru Years. Palgrave Macmillan(2010).
  • Kashmiris Fight for Freedom, Volume 2. National Institute Kashmir Studies.
  • What happened to Muslims in Jammu? Local identity, '"the massacre" of 1947' and the roots of the 'Kashmir problem'. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies({Template:Year).
  • Kashmir: The Unwritten History{{#if:Snedden|, Snedden}. HarperCollins India(2013). ISBN 978-9350298985
  • Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris{{#if:Snedden|, Snedden}. Oxford University Press(2015). ISBN 978-1-84904-342-7
  • Pakistan: A Modern History. St. Martin's Press.

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