1947 Poonch rebellion
In spring 1947, an uprising against the Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir broke out in the Poonch jagir, an area bordering the Rawalpindi district of West Punjab and the Hazara district of the North-West Frontier Province in the future Pakistan. It was driven by grievances such as high taxes, the Maharaja's neglect of World War veterans, and above all, Muslim nationalism with a desire to join Pakistan. The leader of the rebellion, Sardar Ibrahim Khan, escaped to Lahore by the end of August 1947 and persuaded the Pakistani authorities to back the rebellion. In addition to the backing, Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan authorised an invasion of the state, by the ex-Indian National Army personnel in the south and a force led by Major Khurshid Anwar in the north. These invasions eventually led to the First Kashmir War fought between India and Pakistan, and the formation of Azad Kashmir provisional government. The Poonch jagir has since been divided across Azad Kashmir, administered by Pakistan and the state of Jammu and Kashmir, administered by India.
Background
was originally an internal jagir, governed by an alternative family line of Maharaja Hari Singh. The Muslims of Poonch suffered from small landholdings and high taxation and had nursed their grievances since 1905. The western parts of Poonch were the home of the Sudhan tribe who were one of the first to take up arms against the Dogra rule, playing a significant role in the subsequent rebellion. Sudhans from Poonch considered themselves to be Sudhozai Pashtuns, purportedly serving as a motivator for the Pashtun tribesmen from NWFP province to assist the Muslim rebels in Jammu and Kashmir in 1947.The Sudhans had previously also campaigned for the principality of Poonch to be absorbed into British India. In 1938, a notable disturbance occurred for religious reasons, but a settlement was reached. From then on, a garrison of State troops was established in Poonch to keep order.
After the death of Raja Jagatdev Singh of Poonch in 1940, Maharaja Hari Singh appointed a chosen guardian for his minor son, Shiv Ratandev Singh, and used the opportunity to integrate the Poonch jagir into the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Poonch came to be administered by the officers of Jammu and Kashmir as a district of the Jammu province. This resulted in loss of autonomy for Poonch and subjected its people to the increased taxation of the Kashmir state, both of which were resented by the people.
About 40,000–60,000 Sudhans were recruited and served in the British Indian Army during the First and Second World Wars. After the war, many of them retained their arms while returning. The Maharaja did not absorb them into the State forces.
The absence of employment prospects coupled with high taxation caused displeasure among the Poonchis in 1947.
The context of Partition
At the beginning of 1947, the British Indian provinces of Punjab, to the south and southwest of Kashmir, and North-West Frontier Province to the northwest of Kashmir, were two of the most important provinces of the would-be Pakistan. However, the Muslim League was not in power in either of them. Punjab was held by the Unionists, and the NWFP by Indian National Congress Undeterred, the Muslim League decided to bring down both the governments, with the help of its private militia Muslim League National Guard in Punjab, and its leaders Pir of Manki Sharif and Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan in the NWFP. These efforts exacerbated Hindu-Sikh-Muslim communal tensions in the two provinces. The trauma was especially acute in the Hazara district, a Muslim League stronghold, which directly bordered the Poonch and Muzaffarabad districts,. Between November 1946 and January 1947, Hindu and Sikh refugees poured into Kashmir, with some 2,500 of them under the State care. The plight of these refugees did much to influence the Maharaja's future actions.On 2 March 1947, the Unionist government in Punjab fell. Immediately, communal fires were set ablaze in Multan, Rawalpindi, Amritsar and Lahore, spreading to, Murree, Taxila and Attock in Punjab. In the NWFP, the Hazara and Peshawar districts were affected.
The Pir of Manki Sharif was also reported to have sent agents provocateurs to the frontier districts of Kashmir to prepare their Muslims for a 'holy war'. Kashmir responded by sealing the border with the provinces, and sending more troops to the border areas. The stream of Hindu and Sikh refugees coming from the Rawalpindi and Hazara districts also spread unease in the State. Drivers refused to use the Srinagar–Rawalpindi road because of reports of disturbances and raids.
Possibly as a result of the defensive measures, the Poonch district came to be militarised. A. H. Suharwardy, former Azad Kashmir civil servant, states that a 'Poonch Brigade' was established by the State Army and distributed at various locations in the Poonch district, such as Rawalakot, ThorarDothan, Mong, Tain, Kapaddar, Chirala, Dhirkot, Kohala, Azad Pattan, Pallandri and Trar Khel, in addition to its headquarters in the Poonch town. The militarisation gave rise to many hardships to the local populace and generated resentment. The rigorous restriction on the movement of goods and men between Pakistan and Poonch also generated shortages, causing prices to sky rocket.
Political environment in the State
The Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir were organised under two political parties: the National Conference led by Sheikh Abdullah, which was allied to the Indian National Congress, and the Muslim Conference led by Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas, which was allied to the Muslim League. The National Conference had almost total control in the Kashmir Valley whereas the Muslim Conference was dominant in the western districts of Jammu province, especially in Mirpur, Poonch and Muzaffarabad. Despite their alliances to the all-India parties, both the parties had ambiguous positions on the accession of the state. The National Conference demanded that the power should be devolved to the people and the people should decide on accession. The Muslim Conference was generally inclined to support accession to Pakistan. But in September 1946, they had passed a resolution in favour of an Azad Kashmir, though the move came in for criticism within the party.The Hindus, who were mostly confined to the Jammu province, were organised under Rajya Hindu Sabha led by Prem Nath Dogra, and were allied to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The Jammu Hindus generally regarded the Maharaja as their natural leader and gave him total support.
Unrest prior to Partition
Spring 1947
Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan of the Bagh tehsil is credited with instigating the Poonchis of Bagh and Sudhnoti tehsils in February 1947 not to pay the 'excessive taxes' demanded by the State. This eventually came to be called a 'no tax' campaign. Towards the end of June, the State troops in Poonch ran out of rations and demanded the local populace to provide their supplies. When the populace eventually declared their inability to do so, the Revenue Minister of the State came down to Poonch to collect the tax arrears. This led to renewed repression.Sardar Ibrahim, the member of Legislative Assembly from Bagh–Sudhnoti, returned to Poonch after attending the Assembly session in March–April. By his own account, he was thoroughly convinced that there was a conspiracy between the State forces and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and, so, he advised the people of Poonch to organise themselves politically. As a result of his exhortations, he states, people "got courage, became defiant, and started organising themselves exactly on military lines". On 15 June, he addressed a meeting in Rawalakot attended by 20,000 people, and gave a speech in "most 'seditious' terms". He told his audience that Pakistan, a Muslim state, was coming into being and the people of Jammu and Kashmir could not remain unaffected. After that day, he says, "a strange atmosphere took the place of the usually peaceful life in these parts". On 22 June, Chaudhary Hamidullah, the acting president of the Muslim Conference, visited Rawalakot and initiated secret plans to organise the ex-servicemen of the district for an eventual confrontation with the State Forces.
By the end of July, the Government had clamped Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code and ordered all the Muslims of Poonch to surrender their arms. Muslims complained that the arms deposited by them were distributed by the police to Hindu and Sikh families for self-defence, raising communal fears and tensions.
Sardar Ibrahim, back in Srinagar, was confined to the city.
August 1947
Sometime in August 1947, the first signs of trouble broke out in Poonch, about which diverging views have been received.According to state government sources, the demobilised soldiers were moved by the state government's failure to pay them remunerations promised by New Delhi. Rebellious militias gathered in the Palandri–Nowshera–Anantnag area, attacking the state troops and their supply trucks. The state troops were at this time thinly spread escorting refugees between India and Pakistan. A reserve battalion of Sikh troops was dispatched to Poonch, which cleared the roads and dispersed the militias. It also cut off Poonch from Pakistan by sealing the Jhelum river bridge for fear that the Pakistanis might come to aid the Poonch militias. The Army's Chief of Staff Henry Lawrence Scott also narrated an event towards the end of August, where a band of 30 Muslims from Pakistan entered Poonch and incited the Sattis and Muslim Rathores to march to the capital city Poonch, demanding accession to Pakistan. About 10,000 Poonchies gathered mainly to air grievances regarding high prices, and wanted to pass through the town of Bagh. The local officials at Bagh barred them from entering the town. Then the protesters surrounded the town and made attempts to attack it. Reinforcements of State troops were sent from Srinagar, which dispersed the protesters. The total casualties would not have exceeded 20 Muslim protesters, about a dozen Hindus and Sikhs and a few state troopers, according to Scott.
On the other hand, the Muslim Conference sources narrate that hundreds of people were killed in Bagh during flag hoisting around 15 August and that the Maharaja unleashed a 'reign of terror' on 24 August. Local Muslims also told Richard Symonds, a British Quaker relief worker, that the army fired on crowds, and burnt houses and villages indiscriminately. When a public meeting was held in August 1947 at Nila Bat, a village near Dhirkot, to support the demand for accession of the state to Pakistan, the Maharaja is said to have sent his forces to quell the unrest. The forces opened fire on the gathering. On 27 August, Sardar Abdul Qayuum Khan, a local zamindar, is said to have led an attack on a police-cum-military post in Dhirkot and captured it. The event then led the Maharaja to unleash the full force of his Dogra troops on the population. It is said that this created enmity between the Hindu ruler and the Muslim population. Villages were reportedly attacked and burned.
According to the Assistant British High Commissioner in northern Pakistan, H. S. Stephenson, "the Poonch affair... was greatly exaggerated". The state's army chief H. L. Scott's report on 31 August states that the army action targeted persons known or suspected of "rioting, looting, murder or inciting", but "exaggerated reports of events in Poonch circulated in these Pakistan districts in which State troops are cited as the aggressors." Scholar Srinath Raghavan states that, after the protests turned violent, the state carried out a "brutal crackdown" and the developing revolt was quickly "snuffed out".