Kashmir as I saw it (Part 2)
Mohammad Yaqub Khan Editor: The Light November 1,1931. “O Thou Great God! It is Thy commandment that man shall place his forehead on dust before nought but Thy exalted Self. Bear Thou witness that I do so under compulsion.” Thus, cried Habibullah Tak, while, lying in dust, the Dogra Sepoy made him do sajda to the Dogra Flag at the point of the bayonet. Habibullah Tak is the chief of the town of Shopian – one most tragic scene of bloodshed in Kashmir. Of all the storm centres during the disturbances, this small town witnessed the fury of Dogra soldiery at its worst. It is now all over but as one enters the Mosque, patches of red, the relics of bloody orgy, still greet one´s eyes, calling, nay crying, with mute eloquence, for vengeance full and speedy. The story is brief. Abdullah the Kashmir Gandhi whom I will more fully introduce to the reader in a subsequent article, was arrested on September 21. This was his arrest No.2. This sent a wave of indignation over the length and breadth of the valley, now stirred to a new life. Hartals were observed in important places and peaceful protest meetings held. Shopian did not lag behind others in its tribute to the national hero and held protest demonstrations. All wet peacefully till the fateful day of September 24. On this day, a mad man went about the streets raving his solitary slogans. A police official, Madho Ram by name arrested the fellow, put him in the lock-up and subjected him to tortures. The mad man implored for mercy in the name of the Prophet but instead of mercy there came a filthy abuse on the holy name of the Prophet´s mother. “Just see what help Mohammad can render thee, now,” retorted Madho. The news when it reached the ears of the Musalmans naturally enraged them. At the Prophet´s enchanted name the most cowardly of Muslims knows how to fling his very life with a snap of fingers. A regular complaint was lodged against the man in the court of the local munsiff. This, however, went unheeded. A section of Muslims got out of control and gave the fellow a good beating resulting in his death. This was enough to give the fullest rein to a reign of terror. Rather than arrest those responsible for the assault and deal with them according to the law of the land, a wholesale massacre was started. The Mosque where people had assembled for Friday prayer was attacked and in the twinkling of the eye, instead of votaries, the floor of the Mosque was strewn with corpses. Even those that ran for their lives, were not spared. They were fired upon and many of them shot dead. The lot of those who survived this Dogra fury was, however, worse still. Those who fell martyrs to Dogra bullets had at least one consolation. They were no longer bondsmen of the Dogra. Their honour, their religion, their God, their Prophet, was no longer at the sweet will of the Dogra or the Pundit to spurn at. They were now free in death. The survivors had to go through tortures and humiliations worse than death. It was here that on some faked charge or another, people were caught hold of, produced before a military officer for punishment. The mere allegation of a Pandit was considered enough for conviction. According to an old English saying, the King can do no wrong. According to these “Courts,” a Pandit could tell no lie. The accused were stripped naked, tied to the nearest tree and stripped in the midst of a crowd of lookers-on, “Curse on the Mosque,” “Islam Murda bad!” “Hindu Dharam ki Jai” – these were some of the shouts they were made to raise. Worse still, some were made to take out their shoes and beat the Mosque with. “This Mosque of yours will henceforth be a stable and a police station,” came the Dogra taunts thick and fast as the poor man, at the point of the bayonet was made to beat with his shoes his own sacred place of worship. This done, the crowds were marched into lines and made to do Sajda to the Dogra flag. Habibullah Tak, the chief of the place shared the lot of his people. He was stripped naked, given a good beating and then made to prostrate before the Flag. It was on this occasion that he gave vent to the deep anguish of his heart, as given at the top. This cry of anguish was in fact not the cry of Habibullah alone. It was the cry of a helpless nation groaning under the iron heel of Dogra Raj, calling upon that Raja of Rajas in heavens for succour. It was the cry of anguish of the dumb, down-trodden millions whom medieval despotism has reduced to semi-starvation, semi-nudity, to serfdom and bondage of the worst possible brand. Habibullah in that bitterest moment of his life called God to witness the humiliation, the ignominy, the torture of his people. Will that cry of anguish go in vain? A profligate court swarmed by boon companions may not see it but Nemesis is already on the heels of the oppressor, with steps silent yet sure. Already Habibullah´s cry of anguish has reverberated throughout the valley. Never in the annals of mankind did such a cry of a nation´s woe go up on a nation-wide scale but like a flame of fire it consumed all before it. It was this cry of anguish of a down-trodden peasantry in France that dragged to the guillotine a profligate King along with his Queen. It was this cry of a nation´s anguish that took the form of bullets and pierced the breast of the once mighty Czar, the terror and the scourge of his people. Is history repeating itself in that Vale of Tears, the so-called Happy Valley of Kashmir, one wonders? Who knows? Doom never overtakes its victims with a flourish of trumpets. It marches with stealthy steps. Events in Kashmir are fast drifting in that direction. Out of the blood of the martyrs which has besprinkled that Valley, there seems to be arsing a nation of heroes steeled in their resolution to shed the lost drop of blood for redemption of their very manhood. A great Kashmiri nation is already in the making. The wheel of destiny has taken a new turn and woe unto those who would now check the inevitable. True, nations are made out of the blood of martyrs and blood has not been shed in vain in Kashmir. Before long the world will behold emerge out of that blood a nation which is already in the making.
(Member All-India Kashmir Committee)
