PARADISE LOST - II : Do you want Kashmir?

 (Kashmir accedes to India.. )

Jawahar Lal Nehru was a Kashmiri Pandit. He loved to describe Kashmir as “a supremely beautiful woman whose beauty is almost impersonal and above desire”. So when Mountbatten told him about the infiltration and urged to remain cool,a raged Nehru roared following line.

“ As Calais was written upon the heart of your Queen Mary, so Kashmir is written upon mine.”

But roaring was not enough…something had to be done. And be done immediately. 

Next afternoon, V.P. Menon, Colonel  Sam Monek shaw and an IAF officer were sent to Kashmir. Menon was to present to the Maharaja the Terms of Accessions and the army officers were to study military situation. While they flew off, the former Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia, Lord Mountbatten, set in motion the preparations for an historic airlift to Kashmir. He ordered all India’s civil air transport to drop their passengers wherever they were and head to Delhi. 

(Many of us will be amazed to know that Mountbatten was invited to rule independent India as a supreme authority for near about one and a half year when the riots went out of control….will be discussed sometime later .)

In Sam Monekshaw’s words, the situation of Kashmir was as follows.

“Anyway, we were flown in. We went to Srinagar. We went to the palace. I have never seen such disorganisation in my life. The Maharaja was running about from one room to the other. I have never seen so much jewellery in my life --- pearl necklaces, ruby things, lying in one room; packing here, there, everywhere. There was a convoy of vehicles.
The Maharaja was coming out of one room, and going into another saying, 'Alright, if India doesn't help, I will go and join my troops and fight (it) out'.
I couldn't restrain myself, and said, 'That will raise their morale sir'. Eventually, I also got the military situation from everybody around us, asking what the hell was happening, and discovered that the tribesmen were about seven or nine kilometres from what was then that horrible little airfield.”

So, the tribals only 9 miles away, under immense pressure, the Raja Signed the papers of accession. Kashmir was India’s now. And with those papers, V.P. Menon and Shaw left for Delhi 3 o’ clock in morning. The Maharaja then moved down to his winter palace in Jammu, a 17 hours’ journey. The exhausted King, before going to sleep, told his ADC, “ Wake me up only if Menon returns from Delhi, because that will mean India has decided to come to my rescue. If he does not come before dawn, shoot me in my sleep….because if he hasn’t arrived, it will mean all is lost.”
 

Morning at 9, a meeting presided by Mountbatten was held. In Manekshaws’ words,

“At the morning meeting he ( Menon)  handed over the (Accession) thing. Mountbatten turned around and said, ' come on Manekji (He called me Manekji instead of Manekshaw), what is the military situation?' I gave him the military situation, and told him that unless we flew in troops immediately, we would have lost Srinagar, because going by road would take days, and once the tribesmen got to the airport and Srinagar, we couldn't fly troops in. Everything was ready at the airport.
As usual Nehru talked about the United Nations, Russia, Africa, God almighty, everybody, until Sardar Patel lost his temper.
 He said, 'Jawaharlal, do you want Kashmir, or do you want to give it away'. He (Nehru) said,' Of course, I want Kashmir (emphasis in original).
Then he (Patel) said 'Please give your orders'. And before he could say anything Sardar Patel turned to me and said, 'You have got your orders'.”

After getting the order by Patel, on behalf of Nehru of course, Menon rushed to Jammu. The Maharaja would not die of a bullet in his brain.And then the civilian aircrafts gathered by Mountbatten came into action.


More next time….


( Sam ‘Bahadur’ Monekshaw later Became the first Field Marshal of India an led India to victory in 1971 war)

PARADISE LOST.....

The snow laden peaks of the eternal mountains laid upon by the hand of god on a velvet green carpet of grass studded with serene lakes and shaped by hasty torrents have inspired many a imaginative folks to say something about them. But alas! They have always fallen short of words….for no words can describe the beauty of Kashmir. The valley of Kashmir is indeed the most beautiful creation of the creator, if there is any. What makes me doubt his existence is the fact that the wind of Kashmir, which was meant to be dancing ballets over saffron fields scattering its fragrance all over the eternity, now reeks of blood.

The fragrance of saffron has long been replaced by the stench of gunpowder. The valley of flowers is now studded with landmines. At a place where life was meant to be dancing, it crawls in the streets, under the shadow of rifles and howitzers. This is not the way Kashmir was meant to be.

Ever since Kashmir started to exist, it has been a dreamland. The Hindu myths say that it was initially a  lake surrounded by the Himalayas. The grandson of Brahma, the sage Kashyap, drained the lake by cutting a gap in hills of Varahamoola ( Barramula). Since then, it has been an abode to those who have tried to find internal solace and peace. The solitude of mountains have seduced many a rulers of the scorching mainland India to the exotic beauty of Kashmir. Emperor Jahangir preferred to loose  his heart to Kashmir rather than to his queen. Later, the fair skinned Sahibs and Mam-Sahibs threw their majestic balls and invented things like the Burra Peg and Chotta Peg (of course of the cellar vines) and Masheer cutlets. 

What destroyed Kashmir was the wretched  ambition of its ruler at the time of independence of India. Kashmir, due to its population with Muslim majority, was expected to join Pakistan. In fact, Jinnah, who was suffering from TB at that time, had in his plans to take a few days’ rest in the valley, as he was quite sure that Kashmir was coming to Pakistan. The shock came when his letter seeking permission of the King Hari Singh to enter the vale was refused by the king. Hari Singh was determined to rule on a Kashmir free from both India and Pakistan. He could not tolerate Jinnah in Kashmir even as a tourist.

A furious Jinnah rushed to the premiers of Pakistan army to sort out a way to pressurize the Rajah to join Pakistan. The Generals came up with a furious plan…to hire the tribal Pathans of Afganistan  border, a clan infamous for its savageness. So a propaganda was run out encouraging the tribals to fight to rescue their Muslim brothers perishing under the Hindu rule of Kashmir. Side by side, the Muslim troops of king’s army were also to revolt.

The tribals entered Kashmir in night, 22^nd of October, 1947. The Maharajah’s troops revolted….and and a 135 miles long unprotected road was the only thing which separated Shrinagar from the Pathans.

But the Pakistani strategists had already made a serious mistake. Had they hired any clan other than the Pathans, Kashmir would have been theirs. These Pathans were direct descendants  of the most infamous and savage looters of human history, the likes of Ghajnavi and Ahmed Shah Abdali. When they entered the prosperous bazaars of Mujjaffarabad, and confronted the famous beauty of Kasmhiri girls, the looter and the animal inside them arose. They raped every girl they could find and snatched every valuable thing they could snatch. The Pakistani Generals tried fruitlessly to make them advance towards Srinagar….it was lost.

Fortunately, there was still a telephone line working between India and Pakistan of which the Pakistani officials did not know. Forty eight hours after the intrusion, Maj-Gen Douglas Gracey, of the Pakistani side was intimated for the first time about the intrusion. He was dumbstruck...and he did not hesitate. Using that very private line, he immediately called the Commander- in- Chief of Indian Army, Sir Robert Lockheart. Locheart, following 'trust no one' policy, called two poeple, both of them English- Gov. Gen. Lord Mountbatten and Field Marshal Auchinleck..

For Indian action, wait for the next part...

How tall is Gandhi now..?

With a towering height of 70 feet, the world’s tallest statute of Mahatma Gandhi was on Friday unveiled in Bihar.

‘Bapu’ is seen standing affectionately with two children on either side in the bronze statue constructed at the historic Gandhi Maidan here.

Funded by the state government, the Rs 10 crore statue, inclusive of a 30-feet-high pedestal, has been built by Delhi-based sculptor Ramsutar and Sons.

                                                                ( The Patna statue)

With this, the Parliament statue in New Delhi where the ‘Father of the Nation’ is in a meditating pose, becomes the second tallest Gandhi statue with a height of 16 feet.

                                                                   (The Delhi statue )

Anyways, world's tallest statue is that of  Vairocana Buddha in Lushan, China. It stands 128 m tall.

For more on that, visit    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Temple_Buddha.

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YOUR OWN- VIVEK.