Nehru's Word: How we agreed on the accession of Kashmir

The Supreme Court’s verdict on Article 370, announced on 11 December 2023, provided yet another occasion for the ruling party to indulge in their favourite sport of Nehru-bashing. We are told repeatedly that Nehru did everything wrong: going to the UN, including Article 370, agreeing to a ceasefire, agreeing to a plebiscite. The best answer to this vilification is to let Nehru speak for himself. What follows is an extract from his first radio address to the nation on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, made on 2 November 1947, within a week of the erstwhile princely state’s accession to India.

"I want to speak to you tonight about Kashmir, not about the beauty of that famous valley, but about the horror that it has had to face recently. We have passed through very critical days and the burden of taking vital and far-reaching decisions has fallen upon us. We have taken those decisions and I want to tell you about them.

The neighbouring government, using language which is not the language of governments or even of responsible people, has accused the government of India of fraud in regard to the accession of Kashmir to the Indian Union. I cannot emulate that language, nor have I any desire to do so, for I speak for a responsible government and a responsible people.

I agree that there has been fraud and violence in Kashmir but the question is: who is responsible for it? Already considerable parts of the Jammu and Kashmir state have been overrun by raiders from outside, well-armed and well-equipped, and they have ransacked the towns and villages and put many of the inhabitants to the sword. Frightfulness suddenly descended upon this lovely and peaceful country and the beautiful city of Srinagar was on the verge of destruction.

I want to say at once that every step that we have taken in regard to Kashmir, has been taken after the fullest thought and consideration of the consequences, and I am convinced that what we have done was the right thing. Not to have taken those steps would have been a betrayal of a trust and cowardly submission to the law of the sword with its accompaniment of arson, rape and slaughter.

For some weeks past, we had been receiving reports of infiltration of raiding bands into the territory of Jammu province and also of a concentration of armed men near the border of Kashmir with the North-West Frontier Province.

We were naturally concerned about this, not only because of our close ties with Kashmir and her people, but also because Kashmir is a frontier territory adjoining great nations, and therefore we were bound to take an interest in the developments there.

But we were anxious not to interfere, and we took no step whatever to intervene even though a part of the Jammu province was overrun by these raiders.

It has been stated that there were raids from the Jammu side across the Pakistan border and that there was communal trouble in Jammu, and Muslims were killed and driven away. In the past, we have not hesitated to condemn evil, whoever might have committed it—whether Hindus or Sikhs or Muslims—and so, if Hindus or Sikhs or any functionaries of the state misbehaved in the Jammu province, certainly we condemn them and regret their deeds.

But I have before me a detailed list of 95 villages in the Jammu province which have been destroyed by the raiders from Pakistan. Bhimbar, a considerable town, has also been ransacked and destroyed. Other towns are besieged and a considerable part of Poonch and Mirpur areas is in the possession of the raiders.

These raiders possess the latest type of modern arms. It is reported that they have used flame-throwers, and a disabled tank has been found with them.

About this time, we were asked by the Kashmir state to provide them with arms. We took no urgent steps about it, and although sanction was given by our states and defence ministries, actually no arms were sent.

On the night of 24 October I learnt of another raid, this time from the Abbottabad-Mansara Road, which enters Kashmir near Muzaffarabad. We were told that armed and well-equipped persons in over one hundred lorries had broken in, had ransacked Muzaffarabad, and killed many persons there, including the district magistrate, and were proceeding along the Jhelum Valley road towards Srinagar. The state forces were spread out in small numbers all over the state, and they could not stop this armed and well-organised raid. The civil population, Hindu and Muslim, fled before the raiders.

It was on the night of the 24th that for the first time a request was made to us on behalf of the Kashmir state for accession and military help. On the morning of the 25th, we considered this in the defence committee, but no decision was taken about sending troops in view of the obvious difficulties of the undertaking.

On the morning of the 26th, we again considered this matter. The situation was even more critical then. The raiders had ransacked several towns and had destroyed the great power house at Mahoba, which supplies electricity to the whole of Kashmir. They were on the point of entering the Valley. The fate of Srinagar and the whole of Kashmir hung in the balance.

We received urgent messages for aid not only from the Maharaja’s government, but from representatives of the people, notably that great leader of Kashmir, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, the president of the National Conference. Both the Kashmir government and the National Conference pressed upon us to accept the accession of Kashmir to the Indian Union.

We decided to accept this accession and to send troops by air, but we made a condition that the accession would have to be considered by the people of Kashmir later, when peace and order have been established. We were anxious not to finalise anything in a moment of crisis, and without the fullest opportunity being given to the people of Kashmir to have their say. It was for them ultimately to decide.

And here let me make clear that it has been our policy all along that where there is a dispute about the accession of a state to either dominion, the decision must be made by the people of that state. It was in accordance with this policy that we added a proviso to the Instrument of Accession of Kashmir.”

Selected and edited by Mridula Mukherjee, former professor of history at JNU and former director of Nehru Memorial Museum & Library.

More of Nehru's thoughts and writings can be found in our archives here.