Jammu Praja Parishad
Jammu Praja Parishad प्रजा परिषद | |
---|---|
Leader | Balraj Madhok |
Founded | November 1947 |
Dissolved | 1963 |
Merged into | Bharatiya Jana Sangh |
Ideology | |
National affiliation | Bharatiya Jana Sangh |
The Jammu Praja Parishad
Inception
The Dogra Hindus of Jammu were originally organised under the banner of All Jammu and Kashmir Rajya Hindu Sabha, with Prem Nath Dogra as a leading member.[3] The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was established in Jammu in 1939 with the efforts of Kishen Dev Joshi.[4] Jagdish Abrol and later Balraj Madhok, who arrived in 1942, are credited with its expansion. Madhok moved to the Kashmir Valley in 1944 and established RSS there. Prem Nath Dogra was also the chairman (sanghchalak) of the RSS in Jammu.[5][6]
In May 1947, following the
The Praja Parishad was founded in November 1947 with this background, soon after the Pakistani tribal invasion. Balraj Madhok was a key organiser of the party and Hari Wazir became its first President. Prem Nath Dogra and others soon joined in. According to Madhok, the objective of the party was to achieve the "full integration" of Jammu and Kashmir with India and to oppose the "communist-dominated anti-Dogra government of Sheikh Abdullah."[5][9][10]
Jammu agitation (1949–1953)
In early 1949, the Praja Parishad started protesting against the policies of the
The Praja Parishad initially contested 28 out of 30 seats allocated to Jammu in the 1951 elections. However, the nomination papers of thirteen of its candidates were rejected on the grounds of technicalities. Sensing that the elections were being railroaded by the ruling National Conference, the Praja Parishad announced a boycott of the elections shortly before the polling. Consequently, all National Conference candidates were declared as winners from the Jammu province. Thus obstructed from democratic participation, the Praja Parishad took to the streets organising protests.[13][14]
Calling for "full integration" of the state with the rest of India, the Parishad issued a rallying cry of "Ek Vidhan, Ek Nishan, Ek Pradhan" ("one constitution, one flag and one premier"). This was in marked opposition to the state trying to formulate its own constitution, carrying its own flag and calling its head of executive "Prime Minister."[15] On 15 January 1952, students staged a demonstration against the hoisting of the state flag alongside the Indian Union flag. They were penalised, giving rise to a big procession on 8 February. The military was called out and a 72-hour curfew imposed. N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar, the Indian Cabinet minister in charge of Kashmir affairs, came down to broker peace, which was resented by Sheikh Abdullah.[16]
By this time, the
In order to break the constitutional deadlock, the National Conference was invited to send a delegation to Delhi. The 1952 Delhi Agreement was formulated to settle the extent of applicability of the Indian Constitution to the state. Following this, the Constituent Assembly abolished the monarchy in Kashmir, and adopted an elected Head of State (Sadr-i Riyasat). However, the Assembly was slow to implement the remaining measures agreed in the Delhi Agreement.[19]
The Praja Parishad undertook a civil disobedience campaign for a third time in November 1952, which again led to repression by the state government. The Parishad accused Abdullah of communalism (sectarianism), favouring the Muslim interests in the state and sacrificing the interests of the others. The Jana Sangh joined hands with the
Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, who succeeded Abdullah as the Prime Minister, implemented all the measures of the Delhi Agreement, making further concessions of powers to the Union government.[21] The Praja Parishad agitation largely subsided after these events.
Subsequent elections
The Praja Parishad remained a party of landlords and failed to develop into a mass movement, especially in rural areas. The National Conference, having implemented land reforms benefiting the rural populations, was favoured by the electorate. The Parishad was also an overwhelmingly Hindu party, and had no attraction to the Muslims. It also neglected the influential minority of Kashmiri Pandits and Ladakhi Buddhists.[22]
In the Legislative Assembly elections in 1957, the Praja Parishad put forward 17 candidates and won 6 seats. One elected member later switched sides, with the Parishad retaining only 5 members in the Assembly.[23][24]
In the elections held in 1962, the Praja Parishad was reduced to 3 seats. It held a massive demonstration in the city of Jammu, protesting against alleged electoral malpractices. The Prime Minister Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad dismissed the complaints as "frivolous."[25]
In 1963, the Praja Parishad merged into the Bharatiya Jana Sangh.[26] In January 1965, the National Conference also merged into the Indian National Congress. The event is characterised by analysts as a major "centralising strategy" and a victory for the Hindu nationalist agenda of the Praja Parishad and its allies.[27]
In the 1972 elections, the party again won 3 seats.
In 1975, Sheikh Abdullah was released from prison and allowed to return to power after striking a
In the 1977 Legislative Assembly elections , widely regarded as the first free and fair elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the Janata Party won 11 seats in Jammu and a further 2 seats in the Kashmir Valley. The Indian National Congress also won 11 seats in Jammu, but none in the Kashmir Valley.[28]
After the split-up of the Janata Party and the formation of the Bharatiya Janata Party from the former Jana Sangh faction, the party's fortunes in Jammu and Kashmir were again lacklustre until 2008, when it won 11 seats. In the most recent elections in 2014, the party scored a major victory emerging as the second largest party in the Assembly with 25 seats. It formed a coalition government with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of the People's Democratic Party as the Chief Minister.
References
- ^ Chandra, Mukherjee & Mukherjee, India since Independence 2008, p. 418.
- ^ Chowdhary, Politics of Identity and Separatism 2015, p. 229.
- ^ Puri, The Question of Accession 2010, p. 4.
- ^ Sahagala, Jammu & Kashmir: A State in Turbulence 2011, p. 57.
- ^ a b Jaffrelot, Religion, Caste, and Politics 2011, pp. 288, 301.
- ^ Jaffrelot, Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics 1996, pp. 149–150.
- ^ Puri, The Question of Accession 2010, p. 4-5.
- ^ Das Gupta, Jammu and Kashmir 2012, pp. 194–195.
- ^ a b Das Gupta, Jammu and Kashmir 2012, p. 195.
- ^ Sahagala, Jammu & Kashmir: A State in Turbulence 2011, p. 119–120.
- ^ Jaffrelot, Hindu Nationalism Reader 2007, pp. 158–159.
- ^ Das Gupta, Jammu and Kashmir 2012, pp. 195–196.
- ^ Bose, Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace 2003, pp. 55–57.
- ^ Das Gupta, Jammu and Kashmir 2012, p. 186.
- ^ Bose, Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace 2003, p. 57.
- ^ Das Gupta, Jammu and Kashmir 2012, p. 196.
- ^ Baxter, The Jana Sangh 2015, p. 87.
- ^ Das Gupta, Jammu and Kashmir 2012, p. 197.
- ^ a b Das Gupta, Jammu and Kashmir 2012, pp. 197–203.
- ^ Baxter, The Jana Sangh 2015, pp. 86–87.
- ^ Das Gupta, Jammu and Kashmir 2012, pp. 209–212.
- ^ Behera, Demystifying Kashmir 2007, p. 111.
- ^ Das Gupta, Jammu and Kashmir 2012, p. 229.
- ^ Bose, Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace 2003, p. 75.
- ^ Bose, Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace 2003, pp. 77–78.
- ISBN 978-81-7099-205-9
- ^ Bose, Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace 2003, p. 82.
- ^ Bose, Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace 2003, pp. 89–90.
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-14-310409-4
- ISBN 978-1-4008-7908-3
- Behera, Navnita Chadha (2007), Demystifying Kashmir, Pearson Education India, ISBN 978-8131708460
- ISBN 0-674-01173-2
- Chowdhary, Rekha (2015), Jammu and Kashmir: Politics of Identity and Separatism, Routledge, ISBN 978-1-317-41405-6
- Das Gupta, Jyoti Bhusan (2012), Jammu and Kashmir, Springer, ISBN 978-94-011-9231-6
- ISBN 978-1850653011
- ISBN 978-0-691-13097-2
- ISBN 978-1849041386
- Puri, Balraj (November 2010), "The Question of Accession", Epilogue, 4 (11): 4–6
- Sahagala, Narendra (2011), Jammu & Kashmir: A State in Turbulence, Suruchi Prakashan, ISBN 978-81-89622-83-1