| Jammu and Kashmir came
into being as a single political and geographical
entity following the Treaty of Amristar between
the British Government and Gulab singh signed
on March 16, 1846. The Treaty handed over
the control of the Kashmir State to the Dogra
ruler of Jammu who had earlier annexed Ladakh.
Thus a new State comprising
three distinct religions of Jammu, Kashmir
and Ladakh was formed with Maharaja Gulab
Singh as its founder ruler. The feudal dispensation
in the State, however, was too harsh for
the people to live under and towards the
end of a hundred years of this rule when
their Indian brethren were fighting for
independence from the British under the
inspiring leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and
Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, the Kashmiris
led by a towering personality, the Sher-I-Kashmir
Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, rose against the
autocracy.
The autocratic rule came down
heavily on the people's freedom movement.
However, the people laid their lives in
the cause of freedom and to uphold the ideals
of secularism, equality, democracy and brotherhood.
The high point of the movement
was July 13, 1931 when 22 protesters were
martyred. The event strengthened the movement
and contrary to the expectations of the
then rulers, the peopled emerged more determined
in their resolution to seek an end to autocratic
rule.
By the time the rulers could
realise the futility of breaking the will
of the people with the might of the State,
the National Conference, headed by Sheikh
Mohammad Abdullah, had become a mass movement
and a force to reckon with.
It broke the barriers of region
and religion and became a popular and secular
voice of the people of the State whose collective
yearning was freedom from autocracy and
the establishment of a popular rule. The
people's movement spearheaded by the National
Conference saw several ups and downs with
its leaders particularly the Sher-I-Kashmir
suffering vissitudes and long internment.
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