Trouble in the Vale

For 16 years, towering (6 ft. 4 in.) Sheik Mohammed Abdullah led the Kashmiri nationalists against the rich and mighty Hindu Maharaja. He won Kashmir's first legislative assembly, freedom of speech and freedom of the press; he was thrown into jail seven times, for a total of nine years; he also fought religious hatred: "Not only Moslems," he taught, "but Sikhs and Hindus are living in want." In this struggle, Sheik Abdullah gained the intense loyalty of most Kashmiris, the friendship of Jawaharlal Nehru (who came to Kashmir to defend him in the Maharaja's courts), and the title "Sher-i-Kashmir" (Lion of Kashmir).

The Tin Crown. In the bloody days of partition, when fierce Pakistani tribesmen invaded Kashmir in the fall of 1947, the Maharaja fled with his jade and the necklaces from the temple gods. He paused only to declare his land a part of India, and to appoint Sheik Abdullah Prime Minister. And although Abdullah and 77% of the Kashmiris were Moslems, Abdullah organized a People's Militia that fought the Pakistanis until the Indian army flew in to the rescue. It was a desperate defense, and the Lion of Kashmir inspired it. Once, the Pakistani tribesmen lashed a young merchant to the porch of an apple shop and told him to shout, "Pakistan zindabad, Sher-i-Kashmir' murdabad!" (Long live Pakistan! Death to the Lion of Kashmir!). But the young man refused. So the tribesmen crowned him with a jagged piece of tin, and put 14 shots through his body. He died crying Abdullah's slogan: "Victory to Hindu-Moslem unity!"

For six years Abdullah the Moslem held fast to India in the wearing dispute with Pakistan; he went to Lake Success in his caracul cap to plead India's case at the U.N. But last year, he warned Nehru that Kashmir's accession to India might "have to be of a restricted nature." Last month he flatly proposed an independent Kashmir, free from both India and Pakistan. Such talk was no help to Nehru, who was entering new talks with Pakistan (TIME, Aug. 10) to settle the dispute by compromise.

The Pandit Strikes. One morning last week, Nehru moved before dawn against the Lion of Kashmir. It was 3 a.m. A thunderstorm drenched the chalet resort of Gulmarg, where Abdullah slept. Police awakened him and read a letter from Prince Karan Singh, the nominal ruler of Kashmir. Abdullah's cabinet was dissolved; he himself was under arrest. In Srinagar, the run-down capital, 30 members of Abdullah's staff were also arrested, accused of "disruptionism," corruption, nepotism, maladministration, and intrigue with a foreign power. Indian papers hinted that Adlai Stevenson, who had visited Srinagar last May, was Abdullah's contact man.

There was bound to be trouble, and the Lion's captors knew it. First, they moved Abdullah close to the Indian border. Then Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed, the new pro-Indian Premier, told Kashmiris that independence would turn the state into another Korea. In New Delhi, Nehru's officials lamely claimed that India was told of the arrests only "after they had taken place." (Prince Karan Singh and Bakshi were in India last month for talks with Nehru.) In Kashmir itself, a crowd of the Lion's followers marched on the Prime Minister's residence, cursed and threw stones at his police. Indian troops in battle dress and steel-helmeted police reinforcements moved into line, and opened fire. Five of the Lion's followers were killed.

A fortnight ago, when Nehru and Pakistan's Prime Minister Mohammed Ali had parted smiling at Karachi, it had seemed that the historic conflict between Hindu and Moslem over the beautiful Vale of Kashmir might in time be stilled. Now, peace seemed suddenly very far away.

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