Return of the Lion

Of all India's leaders, the man who might best have induced Hindu and Moslem to live peacefully together is one of Nehru's old comrades-in-arms, Sheik Mohammed Abdullah, the Lion of Kashmir. Despite Kashmir's overwhelmingly Moslem population, Sheik Abdullah believed that it was in his border state's best interest to accede to India rather than to Pakistan after the 1947 partition, and he won Nehru's solemn promise that the people of Kashmir would be permitted free elections to determine their own future--accession to Pakistan or India, or independence.

The sheik was Kashmir's first Prime Minister, and might still be in office if the Indian government had not suddenly clapped him in jail in 1953. Nehru, who is himself of Kashmiri origin, caged the Lion for his belief that India must honor its longstanding pledge to allow self-determination for Kashmir. Save for 112 days of freedom in 1958--he was rearrested when his views proved as strong as ever--the stubborn sheik has been in jail ever since.

Last week Kashmir's new Prime Minister, Ghulam Mohammed Sadiq, announced that Sheik Abdullah, 58, would be released and that all political conspiracy charges against him had been dropped. Sadiq's move, aimed at easing religious and political tensions in the state, caught New Delhi unawares. Nehru's deputy and heir apparent, Lai Bahadur Shastri, could only stammer in answer to questions in Parliament that "as far as we know, it will be an unconditional release."

Plainly the government hoped that Sheik Abdullah would forswear his leo nine ways and calm his followers rather than hone their hopes of Kashmiri independence. As for the sheik, he allowed that his first task will be to "meet my people, know their views and understand them." He added: "Of course.

I do stand for certain fundamental principles."

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