9 AUGUST 1953: THE CELESTIAL CONTEXT
On 9 August 1953, Gulmarg, a famous hill resort, nestled in the foothills of the Pir Panjal range, 51 km from Srinagar, saw Kashmir’s tallest leader and the incumbent Prime Minister being woken up in the wee hours, served with an order of his dismissal and arrest, and whisked away in a police jeep to Udhampur, 228 km from the scene of arrest, in Jammu province where he was imprisoned.
On 8th August, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, accompanied by his three Kashmiri Pandit aides, had arrived in Gulmarg to relax his worked-out nerves and review some local development works. His wife, Akbar Jahan, and children were already there since they had left Srinagar hours before his departure.
Lately, Abdullah had run into serious differences with his ‘best friend’, Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, and some of his own cabinet colleagues who were acting at the behest of New Delhi. He was being accused of working for an independent Kashmir, but the charge brought out for his dismissal was that he had lost confidence of his cabinet, ironically comprising his handpicked men. The 22-year-old Sadr-e-Riyasat (Head of the State), Karan Singh, was in the loop. He, Abdullah’s ministerial colleague, D.P. Dhar, and Brigadier B.M. Koul worked out minutest details of the coup. They were looking for an opportune moment to strike which was offered by Abdullah’s absence from Srinagar, the seat of power, on the evening of 8th August. Nehru had decided to remove Abdullah from office, and fearing violent reaction in Kashmir, had asked D. W. Mehra, Deputy Director, Central Intelligence Bureau, to be prepared for assuming control of the Jammu & Kashmir Police Force and to take over as the Chief Executive under the Sadr-i-Riyasat. At the end of the day, however, the take-over plan was shelved. Abdullah’s deputy, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, had been readied to take over the reins of power who, knowledgeable men later said, was initially reluctant, fearing people’s wrath, but, eventually, agreed to be the dragger that was struck in the back of his leader, the Prime Minister of Jammu & Kashmir.
In the afternoon of 8th August, Prime Minister Abdullah left Srinagar where, at his back, all details had been tied up including informing the Army and discretely handling the media to disallow Abdullah “any opportunity to take his case to the streets”. Nehru’s team in Srinagar had ensured that Abdullah did not get a whiff of what they were up to. Shortly before his departure for Gulmarg on Saturday, Karan Singh had called him to his house where he was asked to settle issues with his colleagues at a cabinet meeting on Monday. As he boarded his vehicle to start for the hill station, he told his media officer, Baldev Prasad Sharma: “Hold the fort, and when journalist Durga Prasad arrives from Delhi tomorrow, bring him with you to Gulmarg”.
The temperature at Gulmarg had dipped due to heavy showers and Abdullah and family went to bed soon after dinner. In the wee hours, precisely at 4.20 A.M., of 9th August, somebody violently knocked the door of the Prime Minister’s bedroom. Abdullah woke up to the knock, opened the door and found a downcast R.C. Raina, his Private Secretary, at the door who informed him that the army had laid siege of the house and the Superintendent of Police, L.D. Thakur, had come to arrest him. Thakur and an ADC to the Sadr-e-Riyasat entered the drawing room and handed over a sealed envelope to Abdullah which carried his dismissal and arrest orders. Another envelope given to him had a memorandum inside signed by his cabinet colleagues, Bakhshi Ghulam Mohammad, Sham Lal Saraf and Girdhari Lal Dogra, declaring no-confidence in him as the Prime Minister. Sensing the gravity of the situation, Abdullah argued with Thakur that the Sadr-e-Riyasat had no constitutional authority to dismiss him, but the time was over, and he quietly surrendered, asking only for some time to say his morning prayers. Finally, at 9 A.M., he was driven to Udhampur to a long incarceration. The rest is history.
That being the political context of Abdullah’s dismissal and arrest. But was this mere politics? Or there also lay a spiritual undercurrent — a celestial context, an unseen river flowing beneath the visible tapestry? I am told about an intriguing incident that points to the spiritual context of the fateful event — the interplay of mortal choices and celestial whispers — the unseen hands that nudge empires and topple leaders. The story was told by Abdur Rashid Bukhari of Tral, an agriculture graduate of 1963 from the Osmania University, Hyderabad. I interviewed Bukhari for my upcoming book, and during one of my long sessions with him, he, as an aside, narrated an incident suggesting a divine hand in Abdullah’s dismissal and arrest. Bukhari had come to know about it at a mehfil (gathering) which he attended at Awantipur on 24 March 1972, where a darvaish (ascetic), Abdul Khaliq Wani of Akingam, popularly known as Khale Saeb-i-Akingam, was present.
At the mehfil, a disciple of Khale Saeb, named Mohammad Akram Bhat, narrated a story in the presence of his murshid (spiritual guide), dating back to 1953, which goes like this: A day or two before 9 August 1953, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah visited Hazratbal Shrine in connection with the Friday following the annual urs of Merajun Nabi, commemorating the ascension of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to the Heavens. He was accompanied by his ministerial colleague, Mirza Mohammad Afzal Beg. Khale Saeb had also gone to Hazratbal along with a couple of his disciples. At the outer gate of the shrine, the ascetic removed his pair of shoes and tucked them under his armpit. In the massive courtyard of the shrine, a stage had been erected under the shade of a chinar for the visiting Prime Minister to make a public speech. As Abdullah ascended the stage, his qaraqul cap brushed the chinar’s boughs and fell on the ground some distance from the stage. That is how people saw it happening but as Khale Saeb, whose eyes glimpsed beyond veils, observed the incident, he commanded his disciples: “Tchelvo” (run away). He and his disciples took to their heels and stormed out of the shrine premises without offering the congregational Friday prayers. Out of breath, they boarded a vehicle and reached the city centre where they offered the Friday prayers on the road at Haji Masjid, Maisuma. Later, the darvaish told his men that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his luminous companion, Hadrat Umar Farooq, (Allah be pleased with him), in their heavenly bodies, were present at the shrine and as Abdullah passed, nonchalant, Hadrat Umar’s anger flared and he slapped him, hitting his cap and tossing it away. The cap, discarded, bore witness to unseen hands. His spiritual eye piercing veils of illusion, Khale Saeb’s lips parted, and his voice carried the weight of prophecy: “This man,” he intoned, “is gone.” His words hung in the air, suspended like a fragile thread, yet pregnant with meaning. And then, as if echoing the unseen forces at play, he added, “The situation will turn bad.” It was not a mere observation; it was a pronouncement — an oracle’s whisper.
Khale Saeb and his disciples returned to Awantipur late in the evening and, immediately thereafter, he locked himself in a room and, sensing the tremors of destiny, he — the seeker of hidden truths — spoke with a gravity befitting ancient seers, and asked his hosts to shut all the windows and doors of the house and place a stone mortar behind the main gate of the house. He refused to eat or drink anything, nor did the host family had their dinner. Even the cattle in the house hungered since no member of the family ventured out to feed them. On the second morning, when Akram stepped out of his house, he saw soldiers in the compound who caught hold of him and thrashed him. He was rescued by the women of the house. Soon the news spread that Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah had been ousted from power and taken a prisoner.
Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s dismissal and arrest caused unrest and people in Srinagar and other towns of Kashmir protested against the development. The new helmsman, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, wielded force to quell dissent, killing many demonstrators. Through force, peace was restored but people’s resentment did not vanish which Bakshi tried to address through distributing largesse and concessions, and, over a period of time, he was able to establish his writ.
Khale Saeb came from a virtuous family background. His father, Ghulam Nabi Wani, a native of Akingam, a village in south Kashmir, 14 km from Anantnag’s Lal Chowk, on the Anantnag-Kokernag road, himself was a man of spiritual leanings and a devout man. Khale Saeb was of lean physique with a bright face. He spoke mildly and was a strict follower of Shariah (Islamic law). Visitors made monetary offerings, but he never spent a penny on himself. He would donate the money to the Jama Masjid of Khiram Sirhama and other such institutions. There are different versions about his educational background. According to Bukhari, he was a Matriculate from the Punjab University and the only son of his parents who wanted to join the forest department as a Ranger. However, he was transformed into a man of spirituality by the murshid of his father who belonged to Medinah al-Munawwarah. Bukhari elaborates: Once, before the tumult of Partition, the venerable murshid graced the humble abode of Ghulam Nabi Wani at Akingam. Ghulam Nabi, a man of quiet reverence, beckoned his young son, Abdul Khaliq, to sit before the sage and press his feet. The murshid’s eyes bore into the young man’s soul. Abdul Khaliq informed him, “I have to join as a Ranger in the forest department today.” The murshid, perhaps sensing the currents of fate, inquired, “Why, my son, do you seek to become a Ranger in the forest department?” The young man had no answer. The murshid nodded, “Go ahead, then.” But in the evening, when Abdul Khaliq returned, the murshid told him to seek the path of Allah instead of the mundane world. That sagely advice transformed young Abdul Khaliq Wani into Khale Saeb-i-Akingam, the revered ascetic.
Bashir Ahmad Wani of Akingam spins a different thread upon the loom of remembrance. He identifies Khale Saeb’s spiritual guide as Mian Ahmad Shafi Sahib of Fateh Kadal in downtown Srinagar. According to him, Khale Saeb’s formal education halted at the fifth grade, yet his heart was inscribed with celestial verses. There are other voices, too. Abdus Salam Reshi, a disciple of Khale Saeb, traces his lineage of guidance to Mohammad Abdullah Khaki and Mohammad Sayeed Khaki, siblings from Reshi Mohalla, Anantnag. People from distant villages and towns — parched hearts seeking solace — pilgrimed to Khale Saeb, seeking cure to their ailments, both physical and metaphysical. His touch, they believed, held healing; his words softened the jagged edges of existence.
The ascetic, who shied away from ostentation, and always spoke about himself in terms of nesti (nothingness), departed this earthly stage on 29 June 1998, and was laid to rest in his native village.