Disparate J&K, like Yugoslavia, was destined to disintegrate and it happened, says Karan Singh

Karan Singh puts things in perspective

On June 19, 2025, senior Congress leader, son of late Maharaja Hari Singh and former J&K Sadar-e-Riyasat, Karan Singh, gave an interview to a Kashmir-based journalist, Mudasir Khan. It was very interesting. He was candid. He said many things, and everything he said was self-explanatory. He talked about armed conflicts in the world, including Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Iran wars; Yugoslavia and its disintegration; 700-year Muslim rule in India and killings, forcible conversions of Hindus, loot and plunder; partition of India on the basis religion/ two-nation theory; Maharaja Hari Singh, JL Nehru, the British, Sardar Patel, M K Gandhi, Sheikh Abdullah, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Mufti Sayeed and Narendra Modi; August 5, 2019 reforms/ changes in J&K; disparate J&K and its disintegration; nature of the existing dispensation in the UT, etc, etc.

It is neither possible nor desirable to reflect on everything that Karan Singh revealed and said in one small essay. Hence, I will focus only on what he said about Yugoslavia and its disintegration, Hari Singh, Nehru, the British, Sheikh Abdullah, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, Mufti Sayeed, Omar Abdullah and Narendra Modi, August 5, 2019 reforms/ changes in J&K, disparate J&K and its disintegration and the nature of the existing dispensation in the UT.

First, August 5, 2019, reforms/ changes in J&K, disparate J&K and its disintegration, and the nature of the existing dispensation in the UT. On August 5, 2019, changes, Karan Singh said that his was “a very interesting response.” “Of course, there was some regret (conversion of J&K into UT). In any case, my father’s state had disappeared. It wasn’t there any longer. However, there were some positive elements; for example, lacs of disenfranchised people who came (to Jammu in 1947) from Sialkot (then in West Pakistan), they were not allowed to vote. They could vote for me if I contested for parliament. But they couldn’t vote for the Assembly. They couldn’t get a job. Because they were not State Subjects. So they got enfranchised. The thing about women, that if you marry a non-Kashmiri, you lose your property; that was also unfair,” he told his interviewer.

As for as the disintegration of J&K State was concerned, he — in unequivocal terms — said that “J&K was an artificial construct”, that it, like disparate Yugoslavia, was destined to disintegrate and that “after the Dogra rule ended (in October 1947), there was nothing which could keep the state intact.” “Sheikh Abdullah was a leader, but of Kashmiri people (in this case Kashmiri Muslims) only; he didn’t have any influence in Ladakh and Jammu. Ladakh is a different world; their food, their dress, their dance, and their culture are different from Kashmir and Jammu. Jammu and Kashmir, psychologically and in many other ways, are very different. So they will have different political parties. I am afraid we cannot avoid that…There is some nostalgia that there was once such a big state…I would like to see it (restoration of statehood), but I’m not overly sentimental about it. The old state is no longer there, and there is no use pretending that the old state is there…I don’t think we need to fight (for the restoration of statehood). The Government of India has committed that it is going to give back statehood. They committed it to the Supreme Court. They committed it to the people. I don’t think we need any agitation, we simply need to keep pressing politically…,” he, among other things, said.

His response to his interviewer’s question if “there is any possibility in future that we can have a political party that can reconcile the two aspirations” — aspirations of Jammu and aspirations of Kashmir – and “can the two – Kashmir and Jammu – come together”, was like this: “For that matter Mufti Sahab tried, but it didn’t work…”

What Karan Singh said about the separation of Ladakh from Jammu and Kashmir and about Jammu province and Kashmir Valley themselves was very interesting and meaningful. Even far more significant was his revelation that he once told late President of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito — whose 1974 constitution had reduced the Federal Presidency from twenty three to nine members and provided for right to secede and right to self-determination — that the right to secede could lead to disintegration of Yugoslavia. He also revealed what Tito told him in response. Tito told Karan Singh to let Yugoslavia break up/ disintegrate after him.

Karan Singh made these revelations/ observations in the context of the disintegration of Yugoslavia and what happened in J&K in 1947-1948 (creation of PoJK out of Jammu province and separation of Ladakh’s Gilgit-Baltistan from J&K) and on August 5, 2019 (reorganization of J&K State). To be more precise, he in a way justified the integration of J&K, reasserting that “after the fall of the Dogra rule, there was nothing whatsoever which could maintain three disparate regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh as one state.”

It is, however, a different story that he, at the same time, also said: “He (Omar Abdullah) is in a very difficult position. The power in the state (read UT) is bifurcated between the Lieutenant Governor and the Chief Minister…The result of it is that the administration tends to get paralyzed.” In other words, he vouched for a dispensation that empowers Omar Abdullah to exercise all the powers of a full-fledged state.

As for Hari Singh, Nehru, the British, and Sheikh Abdullah, Karan Singh was so candid that he expressed his unhappiness over the attitude of his father towards them. He expressed unhappiness over the arrest of Nehru, his “mentor” and “Guru”, at Kohala bridge by the State Forces on July 21, 1946. And, without mincing words, he said that what his father did to Nehru “upset him.” “Very upset. Even at the time, I was very upset. Although (PM) Ramchandra Kak came in and proudly announced to my father, hum nai bandh kar diya ji usko. Maine kaha, gaye…,” he said.

Not content, Karan Singh further said: “The difficulty or tragedy of my father was that he was not really aware of the historical trend. What were the rising forces? Congress. What did we do? We put the leader (Nehru) in jail. The British, who were the only ones who could have done something, but he disliked them because he was a patriot. And Sheikh Abdullah, the unparalleled leader at that time of the Kashmiri people, was in jail” (in 1946).

Not just this, he also revealed that he didn’t want Sheikh Abdullah to be arrested on August 9, 1953, but he had to order his arrest because Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, who succeeded him as Wazir-e-Azam, insisted. Sheikh Abdullah was dismissed on August 9, 1953, under the charge of sedition.

In sum, it can be said that Karan Singh’s interview put many things in perspective and cleared many cobwebs of confusion.

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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