The state sponsored genocide in Jammu: How Muslims became a minority

 In November 1947, a massacre of more than two hundred thousands Muslims was carried out by paramilitaries led by the army of Dogra ruler Hari Singh and RSS (a terrorist Hindu organisation).

 To quote a 10 August 1948 report published in The Times, London: 

“2,37,000 Muslims were systematically exterminated – unless they escaped to Pakistan along the border – by the forces of the Dogra State headed by the Maharaja in person and aided by Hindus and Sikhs. This happened in October 1947, five days before the Pathan invasion and nine days before the Maharaja’s accession to india.”

Reportedly, as a result of the massacre/migration, Muslims who were a majority 61% in the Jammu region became a minority. 

Maharaja Hari Singh’s involvement, with the support of the RSS, is evident from a letter Jawaharlal Nehru wrote to Vallabhbhai Patel on 17 April 1949 (quoted in Frontline magazine):

"In this (intelligence) report, among other things, a reference was made to a growing Hindu agitation in Jammu province for what is called a zonal plebiscite. This idea is based on the belief that a plebiscite for the whole of Kashmir is bound to be lost and, therefore, et us save Jammu at least. You will perhaps remember that some proposal of this kind was put forward by the Maharaja some months back. It seems to me that this kind of propaganda is very harmful, indeed, for us.

Whatever may happen in the future, I do not think Jammu province is running away from us. If we want Jammu province by itself and are prepared to make a present of the rest of the State to Pakistan, I have no doubt we could clinch the issue in a few days. The prize we are fighting for is the valley of Kashmir. [This is what Nehru had dug in his heels for. The consequences are for all to see to this day.]" 

Consider the testimony of journalist Ved Bhasin. Here I am again quoting from his paper presented at the Jammu University in 2003.

"Communal tension was building up in Jammu soon after the announcement of the Mountbatten plan with the Hindu Sabha, RSS and the the Muslim Conference trying to incite communal passions. Tension increased with a large number of Hindus and Sikhs migrating to the State from Punjab and NWFP and even from areas now under Pakistan’s control. Trouble was brewing in Poonch, where a popular non-communal agitation was launched after the Maharaja’s administration took over the erstwhile jagir under its direct control and imposed some taxes. The mishandling of this agitation and use of brutal force by the Maharaja’s administration inflamed the passions, turning this non-communal struggle into a communal strife.The Maharaja’s administration had not only asked all Muslims to surrender their arms but also demobilised a large number of Muslim soldiers in the Dogra army and the Muslim police officers, whose loyalty it suspected. The Maharaja’s visit to Bhimber was followed by large-scale killings".

According to Bhasin, RSS played a key role in these killings. Some of those who led the riots in Udhampur and Bhaderwah later joined the National Conference and served as ministers.

"The immediate impact (of partition) was in Jammu. The Muslim subjects from different parts of Jammu province were forcibly displaced by the Dogra Army in a programme of expulsion and murder carried out over three weeks between October-November 1947," 

In mid-October, the Dogra Army troops began expelling Muslim villagers from Jammu province. The refugees were sent on foot toward West Punjab (later to form part of Pak), where most were accommodated in refugee camps in the districts of Sialkot, Jhelum, Gujrat and Rawalpindi.

On November 5, the Dogra Army soldiers began another organised evacuation of the Muslims but "instead of taking them to Sialkot, as they had been promised, the trucks drove them to forest hills of Rajouri districts of Jammu, where they were executed".

~ Idrees Kanth

Mahatma Gandhi did comment on the situation in Jammu on 25 December 1947 and his remarks have found mention in volume 90 of his Collected Works: “The Hindus and Sikhs of Jammu and those who had gone there from outside killed Muslims. The Maharaja of Kashmir is responsible for what is happening there…Muslim women have been dishonoured.”

The UNICP's 1949 ‘Report of the Sub committee on Western Kashmir’ mentions a Zaildar (revenue collector) who informed UNCIP that ‘on 20th of Oct 1947, he heard Maharajah while visiting Bhimber, give orders that Muslims were to be exterminated and had seen him shooting down 2-3’. There are 7 incidents of violence against Muslims in Jammu by Dogras and RSS reported by englishmen mentioned in the table below. In two incidents involving 8000 Muslims near Kathua and 15000 Muslims at Akhnur, only 40 and 100 survived respectively. 

 In incident 3, involving siege of 14000 Muslims at Sambha near Jammu, ‘all the Muslim women in village were apparently taken away by State troops and the men were slaughtered with exception of 15 survivors who escaped to Sialkot’.

This action took place after Maharaja's visit.

In the fourth incident, the state govt ordered 25,000 Muslims gathered at Maogaon awaiting evacuation to Pakistan to walk to the new dominion. ‘But as they were doing so, their women and all of their personal belongings were taken away by Dogra the troops and the rest made to stand in line whereupon they were riddled with machine gun bullets’.

Of 19500 Muslim males in incidents 3 and 4, only 215 survived. Before Maharaja's accession, 62000 Muslims gathered in Jammu province for evacuation to Pak, only 345 made it to Pakistan.