The business of organizing for independence and for its aftermath was not conducted in a vacuum jar but in the real world. Nothing can be easier to believe than that there should have been discussion of a possibility that Kashmir might opt for India. There were only two practical choices that the Maharaja had, after all, and given that his tallest political leader was openly for Congress, there was little doubt about where the decision might go. That this should have been discussed, and that obvious impediments to such a choice, such as blocking off access to the Valley, should have been avoided by minor adjustments is not difficult to believe at all, and I do not understand why such a cloak of mystery and intrigue is being sought to be drawn across it. Similar adjustments were made in the east, where the Chittagong Hills went to Pakistan in the face of what might have been expected from a purely communal point of view, because applying the same principles as had been applied in the west made it clear that the tract could not have survived in practical terms so widely separated from the rest of India. Not even through being connected through what in later years came to be known as the state of Mizoram.
There was no mystery and no conspiracy about what has been described, only common sense. The only complicdations were due to Hari Singh holding out for a recognition of his heir as his heir, a recognition that he feared would not be forthcoming for reasons that the whole of polite society knew but did not speak about openly. Except for that aberration, the whole matter would have been done with smoothly and without the huge complications that followed.
You are aware of course that this was then and continues to be to this day a favourite way of character assassination in Pakistan, and with all who have the same mindset. Allama Iqbal was also accused of being Qadiani, with far greater justification, considering his elder brother's open profession, and his own choice of school for his eldest son.
It was only the then Mirwaiz, and a small coterie in the National Conference that promoted this calumny, and it was only those in the Mirpur belt, entirely Punjabi in its orientation and composition, where Kashmiri is not even spoken, that took any notice of this. You can see for yourself the extent and dimensions of this belt, and you can hear for yourself their linguistic affinities, if you care to find out.
Please suit yourself, and please leave me to take my own decisions.
Is it so difficult to believe that the inclination of a section of Pakistani society to blame every possible external agency, everything other than mistakes made by the national leadership, can bring even the most rational person to wonder how long and how deep this self-pity will last?
As for my ranting, I take shelter behind Horace: ridentem vicere verum quid vetat?
