Labour Martyrs in Kashmir  1865

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          29^th April is one of the most important date in the history of Kashmir, but its historical significance has been kept in the dark and dormat. Mr. Ved Bassin a Jammu based veteran journalist has rightly said that the history of Kashmir needs to be re-written once again. The Nation has been fighting the occupation for centuries, it has not been able to record the events in their true nature and the distorted is available. The History that suits their own interests can be seen. That is why many important events have got no record in the presently available historical records of Kashmir.

       History tells us that many nations, when came to know about their revolutionary past touched new limits and crossed the horizons, later those revolutionary events were written with golden words on the pages of history. The important of those events has been such that even new ideological states came into the existence.

    But in Kashmir, the occupants have censored the events and many thousand pays of resistance, history have been silence to that and missing. It has been done with a pre-planned aim to keep the new generations away from their glorious past, so they became dishearten and accept the status given.

29^th of April has been an important date in the history of Kashmir. Many events are related to this day. On 29^th April, 1931, on the day of Eid, Quran was desecrated by the occupants in Jammu and the then DIG of Police Chowdhary Ram Chand has stopped the Imam of the Mosque, Mufti Ishaq from delivering a sermon. In 1958 Sheikh Abdullah, was arrested on the orders for Delhi by Police .In 1972, D.P Dhar and Aziz Ahmad held talks, in Maree that remitted, in the Shimal Agreement.

 But the important event that in being discussed here has been given no place in the pages of history, which has been written by the Occupies. In the chilling winters of 1865, the chilly winds have brought the entire valley to a standstill. At that time the resistance in Chechenya led by Imam Sumaiel was in downfall. Russai has begun the occupation of Turkemenistan. Eastern Turkistan (Sikiang) was occupied by China .In the valley of Kashmir, the resitance movement begun and young become martyrs. Against the foreign occupies; it was the beginning of rebellion. 27 thousand Shawlbafs and 11 Thousand Looms, declared the battle against their lords. “The result was that after working from morning to night a shawl-weaver could get no more than four Annas in wages per day. A weaver could thus earn 7 or 8 rupees per month out of which he paid five rupees in tax which left three rupee to live on. The lazy and sickly weavers could not pay the tax and thus became a debtor of the Government.” 1Bamzai p 614. The protest demonstration was held, against the implementation of heavy taxes, by the shawl Weavers and Employers. When this protest demonstration reached Zaldagar Ground near Haji Phatar Bridge, the occupation forces, on the behest of Shawl Dept.’s Daruga Raj Kak Dhar, and with help of Wazir Pannu, stopped the demonstration and started beating the protestors. They were beaten half – dead, and stamped protestors, were thrown into the river, which remitted into immovable deaths.

Earlier in 1833-34 floods and earthquake had chased massive economic and human losses in Kashmir. At that time, Zorawar Singh (who is being portrayed as hero) banned the Lakakhi Pashmina that was used in the manufacturing of Shawls, even though this was the main source of income for an average Kashmiri.

According to Bamizie there were 27 thousand Shawlbafs and 11 thousand Looms. In 1860 the rate of a shawl was range between 150 rupee to 5000 rupees (as per the Walter Lawrence) and annually 20 to 30-lac rupees worth shawl were manufactured. The government then would take RS 20 / shawl weaver anuum as a tax and 30 % duty was also imposed on shawl weaving. The taxes and the duty resulted only in few penises being earned by these shawl weaves. To end these protest demonstration on 29^th April. The then Dogra Governor, Karpa Ram, order his forces under the comand of Col. B.G Singh to crush the ‘unarmed hungry protest by the muscle power. The protest was crushed with full might and 180 were arrested and as per the Mr. Pamporei, many protestors were lodged in Habak Jail.

The leaders of this protest, namely Sheikh Ghulam Rasool, Sona Bhat, Ubli Baba, Qudi Lala and many others were incarcerated in Sher Garhi Palace (Presently Assembly) and were subjected to inhumane torture. The two leaders, Sheikh Ghulam Rasool, All Pal, Ab. Qaduse @ Qudi Lala, Soria Shah and Ubli Baba died in the custody as the result of torture, and the two were also fined with RS 50,000. The then ruler, Rambir Singh, dismissed the appeal to out the fine by half. Interestingly, the penal code in Kashmir has been named after the same ruler Rambir Penal code (RPC). The other leaders were lodged with their accomplices in the Jammu’s Bahu Fort RamNager Jails, where they died of cold and starvation. (Tehreek e Kashmir by Shahzada Hassan,) He further stated, ‘‘Poor working class whom Govt. want to punish for their recent demonstration of unity and political awakening. The city was handed over to the Army which indulge in all sorts of excesses such as plunder, loot, and rape. Three hundred Muslims were banished to Jammu ; 180 were imprisoned  in Ram Nager Jail for various terms; a leading Muslim, Gulam Mohidin Gandroo was fined rupees fifty thousand while one Maulvi Nasir Ud Din was  fined rupees  two thousand. Many more were also fined.’’  Sheikh Abdulla in his book Aatish Chinar P 634 “ when Dhar are on its peak then Kashmiris are downtrodden. Their ancestor Birbal brought Ranjit Singh in1819 in Kashmir. They later ditched Sikhs and became Puppets of Gulab Singh and Raj Kak Dhar drowned 28 Shawlbafs in the Stream” .