Abdullah, Bazaz and Hamdard

By Shyam Kaul

It is a paradox while Pandit Prem Nath Bazaz, an outstanding intellectual that Kashmir produced during the twentieth century, was an anathema to his own community of Kashmiri Pandits, he was not well-liked by large sections of Muslims either. Pandits, in general, detest the role he played in Kashmir politics, and Muslims blamed him of having acted as an "evil" influence on Sheikh Abdullah in converting him to secular and nationalistic political thinking. At one stage, Pandits considered him a renegade for having acted against the interests of the community as a member of Galancy Commission, which in 1932 inquired into the issue of representation in the government services. On the other hand manyMuslim politicalobservers described him as an "agent" of Pandit Nehru in Kashmir.

Bazaz himself referred to this predicament in his speech at the special session of Jammu Kashmir Muslim Conference in June 1939, when it was resolved to allow the entry of non-Muslims into the party, paving the way for its conversion to Jammu Kashmir National Conference. He said that since Pandits had "expelled" him  from the community, they felt he was doing things harmful to them, while, on the other hand, Muslims considered him to be a "spy" planted by Pandits to damage the Muslim, interests.

These conflicting views, notwithstanding, it is a fact that Bazaz played the most vital role in the "conversion" of Sheikh Abdullah to secular politics, one of the many consequences of which was that Muslim Conference become National Conferrence and many prominent non-Muslims joined the party.

Writing about Sheikh Abdullah and other leaders of the day, Mohammed Yusuf Saraf, author of Kashmir Fights for Freedom, writes,  "It was Bazaz who was able to impress upon them (Sheikh and others) that the real tussle was not between the Hindu masses and the Muslim masses, but between the rich as against the poor, and between the ruled and the ruler, irrespective of being Hindus and Muslims".

Bazaa and Sheikh were no strangers to each other. They had been classmates, though their association had not gone beyond formal acquaintance. In July 1932 they had a chance meeting at which the two of them decided to meet at Chesham Shahi garden, near Srinagar, for detailed discussion on current affairs in the state. They met within a week and after a "frank and heart to heart discussion", they "finally resolved that Kashmir freedom movement will be conducted on secular, progressive and democratic lines".

No doubt, Bazaz had political ambitions, but going by the developments that followed his close association with Sheikh Abdullah, one gets a feeling that more than political ambition, it was an idealist's dream that brought him into active politics. He dreamed of a Kashmir free of communal strife, economic exploitation, social inequality and political subjugation.

He was looking for an honest, upright, unselfish, secular and broadminded leadership, and when he interacted with Sheikh Abdullah, he believed that he had found his leader, the one he had been dreaming of.

Within three years of his close association with Sheikh Abdullah, Bazaz wrote his first book in 1935, Kashmir Ka Gandhi, in which he described the Sheikh as the "chief hero of Kashmir movement" and also the most respected man among the Muslims, who conferred on him the title of the Lion of Kashmir.

"No one in the history of Kashmir", wrote Bazaz, "has enjoyed so much popularity with the masses as he (Sheikh)". With such adulation, it was natural for Bazaz to have very high expectations from his "hero". But during the course of years, things went the wrong way, leading to his disillusionment.

Pandit Bazaz and Sheikh Abdullah launched weekly Hamdard at a largely attended public meeting at Hazuri Bagh, with a veteran Congress leader, Saifudin Kichloo, doing the inauguration.

For Bazaz, Hamdard was to act as "a standard-bearer of democracy and unity of all Kashmiris, without any consideration of caste or creed they profess".

"The Hamdard", wrote Bazaz later, "stood alone, a class by itself. It was mainly through the sober, thoughtful and inspiring writings this weekly that Muslim Conferrence was converted into National Conference in 1939".

Penmanship and journalism were in the blood of Bazaz. Politics came after that. In 1927 he had sought permission to start a weekly from Srinagar (in Jammu publication of Ranbir had been allowed in 1922) but his petition was turned down. In 1932 after the state gained some freedom of expression. Bazaz launched an Urdu daily, Vitasta, which, however, ceased publication after a year.

Sheikh Abdullah was as enthusiastic in launching Hamdard as was Bazaz. Before the paper was started he wrote to his friends seeking their support for the success of the venture.

It is an irony that within a few years of the launching of Hamdard, Abdullah and Bazaz drifted apart, and the same weekly raised its voice against the "goondaism and gangsterism" of National Conference of which Bazaz wrote later that "it had ceased to be a revolutionary nationalist body which had come into existence to express the inner urge of suppressed and tyrannised masses and to fight for the freedom for the country".

He said no more could those people support him (Sheikh) whose only aim in life was the emancipation of their motherland from alien dominance and freedom of Kashmiris from political, social, economic and spiritual thraldom".

Bazaz resigned from National Conference working committee in November 1940 and from the party itself a few months later. He was not the only one to get disillusioned there were others too, like Kashyap Bandhu, who also parted ways with the National Conference in protest against the tendency of its top leader to mix religion and politics and exploit religious forums for political ends.

There also came a day when, speaking at the funeral of a party worker. Salam Darzi, killed in Sher Bakra clashes, Sheikh Abdullah, to quote Bazaz, "advocated violence as the only means of ending the opponents of National Conference".

Among these opponents of the party, Sheikh Abdullah, included "the leaders of Muslims Conference and Yuvak Sabha, and editors of two dailies, Hamdard and Martand."

Hamdard was a crusade journal in the cause of secularism, democracy and progressive thinking. During twelve years of its existence, first as a weekly and then as a daily, it went through a chain of ups and downs, the like to which no other newspaper had gone through. It faced closure, fines, censorship and all other hurdles. Once the paper was asked to furnish cash security or face closure. An appeal was issued to the readers who promptly responded by raising the required amount of money to enable the paper to continue with its publication. This is unique instance of its kind in the history of journalism in this state.

In the words of Yusuf Saraf, "the best newspaper with largest circulations was the daily Hamdard..it presentation, as well as views on various topics of political interest were always balanced, admirable and interesting."

"Through his writings", writes Sufi Mohiudin (History of Journalism in Kashmir), "he (Bazaz) made Hamdard the most popular journal of Kashmir...With the death of Hamdard ended the historical pre-partition era of Kashmir's politics and journalism".

True to his word, Bazaz always used Hamdard as a powerful weapon and medium to espouse the cause of secularism and democracy to which he had committed himself right in the beginning. He made no compromises, not even at the cost of the closure of his newspapers, followed by imprisonment and exterment from the state.

During the crucial years of late thirties and early forties, Hamdard on the one hand, kept the Maharaja's government on tenterhooks by its sharp and critical writings, and, on the other, it was equally unsparing to Sheikh Abdullah, whose party workers were often described as "fascists, hooligans, gangsters, and ruffians. There came a time when the National Conference supporters ran out of patience and an abortive attempt was made on the life of Bazaz. Three National Conference workers were arrested and tried. The assassination bid did not deter Bazaz from his commitment to fearless and objective journalism. When he returned to work from the hospital, he declared in his first editorial that he had escaped death only to "continue his fight against the fascism of Sheikh Abdullah and destroy it".

Cast in the mould of pre-independence generation of high-principled political activists, Bazaz had set before himself high standards of politics, especially in such vital matters as democracy and secularism. He applied similar standards to his colleagues also, who, he believed, were destined to lead Kashmir through the crucial years, preceding and following independence. It was here that he suffered disillusionment and failure as a politician.

Noted journalists, Shamim Ahmed Shamim, put it aptly in a write-up on Bazaz in weekly Aina in 1969, when he wrote, "unfortunately Bazaz has been undone by his own enlightment".

Bazaz, however, never gave up reminding Sheikh Abdullah to respect democratic norms. When the Kashmir leader was released from jail after GM Sadiq took over as the prime minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Bazaz sent a telegram to him. It read, "you have braved many storms but the heaviest one is ahead. Cautious steering and tolerance for dissent can save democracy from drowning. Pray, act prudently or one false step may turn victory into defeat".

The two of them came closer again during state people's convention in Srinagar in 1968, but nothing much came out of this brief association. Sheikh Abdullah finally returned to power in 1975.

In 1977, circumstances, drew Bazaz once again into the vortex of Kashmir politics and he joined some of his old colleagues, including GMD Kara and Maulana Masoodi, to take on Sheikh Abdullah in the assembly elections held that year.

Evidently to settle old scores, Bazaz, soon after his arrival in Srinagar to join the election fray as one of its managers, declared," I shall bend all my energy to see that in the forthcoming elections, democracy emerges triumphant, defeating the forces of high-handedness, hooliganism and despotic rule". It was all reminiscent of the forties when Bazaz had fought his battle against what he called gangsterism, goondaism and fascism of National Conference with his powerful weapon, Hamdard.

But it was Sheikh Abdullah who emerged triumphant from the contest with his erstwhile colleagues and old stalwarts, including PN Bazaz, whom he had once called his "respected and dear friend". Sheikh Abdullah enjoyed political power till his death in 1982. And Bazaz was yet again a disillusioned man.

Bazaz's biographer and son, Nagin Bazaz, has described the whole event as "a faux pax" saying that "he (Bazaz) had committed mistakes in the past, there had been aberrations, but not a blunder of such magnitude".

 *The author is Veteran Journalist and J&K Bureau Chief of Quami Awaz and National Herald.