Naya Kashmir, Quit Kashmir and Other Movements

Naya Kashmir manifesto (1944)

• Adopted by the National Conference in 1944. It was written by B.P.L. Bedi with others (including Freda Bedi and Mohammad Afzal Beg).
• It promised land to the tiller, equal rights for women, free education, a people's government, cooperatives, and protection for all communities. It was inspired by socialist ideas.
• Many of its promises were later turned into law in the 1950s (for example, the land reforms).

Quit Kashmir movement (1946)

• In May 1946 Sheikh Abdullah launched "Quit Kashmir", calling on the Dogra Maharaja to leave. He argued that the Treaty of Amritsar (1846) was a sale of the people and should be cancelled.
• He was arrested and imprisoned. Jawaharlal Nehru tried to enter the State to defend him, and was stopped and arrested at Kohala (June 1946).
• Sheikh Abdullah was released in September 1947.

Other groups

More details

• Naya Kashmir: in February 1945 (some books say 1944) the National Conference produced a draft of a future constitution, known as the New Kashmir Plan, and presented it before the Maharaja.
• Quit Kashmir: Sheikh Abdullah announced it on 15 May 1946. Its main aim was to transfer power from the monarch to the people. In the same year the Cabinet Mission came to India, and Sheikh Abdullah put his demand before it: that the Maharaja end his autocratic rule and give self-government to the people.
• Ram Chandra Kak, the Maharaja's Prime Minister, arrested thousands of National Conference workers.
• Jawaharlal Nehru's arrest: Nehru, always interested in Kashmir's struggle for a representative government, decided to come to Kashmir when he learned of the repression. The Maharaja banned his entry, but Nehru refused and was arrested.