Political Awakening and the Events of 1931

Background

• Educated young Kashmiri Muslims, many of them graduates of Aligarh and Lahore, faced few jobs, high taxes and little say in the State. Hindu Pandits and Dogras held most posts.
• The Reading Room Party (Fateh Kadal, Srinagar, about 1930) was a group of young men, including Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who met to discuss grievances.
• Sheikh Abdullah (born 5 December 1905, Soura, Srinagar) took an MSc in Chemistry from Aligarh (1930), and returned to teach in a government school.

The 1931 unrest

• 13 July was observed as Martyrs' Day for decades. A graveyard at Naqshband Sahib (Khwaja Bazar) holds the graves. After 2019 it ceased to be a State holiday.

The Glancy Commission (1931)

• Appointed under Sir Bertrand Glancy to inquire into grievances.
• It recommended more rights for the people, steps to improve Muslim education, freedom of the press and association, and a legislature. This led to the Praja Sabha (1934).

Why the movement began: causes (exam notes)

• Dissatisfaction with Maharaja Hari Singh's rule: poverty, heavy taxes, and ministers seen as corrupt, incompetent and dishonest.
• Grievances of educated Muslims, and denial of political and civil liberties.
• The impact of the Indian National Movement: the 1920 Non-Cooperation Movement and the 1930 Civil Disobedience Movement.
• Students who went to India for higher studies, and newspapers and journals, awakened the Kashmiris.

The Reading Room Party

• Students from Aligarh Muslim University, together with Muslim leaders of the State, formed a group called the Reading Room Party in 1929 (the exam notes name Basheer-ud-Din and Naseer-ud-Din; other books give about 1930). It led the early movement.
• Sheikh Abdullah, a young agitator, returned from Aligarh with a Master's degree but could get only a teacher's post in a government school. He protested against the Maharaja's policy of denying high jobs to Muslims and resigned in protest.

The disturbances of July 1931 in detail

• On 21 June 1931 a meeting was held at Khanqah-e-Moula. Abdul Qadir made a speech that the government considered highly seditious and communal.
• He was arrested and tried. A huge crowd gathered outside the court demanding withdrawal of the case. There was a clash, stone-pelting began, and the Governor, Raizada Trilok Chand, ordered the police to fire.
• Books give the number killed as 21 or 22. The next phase was open demonstration against despotic rule on 13 July 1931.
• The day was marked as Kashmir Day or Kashmir Martyrs' Day. It was a State holiday until it was removed from the official holidays by the Government of India in December 2019.
• The event bred resentment among Muslims, who then turned their anger against Hindu shops. They were looted and burnt and about three Hindus lost their lives.