Ram Chandra Kak

Ram Chandra Kak
Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir
In office June 1945 – 11 August 1947
Preceded by	Sir Benegal Narsing Rau
Succeeded by	Janak Singh
Personal details
Born	5 June 1893
Died	10 February 1983

Ram Chandra Kak (5 June 1893 – 10 February 1983) was the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir during 1945–1947. He was also a pioneering archaeologist who excavated the major sites of antiquities in Kashmir Valley and wrote a definitive treatise on them.

Career

Kak served at various key positions in Maharaja Hari Singh's administration. Beginning as the superintendent of archaeology, he was appointed to the post of Chief Secretary in 1937. He was appointed as the Minister of Military Affairs in 1941 and held the role of "minister-in-waiting" for the Maharaja Hari Singh during 1942–1945. He served as the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir from June 1945 until 11 August 1947, during the key transitional period when the British were preparing for departure from India.

1946

In 1946, the National Conference party began the Quit Kashmir movement against the Maharaja. Its leader Sheikh Abdullah was arrested on 15 May. Jawaharlal Nehru attempted to come to Kashmir as his defence counsel. Nehru's entry into the state was blocked by Kak. Nehru was arrested on 22 June and kept at the dak bungalow in Domel, close to Muzaffarabad. Nehru returned to Delhi after two days following a summon from Gandhi. Later, Kak met the Indian National Congress leaders in India in July and Nehru was permitted to revisit Srinagar. He met Abdullah in jail.

Kak was ill-disposed to the Indian National Congress because, in his view, it allied itself with Sheikh Abdullah and lent its "great weight of authority" to his agitation against the State government. After Abdullah's arrest in 1946, Congress leaders are said to have sent telegrams to Kak as well as the Maharaja demanding Abdullah's release. Kak held that "highly coloured, inaccurate and vituperative statements" were published by Congress, resolutions were passed against the Maharaja's government and commissions of enquiry appointed. Both Kak and the Maharaja decided against acceding to the India in 1946, even before partition had been decided.

Kak tried to initiate a dialogue with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who was to become the home minister in Interim Government of India. However, the dialogue did not get very far since Patel advised that Sheikh Abdullah be released from prison and steps taken to improve relations between the ruler and the people. Kak dismissed the advice and rejected the capacity of the Interim Government to advise the Kashmir government. He believed that the authority of the British Government could not be inherited by the Interim Government. Patel took offence at what he called the "cold, official touch-me-not attitude" and asked him to let the "daylight to shine" on the Kashmir government. He in turn rejected the notion of complete independence for Kashmir. Kak's initiative having ended in failure, and the British Resident in Kashmir reported that Kashmir was likely to stay out of the Indian Union. Thus, on the eve of the Partition of India, the relations between Kak and the Congress were frigid.

1947

After the Partition of India was decided in June 1947, the decision on accession became imminent. Lord Mountbatten visited Kashmir in June for five days (19–23 June) and pressured the Maharaja as well as Kak to make a decision. As to which dominion to accede, Mountbatten said that it was the state government's decision but strongly hinted that Pakistan would be the right choice.

Accession to Pakistan did not appeal to the Maharaja. Kak's position was that "since Kashmir would not accede to Pakistan, it could not accede to India" (emphasis in the original). He advised the Maharaja that Kashmir should remain independent for at least a year, when the issue of accession could be considered. Jinnah told him that Kashmir could hope to get far better terms if it acceded immediately rather than later, but Kak's position was that the state's decision on non-accession was final. Jinnah is reported to have said that he did not mind the state not acceding to Pakistan as long as it did not accede to India.

General Henry Scott, the Chief of Staff of State Forces, credits Kak for maintaining friendly relations with the would-be state of Pakistan and its dominant party the Muslim League. During Kak's tenure, the West Pakistan states (Punjab and North-West Frontier Province) are said to have stationed troops along the two main roads leading to the State and protected the traffic from raids. According to the National Conference leader, Sheikh Abdullah, Kak had good relations with the ruling circles in Pakistan. He says Kak had assessed that as a Muslim majority state, Kashmir was bound to accede to Pakistan and he had prepared a path for himself to serve in that eventuality.

However, Kak was inimical to the Indian National Congress. General Scott believes that the Congress leaders including Mahatma Gandhi "intrigued in the State" for the dismissal of Kak from premiership. Indeed, during Gandhi's visit to Kashmir around 1 August 1947, Gandhi reportedly pointed out to Kak how unpopular he was among the people and, in response, Kak had offered to resign. However, the Maharaja is believed to have already decided, a few weeks earlier, to dismiss Kak and to declare a general amnesty to political prisoners. Scholar Prem Shankar Jha states that it represented the Maharaja's decision sometime at the beginning of July not to accede to Pakistan and so India was his only option if independence proved impossible. He believed Kak to be an impediment to repairing relations with the Indian National Congress.

The Tribune reported that Kak had enabled Pakistan's Muslim League to confine the pro-India National Conference but establish its own "operational bases" in various cities of the State. Pakistani "crusaders" from Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province were said to have entered the Kashmir Valley as tourists, carrying out propaganda as well as organising squads of "stabbers" and "fire-raisers". "Jinnah caps were visible everywhere". The British Resident in Kashmir also confirmed similar information.

Dismissal

Kak was dismissed as Prime Minister on 11 August 1947 and put under house arrest. Scholar Prem Shankar Jha states that he returned to the Maharaja's service a few weeks later even though not as the prime minister.

According to Kak, his dismissal was followed by a "decapitation" of the State administration. All senior officials such as the Chief Secretary, the Chief of the Army Staff, the Inspector General of Police were also replaced by less experienced people . According to Henry Lawrence Scott, the Maharaja came under the influence of the Deputy Prime Minister M L. Batra, the Maharani's brother Nachint Chand, all of whom wanted Kashmir to join India and whose intrigues were responsible for the dismissal and public humiliation of Kak.

An official enquiry was initiated against Kak in late September before the release of Sheikh Abdullah from prison. Kak attempted to leave the state along with his family. But his departure was blocked and he was put under house arrest. With General Scott's support, his family was allowed to leave.

After the tribal invasion in October, Sheikh Adbdullah was appointed as the Head of Emergency Administration in Srinagar, while the Maharaja had moved to Jammu. Kak's detention was continued and he was moved to the Badami Bagh. Kak's wife, Margaret Kak, lobbied with the Mountbattens arguing for Kak's release and even Stafford Cripps in London raised it with Jawaharlal Nehru. Sheikh Abdullah's administration maintained that they had evidence that Kak was hobnobbing with the Pakistani raiders and agents.

Under pressure from Delhi, Kak was released and externed from the state in late 1948. Afterwards, Kak retired from public life.

Academic and historian

Ram Chandra Kak was believed to be in possession of the Sharada script copy of the Nilamata Purana. Kak's pioneering book Ancient monuments of Kashmir was published in 1933 and Francis Younghusband wrote the foreword to the book.

Books

• Handbook of the archaeological and numismatic sections of the Sri Pratap Singh Museum, Srinagar. Government Press. 1923.
• Ancient Monuments of Kashmir, With a Foreword By Sir Francis Younghusband, and an Introduction By A. Foucher. India Society. 1933.
• Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of Kashmir. Publ. under the authority of the Kashmir Durbar. Archaeological Survey of Kashmir, [Repr.] Sagar Publ. 1971.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

Bibliography

• Ankit, Rakesh (April 2010), "Pandit Ramchandra Kak: The Forgotten Premier of Kashmir", Epilogue, 4 (4), Epilogue -Jammu Kashmir: 36–39
• Bhattacharjea, Ajit (2008), Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah: Tragic Hero of Kashmir, Roli Books
• Jha, Prem Shankar (2003), The Origins of a Dispute: Kashmir 1947, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-566486-7
  • Jha, Prem Shankar (1996), Kashmir, 1947: Rival Versions of History, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-563766-3 – via archive.org
• Tanwar, Raghuvendra (2019), ‘Be Clear Kashmir will Vote for India’ Jammu & Kashmir 1947–1953: Reporting the Contemporary Understanding of the Unreported, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-1-00-051753-8

External links

• Jammu and Kashmir Dilemma of Accession (A Historical Analysis and Lesson) (Excerpts), Exotic India, 2018.

Political offices
Preceded by Sir Benegal Narsing Rau	Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir 1945–1947	Succeeded by Janak Singh