DNA Special: 'Untold' story of India-Pakistan war of October 22, 1947

Today, if we ask you how many wars India has fought since Independence, perhaps most of you will respond with 1962 Indo-China, 1965 with Pakistan, 1971 India-Pakistan war, and the Kargil War of 1999 with Pakistan. However, the fact is that India fought its first war after just two months of Independence. The war was fought on October 22, 1947, and that completely changed India's future. But this war didn’t find a mention in the pages of history and how Pakistan took advantage of the situation. So, let us analyse the first war of free India and the deliberate conspiracy behind it.

When India was partitioned and Pakistan was formed, the latter wanted to get hold of Jammu and Kashmir.

On October 22, 1947, thousands of tribals from Pakistan attacked Kashmir and started moving from Muzaffarabad to Srinagar, defeating Raja Hari Singh's State Force. It is the capital of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir i.e. today’s Pok. October 22, 1947, proved to be a Black Day in India's history, because, after a few days of ceasefire, India had lost a large part of Kashmir, the size of which was about 91 thousand square kilometres. These are equal to the size of countries such as Hungary, Portugal and Jordan. India calls that part Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, while Pakistan calls it Azad Kashmir.

Most court historians in India never named Black Day on October 22, and the war was gradually wiped out by the memory of the people of the country, deliberately. While Pakistan, which imposed these wars on India, did not do so, Pakistan still celebrates October 26 and 27 as Black Days as on October 26, 1947, King Hari Singh of Kashmir signed a document for the merger of Jammu and Kashmir into India. On October 27, India had unloaded its army to liberate Kashmir from the tribals.

Pakistan says it never attacked Kashmir and had no role in the tribal attack, even those who speak Pakistan's language in India repeatedly try to prove that Pakistan's army was not involved in the attack. But today, based on evidence and historical facts, we will tell you that this attack involved not only Pakistan's army but it was also executed under the leadership of Pakistan's army.

This war began in October 1947 lasted until December 1948. This is the longest ever war of independent India that lasted for 14 months. Yet, this longest war was denied as a war. India's war with China lasted only for one month in 1962, the 1965 war with Pakistan was only 17 days, the 1971 war with Pakistan was fought for 13 days and the Kargil War of 1999 lasted for 60 days. The slogan of the tribals who attacked Kashmir at the behest of Pakistan army was so heart-wrenching that you will also be surprised if you listen to it today. With the prospect of the rich Jhelum Valley ahead as the prize, the tribesmen were shouting slogans like “Hindu ki Zar, Sardar ka Sar” (wealth of a Hindu and head of a Sikh). That is, the Pakistan Army had given a spade to the tribals to cut off their heads as soon as a Sikh appears in Jammu and Kashmir, as soon as a Muslim appears, his house should be burnt and the property of Hindus be captured.

Pakistan had named its plot as Operation Gulmarg. How Operation Gulmarg was the brainchild of the Pakistan Army and it waged the first war against Independent India under the guise of the tribals. It has been revealed by a former officer of Pakistan's army himself in one of his books called the ‘Raiders In Kashmir’. Maj Gen Akbar Khan was a brigadier in Pakistan's Army in 1947 and was also the director of Weapons and Equipment at the General Headquarters of Pakistan Army. Akbar Khan was well aware the King Hari Singh of Kashmir had a force with only 9,000 jawans and among them 2,000 were Muslims. Pakistan had a misconception that these Muslim jawans, who were involved in Hari Singh's state force, would join Pakistan. This misconception from Pakistan had filled his army officers with great enthusiasm.

Major General Akbar Khan's book Raiders in Kashmir's second chapter is named ‘Reason Why’. On the very first page, he explains why Pakistan had sent the tribals to attack Kashmir.

It says that at that time, India's size was 46 lakh square kilometres with 568 princely states and where 40 crore people lived, these princely states had to decide whether they wanted to live with India, go with Pakistan or remain free. Jammu and Kashmir was the second-largest state, a state which was geographically important not only for India and Pakistan but also for the entire Indian subcontinent. The geographical situation in Jammu and Kashmir was such that there was only Afghanistan between Kashmir in the north and the Soviet Union at that time, and it also had borders with Kashmir. Ever since Britain announced the partition of India, the Pakistanis felt that Kashmir would go with them, Pakistan had considered Kashmir as its integral part, and Akbar Khan then writes that what K is in Pakistan's spelling means Kashmir itself.

Akbar Khan further writes that at that time, the Indian subcontinent was being divided on the basis of the Hindu and the Muslim populations. So no one ever doubted that Kashmir wouldn’t go with Pakistan. At that time, 75 per cent of the population of Kashmir was Muslim, and at that time, 2 lakh 18 thousand square kilometres in size was not connected to India via Jammu and Kashmir, roads, railways, or rivers, and India and Kashmir had no economic ties.

Akbar Khan also writes in the book that Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah believed that being geographically close to Kashmir, there was no option but to go with Pakistan. Muhammad Ali Jinnah also believed that the people of Kashmir had a lot of enthusiasm for Pakistan. So, Muslim leaders like Sheikh Abdullah were against partition and Kashmir's annexation by Pakistan. His opinion does not matter. That is, Jinnah was intoxicated by his own misconceptions about Kashmir, and the same intoxication his country's army was planning to attack Kashmir.

This whole story proves three things. Firstly, the attack on Kashmir in the year 1947 was not just an attack by the tribals, but the Pakistani army was fully involved. Secondly, it is proved that at the behest of the Pakistani army, the tribals fiercely massacred the people of Kashmir. Children and women were also not spared. And thirdly, if the Indian Army did not reach Srinagar on October 27, 1947, Kashmir might have gone out of India's hand.

India and Pakistan were divided by the British and Kashmir was deliberately made a matter of dispute. The Kashmir dispute became a wound for India which hasn’t healed even today.

Since October 27, 1947, the tribals had started retreating from Kashmir, but half of Kashmir spread over 2 lakh 22 thousand 236 sq km, had gone to Pakistan. And later, Pakistan handed over parts of it to China as well. But do you know that even after pushing back the tribals, why did India fail to take PoK back? This happened because the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru took the entire controversy to the Security Council of the United Nations on January 1, 1948. And that's where these disputes turned into an international dispute.

This was the story of the first war that Independent India fought; however, unfortunately, it doesn’t find an apt place in the pages of history.