KASHMIR: Trouble in the Vale

For 16 years, towering (6 ft. 4 in.) Sheik Mohammed Abdullah led the Kashmiri nationalists against the rich and mighty Hindu Maharaja. He won Kashmir's first legislative assembly, freedom of speech and freedom of the press; he was thrown into jail seven times, for a total of nine years; he also fought religious hatred: "Not only Moslems," he taught, "but Sikhs and Hindus are living in want." In this struggle, Sheik Abdullah gained the intense loyalty of most Kashmiris, the friendship of Jawaharlal Nehru (who came to Kashmir to defend him in the Maharaja's courts), and the title "Sher-i-Kashmir" (Lion of Kashmir).

The Tin Crown. In the bloody days of partition, when fierce Pakistani tribesmen invaded Kashmir in the fall of 1947, the Maharaja fled with his jade and the necklaces from the temple gods. He paused only to declare his land a part of India, and to appoint Sheik Abdullah Prime Minister. And although Abdullah and 77% of the Kashmiris were Moslems, Abdullah organized a People's Militia that fought the Pakistanis until the Indian army flew in to the rescue. It was a desperate defense, and the Lion of Kashmir inspired it. Once, the Pakistani tribesmen lashed a young merchant to the porch of an apple shop and told him to shout, "Pakistan zindabad, Sher-i-Kashmir' murdabad!" (Long live Pakistan! Death to the Lion of Kashmir!). But the young man refused. So the tribesmen crowned him with a jagged piece of tin, and put 14 shots through his body. He died crying Abdullah's slogan: "Victory to Hindu-Moslem unity!"

For six years Abdullah the Moslem held fast to India in the wearing dispute with Pakistan; he went to Lake Success in his caracul cap to plead India's case at the U.N. But last year, he warned Nehru that Kashmir's accession to India might "have to be of a restricted nature." Last month he flatly proposed an independent Kashmir, free from both India and Pakistan. Such talk was no help to Nehru, who was entering new talks with Pakistan (TIME, Aug. 10) to settle the dispute by compromise.

The Pandit Strikes. One morning last week, Nehru moved before dawn against the Lion of Kashmir. It was 3 a.m. A thunderstorm drenched the chalet resort of Gulmarg, where Abdullah slept. Police awakened him and read a letter from Prince Karan Singh, the nominal ruler of Kashmir. Abdullah's cabinet was dissolved; he himself was under arrest. In Srinagar, the run-down capital, 30 members of Abdullah's staff were also arrested, accused of "disruptionism," corruption, nepotism, maladministration, and intrigue with a foreign power. Indian papers hinted that Adlai Stevenson, who had visited Srinagar last May, was Abdullah's contact man.