INDIA’S GRIP ON KASHMIR DEVELOPMENT PLANS AND LAND REFORMS

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27733, 10 August 1955, Page 12

INDIA’S GRIP ON KASHMIR DEVELOPMENT PLANS AND LAND REFORMS

[From a Special Correspondent of '‘The Times” lately in Kashmiri

Smiles are more grimly fixed in Kashmir than in most holiday resorts, and no wonder. Apart from the occupational purgatory of being eternally pleasant to visitors who are not always themselves pleasant, Kashmiris have to behave as if the country is not divided by a cease-fire line, as if the encampments of the Indian Army do not look substantial and permanent, and as if the country will never again be disturbed by political decisions taken in Delhi, Karachi, or at the United Nations. They behave extremely well in the circumstances. If the smiles are not inspected too closely the Kashmir Valley can be the happy valjey of popular legend, especially for the visitor who has ascended from the furnace heat and dust of the Punjab plain. About 35,000 came last year, and more afe expected this summer. Unlike BadenPowell’s young officers, not many of them come to fish and shoot or to trek in the mountains. “Only the English like trekking,” one agent said: and most of the visitor* are now Indian. They do not go far beyond Srinagar's bund except in excursion coaches. They enjoy themselves. For some it is the enjoyment of the possessor, and the Englishman wonders if he ever swaggered as they do now. Others read the all-India weather reports and simulate sympathy for friends left behind on the plains below. The popular Indian approach to Kashmir, however, is not unlike that of Edwardian single ladies whose watercolours of the Dal Lake turn up from time to time. “Pale Hands I loved beside the Shalimar" sets the scene. An art school flourishes in sentimental mediocrity, young intellectuals from Indian industrial towns write of the attractions of the simple life that now can only be found in Kashmir, and poetesses find more rhvmes for chenar. Happy in the knowledge that the cow is protected—a man can still receive seven years’ imprisonment for killing one—their elders sit in the coffee nouses assuring each other how fortunate it is for all concerned that Kashmir is part of India. Visitors Unpopular For the foreign visitor, especially the foreign journalist, it is not quite so satisfying. The Defence Department in Delhi issues permits without much bother—except to Americans; but it soon becomes clear that the Kashmir Valley is surrounded by a curtain of suspicion as well as the better known snow-capped mountains. An Indian liaison officer told your correspondent that only objective journalists could visit the cease-fire line, and..in recent years he had met only one objective British journalist—a personal friend of Kashmiri leaders. The United Nations, which is responsible for the cease-fire, could not help, except to recommend a visit to the United Nations information centres in New York or Delhi. Not even the work of the military observer group could be. .described. Letters, at least those addressed to your correspondent, are opened. In clubs and restaurants there are printed reminders |i>»t politics must not be discussed. The few permanent English residents, .most.of them elderly widows of retired soldiers and civil servants buried here, are from time to time harassed unnecessarily by the police. Dr. Edmunds, the principal of the C.M.S. school, was deported earlier this year with only 24 hours’ notice and no explanation. With him went a young English inissionary, and in June a Swiss missionary couple who had spent many years in Ladakh were also deported. Whatever goes on beyond Srinagar’s lakes and bazaars is not for foreign eyes. It is a pity, for much that goes on is commendable in itself. If Kashmir can be regarded as an Indian colony or protectorate, and it -is difficult to see ft in any other light, it is a fortunate and pampered colony. It is not as progressive as the Gold Coast or other English colonies where elections have been freely held. (In the last Kashmir ejections few politicians had the courage to oppose official candidates). Nevertheless, much has been done for the ordinary Kashmiri. If Kashmir can be regarded as a community of people without political ambition, and not as an international problem, the present administration assisted by the Indian Government has a noteworthy record. Most Kashmiris are now reasonably well fed, perhaps for the first time. Rice costs less than lid a pound, surely the cheapest in Asia, and imports

guarantee supply; me ordinary Indian who ultimately pays for the subsidy has to pay much more for his food grains. Apart from this guaranteed supply of good cheap Kashmiri complains of the quality but it is no worse than that eaten by tens of millions of Asians—the peasant has been released from a system of land tenure that was worse than feudal because the landowner was not responsible for the tenant’s security. In spite of the efforts of British officials in the past, notably Sir Walter Lawrence who is still remembered with respect, the rapacity of landowners and jagirdars reduced many cultivators to the status of unpaid and ill-fed serfs. Rents and compulsory acquisition of grain at uneconomic prices sometimes amounted to four-fifths of the harvest. There was no guarantee of land tenure, and families were often turned off their land. Desperate Measures This has been changed by a series of land reforms that has frightened more Indians than Kashmiris. They would be unconstitutional if arrangements were not made last year to place them before the protective articles of th® Indian constitution. The reforms have been taken as evidence of Communist influence in the present administration, but certainly the Land Reforms Officer, Mr R. C. Raina, who has special powers, is not a party member. He was previously a revenue officer in the Maharajah’s Government, an* is now an enthusiast with a passionate interest in agrarian socialism as practised in Israel. Kibbutzim and cooperative marketing are the stuff of his dreams, and the reforms he administered can perhaps best be described as desperate measures for a desperate situation. Mr Raina’s own property was turned oyer to his tenants without compensation. The programme was implemented in a number of phases. First, land in the Kashmir Valley waa ve.sted in the cultivators, and jagirs, or lands held by assignees, were abolished without compensation. Rents were regulated, the normal payment being equal to oneSuarter of the harvest. Tenure was ten guaranteed, and debt conciliation boards established with representatives of the creditor and debtor classes. More than 20,000,000 rupees of debts have already been reduced to 8,500,000. Restitution of mortgaged property is being dealt with by the courts. Finally, land ceilings were imposed throughout the state, again without compensation. No landlord now owns more than 221 acres, and the balance has been divided among the cultivators. Plans for Industry The average holding in Kashmir is now two and a half acres, and five in Jammu. This is generally insufficient to support a family, but redistribution is regarded only as the first phase of the new land policy. Irrigation is being extended, and improved seed and artificial fertiliser supplied at cost price. The Indian Government pays for the long, expensive haul from Pathankot, the railhead on the plains. Rural credit is available in an increasing number of areas and co-operatives pay a better price for produce: Orchards hre being improved, the canning industry expanded, and cottage industries assisted. The reforms were drastic but the operation has been completed without bloodshed, and landowners are still comparatively sustantial men. There are other improvements. The solitary road to India is being constantly improved, and a tunnel is being bored below the snow line at the Bannihal Pass. There is talk of a railway. Electric power is being increased, and industries such as timber, including cabinet-making, and silk culture imand expanded. Indian money, technical skill, and planning are behind most of these schemes, and few of them could be completed without help from Delhi. The state government has completely identified itself with India, economic bonds between the two countries are increasing, and, on the surface at least, it would seem that most Kashmiris should be content. The immediate impression is that the Kashmir problem has been overtaken by events; that no matter what is said or done elsewhere the state is now part of the Indian Union, irrevocably—if quiescently. (To be concluded)