| Jammu has a glorious history. Its contribution to the process of the state’s integration into India has been just splendid and it has made supreme sacrifices for the national cause. It remained at the helm of affairs in Jammu and Kashmir State between March 1846 and October 1947. In 1947, the Congress government at the Centre transferred state power from Jammu to Kashmir in a surreptitious manner. The powers-that-be in New Delhi consistently pandered to the threatening Kashmiri leadership and helped it reduce the strategic Jammu province and trans-Himalayan Ladakh to the status of Kashmir’s colonies and the people of these two provinces as the subjects of Kashmir. The result was that the ignored, marginalised and discriminated against people of Jammu launched one movement after another to achieve the status they deserved in the Indian polity, but with no result despite the fact that all these movements were massive affairs. The state witnessed one such movement in Jammu between February 28 and May 6, 1998. It was launched by students and supported by Jammu University teachers and all sections of society, without any exception. It could be termed as the Jammu’s crowning triumph. It brought the Farooq Abdullah government to the knees of the people of Jammu province. It is a different story that certain elements in Jammu flirted with the Kashmiri leadership and tried their best to puncture, derail and defeat the movement, but they miserably failed. The book The 1998 Jammu revolt throws apmle light on the nature of New Delhi’s Kashmir policy and the essentially negative attitude of the Jammu politicians towards the miserable plight of the people of Jammu province. |
