ABSTRACT
Naya Kashmir, a manifesto published in 1944 by the National Conference party, was an extraordinarily progressive manifesto of change; its acute diagnosis of the impoverished lives of the peasantry, by far the majority of the population, was as bracing as its revolutionary vision of the future. It demanded an end to the exploitation and oppression that defined Maharaja Hari Singh’s kingdom, and mandated transformative constitutional, political, social, and economic changes. Even today, elements of it hold out the promise of a future more egalitarian, communitarian, and feminist than those imagined by any other political party. However, after 1947, when the National Conference came to power, its modes of governance repeatedly failed the promise of its own manifesto, but the vision, hope, and resolve enshrined in this text remain potent reminders of work to be done. Given that the Naya Kashmir manifesto is no longer easy to come by, and that its promise has withered, this chapter pays close attention to its rhetoric, its principles, and its imagination of the future. It argues that the revolutionary possibilities enshrined in this document should inform resistance politics in our own time.
