ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes Sheikh Abdullah’s role in Kashmir’s accession with India. The chapter contests the claim that he facilitated Kashmir’s accession to India under the pressure of tribal invasion in the state. It has been argued that Sheikh Abdullah had already decided to accede to the Indian Union and had given assurances in that regard to the Indian political leadership. However, in an anticipated adverse public opinion, he did not express his intentions publicly and thus used the tribal invasion as an excuse to support the state’s accession to India openly. Also, the chapter demolishes the persistently advertised myth that Jinnah remained inactive with regard to the state, hoping that “Kashmir will fall in his lap like a ripened apple”. The Sheikh preferred India over Pakistan which offered him more generous terms, for its secular ideology and because of his fear that an authoritarian Jinnah may later encroach the state’s promised autonomy. Events proved him wrong on both counts. He soon became the victim of growing communalism in India and also witnessed Indian leadership developing second thoughts about the promised autonomy to his state.
