In Jammu and Kashmir, the trend of calling those who executed Islamic jihad against Maharaja Hari Singh as martyrs is starting again. There is a demand to declare a holiday in the name of those who died while doing jihad against Hari Singh, considering the Raja a kafir. This holiday in ‘honour’ of the Jihadists was abolished by the Government of India in 2019. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has opposed calling these Islamic jihadis as martyrs.
The issue came to light again in the budget session of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. On Wednesday (March 5, 2025), PDP MLA Waheed-ur-Rehman Para, in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, demanded that the holiday of July 13 be reinstated. He demanded to give 13th July the status of ‘Martyrdom Day’.
BJP’s walkout following this demand
Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, and BJP MLA Sunil Sharma, strongly opposed this. He said, “They were not martyrs but traitors.” Sunil Sharma made it clear that those who rebelled against Maharaja Hari Singh were not revolutionaries but a bunch of fanatics.
Under the leadership of Sunil Sharma, BJP walked out of the Assembly following Waheed-ur-Rehman’s comments. Sunil Sharma said outside the assembly that traitors cannot be honored in the name of martyrs. Sunil Sharma said, “I want to tell you today that the people killed on July 13, 1932, first set fire to a Hindu area and then started a riot against the rule of the Maharaja (Hari Singh). These people were made martyrs by the Congress Party, but they cannot be considered martyrs under the rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
BJP MLA from Kishtwar, Shagun Parihar, also hit back at the National Conference and PDP in this matter. He said, “Those who are demanding a holiday in the name of 13 July are traitors. These people do not talk about Kashmiri Pandits, do not talk about the 90s… These people want the rule of the Maharaja but do not respect him. These people respect Pakistan, because of which lakhs of our people were killed.”
What is controversial about the 13th July holiday
The root of this entire controversy is linked to a date over 9 decades ago, July 13, 1931. In fact, on July 13, 1931, Maharaja Hari Singh’s army shot 21 Islamist rioters outside Srinagar Central Jail. These Islamist rioters had come to attack the jail and wanted to overthrow Maharaja Hari Singh.
When Jammu and Kashmir merged with India in 1948 and the National Conference came to power in the state, they were given the status of martyrs. A holiday was also declared in the state on this day. They were described as revolutionaries who agitated for ‘democracy’. A memorial was also built for them near the tomb of a Sufi saint.
This holiday continued like this for decades. However, in 2019, the Modi government ended this holiday after removing Article 370. However, now there is a demand to restart this holiday in the National Conference government in Jammu and Kashmir. The BJP has strong objections to this.
The dark truth about the ‘martyrs’ of 13th July 1931
The extremists in Kashmir keep calling the incident of 13th July a revolution and mass movement against Maharaja Hari Singh. They call it ‘Kashmir Martyr’s Day’. It is said that it was a rebellion against the alleged cruel rule of the Maharaja. Whereas in reality, it was a fight against a ‘kafir’ Hindu ruler.
Kashmiri Pandit activist Sushil Pandit explained it very well in an article wherein he mentions that the first massacre of modern Kashmir happened then, and that too with a meticulously hatched conspiracy. Hundreds of people were murdered, burnt alive, maimed, and thrown into the river, women were raped, and many houses were looted, and many were forced to convert to Islam.
When the police took action against the rioters, some of them died, after which they were declared ‘martyrs’ by their gang and the new government of Jammu and Kashmir in independent India started remembering them on 13th July, honouring them like heroes to ‘sanctify’ the acts of those terrorists.
Let us now remember what actually happened on that day in 1931. At that time, Hari Singh was the autonomous king of Jammu and Kashmir.
Along with Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan, Muzaffarabad-Mirpur, Aksai Chin, and the areas of Shaksgam Valley were also part of his territory. However, the British wanted to snatch the areas from him. Maharaja Hari Singh was one of those rare Hindu kings who ruled in a Muslim-dominated area. That is why, as a part of a conspiracy, the British installed an Ahmadi, Abdul Qadir from Peshawar, in Srinagar in the guise of a cook.
After this, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) was also brought into the state. He was a person with political ambitions, whose ancestors still considered Jammu and Kashmir as their ancestral property. A public meeting was held at Shah-e-Hamdan in Khanqah Mohalla, where Abdul Qadir gave an inflammatory speech. The Quran was cited for the war against the Maharaja. Abdullah incited the crowd by saying that how can a ‘kafir’ rule over Muslims, this is strictly forbidden in Islam.
He openly incited Muslims for cow slaughter, which was banned according to the law. When he was arrested on charges of treason, riots broke out. Attempts were made to obstruct the legal process. Hearings were held in the jail premises out of compulsion. There was a similar hearing on July 13. However, the mob attacked the premises and tried to enter the judge’s chamber. The mob also attacked the police and started arson.
As it happens even today, the Muslim mob started pelting stones. The prisoners in the jail also started trying to escape from there amidst the chaos. The police force tried all the tricks, but the Muslim mob did not disperse. After this, the local DM ordered the Police to open fire. Meanwhile, the mob also started moving towards Hari Parvat fort. The lathi charge from the Police was not having any effect. Maharajganj used to be a hub of traders then, where there was a lot of looting.
Sushil Pandit writes that after this, shops of Hindus were destroyed and looted from Bhori Kadal to Aikadal. There was a lot of looting in areas like Safakadal, Ganji, Khud and Nawakadal. Account books were burnt in the market and there was a stampede among the Hindu shopkeepers. Goods worth lakhs were looted, or destroyed, or thrown on the roads. However, there was no news of any Muslim breaking into a shop and looting it.
A separate Muslim mob had gathered in Vicharnag in Srinagar. There, rich Hindus were tortured and their women were sexually exploited. By the time the army arrived, the Muslim mob had caused great damage to the Hindus. After this, the ‘intellectual’ gang got to work and named it ‘democratic revolt against feudal power’. Remember, the large-scale massacre carried out by Moplah Muslims in Kerala was also called ‘peasant revolt against landlords’.
While, in reality, whatever happened in Kashmir on July 13, 1931, was an Islamic war against a Hindu king. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah also had a big hand in instigating these riots. He was arrested and sent to jail. However, the Maharaja pardoned him the very next year and Abdullah started instigating people by forming the ‘All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference’. Hindus in Mirpur tried to save their lives by fleeing. Later hundreds of them had to live as refugees.
Hindu villages were burnt, and temples destroyed
The elders who witnessed this incident at that time mentioned how many were brutally killed and many were forced to convert to Islam. Many incidents of attack on temples and gurudwaras also came to light. Many holy Sanatani books, including Guru Granth Sahib, were burnt and idols of gods and goddesses were broken. This is called the ‘massacre of 88’ as according to Vikram Samvat, the year was 1988 then.
After that incident, hundreds of families and their future generations struggled for rehabilitation for decades. If we go by the English records themselves, 31 temples and Gurudwaras were completely destroyed. Around 600 cases of forced conversion to Islam came to light. Hindus of Sukhchainpur and Sanwal (Mirpur) suffered the most. The English write that wherever the rioters reached, the local Muslim population supported them.
Some Hindu villages were completely deserted while Islamists caused loot and destruction there. After this, on January 18, 1932, 50 Hindu villages were attacked and 300 houses were looted. Out of these, 40 were set on fire. Not only this, 40 Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam at that time. In Thanna village, 36 houses were looted again on January 20, 1932, and 8 were burnt. In Sohana village, 84 houses were looted and another village was looted on January 28.
The Kashmir, which was freed from the clutches of Afghans by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and where the Dogra kings established Hindu rule, and the non-Muslims got relief from centuries of oppression, saw the massacre of Pandits again. The Constitution of India could not be implemented there even after independence and Abdullah-Mufti families together continued to run the Islamic rule here.
Honouring traitors stopped during Modi rule
In July 2020, for the first time, no tribute was paid to the rioters in Kashmir. This was possible because of the Modi government. The organised expulsion of Hindus from modern Kashmir had started decades back. The conspiracy of the British and the violence of the Islamic mob massacred Hindus to overthrow a Hindu regime, and later the ‘intellectuals’ gave it a different colour. Maharaja Hari Singh had even formed a committee headed by the Chief Justice of the High Court Barjor Dalal to investigate these incidents.
Maharaja Hari Singh had talked about Indian unity at the Round Table Conference in London. Interestingly, after that, the British army officer Major Boat brought and settled a Pathan named Abdul Qadeer in Kashmir. All this was part of a conspiracy. After taking control of power, the British released Abdul Qadeer in 1.5 years, even though he was jailed for 5 years. The Ahmadiyya community of Qadian town helped the British a lot in this entire conspiracy. This report revealed that British officer Wakefield deliberately did not go to the jail to control the situation that day, even though he was in-charge of the security.
On July 4, 1931, news of desecration of the Quran came to light, even though nothing like this had happened. However, Wakefield, after investigation, propagated the matter of desecration of the Quran, and instigated the Muslims. Inflammatory material was sent to Srinagar against Maharaja Hari Singh. Hari Krishna Kaul, who was made the Prime Minister in place of Wakefield, got the state to compromise with the Muslim rioters, but the riots did not stop. This has been the pattern of Islamic riots in many parts of the country, and it is the same even today.
