Memorandum
submitted by Shri Cheewang Rigzin, President
Buddhist Association, Ladakh to the Prime
Minister of India
on behalf of the people of Ladakh
Legal
Document No 124
Sir,
On the eve of the grant of responsible
Government to the people of Kashmir by the Maharaja,
we the Buddhists of Ladakh and adjoining areas
presented to him through our representatives in the
Praja Sabha, a memorial, a copy of which was submitted
to you for your information and consideration This
memorial, which was prompted by our apprehensions for
our future, based on our bitter experience of nearly a
century and a quarter, embodied the following
proposals:
- That he should govern us directly through
legislative and administrative machinery,
proposals for which would be submitted by us at
his command.
- That our homeland amalgamated with the
Hindu-majority parts of Jammu should form a
separate province irewhich adequate safe-guards
should be provided for our distinctive rights and
interests.
- That we should be permitted to re-unite
politically with Tibet of which land we form part
and parcel for all purpose but political.
- That we should be permitted to join East Punjab.
Proposal (1) originated in our respect for the
obligation we owed to the ruder in view of the
relation which bound us to him from the day of the
conquest of our land by his great grandfather.
Proposal (2) emanated from the fact that we desired
to see nothing more of the administrators from
Kashmir, who had mostly governed us during the past to
our utter ruin, that our Cultural kinship with the
Hindus encouraged us to expect a Sympathetic regard
for our interests and an assured future in a
Hindu-majority province, and finally that historical
causes bound us to the people of Jammu and not to
those of Kashmir, for it was the Jammu Dogras who
conquered Ladakh for Maharaja Gulab Singh in 1834,
while Kashmir came into his possession in 1846, twelve
years latter.
All things considered, however, proposals No. 1 and
2 were concessions to treaty obligations imposed on us
by the Dogra conquest while proposal No. 3 which would
come into force on the failure of (1) and (2) was put
forward because it is the only panacea for all our
ills, the only guarantee for our future progress and
development.
No. 4 was a proposal of despair, for though we are
in and of Tibet, the political and economic system of
that land-our racial and spiritual home-are too
archaic, antiquated and unprogressive to suit us. We
rather wish that India should exert her wholesome
influence in the political and economic fields on her
(Tibet) at the present day even as she shaped and
moulded her spiritual and cultural life in ancient
times.
The Maharajadhiraj has so far vouchsafed to us no
reply and we have taken this silence of His Highness
to imply the relinquishment by him of his position as
a party in respect of proposals (1) and (2), a tacit
recognition of our right to choose our path
independent of him. We have given most anxious thought
to this grave problem and after mature deliberation
arrived at the decision that we should straightway
merge with India.
That we have the right to determine our own future
apart from other communities and people inhabiting the
state and that we cannot be affected by the result of
the forthcoming plebiscite in the evens of its being
favourable to Pakistan is evident from the following
facts:
- We are a separate nation by all the tests-race,
language, religion, culture determining
nationality. The only link connecting us with the
other people of the State being the bond of common
ruler. If the Indian National Congress could
persuade itself to recognise: the Muslims of India
as a separate nation although they had so much m
common with the other elements of the Indian
population, the Government of India should have no
hesitation in recognition what is patent and Scout
revertible fact in our case.
- Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah built up his case on
the validity of the Treaty of Amritsar. This
treaty bears upon the territory of Kashmir only so
while the ruler has consented to the transfer of
his sovereign power in favour of all his people,
S. Mohammad Abdullah and the people of Kashmir
can, through this transference manage the affairs
of their country as they will. But they have not
the power to appropriate against their will a
people, a separate nation, whom a separate treaty
the result of the war of 1834 twelve years
anterior to the treaty of Amritsar-bound to the
ruler in a special relationship, in which, the
people of Kashmir, who came into the picture
later, naturally, did not figure at all.
- The right of self-determination claimed by us
cannot lie claimed with equal force by the people
of Baltistan including Skardu the parts of Kargil
tehsils predominantly peopled by Muslims, as they
are connected by ties of religion with the
majority community in Jammu and Kashmir, nor by
tile people of Gilgit who came under Dogra rule
through conquest after the annexation of Kashmir
and whom not only identity of religion but of race
as well binds to the majority community of Jammu
and Kashmir. It may be added that at the time of
the conquest of Ladakh by Zorawar Singh, the
entire area comprised under the Tehsils of Leh and
Kargil acknowledged the suzerainty of our Raja,
while Baltistan had several Rajas of its own.
In case the result of the plebiscite is favourable to
India, we simply go a step further than other people
of the State in seeking a closer union with that great
country and in case it is otherwise, our verdict
stands clear and unchallengable. When we have decided
to cut ourselves from the State itself, the question
of our forming part of Pakistan cannot arise at all.
We have indeed made up our minds to join India; but
what is our decision worth until India is prepared to
accept it ? We certainly make the offer for our own
advantage; we see in our merger with India the only
hope of our salvation. But India, too, will not be
loser by this arrangement. The Tehsil of Leh alone
covers 23,000 Sq. miles and, if we add to it the other
areas predominantly inhabited by Buodhs, viz. Zanskar
Bodhkharbo, Mulbek, Fukar, Darcik Garcon, in Kargil
Tehsil and Padar in Kishtwar, the total acquisition of
territory to India not probably measure less than
33,000 Sq. miles. It is true that the whole of this
area is undeveloped and most of it at present barren.
But it must also be remembered that its economic
potentialities are tremendous and in the hands of a
great country like India it is bound to be transformed
into a smiling garden and a source of immense wealth
and power. Its strategic and commercial importance too
cannot be underrated. The Tehsil of Leh has Tibet and
China among its neighbours and the town of Leh is the
nerve centre of Central Asian trade.
The British Indian Government took Gilgit on lease
from the Maharaja for military reasons for no
consideration in return. The Indian Government has
already incurred an expense of crores of rupees for
the protection of Kashmir, not to speak of the great
sacrifice of military personnel which the process has
involved. It is clearly impossible for Kashmir to
liquidate this colossal debt which is daily growing in
magnitude. Would this not be an additional reason for
India to take over the Buddhist homelands hereby
offered by the Buddhists themselves for its acceptance
? Though our right of self-determination stands
intrinsically unassailable, we are willing to be
considered as the instrument of redemption of the
people of Kashmir, heretofore our fellow citizens, if
that purpose can be automatically served by India's
acceptance of our offer.
There is nothing in our offer which is in any way incompatible
with the high idealism which characterises India's
international policy. We might even say in positive
terms that it is perfectly consistent with it, for has
not India repeatedly declared that it stands for the
right of self-determination for all nations and are we
not a nation whose right of self-determination it
should uphold and to whom it should extend the
protection it seeks ?
Tibet is a cultural daughter of India and we of
lesser Tibet seek the bosom of that gracious mother to
receive more nutriment for growth to our full stature
in every way. She has given us that we prize above all
other things-our religion and culture and it is the
experience of having been the recipients of such
precious gift which encourages us to ask for more. The
Asoka wheel on her flag-symbol of goodwill for all
humanity and her concern for her cultural children
calls us irresistibly. Will the great mother refuse to
take to her arms one of her weakest and most forlorn
and distressed children a child whom filial love
impels to respond to the call ?
Sir, the absence of a reply to our previous
references on the subject of our future has depressed
us greatly. We beseech you with all earnestness to be
so kind as to vouchsafe a line in reply to this our
last prayer on the subject.
Before we close, we wish to make it clear that our
desire to be absorbed into the body politic of India
does not imply any reflection on the present National
Government of Kashmir. Far from it, we have no
hesitation to say that we have full confidence in the
present Prime Minister, S. Mohammad Abdullah. The step
we have taken has been dictated solely by the instinct
of self-preservation which governs all men and nations
alike, as also by the desire to find swiftly
deliverance from the misery, squalor and stagnation in
which we have been sunk for generations past.
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