Progressive Nationalism and the Making of New Kashmir (1931–1947)

This article positions the Kashmir Valley as a centre for socialist thought in colonial India. It argues that Kashmir’s progressive nationalism needs to be situated at the confluence of various national and global anticolonial processes. The article delineates two distinct phases in the evolution of Kashmiri socialism. The first phase considers the development of progressive nationalism, particularly through the politics of the leading Kashmiri nationalist, Sheikh Abdullah and the socialist, Prem Nath Bazaz. The second phase focuses on the influence of Marxist ideas on the nationalists, highlighting the roles of the Punjabi communist B.P.L. Bedi and the Kashmiri communist G.M. Sadiq. It traces the adaptation of socialist ideas to the Kashmiri context through a close study of the National Conference’s 1944 New Kashmir manifesto. While the manifesto took inspiration from the Soviet Constitution of 1936, it had features that would not be typically associated with a Marxist-Leninist state: it safeguarded religious freedom, granted the right to private property, and proposed a constitutional monarchy. In doing so, this article argues that Kashmiri socialists refashioned Marxist, liberal, and republican ideas to the particularities of the state and crafted a distinctive model of socialism.