40 Facts About Sheikh Abdullah

Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was an Indian politician who played a central role in the politics of Jammu and Kashmir.

Sheikh Abdullah agitated against the rule of the Maharaja Hari Singh and urged self-rule for Kashmir.

Sheikh Abdullah served as the 1st elected Prime Minister of the Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir and was later jailed and exiled.

Sheikh Abdullah was dismissed from the position of Prime Ministership on 8 August 1953 and Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad was appointed the new Prime Minister.

Sheikh Abdullah again became the Chief Minister of the state following the 1974 Indira-Sheikh accord and remained in the top slot till his death on 8 September 1982.

Sheikh Abdullah was born on 5 December 1905 in Soura, a village on the outskirts of Srinagar, two weeks after the death of his father Sheikh Mohammed Ibrahim.

Sheikh Abdullah's father had been a middle class manufacturer and trader of Kashmiri shawls.

Sheikh Abdullah was first admitted to a traditional school or maktab in 1909, when he was four, where he learnt the recitation of the Quran and some basic Persian texts like Gulistan of Sa'di, Bostan and Padshanama.

Sheikh Abdullah had to walk the distance of ten miles to school and back on foot, but in his own words, the joy of being allowed to obtain a school education made it seem a light work.

Sheikh Abdullah passed his matriculation examination from Punjab University in 1922.

Sheikh Abdullah's aim was to go into the medical profession at the time.

Sheikh Abdullah became convinced that the feudal system was responsible for the miseries of the Kashmiris and like all progressive nations of the world Kashmir too should have a democratically elected government.

Permission to open the Fateh Kadal Reading Room Party was given in 1930 and Sheikh Abdullah became the Secretary of the party.

For Sheikh Abdullah, "the establishment of reading room was an excuse"; rather it was an opportunity to get together to discuss different issues.

One of the first incidents which led Sheikh Abdullah's Reading Room Party to gain wider recognition was after writing a letter to the government related to government recruitment policies.

Sheikh Abdullah reasserted that the struggle of Kashmiris was not a communal struggle.

Sheikh Abdullah campaigned to change the name of the Muslim Conference to National Conference, under the influence of among others Jawaharlal Nehru.

Sheikh Abdullah's Government had been accused of rigging in these elections to the Constituent Assembly.

Sheikh Abdullah was introduced to Jawaharlal Nehru in 1937 and as he too was a leader of the Indian National Congress was demanding similar rights for people of British India and had formed The All India States Peoples Conference for supporting the people of Princely States in their struggle for a representative government the two became friends and political allies.

Sheikh Abdullah introduced a resolution in the working committee of the Muslim Conference for changing its name to National Conference on 24 June 1938 to allow people from all communities to join the struggle against the autocratic rule of the Maharaja.

Sheikh Abdullah presented these demands to the Maharajah in a speech on 28 August 1938.

Sheikh Abdullah's arrest provoked a public agitation in which volunteers called Dictators courted arrest.

Sheikh Abdullah was released after serving his sentence on 24 February 1939 and accorded a grand reception by the people of Srinagar on his return.

In May 1946 Sheikh Abdullah launched the Quit Kashmir agitation against the Maharajah Hari Singh and was arrested and sentenced to three years imprisonment but was released only sixteen months later on 29 September 1947.

Sheikh Abdullah took charge as Head of the Emergency Administration on 30 October 1947.

This, Sheikh Abdullah hoped, would take over the defence of Kashmir after the Indian army was withdrawn.

Sheikh Abdullah was denied the opportunity to prove his majority on the floor of the house and his dissident cabinet minister Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed was appointed as Prime Minister.

Sheikh Abdullah was immediately arrested and later jailed for eleven years, accused of conspiracy against the State in the infamous "Kashmir Conspiracy Case".

Nehru requested Sheikh Abdullah to act as a bridge between India and Pakistan and make President Ayub to agree to come to New Delhi for talks for a final solution of the Kashmir problem.

President Ayub Khan sent telegrams to Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah with the message that as Pakistan too was a party to the Kashmir dispute any resolution of the conflict without its participation would not be acceptable to Pakistan.

The Sheikh Abdullah was en route to Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir when he received the news.

Sheikh Abdullah addressed a public rally at Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and returned to Delhi.

Sheikh Abdullah watching the alarming turn of events in the subcontinent realised that for the survival of this region there was an urgent need to stop pursuing confrontational politics and promoting solution of issues by a process of reconciliation and dialogue rather than confrontation.

Critics of Sheikh Abdullah hold the view that he gave up the cherished goal of plebiscite for gaining Chief Minister's chair.

Sheikh Abdullah started talks with the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for normalising the situation in the region and came to an accord called 1974 Indira-Sheikh accord with Indira Gandhi, then India's Prime Minister, by giving up the demand for a plebiscite in lieu of the people being given the right to self-rule by a democratically elected Government rather than the puppet government which till then ruled the State.

Sheikh Abdullah assumed the position of Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

Sheikh Abdullah remained as Chief Minister till his death in 1982.

Sheikh Abdullah spoke against Pakistani government in United Nations by comparing it with Hitler's rule, and he endorsed Indian stand on Jammu and Kashmir.

Sheikh Abdullah had the rare distinction of having poems in his praise written by three major Pakistani Urdu poets namely Hafeez Jullundhri, Josh and Faiz Ahmed Faiz who admired his lifelong struggle against injustice and for democratic rights of the common man.

The birth anniversary of Sheikh Abdullah was a public holiday in the state until 2019.