Every year on November 6, Kashmiris worldwide observe Jammu Martyrs’ Day to commemorate the 1947 tragedy in Jammu. The day honours the hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslims who were killed after being promised safe passage to Pakistan. The massacre stands as one of modern history’s worst instances of mass slaughter and has been described as a genocide. It was a planned, state-backed effort to turn the Muslim-majority Jammu province into a Muslim-minority region. The killings, which began in July 1947, intensified after Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh arrived in Jammu from Srinagar on October 26, 1947.
The Dogra administration had been planning the operation for months. To leave Muslims defenceless, Muslim soldiers and police officers were disarmed and removed from their posts. Muslim troops stationed in Jammu city were stripped of their weapons, and a Hindu Dogra officer replaced the Muslim brigadier in charge of the military cantonment. When frightened Muslims sought shelter in police stations and government offices, Dogra officials handed them over to armed RSS men.
The scale of the Jammu massacre was documented in international newspaper reports and corroborated by foreign historical records. On August 10, 1948, The Times of London published a report titled “Elimination of Muslims from Jammu”, which said Maharaja Hari Singh was “in person commanding all the forces” carrying out the ethnic cleansing of Muslims. Ian Stephens, editor of The Statesman, recorded in his book Horned Moon that by the end of 1947, more than 200,000 Muslims had been killed in Jammu. The Daily Telegraph reported on January 12, 1948, that 95 percent of the properties and businesses belonging to Muslims who had been killed or displaced had been seized by Hindu extremists under state patronage.
In a 1948 editorial in The Statesman (Calcutta), Stephens put the number of Muslims killed in the Jammu province of the former princely state at around 500,000. British journalist Horace Alexander wrote in The Spectator on January 16, 1948, that the killings had “the tacit consent of State authority” and put the figure at 200,000.
The darkest chapter of the tragedy unfolded on November 5 and 6, 1947. On November 5, Muslims from Jammu city and nearby areas were gathered at the Jammu Police Lines with promises of safe transport to Sialkot in Pakistan. Hoping for safety, families boarded buses and trucks. On November 6, however, the convoys were diverted to isolated areas in Samba, Kathua, Digiana and Bishnah. There, Dogra forces, the Patiala Rifles and armed RSS men ambushed the vehicles and opened fire on unarmed passengers. Muslim women were dragged away, abducted and subjected to horrific abuse, and some jumped into the Chenab River to protect their honour. At the same time, around 25,000 Muslims gathered in Miran Sahib and R.S. Pura (Ranbir Singh Pura) were fired upon indiscriminately.
These blood-soaked events changed Jammu’s demographic composition. According to the 1941 census, Muslims made up 61 percent of the province’s population; by 1961, their share had fallen to 38 percent. In Jammu district, their number fell from 158,630 in 1941 to 51,693 in 1961. More than 100,000 Muslims were killed or forced to leave, and more than 123 Muslim villages were deserted. Several places were renamed, erasing part of Muslims’ historical and cultural identity: Urdu Bazaar became Rajinder Bazaar, and Islamia School was renamed Hari Singh High School.
The Jammu tragedy of November 6, 1947, remains one of history’s darkest episodes, and its wounds are still fresh in the hearts of Kashmiris. The state-sponsored atrocities exposed the brutality of the Dogra regime, while the silence of the international community and human rights groups remains a glaring question mark. The international community and the United Nations must take notice of India’s alleged efforts to change the population balance in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). Lasting peace requires the implementation of UN resolutions and a settlement that reflects the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Lahore Times.
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