Kashmir's Magna Carta Man

The cerebral heft of Mirza Afzal Beg is on display in the transformative legislations of J&K but not in the political agreement and accords he negotiated

- Haseeb A Drabu

I first read The Jammu and Kashmir Big Landed Estates Abolition Act, 1950, in 1981. I still remember it was a cyclostyled document which had been underlined many times in many colours, and the text was now fading.

As I was diligently transcribing the Act by hand, I began to wonder who had authored it. Every line was a learning. Of course, the idea was embedded in the Naya Kashmir vision, but converting that seeded idea into a political instrument, drafting it as an actionable legislation and executing it as an administrative decision was a huge task. Who did all that, the real work as it were?

I asked around and everyone pointed in the direction “Beg saeb”, a reverential reference to Mirza Mohammed Afzal Beg. Since then, I have been in awe; maybe not so much of the man, but the mind of the man. Such was the might of the man, that he made the position of Mashir-e-Maal, the most coveted and respected job in the cabinet. Ahead of even the finance minister. He made the revenue department the centre of the government universe.

He was the author of what can legitimately be called the Magna Carta of Kashmir, a fundamental document in the history of J&K’s legal and political rights, a landmark in the development of a progressive egalitarian society. It not only touched the life of every single Kashmiri, but it also transformed the live of lakhs like never before. Or after. In fact, it is the first and the most comprehensive asset redistribution exercise anywhere in the country. The much-regarded West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955 and Kerala Land Reform Act 1963 were passed many years after Kashmir.