Those Four Days When Gandhi Walked Through Kashmir

Gandhi Jayanti reminds us of a visit that shaped history, and the future of Kashmir.

- Sabzar Bhat

The first week of August 1947 felt like South Asia was holding its breath. Borders were being redrawn. The British were leaving. India was emerging from centuries of colonial rule, and Pakistan was being born amid the upheaval of partition.

Amid this chaos, Jammu and Kashmir, perched at the northern edge of the subcontinent, hovered in uncertainty. Its fate hung in the balance, with anxious people and indecisive rulers.

Into this delicate moment stepped Mahatma Gandhi.

He arrived in Srinagar on August 1, 1947. Gandhi was a man whose presence carried the weight of a movement built on nonviolence and moral courage.

His visit lasted only four days. It was the only time he would ever set foot in the valley, but those days became a political compass for the turbulent times ahead.

There was no grand fanfare to mark his arrival. Instead, he was greeted in the gardens of Srinagar by Begum Akbar Jehan, wife of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, and five hundred women activists. Their eyes were wide with anticipation.

For Gandhi, the visit was the essence of leadership: presence over performance.

He preferred prayer meetings to speeches. He wanted to see the people, understand them, and let his counsel flow silently but firmly.

The state of affairs remained unstable during his Kashmir trip. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the leader most closely connected to Kashmiri aspirations, was imprisoned. Maharaja Hari Singh faced pressures from every side. The Muslim League, led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, pushed for accession to Pakistan.

Kashmiris, however, sought self-determination and governance that reflected their own will.