Abdullah, Sheikh Muhammad

▪ Indian political leader

byname  Lion of Kashmir 

born Dec. 5, 1905, Soura, near Srinagar, Kashmir [now in Jammu and Kashmir state], India

died Sept. 8, 1982, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir

      a prominent figure in India's struggle for independence, who fought for the rights of Kashmir and won for it a semiautonomous status within India.

      Abdullah was educated at the Prince of Wales College (Jammu) and the Islamia College (Lahore) and received a master's degree in physics from Aligarh Muslim University in 1930. He championed the rights of the Muslim majority of the state during British rule in India and fought against the discrimination exercised by the Hindu ruling house. In 1931, after Abdullah served the first of what would be many terms of imprisonment, he founded the Kashmir Muslim (later National) Conference. He supported the concept of a secular state, and, when India was granted independence, he strongly opposed the idea of joining Muslim Pakistan.

      In 1948 Abdullah became prime minister of Kashmir. Despite his early support for Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru (Nehru, Jawaharlal), many Indians believed that Abdullah's ultimate aim was independence for Kashmir; therefore, in 1953 he was dismissed and imprisoned. During the next 11 years he refused to pledge his loyalty to India and spent most of the time under detention. When he was released by Nehru in 1964, he received an enthusiastic reception from the Kashmiri people. In subsequent talks with the Indian government, he worked out the basis of a possible solution to the Kashmir problem.

      He was dispatched on a foreign tour to gain the goodwill of Pakistan and Algeria, but India's relations with Pakistan had by then deteriorated, and Abdullah's foreign tour came to be seen as seditious by the Indian government. At the same time, his support in Kashmir had been eroded by the apparent lack of progress in negotiations with India. Abdullah was again arrested and was not released until 1968. From then until his appointment as chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state in 1975, his Plebiscite Front party gained some successes, but it lost to the Congress Party in the 1972 elections. His relations with Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (Gandhi, Indira) were sometimes strained, but he persuaded her to allow Kashmir a form of autonomy. Abdullah's government was later accused of corruption, but, though his popularity waned, he was still admired for his outstanding contribution to the cause of Kashmiri national rights. His son, Farouq (Farook) Abdullah, succeeded him as leader of the National Conference; he, in turn, was succeeded as leader by his son, Omar Abdullah, in 2002.

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