PART I

Chapter 17

NIRMAL KANTH - A PILLAR OF RESISTANCE

Shams-Iraqi had to quit Kashmir amidst bitter opposition and stormy protests from the Sunni Muslims, who had not taken kindly to and savoured well his religious activities related to the proliferation of support-base of Shia-sect of Islam. With the decline of Musa Raina, he lost patronage and protective shield from his government and had no option but to buzz off Kashmir in utter haste and confusion. In the wake of his departure, a daring Pandit, Nirmal Kanth, defying oppression and opposition, launched upon a campaign to re-convert the Hindus who had succumbed to the sword of Islam. His successes in his unique venture of reclaiming the lost were enormous and baffling, but also fraught with perils for him, the re-converts and original Hindus. Amidst the tycoon of Muslim bigotry, Nirmal Kanth, became a rallying point for the Pandits who were eager to organise themselves and weld their ranks to seek protection of their faith and limb from the biased Muslim ruler. After hectic and prolonged confabulations, he drafted a mild petition and submitted it to the Sultan, who was incompetent and apathetic to the affairs of the state except to enjoy his position of pelf and panoply. In fact, defacto power was vested in and wielded by the feuding Shia nobles, their proteges and ignoble government officers.

The internecine and bitter struggle for power between Musa Raina and Kaji Chak finally culminated in the elimination of Musa Raina. Seizing the reins of government Kaji Chek was in a tearing haste to harness its instrumentalities to perpetrate death and destruction on the Hindus. Shams Iraqi was in doldrums in Khurasan where the Sultan, Hussian Mirza, had developed deep suspicions about his political and religious activities and had ordered his immediate expulsion from the country. With the active aid and support of his previous contacts, he managed to stage a come-back into Kashmir after a period of twelve years. Kaji Chak came under the umbrella of his influence and ideology and eight hundred prominent Hindus especially the re-converts including Nirmal Kanth were gruesomely massacred as they were given the bad name of apostates, who had betrayed and defied Islam and had practise idolatory by placing their haunches on the divine book.

Records Baharistan-i-Shahi, "With the help of some of the chiefs of this land, some of them had reverted to the customs of the infidels and polytheists. These apostates had resumed idolatory. Some of the infidels related that during the hours of offering prayers and worshipping of idols, they would place a copy of the Quran under their haunches to make a seat to sit upon. Thus idol-worshipping proceeded even when they sat on the divine book. When the news and details of these doings were brought to Amir Shamsud-Din Iraqi he summoned Malik Kaji Chak to him. Accompanied by Malik Ali and Khwaja Ahmed, his two counsellors and administrators, Malik Kaji Chak presented himself before the venerable Amir, who declared to them.

'This community of idolators has after embracing and submitting to the Islamic faith, now gone back to defiance and apostasy. If you find yourself unable to inflict punishment upon them in accordance with the provisions of Sharia and take disciplinary action against them, it will become necessary and incumbent upon me to proceed on self-imposed exile and in that case you shall not stand in my way at the time of my departure.'

It further adds, "Kaji Chak consulted his counsellors and administrative officers and decided upon carrying out a whole-sale massacre of the infidels. Their massacre was scheduled for the days of the approaching 'Ashura'. Thus seven to eight hundred infidels were put to death."

Baharistan-i-Shahi also describes, "Those killed were the leading personalities of the community of infidels at that time, men of substance and government functionaries. Each of them wielded influence and sway over a hundred families of other infidels and heretics. Thus the entire community of infidels and polytheists in Kashmir was coerced into conversion to Islam at the point of sword. This is one of the major achievements of Malik Kaji Chak."

As models of brutal intolerance and tyranny the chaks re-imposed Jazia (poll tax) on the Hindus, who were exempted from paying it during the benevolent rule of Sultan Zain-ul-abidin. They had in all vengefulness ordered to kill one thousand cows every day with a view to injuring and offending the religious susceptibilities of the Hindus. To coerce them to join the Islamic fold, the Hindus were blatantly discriminated and deprived of the opportunities of earning their livelihood and thus stark deprivation and poverty stared them in the face.