Shadow War:
The untold story of jihad in Kashmir
by Arif Jamal
Melville House Publishing, 2009
The Limits of Influence:
America's role in Kashmir
by Howard B Schaffer
Brookings Institution Press, 2009
On 5 May 1946, People's Age, a communist newspaper, noted in a commentary that granting the right to complete self-determination to all the nationalities living in India would eliminate the possibility of a constitutional solution along communal lines. The right, it continued, could be conceded after a territorial re-division of provinces, done on a scientific basis keeping in mind linguistic and cultural homogeneity. And all such units, the commentary concluded, should be allowed to decide whether or not to join the Indian Union. On 6 January 1950, the Cross Road, another communist paper, condemned Kashmir's accession to India as "treacherous" and demanded the "withdrawal of Indian troops". In the 9 September 1950 issue of the New York Times, a Soviet journalist named Oleg Orestov took Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah to task for having proved impotent in the face of Indian reactionaries.
As is apparent in this taste of historical communist sentiment, initially the Communist Party of India (CPI) wielded significant influence over Sheikh Abdullah and his National Conference party – to the extent that the party manifesto, known as Naya Kashmir (1944), was drafted by CPI leader B P L Bedi and his wife Freda Bedi. For many years, the communists thought Sheikh Abdullah was playing their game. Then, in 1953, the communists suddenly became the most significant critics of the man whom they had long admired and nurtured. At that point, the CPI began to believe that the Sheikh was playing into American hands, attributing his 1953 demand for Kashmiri independence (as applying to the Kashmir Valley) to American encouragement. The turnaround had come, after all, following successive meetings between Sheikh Abdullah and a number of influential Americans, including Adlai Stevenson.