Sheikh Abdullah

Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, Sher-e-Kashmir (the Lion of Kashmir) (December 5, 1905, Soura, Kashmir – September 8, 1982, Srinagar), was the leader of the National Conference, Kashmir’s largest political party, and one of the most important political figures in the modern history of Jammu and Kashmir. In 1933 he married Akbar Jahan, the daughter of Michael Harry Nedou, the eldest son of the European proprietor of a chain of hotels in India including Nedous Hotel in Srinagar, and his Kashmiri wife Mirjan. Michael Harry Nedou was himself the proprietor of a hotel at the tourist resort of Gulmarg[1] (The writer Tariq Ali claims that Akbar Jehan was previously married in 1928 to an Arab Karam Shah who disappeared after a Calcutta newspaper Liberty reported that he was actually T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)[2] a British Intelligence officer. He claims that Akbar Jehan was divorced by her first husband in 1929.)[3] He agitated against the rule of the Maharaja Hari Singh, and urged self-rule for Kashmir. He was the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir State soon after its controversial provisional accession to India in 1947, and was later jailed and exiled. He again became the Chief Minister of the State following the 1974 Indira-Sheikh accord and remained in the top slot till his death on September 8, 1982.

Early life

The most important source of Sheikh Abdullahs early life is his official biography Atish e Chinar (In his foreword Sheikh Abdullah says it should be considered as his memoirs) and the main facts regarding it as given in Atish e Chinar(Urdu) are detailed below (See Chapter “Bachpan Aur Ibtadai Taleem” Atish e Chinar page 1-14 and “Ibtadai Azmaishain” page 15-22)
Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah was born in Soura, a village on the outskirts of Srinagar just eleven days after the death of his father Sheikh Mohammed Ibrahim, a middle class manufacturer and trader of Kashmir Shawls. In his own words he was born an orphan. Sheikh Ibrahim like the poet Iqbal was the descendant of a Kashmiri Hindu(Pandit) named Ragho Ram Koul who was converted to Islam in 1722 A.D. by his saint Mir Abdul Rashid Baihiqi and after conversion changed his name to Shiekh Mohammed Abdullah. Thus Sheikh Abdullah was the namesake of the progenitor of his family branch. According to him his step brothers mistreated his mother and his early childhood was marked by utter poverty. His mother was keen that her children should receive proper education and so as a child he was first admitted to a traditional school or Maktab where he learnt the recitation of the Koran and some basic Persian texts like Gulistan, Bostan, Padshanama, etc. Then in 1911 he was admitted to a primary school where he studied for about two years. His elder step brothers then stopped his further education and he was first set to work in the family workshop embroidering shawls and later asked to sit on a grocers shop as a sales boy.
However their family barber Mohammed Ramzan prevailed upon his uncle to send him back to school. He had to walk the distance of ten miles to school and back on foot but in his own words the joy of being allowed to obtain a school education made it seem a light work.
He passed his Matriculation examination from Punjab University in 1922.[4]