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| Credit of popularizing education must go to Hari Singh not NC | | Counter point | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, April 4: National Conference (NC) Provincial President (Kashmir) Ali Muhammad Dar while addressing a gathering at Pulwama Sunday said the credit of popularizing education in Jammu Kashmir goes to NC. Unfortunately most of the people in the state especially in the Valley hold similar views. However, a peep into history narrates a different story.
In early 30s, Maharaja Hari Singh made education compulsory. Schools were opened across Kashmir and children were taken forcibly to the schools. Parents found liable of marring the career by denying them education would be arrested and punished. Such schools were called Jabri Schools. Jabri in Kashmir means forcible.
An active member of Muslim Conference, Muhammad Yusuf Khan, 85, who fought Maharaja Hari Singh’s rule tooth and nail, told Early Times: “I belonged to a family of weavers. A master craftsman in our locality taught me the art of weaving. But one day I was taken to the school by my scared parents. The school authorities gave me cloth for kameez-pyjama (shirt and trousers). I was also given one rupee to get it stitched. They also gave me books printed in England and a bundle of stationery items. Back home, my parents were delighted to see the cloth and the money I had brought. The books and stationery did not amuse them much.”
Khan later graduated from SP College and served the state government in various capacities. But for Maharaja Hari Singh’s Jabri (compulsory) schools Khan and an entire generation would have stayed illiterate.
Some people criticize Hari Singh for forcing the people to send their children to schools. Earlier Sir Syed of Kashmir, Mirwaiz Yusuf Shah had opened a school. But it attracted a few persons. This must be the reason behind Hari Singh’s idea of using force’, commented a retired educationist.
Hari Singh wanted his subjects to read, write and compete with their counterparts in rest of the world. Qudrutullah Shuhab writes in his Shuhab Nama: “When I secured first position in an essay competition, Maharaja Hari Singh invited me to his palace over a cup of tea.” The idea behind this invitation was to encourage him. Shuhab served government of Pakistan in a senior capacity till his retirement.
What did Sher-e-Kashmir and his National Conference do to popularize education in the state? Barring a few exceptions the degree colleges were established either during Dogra rule or by Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad and Sadiq. There is no denying the fact that Sher-e-Kashmir established the Jammu Kashmir University but universities cannot make education popular.
The National Conference led by Sher-e-Kashmir closed down schools run by Jama’t-e-Islami in 1975 immediately after assuming power for the second time. According to a rough estimate, more than 50,000 students suffered because of the ban. Most of them had to abandon schooling.
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