Ram Chandra Kak

Ram Chandra Kak (5 June 1893 – 10 February 1983) was Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir during 1945-47. He was also a pioneering archaeologist who excavated the leading sites of antiquities in Kashmir Valley and wrote the definitive text on them.

Career

Politics

He served at various keys positions in Maharaja Hari Singh's administration. Beginning as the superintendent of archaeology, he was appointed to the post of chief secretary in 1937. He was made minister of military affairs in 1941 and the chief minister in Hari Singh's government from 1942-1945. Kak acted as the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir from June 1946 - 11 August 1947 during the key transitional period when the British prepared for departure from India.

In 1946, the National Conference began the Quit Kashmir movement against the Maharaja to take advantage of the developing power vacuum. Shaikh Abdullah was arrested on 15 May, and Jawaharlal Nehru came to Kashmir as his defence counsel. Nehru's entry into the state was blocked by Kak & Nehru was arrested on 22 June and kept at the dak bungalow in Domel, close to Muzzafarabad. Nehru returned to Delhi after two days following a summon from Gandhiji. Later, Kak met Congress leaders in India in July and Nehru was permitted to revisit Srinagar, and he met Abdullah in jail.

With pressure building up from forces sympathetic to Pakistan on Kashmir and with Nehru allied too closely to Shaikh Abdullah who represented only the interests of the Valley and not those of Muslims or Hindus of Jammu or the Ladakhis, Kak thought it most prudent to buy time and improve Kashmir's bargaining position. He recommended that Kashmir remain independent of both India and Pakistan for a transitional period of at least one year, and then take a decision on accession to India or Pakistan. But Mountbatten - after asking for and receiving a note from Nehru - visited the Maharaja on 19 June and urged him to take a decision on accession to India or Pakistan before 15 August, the date set for the end of British rule. The Maharaja made clear his resolve not to accede to Pakistan "on any account". Mountbatten assured him that, in that case, a division of the Indian army will be quickly stationed in Kashmir to prevent any incursion from Pakistan.

On 19 July, the convention of the Muslim Conference urged accession to Pakistan. Brigadier Henry Lawrence Scott, the chief of staff of the State forces, believed that the Congress leaders including Mahatma Gandhi "intrigued in the State" for the dismissal of Kak as prime minister. Gandhi was assured by a lieutenant of Abdullah that if Kak was ousted, a plebiscite would return a vote in favour of India. Kak was dismissed as Prime Minister on 11 August. The British Indian government returned Gilgit, leased to it in 1934, to the Maharaja.

When Shaikh Abdullah became Prime Minister of Kashmir, Kak was imprisoned on 12 August 1947, and then he was externed. After this, Kak retired from public life.

Pt Ram Chandra Kak is regarded by some as the architect of the thought of Independent Republic of Kashmir.

Academic and historian

Ram Chandra Kak was believed to be in possession of the Sharada script copy of the Nilamata Purana. Kak's pioneering book Ancient monuments of Kashmir was published in 1933 and Francis Younghusband wrote the foreword to the book.

External links

• Geography of Jammu and Kashmir [1]

Political offices
Preceded by Sir Benegal Narsing Rau	Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir 1945 – 1947	Succeeded by Janak Singh