The Shape of Things in Kashmir

'THROUGHOUT my two-week study tour o f the Kashmir Valley in last October when I held talks and discussions with individuals in private or with public workers belonging to different political parties in group meetings, I was trying to ascertain whether India can retain Kashmir permanently. This was my second visit to the State after my externment in the early days o f the National Conference rule. I went there for the first time in June 1962 with the purpose o f determining the political, economic and social developments about which contradictory and confusing reports had been appearing in the outside Press. On return, I described the situation as I found it in a series o f newspaper articles. I also submitted three long reports about my impressions in the form o f personal communications to the late Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who read them with interest and expressed a desire that the then Kashmir Premier, Bakshi Gulam Mohammed, should also go through them.