Muslim United Front

The Muslim United Front (MUF) was a 'polyglot coalition' of Islamic Kashmiri political parties that contested the 1987 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.[1][2] The Jamaat-e-Islami of Jammu and Kashmir was a key constituent party of the coalition.[3] The MUF won four Assembly seats in the 1987 election.[4][5] However, widespread rigging of the election by the ruling National Conference party was reported. In the absence of such rigging, commentators believe that it could have won fifteen to twenty seats,[6] a contention admitted by the National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah.[7]

The disaffection caused by the election gave rise to the Kashmir insurgency, which continues to this day.[8]

The present day Hurriyat Conference is largely inspired by the former MUF coalition.[9]

Background

In 1986 the ruling National Conference, widely accused of corruption, came to an accord with Indian National Congress Party which threatened to erode what remained of Kashmir's autonomy.[10] Moreover, the growing emphasis on secularism led to a backlash with Islamic parties becoming more popular.[11]

Formation of Muslim United Front

In response to these issues was formed the MUF, which attracted support from separatists, youth and the pro-Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami.[10] MUF's election manifesto stressed the need to solve all outstanding issues according to the Simla agreement, work for Islamic unity and against political interference from the centre. Their slogan in public rallies was wanting the law of the Quran in the Assembly.[12]

The Islamic political coalition mobilized support on the basis of Kashmiriyat.[13][14] The movement's grassroots campaign was said to be 'enthusiastically energetic', attracting youth activists who had been born in the 1960s. A Pandit activist recorded in her memoirs that there had been a 'wave' in favour of the MUF in early 1987 in the Valley.[15]

1987 election and rigging
Main article: 1987 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election

The 1987 election witnessed the highest record of voters participation, with eighty per cent of the people in the Valley having voted.[16]

The election of 1987 were considered to be the most compromised in the history of Jammu and Kashmir.[17] Voting was held in the Valley on 23 March 1987 and a Delhi-based magazine reported that strong arms tactics and rigging were used all over the Valley and gangs took over the polling stations forcibly and ballot boxes were pre-stamped in favour of the National Conference.[15]

The MUF won in only 4 of the 43 electoral constituencies it had contested, although it received a vote share of 31.9%.[18][note 1] Scholar Victoria Schofield has stated that the MUF might have won four more seats if there was no electoral fraud.[21] On the other hand, an anonymous source in the Intelligence Bureau has advanced the estimate that the MUF may have lost approximately 13 seats due to electoral malpractice.[22]

Aftermath

Instead of punishing those responsible for the rigging the Government arrested and tortured the MUF activists.[23] According to Bose the number of activists arrested and tortured was in the hundreds and possibly thousands. Most of them were kept in custody until late 1987 or early 1988. Among those activists arrested was Yasin Malik and Mohammad Yusuf Shah.[16]

Many younger supporters of MUF started to support the militant organisations which had up till the election seen a wane in their support and numerical strength.[10] According to Maulana Abbas Ansari, a member of the Muslim United Front, the youth would have not picked up the gun nor have known of Nehru's promise of a plebiscite to the people of Kashmir had the election not been rigged.[7]

Scholars see that the rise in the organisation's support caused the Congress-National Conference alliance to rig the 1987 election.[24][25]

Notes
  1. The Muslim United Front polled 470,580 votes by the official count,[19] out of 1,477,250 votes cast in the Valley,[20] representing 31.9% vote share. Its share of votes in the whole state was 18.9%.[18]

References
  1. Bose, Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace 2003, p. 48.
  2. Muslim United Front. The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. Oxford University Press. An alliance of Islamic parties organized to contest the 1987 state elections in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The alliance won only three seats, allegedly due to massive electoral fraud. The group's poor showing in 1987 inspired a new phase of armed resistance to Indian rule in Kashmir that continues today.
  3. Schofield, Kashmir in Conflict 2003, p. 136.
  4. Bin Nabi, Daanish (5 August 2015). "The 23rd March 1987, The Day That Changed Kashmir As Never Before". Rising Kashmir. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  5. Saima Bhat, Battleground Amira Kadal, Kashmir Life, 24 March 2016.
  6. Praveen Donthi, How Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Shaped The 1987 Elections In Kashmir, The Caravan, 23 March 2016.
  7. Paul R. Brass (1994). The Politics of India Since Independence. Cambridge University Press. pp. 222–. ISBN 978-0-521-45970-9.
  8. Bose, Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace 2003, pp. 47-49.
  9. Bose, Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace 2003, p. 52.
  10. Johnson, A Region in Turmoil 2005, p. 100–.
  11. Amin, Tahir; Schofield, Victoria, "Kashmir", The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, Oxford University Press "Culturally, a growing emphasis on secularism generated a backlash, contributing to the popularity of Islamic political parties, especially the Jamāʿat-iIslāmī (established in 1953) and the Islāmī Jamʿīyat-i Tulabā, its allied student body."
  12. Schofield, Kashmir in Conflict 2003, p. 137.
  13. Raju G. C. Thomas, ed. (1992). Perspectives on Kashmir: the roots of conflict in South Asia. Westview Press. ISBN 978-0-8133-8343-9.
  14. Varshney, Ashutosh (November 1991). "India, Pakistan, and Kashmir: Antinomies of Nationalism". Asian Survey. 31 (11): 1015. doi:10.1525/as.1991.31.11.00p01057. In the elections that followed in 1987, Kashmiriat was mobilized by a coalition of Islamic groups, known as the Muslim United Front (MUF).
  15. Bose, Transforming India 2013, p. 275.
  16. Bose, Transforming India 2013, p. 275 (PP245).
  17. Stephen Tankel (16 January 2014). Storming the World Stage: The Story of Lashkar-e-Taiba. Oxford University Press. pp. 48–. ISBN 978-0-19-023803-2.
  18. Grover & Arora, Encyclopaedia of India and Her States 1996, p. 152.
  19. Hussain, Masood (23 March 2016), "MUFfed", Kashmir Life, retrieved 17 February 2018
  20. Statistical Report on the General Election, 1987, Election Commission of India, New Delhi.
  21. Foreign Affairs Committee (2007), South Asia: fourth report of session 2006-07, report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence, The Stationery Office, Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons, pp. 28–29, ISBN 978-0-215-03378-9
  22. Widmalm, The Rise and Fall of Democracy in Jammu and Kashmir 1997, p. 1021.
  23. Patrick Colm Hogan (2016). Imagining Kashmir: Emplotment and Colonialism. U of Nebraska Press. pp. 57–. ISBN 978-0-8032-9489-9.
  24. Amin, The Kashmir Question 2016, p. 362.
  25. Varshney, Ashutosh (November 1991). "India, Pakistan, and Kashmir: Antinomies of Nationalism". Asian Survey. 31 (11): 1016. doi:10.1525/as.1991.31.11.00p01057. Watching the surge in MUF support, the Conference-Congress alliance rigged the 1987 elections

Bibliography

Further reading
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