KASHMIR: Trouble in the Vale

For 16 years, towering (6 ft. 4 in.) Sheik Mohammed Abdullah led the Kashmiri nationalists against the rich and mighty Hindu Maharaja. He won Kashmir's first legislative assembly, freedom of speech and freedom of the press; he was thrown into jail seven times, for a total of nine years; he also fought religious hatred: "Not only Moslems," he taught, "but Sikhs and Hindus are living in want." In this struggle, Sheik Abdullah gained the intense loyalty of most Kashmiris, the friendship of Jawaharlal Nehru (who came to Kashmir to defend him in the Maharaja's courts), and the title "Sher-i-Kashmir"...

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