Chief Justice of India Y Chandrachud’s assertion in the historic verdict on Monday that Article 370 was a temporary provision amplifies perhaps the lone initial resistance of Urdu scholar Maulana Hasrat Mohani, who had opposed the move to grant special privilege to the Jammu and Kashmir at the Constitution-drafting stage.

Participating in a Constituent Assembly debate on October 17, 1949, to draft the Constitution, Congress leader Mohani objected to concessions being given to his friend Sheikh Abdullah, though he had written verses expressing his love for Kashmir. This provision was numbered as Article 306A in the draft, and later revised to Article 370 in the Constitution.

“Why this discrimination, please?,” freedom fighter Mohani pointedly asked in the Constituent Assembly after the J&K’s accession into India on October 26, 1947. To that, N Gopalaswami Ayyangar, one of the members of the Constituent Assembly, stated that it was due to special conditions of Kashmir, and that the State was “not yet ripe for this kind of integration”.

“I am neither opposed to all these concessions being granted to my friend Sheikh Abdullah, not am I opposed to the acceptance of the Maharaja as the ruler of Kashmir...But what I object to is this. Why do you make this discrimination about this Ruler?,” Mohani remarked.

He remained steadfast over his stand as he again argued in the Assembly: “When you make all these concessions for Kashmir I most strongly object to your arbitrary act of compelling the Baroda State to be merged in Bombay”.

SC upholds abrogation of Article 370

Acknowledging his farsightedness, Gyanant Kumar Singh, a Supreme Court lawyer and constitutional expert, said: “Article 370 was adopted as a temporary provision and was destined to go. But the judgment upholding its abrogation reminds us of noted Urdu scholar Hasrat Mohani, who was ahead of his times and had opposed the provision which was adopted without much debate. In fact, it was taken up by the Constituent Assembly on Mohani’s insistence just before the Preamble which was the last to be adopted”.

Syed Fazal-ul-Hassan Takhallus Hasrat, who eventually came to be known as Maulana Hasrat Mohani, was much more than a famous Urdu scholar and a freedom fighter — at times described as a maveric activist by his profilers. Born on January 1, 1875, to a zamindar family in Unnao, he was a critic of British Raj and was sent to jail for writing against the colonial rule. The nationalist freedom fighter was equally a true votary of Hindu-Muslim unity, and did not hesitate in publicly acclaiming Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s radical ‘swaraj (self-rule)‘ thoughts and coined ‘Inqlab zindabad’ revolutionary slogan.

A reflection of many shades of his personality was his love for Krishna and visits to Mathura to celebrate Janmashtami figured in his poetry. He wrote ghazal “Chupke Chupke Raat Din” immoratilised by Ghulam Ali in Bollywood movie “Nikaah”.

Mohani died at the age of 76, on May 13 in 1951, which was a year after India became a republic. The government came out with a postage stamp on Mohani in 2014 as a mark of respect for his contribution to the nation building.

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