As Omar Abdullah prepares to take over as chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, he will have to fall back on the history of the National Conference and that of his family. The Sunday Express traces the political journey of three generations of Abdullahs.

By Muzamil Jaleel

When Omar Abdullah takes over as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, he is likely to find himself weighed down by the burden of history. A scion of Kashmir’s first family, his biggest challenge will be the survival of his National Conference in the changing contours of Kashmir politics. Over the years, the party has drifted from its core political ideology, eroding its traditional base in Kashmir. With the People’s Democratic Party positioning itself as a representative of Kashmiri aspirations, Omar can only save his party by returning to its history and that of his family.

The story of the Abdullah family is intertwined with Kashmir’s politics. The interaction between the National Conference and the Congress too has been dominated by the 71-year-old relationship between the Abdullahs and the Nehru-Gandhi family, alternating between friendship and enmity. Now when the National Conference witnesses the second generational shift coinciding with a new alliance with the Congress, the Omar Abdullah-Rahul Gandhi friendship is creating a buzz. So, will Abdullah Jr be able to turn his party’s politics back to its original discourse, one that made its founder, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the undisputed leader of Kashmir?

The Abdullahs’ journey to the top began from the house of a small shawl trader in Srinagar’s Soura neighbourhood. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the youngest son of Sheikh Mohammad Ibrahim—he died two weeks after his son’s birth—was born into poverty but grew up to become Sher-e-Kashmir (Lion of Kashmir). For Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, nothing came easy. As a child, he had to walk 10 miles a day to attend school and worked with a grocer to support his family. In his autobiography, Aatish-e-Chinar, Sheikh Abdullah says his dream to join medical school, and later his ambition to go abroad for studies, were thwarted because of the discriminatory policies against Muslims during the Dogra rule in Kashmir.

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