1947–1948 Rajouri massacre

Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir

At the time of the Partition of India in 1947, princely states were left with the options of joining India or Pakistan or remaining independent. Hari Singh, the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, preferred to remain independent. All major political groups of the state supported the Maharaja's decision, except for the Muslim Conference, which declared in favour of accession to Pakistan on 19 July 1947.[6] The Muslim Conference was popular in the Jammu province of the state. It was closely allied with the All-India Muslim League, which was set to inherit Pakistan.

Between September and November 1947, Rajouri and Poonch witnessed a mass influx of Hindu and Sikh refugees from the west trying to escape the raiders. Rajouri's population swelled from 5,000 to over 40,000. Poonch experienced an increase from 10,000 to almost 50,000 people.[7]

Rajouri was the western part of the Riasi district in 1947 (map by National Geographic)

In late October 1947, thousands of tribal raiders from Pakistan entered Kashmir overrunning outposts of Hari Singh’s state forces in Muzaffarabad, Domel and other places.[8] On the night of October 26-27, the tribal raiders attacked Baramulla during which thousands of Hindu men, women and children were killed.[8][9] This caused the Maharaja to accede to India and India to airlift troops to defend the Kashmir Valley.

Around 7th November 1947, the Pakistani tribal raiders, along with the rebels and deserters from the western districts of the princely state, began the effort to capture Rajauri. On 12 November 1947, there were coordinated killings of young Hindu and Sikh males ordered by Sakhi Diler and Colonel Rehmat Ullah Khan, despite objections from detained local leaders. Sources state 3,000 to 7,000 people were killed on that day.[10] The town of Rajouri was surrounded by Muslim mobs who carried out extensive killings, loot and rapes of Hindu and Sikh residents. 30,000 Hindus and Sikhs living in Rajauri were reportedly killed, wounded or abducted.[11][12][13] Many women committed suicide to avoid being raped or tortured.[4] There was a mass displacement of people to areas such as Mirpur, Jammu etc. There are also recorded instances of a few individuals who converted to Islam in order to avoid the atrocities.[14]

Rajauri was recaptured on 12 April 1948 by the 19 Infantry Brigade of the Indian Army under the command of Second Lieutenant Rama Raghoba Rane. Rane, despite being wounded, launched a bold tank assault by conveying the tanks over the Tawi river bed in order to avoid the road blocks along the main road.[15] When the Indian Army entered the town, the captors had fled, having destroyed most of the town and killing all its inhabitants.

After recapturing Rajouri and the arrival of the Indian Army, some 1,500 refugees that had fled to the hills, including women and children, returned to the town.[16] The capture of Rajouri and the Rajouri Massacre was followed by the capture of Mirpur by Pakistani backed tribals and the subsequent Mirpur Massacre of Hindus and Sikhs.

The ceasefire line at the end of the war ran to the west of Rajouri district.

April 13 every year is now celebrated as Vijay Diwas in Rajouri.[17] The headquarters of the 25 Infantry Division in Rajouri has a sign in commemoration of the massacre.[18]

• Persecution of Hindus
• Persecution of Sikhs
• 1947 Mirpur Massacre
• 1947 Jammu massacres
• Partition of India

• Bhatia, Mohita (2020), Rethinking Conflict at the Margins: Dalits and Borderland Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir: Going Beyond the Dominant Discourse, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-108-83602-9
• Chattha, Ilyas Ahmad (September 2009). Partition and Its Aftermath: Violence, Migration and the Role of Refugees in the Socio-Economic Development of Gujranwala and Sialkot Cities, 1947-1961 (PhD). Centre for Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies, School of Humanities, University of Southampton. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
• Chattha, Ilyas (2016). "The Long Shadow of 1947: Partition, Violence and Displacement in Jammu & Kashmir". In Amritjit Singh; Nalini Iyer; Rahul K. Gairola (eds.). Revisiting India's Partition: New Essays on Memory, Culture, and Politics. Lexington Books. pp. 143–156. ISBN 978-1-4985-3105-4.
• Copland, Ian (1991). "The Abdullah Factor: Kashmiri Muslims and the Crisis of 1947". In D. A. Low (ed.). Political Inheritance of Pakistan. Springer. ISBN 9781349115563.
• Das Gupta, Jyoti Bhusan (2012) [first published 1968]. Jammu and Kashmir. Springer. ISBN 978-94-011-9231-6.
• Singh, V. K. (23 March 2005). Leadership in the Indian Army: Biographies of Twelve Soldiers. SAGE Publications. p. 160. ISBN 9780761933229.
• Ramachandran, D. P. (2008). Empire's First Soldiers. Lancer Publishers. p. 171. ISBN 9780979617478.
• Sarkar, Col. Bhaskar (2016). Outstanding Victories of the Indian Army, 1947-1971. Lancer Publishers. pp. 40–. ISBN 978-1-897829-73-8.
• Snedden, Christopher (2013) [first published as The Untold Story of the People of Azad Kashmir, 2012]. Kashmir: The Unwritten History. HarperCollins India. ISBN 978-9350298985.