Pandit Sham Lal Saraf
- A Gandhian and a Freedom Fighter
I knew him very closely. He was my uncle, married to my father's sister, to be precise. He was simple, clean and tidy, modest, unpretentious, had strict principles and was a true Gandhian. He was reserved and unrevealing about his accomplishments. Though an introvert he still managed to be in politics and public life. Had I not seen him I would not have believed that a person called Mahatma Gandhi, whose disciple he was, ever lived and walked on this earth.
Sham Lal Saraf was born on July 4, 1904, in Rainawari, Srinagar (Kashmir) in a Kashmiri Pandit family with the surname 'Tikoos' though they were generally known as 'Sarafs'. Maybe some of his ancestors worked as goldsmiths. The family observed the festival 'Tike Tchorum' which showed their belonging to Tikoos originally. His father's name was Pandit Sansar Chand Saraf who as I learnt was a strict disciplinarian.
Saraf Sahab was educated at the famous CMS High School, Srinagar known for quality education, sports and character building. He participated in sports and was a member of the school hockey team besides cultural activities. On completion of his schooling, he graduated from S P College, Srinagar. Thereafter, he plunged into business and owned two shops of Kashmir handicrafts bearing the name 'Sudesh Arts & Crafts', one situated on the Bund over the bank of river Jhelum, next to Shaw Bros, and the other in the Central Market (Shop No 115). My father also joined him in his business later on. Once Saraf Sahab joined the freedom movement of the state called the 'Quit Kashmir Movement', he handed over both the shops to my father who managed them single-handedly up to 1962 when he too sold them, One of the Bund changed the signboard to 'Ganymede' (See picture below) and the other was thereafter called as 'Desh Arts & Crafts'. Despite giving up his studies after B A, he kept in touch with books and current affairs all his life. In 1968 when I was preparing for my graduation, he dictated two essays to me titled, 'Students Unrest in India' and 'Arab Israel War' that opened my eyes to the depth of his knowledge on the subjects. I was fortunate to use both in my final examination because students were asked to appear in the English paper again as some students had gone on strike in the first one.
Sham Lal Saraf was married on March 20, 1923, to Tarashwari Budki (Gunwati Saraf after marriage) who was the daughter of Pt Ram Chand Budki residing at Krala Teng, S R Gunj, Srinagar. She was a humble, devoted, pious and highly spiritual lady who did not eat non-vegetarian food from the very childhood though she cooked tons of meat and fish for her husband, family and guests all her life. Despite getting married to a person who later became a State Cabinet Minister and Member of Parliament, she never changed her lifestyle nor participated in official dinners and banquets. She was a devotee of Lord Shiva and had a dedicated puja room in her house, called 'Thokur Kuth' in Kashmiri, where she would sit for many hours performing puja. She had no ego, no pride and no self-conceit. Gunwati bore him more than a dozen children but only one daughter, Sudesh Saraf survived. Sudesh became a lecturer at Women's College, Srinagar after her post-graduation in Hindi and was married to K L Zutshi, an engineer by profession. Unfortunately, Sudesh left for her heavenly abode a few years ago.
Pt Sham Lal Saraf initially became a member of a Kashmiri Pandit organization called Yuvak Sabha which later merged with J&K National Conference. The latter got associated with the National Movement of Congress before 1930. Other members of the organisation were Jia Lal Kilam, P N Bazaz, and Kashyap Bandhu. He was a signatory of the National Demands Document presented to the then Maharaja demanding inter alia freedom of speech, adult franchise, self-governance and reservation of vacancies for the state subjects. He became a member of the J&K Constituent Assembly in 1951 proclaimed by the then Sadre Riyasat J&K.
Saraf Sahab was a Member of the State legislature, from September 1951 to April 7, 1962, and was later nominated as a Member of Parliament 3rd Lok Sabha for the next 5 years by the President of India. He served as a Cabinet Minister in the State of J&K from 1947 to April 1962. His first assignment was as Minister of Tourism and Education. Besides, he was a member of several associations and societies interested in social, cultural educational and religious movements. He travelled widely and visited Sri Lanka, the USSR, Britain, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Poland and Sweden.
(Meeting with Turkish press delegation in March 1952)In 1953 he got embroiled in a confrontation with his mentor and leader Sheikh Mohd Abdullah who had delivered the notorious secessionist Ranbir Singh Pora speech as a consequence of which his cabinet planned his ouster. As a retaliation, Sheikh Abdullah tried to dismiss him from the cabinet and even planned to put him behind bars but before he could execute his plans, Sheikh Abdullah himself was ousted as Prime Minister of J&K in 1953 and Bakshi Ghulam Mohd took over the charge instead. Allegations levelled against Saraf Sahab were that his brother-in-law (Sala), who was serving in the Jail Department, had stolen a clock from Saraf's office which was recovered from his car. This is documented in his autobiography 'Atish-e-Chinar' written by a ghostwriter, M Y Taing. Unfortunately, the writer had not verified the facts. Saraf Sahab had only one brother-in-law and that was my father who was a shopkeeper and till 1962 had never worked in any government office. Moreover, the truth about allegations of corruption can be gauged by comparing the assets left by Sheikh Abdullah and all other Ministers during Sheikh's and Bakshi's regimes vis-a-vis what was left by Sham Lal Saraf. He possessed just one incomplete three-story building in Gugji Bagh, Srinagar and that too was built after he demitted his office. In this regard, I asked him once, "Hindus don't credit you with the ouster of Sheikh Sahab saying it was Bakshi who did it while Muslims blame you entirely for dethroning him? So you get no credit whatsoever." He replied, "My direct confrontation could have taken a communal colour and my community would have to bear the brunt of it if I had openly come out against Sheikh Sahab on that occasion. In fact, I preferred to lay low for a long time and even refused to join the new cabinet of Bakshi Sahab for many days to avoid public gaze."
As has been written earlier, Pt Sham Lal Saraf was a member of the Cabinet of Sheikh Abdullah from 1947 to 1953 and later Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed from 1953 onwards to 1962. In the photo on the right, he can be seen taking the oath of Office as Minister in Bakshi's Cabinet. The oath was administered by the then Sadre Riyasat, Dr Karan Singh. He acquitted himself with unparalleled integrity and industry. He was a stickler for principles and I always thought he could have been more successful as a bureaucrat than a politician. This trait of his made him unpopular among the public, especially the Kashmiri Pandits, who approached him to bestow them with undue favours but he did not oblige them. Examples of this could be seen that his own daughter was neither a doctor nor an engineer and he could not manage a medical seat for me or my sister though he was in power at that time. On my asking that Muslim students with far lesser marks got the seats, he replied, "For a Muslim of Kashmir, who doesn't feel integrated with the country due to indoctrination since 1953, India is from Uri to Qazigund while for you India spans from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari. If I don't give him preference in education and employment in J&K and bottle him up, he will surely break that bottle upon my head one day." How prophetic! Subversive forces used this very plank in the 1990s to incite young Kashmiris to take up the gun. I appreciated his viewpoint and in fact, it changed the course of my life. He too acknowledged it before his wife saying, "This fellow never turned his back to seek help. Whatever he has achieved is all on his own."
Saraf Sahab was a true nationalist. He stood his ground in 1953, and later, on 11 September 1964 he despite being a member of J&K Congress supported a bill introduced by an independent Member of Parliament, Prakash Vir Shastri demanding the removal of Article 370 from the Constitution. During the debate, he said:
"In these 17 years, our state has suffered by not having been brought at par with the rest of the states in the country. Our people have suffered. Everybody has suffered. Let the people have the proper benefit of what flows from the Centre to other states. As it is, people suffer in a number of ways, for instance, in getting scholarships, getting seats in colleges and universities in other places etc. Not only that, there is the non-application of labour laws."
Saraf Sahab also highlighted what he said was the plight of the working classes in the state then:
"In my state, there are lakhs of people working in various forests, handicrafts and factories, and all the beneficial laws that we have in the Centre, and which are applicable to the rest of the states, they are not benefitted by them. I know the feelings of workers in that State. Every time they say: why do you keep this wall of separation, let us also get the benefits as the rest of our countrymen." 
It was my good fortune to know him personally and watch his behaviour closely. He was very serious and did not indulge in loose talk. He was a true Gandhian and held Nehru in great esteem. I never heard him speak ill against anyone behind his back not even Sheikh Sahab despite the great betrayal by the latter. He would often tell me not to be so facetious and take life seriously. He had a high moral standard which often touched spiritual realms. Notwithstanding the climatic conditions, he would get up early in the morning, take bath and do some routine yoga exercises, then read Gita, Ramayana and Jap ji every day. He would constantly emphasize that a person has three facets of his personality i.e Physical, Mental and Spiritual and one must nurture them all. On this, I would often disagree with him. I used to argue that a person cannot achieve excellence in one field if he lays equal emphasis on all three, for example, if he wants to become a Dara Singh he has to ignore the other two aspects except the physical aspect, if he wants to become a Buddha he cannot afford to develop the physical side and in case he wants to emulate Shakespeare, he has to ignore the physical and spiritual faculties. The issue, however, remained unresolved.
Saraf Sahab left his mortal remains on 26 July 1983. May his soul rest in peace. Om Shanti.
(With Sadre Riyasat Dr Karan Singh & Foreign dignitaries. Mir Qasim, Sadiq,
GLDogra & Bakshi can also be seen)
I must confess that whatever I achieved in my life was all because of his teachings that guided me to lead an honest and to some extent principled life though I could not match him. I am reminded of a couplet of Allama Iqbal:
Hazaron saal Nargis apni be - noori pe roti hai,
Badi mushkil se hota hai chaman mein deeda-var paida.
