Sheikh Abdullah had endeared himself to Nehru—who had called him ‘my blood-brother’—and others by projecting an anti-feudal, democratic, leftist, pro-India, pro-Congress, and above all, a secular image: perhaps to get Maharaja Hari Singh out of the way, and then to sit in his place; for his later actions belied that image, and disappointed and shocked Nehru. S. Gopal, Nehru’s biographer, had written that Nehru regarded Abdullah as ‘an old friend and colleague and blood-brother’. Nehru held Abdullah beyond suspicion, and trusted him fully. For Nehru, Abdullah was Kashmir, and Kashmir was
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