In 1932 Pro-Congress Sheikh Abdullah formed Kashmir's first political party, the All Jammu & Kashmir Muslim Conference, with a demand for merger of Jammu and Kashmir with British India. His party was renamed the National Conference in 1939 to suite the secular nature of Kashmiri culture. The All Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, led by Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, espoused a secular ideology and wished to create a secular, democratic but independent Kashmir with close ties to British India.