Maharaja Hari Singh, the last ruling monarch of J&K, spent his final years in exile in Bombay (now Mumbai) after being sidelined from power following the state’s accession to the Indian Union on October 26, 1947. It is ironical that the Maharaja who had signed the Instrument of Accession (IoA) with India was ejected out of his beloved Jammu and Kashmir in 1949. Can we call it treachery of then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who sided with his friend Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, to scheme in such a way that Hari Singh was forced to leave Jammu?
What was the imperative behind forcing Hari Singh, who had willingly made his state the crown jewel of Bharat, out from his own state? Well, a good number of historians now say that it was Nehru’s extreme annoyance with the Maharaja and his blind love for Sheikh that harmed Hari Singh. Annoyance bordering on hate as Nehru was not allowed to enter J&K in 1946 and the incident had happened at Kohala in what is now Pakistan Occupied Jammu Kashmir (POJK).
In all, over 550 Princely states acceded to India and not one out of them, except J&K, was treated in this shabby manner. Most of those Princes after joining India were made Rajpramukhs with hefty privy purses. Maharaja Hari Singh was singled out by Nehru to be punished in this manner.
Those who spend time studying the love-hate relationship of Nehru with Sheikh and Hari Singh, love for Sheikh and hate for Hari Singh, have very uncharitable remarks about the first Prime Minister of India. It is intriguing that Nehru was forced to dismiss Sheikh, on August 8/9, 1953, but he did not allow Hari Singh to be back in J&K during his lifetime. Why? Asking an exiled Maharaja Hari Singh to take back reins of the state after Sheikh’s dismissal would have amounted to Nehru admitting his mistake. Nehru declaring indirectly that he was wrong in declaring Sheikh to be loyal to India and punishing Maharaja Hari Singh.
Founder of J&K
J&K was a state that Gulab Singh, an ancestor of Maharaja Hari Singh, had founded in March 1846 on the ruins of Lahore Durbar. The founder of this vast Dogra empire had served Maharaja Ranjit Singh loyally for decades. So pleased was Ranjit Singh with Gulab Singh that the Sikh sovereign had himself declared him as Raja of Jammu. The coronation of Gulab Singh by Maharaja Gulab Singh on June 17, 1822, on Jia Pota ghat at Akhnoor on the banks of the Chenab river is an event recorded in history books.
Some historians question the actions that Maharaja Gulab Singh had taken in March 1846 but there are other ways of looking at his motivation for keeping aloof from what was happening at Lahore. It may be recalled here that Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who founded the Sikh empire, had died on June 27, 1839. What happened to Gulab Singh, his brothers and nephew after Ranjit Singh’s death in 1839 and 1846 when J&K emerged as an independent state?
The events of these seven years that devastated Gulab Singh and left him little choice but to distance himself from the Lahore Durbar need to be studied. Then a judgement passed on him whether he truly tried to help the Sikh aristocracy at that time or not. Those who accuse Gulab Singh of disloyalty to the Sikh kingdom sidestep what was done to two of his brothers, one nephew and one son.
Assassinations of Dogras
During Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s lifetime, Gulab Singh had risen in the ranks from being an ordinary soldier to being the Raja of Jammu. In the Lahore Durbar of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Gulab Singh, his two brothers, a nephew and a son were considered valued jewels. Due to their unparalleled bravery, diplomatic skills and swordsmanship as they had participated in several military expeditions on behalf of Ranjit Singh.
After Ranjit Singh’s death, there was an internecine war of succession that broke out in Lahore and Gulab Singh lost the most even when he was taking no sides. It needs to be mentioned here that Sikh warlords first assassinated his brother, Raja Dhian Singh, who was the Prime Minister of Ranjit Singh for several years. His second brother Raja Suchet Singh too died in Lahore, falling to his own nephew Hira Singh, son of Dhian Singh. Later, Hira Singh was also treacherously assassinated by the Sikh nobles who were fighting among themselves for the control of Lahore.
It so happened that Gulab Singh was away from Lahore at different points of time, tending to his kingdom of Jammu, when these assassinations of his family members took place. After losing two brothers with whom he had spent a lifetime, Gulab Singh extricated himself with great difficulty from intrigues in Lahore and managed to survive. By late 1844, he decided to devote time looking after Jammu principality and keep aloof from Lahore politics.
Incidentally, there are enough historical records available which clearly declare that he had advised some hot-headed Sikh noblemen of Lahore Durbar not to attack the British. Gulab Singh’s argument was that the British had become powerful and divided Sikhs won’t be able to defeat them. As such, when some Sikhs decided to start fighting with the British, Gulab Singh chose not to join a war he had not started.
Hari Singh’s J&K
When Maharaja Hari Singh acceded his state of J&K to India, its total area was over 2,22,600 square kilometres. Some of these areas had by then been captured by Kabaili lashkars of Islamist zealots led by Pakistan Army personnel. Within 12 hours of the accession, Indian Army was in Srinagar on October 27, 1947, and thus started the pushback against Pakistan. It took days, weeks and months to push back the Pakistanis, and thousands of Indian troops made the ultimate sacrifice in this effort.
Thousands of other Indian soldiers were wounded and the tide started turning against Pakistan. More and more areas that it had captured were retrieved back from under Pakistani control. Rajouri and Poonch were entirely in the hands of Pakistan for months together and the Islamists butchered thousands of Hindus and Sikhs at that time. However, relentless pursuit of attackers, Pakistanis all, meant many areas were taken back.
Nehru halts Indian Army
Towards end of 1948, the Indian Army was making steady progress, pushing back Pakistanis from occupied areas and it was on ascendant. Just at that time, Nehru decided that it was better to halt the military operations by the Indian Army and take the J&K issue to the United Nations (UN). Despite enough military commanders opposing him, Nehru over-ruled them and rest is history. It needs to be mentioned here that Gilgit-Baltistan was in the hands of Maharaja’s troops till mid-August 1948 when they were over-run by Pakistanis.
This happened as Nehru refused to arrange additional troops needed for fighting the Pakistanis in Gilgit-Baltistan. Even smaller effort of committing some elements of Indian Air Force (IAF) to paradrop ammunition and other goods required by the small contingent fighting the Pakistanis was stalled by Nehru. Today, we in India have only less than half of the state of J&K ruled by Maharaja Hari Singh, just a little over 1 lakh square kilometres with us.
That was the second Himalayan blunder by Nehru, the original sin of snubbing and ill-treating true patriot Maharaja Hari Singh and propping up a fake nationalist Sheikh Abdullah has not even been discussed threadbare till date. Naman to Maharaja Hari Singh who acceded to India and because of whom I am a citizen of Bharat today.
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