Er P L Khushu
Maharaja Hari Singh’s birth anniversary will be now a holiday In Jammu and Kashmir. Nevertheless, it has ultimately come true. A holiday in memory of a great king of the Dogra empire’s last ruler, in Jammu & Kashmir, has been declared first time, after a long struggle by the people of Jammu in particular, after the Independence of India, which is going to be celebrated on his birth day on 23rd September. Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said the holiday is a ‘tribute to the Maharaja’s services’. Great celebrations were held in Jammu after the announcement, when the valiant Dogra population of Jammu said it was their long overdue demand, which remained pending for a long time. Better late than never, it is ultimately fulfilled. It is a great victory for the right thinking people of Jammu & Kashmir in general and the people of Jammu the Duggar Desh in particular. Jammu was always discriminated upon in all respects right from the taking over of the reins of governance of State by Sheikh Abdullah in 1947, almost till now, when even BJP forgot Jammu during its murky alliance with PDP, led by Muftis. Declaring a holiday on the birth day of Late Maharaja Hari Singh is no favor to him or the people of Jammu, when Maharaja Hari Singh was the sovereign ruler of the Jammu and Kashmir, which included Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan, Muzaffarabad-Mirpur, Aksai Chin and Saksham Valley. The British wanted him to lease them Gilgit agency. The Maharaja was reluctant. He was a rare Hindu king who ruled over his predominantly Muslim subjects. He was a great secular leader of courageous acumen, who ruled Jammu and Kashmir with a solemn grip. Tracing back the history and Journey of the State of Jammu & Kashmir, one gets reminded of the happenings of the past and in this context, when it will be necessary to recall how the undivided State of Jammu and Kashmir was created. The State of Jammu and Kashmir came into being on March 9, 1846, with the signing of the Treaty of Amritsar by Maharaja Gulab Singh with the British. This multi-regional, multi-cultural and multi-religious state continued until 26th October 1947, when Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession with India. Half of the state was lost when ceasefire agreement was signed with Pakistan, which came into effect on January-1st 1949. Whom to blame about it? The inference is implied. This left the huge area of Gilgit-Baltistan and the western Muzaffarabad-Mirpur strip under Pakistan control, involving roughly half the geographical area of the original State and a third of its population getting bifurcated from this state. The state of Jammu and Kashmir finally came to an end on 31st October 2019, with the original State having finally been bifurcated into two Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir. History is witness to the fact that the original State of Jammu and Kashmir covering 84,000 square miles, one of the largest princely State in British India, was in fact a Dogra empire built up with the great efforts and sacrifices by Maharaja Gulab Singh and Maharaja Ranbir Singh, who extended the frontiers of India to the very borders of Tibet and Central Asia. It is this legacy of those warrior Dogra rulers, which Government of India is defending through its military might, when a part of it in Ladakh is under an invasion from China. Let us pay tributes to those great Dogra rulers who had brought all such territories under their domain of ruler ship. This state was ruled for about 100 years by the Dogras and then for about 70 years by the Kashmir’s. Jammu and Kashmir was one of 562 princely states that acceded and integrated with India upon or after Independence in 1947. The 2019 revocation of special status under Article 370, and downgrading and division of into two union territories, other being Ladakh, equally also wiped out a legacy of the Dogra empire. When the British formally left on August 15, 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh, Hindu ruler of a Muslim-majority state, wanted his state to remain independent. But he signed an Instrument of Accession with the India in October that year to get support of its army against an invasion by tribal raiders backed by Pakistan. He later lived in exile in Mumbai, where he died in 1961. Even after the accession, the state had its own code of punishments, Ranbir Penal Code, named after one of Hari Singh’s predecessors, Ranbir Singh. These laws were reminders of the Dogra reign. Among the most notable was the State Subject law that barred outsiders from owning land in Jammu and Kashmir. But all that was gone as Article 370 was hollowed out on August 5, 2019. The glorious status of Jammu ended with the signing of the Instrument of Accession in favor of India on October 26-27, 1947, by the Maharaja Hari Singh. There was a constant pressure from the congress leaders of that time on Maharaja that Sheikh Abdullah should be introduced into the new power mechanics of the state somehow. When there was an invasion from Pakistan on Kashmir through frontier raiders in 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh appealed to the Lord Mountbatten the Governor-General of India for Indian military aid. In his Accession Offer dated 26 October 1947 which accompanied The Instrument of Accession duly signed by him on 26 October 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh wrote “I may also inform your Excellency’s Government that it is my intention to set up an interim Government and ask Sheikh Abdullah to carry the responsibilities in this emergency with my Prime Minister.” Lord Mountbatten accepted the accession after a meeting of the Defense Committee on 26 October 1947. In his letter to the Maharaja Lord Mountbatten wrote “My Government and I note with satisfaction that your Highness has decided to invite Sheikh Abdullah to form an Interim Government to work with your Prime Minister.” The support of Mahatma Gandhi and Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was a key factor in getting Sheikh Abdullah appointed as Head of the emergency administration by the Maharaja. As a consequence, Sheikh Abdullah was appointed head of an emergency administration by an order issued by the Maharaja which was undated except for the mention October 1947 in place of the date. He took charge as Head of the Emergency Administration on 30 October 1947. Sheikh was appointed as Prime Minister of the Jammu & Kashmir State, as the post of Chief of Administration was subsequently abolished and Sheikh Abdullah was made the Prime Minister of the State in March 1948. This happened with the constant intervention from Jawaharlal Nehru to Maharaja Hari Singh that Sheikh Abdullah should be made the Prime Minister and power of administration transferred to him fully. Thus started the step motherly treatment with the Jammu division in all the parameters of development, be it education, be it employment, be it agricultural development, be it tourism development, be it communication infrastructural development, be it cultural development, be it its representation in the legislative bodies and above all every endeavor was used and applied to keep Jammu under the monopoly of the Kashmir centric politics. This was the case with all the political parties who ruled the state, when Jammu had very little say in governance. While declaring Maharaja’s birthday a holiday, is a welcome step, much more needs to be done to fulfill the long awaited aspirations of the people of Jammu. Should still the people of Jammu remain calm and continue to suffer. Probably they will not. Let the ruling political powers in Delhi feel the pulse of the people of Jammu now and rectify all previous acts of hypocritical discriminations against them and ensure that Jammu is declared a separate full-fledged state and the union territory tag removed from it. This is the right time to do so, as Jammu & Kashmir cannot remain as a perpetual union territory and today or tomorrow its statehood stature has to be restored in any case. In that case Jammu will probably refuse to be a part of the Jammu & Kashmir state for obvious reasons of discrimination, which Jammu has been facing so for. Once bitten twice shy. Why shouldn’t Jammu be a separate state and suffer for the problems of Kashmir, which can be geo – political and strategically loaded with other security considerations? Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha declaring the public holiday on his birthday is a “befitting tribute” to the Maharaja. It is an achievement for the lost Dogra pride, when the people of Duggar Desh Jammu should be very much thankful to the Government of India through the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha. Displaced Kashmiri Pandits of the Valley congratulate their fellow citizens of Jammu for such an achievement, when KPs lost their pride and power in Kashmir valley in 1947, after his exit as the Maharaja of Kashmir, when the power was handed over to Sheikh Abdullah.
(The author is a Chartered Consultant Civil Engineer, passionately attached and devoted to his Motherland – Jammu & Kashmir).