The tragic trajectory of Hari Singh, J&K’s last Maharaja

Maharaja Hari Singh (September 23, 1895 to April 26, 1961)

By Sant Kumar Sharma

Maharaja Hari Singh, who acceded his state of Jammu & Kashmir to India on October 26, 1947, died a dejected man in Bombay on April 26, 1961. It was first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, blinded by his misplaced faith in communal Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who conspired to get Singh expelled from his beloved J&K.

The last ruling monarch of J&K spent his final years in exile in Bombay (now Mumbai) after being sidelined from power, 1947. It is ironical that the Maharaja who had signed the Instrument of Accession (IoA) with India was eased out and the Sheikh was backed to the hilt by Nehru.

Was it not Nehru’s treachery of betrayal that enabled Sheikh to ease out the Maharaja in 1949?

Sheikh Abdullah became Interim Administrator of J&K on March 5, 1948, as Nehru wanted it and the Maharaja, who was the sovereign from whom the power flowed, obliged Nehru. But Nehru backstabbed Hari Singh whose family he split. Hari Singh’s only son Karan Singh stayed in Jammu/Srinagar, with his wife going to Himachal and the Maharaja himself had to be in Bombay.

What was the imperative behind forcing Hari Singh, who had made his state the crown jewel of Bharat, out from his own state? Well, a good number of historians now say that it was at Sheikh’s bidding that Nehru schemed to banish the Maharaja. Major General Goverdhan Singh says everyone knows that if the Maharaja had stayed back in J&K, he could have been a very powerful check on Sheikh.
Nehru’s extreme annoyance with the Maharaja, bordering on hatred, and his love for Sheikh blinded him completely, Jamwal says. Nehru never forgave the Maharaja for the Kohala episode of 1946 when he wanted to enter the latter’s state for defending Sheikh who was then engineering unrest in J&K.

Towards the cease-fire line

After the accession, on October 27, 1947, the first contingent of the Indian Army landed in Srinagar. Soon thereafter, the pushback against the Pakistani marauders started. By the second half 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 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 Sheikh Abdullah has not even been discussed threadbare till date.

Sheikh Abdullah falls from grace

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.

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.

Hari Singh’s J&K

When Hari Singh acceded his state of J&K, its total area was over 2,22,600 square kilometres.

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. Gilgit-Baltistan fell into Pakistani hands only in August 1948.

Hari Singh passed away on 26 April 1961 in Bombay. Honouring his final wishes, his ashes were brought to Jammu, where a portion was ceremonially immersed in the sacred Tawi River, which flows through the city. The rest were scattered across various regions of J&K, symbolizing his enduring connection to the people and the soil of his homeland.

(Sant Kumar Sharma is a senior journalist)

Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.