A few good men but this great deserves due respects!
By: M S Nazki
Hari Singh was the king of masses and the people loved him in his times and thus remember him till date!
‘To gain everything and lose everything in the space of a moment. That is the fate of all princes destined for the throne. But this king, I mean Maharaja, had been sucked into such a well that time in 1947 where it was all fire all around and probably no political leader in New Delhi knew what to do in Jammu and Kashmir. That is what the then written books suggest. Maharaja Hari Singh loved both the Jammu part and the Kashmir part! The people were all fine till Abdul Qadeer entered the fray (I will add my own cliché here, ‘Yaar Bawarchi to tha. Kahan ka tha kisi ko nahin pata’! What happened later was a history in the making)! I know plenty of that!
-‘Sher-Bakra philosophy was all but created because none fell in that category in 1947. If a teacher coins a statement that does not mean that everystudent would take it verbatim But in Kashmir some idiots did and they were radicals! Qadeer at Shergarhi began it, the spray of incendiary catalyst impact was given by someone else, the paid media jokers at that time in Jammu got news to work with and everything became relevant but it was not!’
-‘Maharaja Hari Singh what he had to do and he did that though it’s a different matter of fact that the trust is just working on temples and graveyards and selling off as to what is in vicinity!’
-‘Maharaja Hari Singh’s reign was of those candle flames that were like the lives of men. So fragile. So loveable. Left alone, they lit and warmed. Let run rampant the hoy, they would further energize the very things they were meant to illuminate. Embryonic bonfires, each bearing a seed of development and empire building so potent it could make people proud and heart lit up with fire’! Sadly speaking now the times have changed and so have the people! Where are those few good men that withered away with time and many would’!
-‘Gulab Singh, only 16, leaped into a fray with fiery zeal and brandished his sword brilliantly in the battle of Gumat which forced Sikhs to negotiate the end of war. Despite individual bravery of young Dogras like him and Mian Dido, Jammu was defeated then but the seeds to get it back had been sowed’ and Gumat became part of Sikh Kingdom as Jagir of Prince Kharak Singh. But the Sikh Commander Sardar Hukam Singh spotted Gulab Singh and brought his valor to the attention of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The plant was about to become a grapevine and it did’
-‘ To start with let me make an affirmative statement though the kingdom in the past has a fabulous history yet the fact is that the renaissance effect and impact came only after Maharaja Gulab Singh bought the state and thus began the golden era of development, peace and prosperity. The foundations of the great Jammu and Kashmir were laid in a planned manner with all the discrete decency. But the same seem to be creaking and cracking as the drive to an infinite ambition on fast economic wheels has left the wagon of customs, traditions and heritage far behind. But we should not allow them to be left too far behind lest we lose our very identity! Trust me we are doing exactly that’!
-‘Today we with pride say that we are from Jammu and Kashmir and why should we not do that as we are from the proud race of the Dogras who have done wonders generation after generation as the families expanded and sprawled all over the countryside. Similarly the Kashmiris have a rich legacy as they were born in traditional lineage to build up on arts and literature but it came blossoming up under the rule of the Rajputs starting with Gulab Singh’
‘I’m in no way saying that the others did not play a role in Kashmir, they did in giving great marvels but there is far too much more to it and explored. Sadly speaking we have lost that art as the modern generation of kids want to get on to the planet all too soon! That’s great but without knowing your foundations and identity one is just like a boat on a smoking river, doing well and steering ahead but definitely missing out on something!’
-‘I will not get much into the history but the Rajput dynasty that ended with Maharaja Hari Singh no doubt an era which was embossed with jewels and gems. The state was bought by Maharaja Gulab Singh, the great General and the first in the lineage, one amongst many is the great man, Zorawar Singh. How can we forget another cult figure of the same era, Mian Dido, another Jamwal who stood as a tiger with a falcon on his right elbow! Quite a sight it would have been!’
The rise of Dogras in Lahore was phenomenal, Gulab Singh stood out as a remarkable horseman and earned Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s acclamation. Ranjeet Singh was not one of those who would get impressed all so soon but it was Gumat that something extraordinary had happened. In 1813, Ranjit Singh was particularly impressed by Gulab Singh’s performance in an otherwise disastrous campaign against Afghan occupied Kashmir and rewarded him with Jagirs and promoted him to command a unit of 200 horsemen. It was to be soon that Jammu and Kashmir would be his and it was!
His son Ranbir Singh knew that fighting would not manufacture much and he began the administrative and law paradigms to be laid along with the places of worshipping places, perhaps the first modern day architectural marvels in Jammu and Kashmir. Then his son Pratap Singh perhaps loved art and literature. One man who wanted that history should be chronicled as Kalhana did in his Rajtirangani and hence came up the lineage of museums (Pratap museum was a center of old literature in Kashmir) but it is unfortunate that many scriptures have gone missing but that matters less now because the world of knowledge too has been briefed up though the vastness is infinite! Similar is the case of Ranbir library although both are research work power houses’
So next in the lineage of marvels was the great man Maharaja Hari Singh. That was an era of kingdoms in India and there were over five hundred and thirty five plus of them. Hari Singh Jamwal’s Jammu and Kashmir too was one of them. Yes the uprising in Kashmir was disturbing the matrix but the winds had begun to blow. The era of the kings had to go and politics and politicians would be the new genre to rule the people. It was happening all over on the globe and hence in Jammu and Kashmir the same did! But this one to take an ogre -like shake towards the end of 20th century no one knew. The start in 1947 itself was bad so the possibility was that no politician understood that it would be worse towards the end of the century!
But one man perhaps knew it and that was the king himself. Hari Singh had seen both Jinnah and Nehru at that time. He knew that Jammu and Kashmir would have no future with Pakistan, he was right. He was not getting younger anymore and thus he preferred to sign the instrument of accession and Jammu and Kashmir was on the Indian map forever! That decision matters to India and not to Pakistan! They say Jinnah created a Nation but I will say that Maharaja Hari Singh presented the state to India, a country to whom it rightfully belonged though his ancestors had brought it! Jinnah never bought Pakistan, he pleaded, could be begged for it and later repented! We the people of J&K do not repent, Maharaja’s decision was spot on all the way!
Yes we acknowledge that the accession day celebration is great but at least respect the man who ensured that! We think that a bigger tribute to him and his clan who made sure that Jammu and Kashmir got the global identity is a necessity! The name matters and so does Jammu and Kashmir, courtesy the man whose signatures mattered at that time. Remember the date 26 October 1947! Whatever one says or not. Two historical documents in J&K cannot be changed. One is that maharaja Gulab Singh bought the state and the second is that maharaja HariSingh signed the instrument of accession! Politics to ruin everything especially so the brotherhood of man came in much later!
Little by little, the old world crumbled, and not once did the king imagine that some of the pieces might fall on him. Because he knew that his people should be in the right place. The place was J&K and the great country was India!
