Hari Singh: The last Maharaja of J&K
Compulsory primary education, laws prohibiting child marriage, opening places of worship to the low castes were among Hari Singh’s major contributions in taking J&K from monarchy to modernity.
Jammu, April 17: Among the Makers of Modern Jammu and Kashmir Mahraja Hari Singh played a very significant role as his decision in 1947 shaped the future of J&K as it is today. Being the last among the monarchs who reshaped J&K Hari Singh was also the one who was a combination of monarchy and modernity in letter and spirit besides the dress.
Maharaja Hari Singh titled as Lieutenant-General His Highness Shriman Rajrajeshwar Maharajadhiraj Sri Sir Hari Singh Indar Mahindar Bahadur, Sipar-i-Sultanat, Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, born on 23 September 1895 at Amar Mahal Palace in Jammu, the only surviving son of General Raja Sir Amar Singh Jamwal, was the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in India.
He succeeded his uncle Mahraja Pratap Singh in 1925 and reigned Jammu and Kashmir upto 1952.
Although he remained titular Maharaja of the state until 1952 even after acceding to India on 26th October 1947, he was forced by Pt Jawaharla Nehru and Sradar Patel to appoint Yuvraj Karan Singh as Regent of Jammu and Kashmir in 1949.
Maharaja Hari Singh spent his final days at the Hari Niwas Palace in Jammu, before moving to Bombay, where he died on 26 April 1961.
He was married four times and with his fourth wife, Maharani Tara Devi (1910–1967), he had one son, Yuvraj (Crown Prince) Karan Singh.
At the age of thirteen, Hari Singh was dispatched to Mayo College in Ajmer. A year later, in 1909, his father died, and the British took a keen interest in his education and appointed Major H. K. Brar as his guardian. After Mayo College, the ruler-in-waiting went to the British-run Imperial Cadet Corps at Dehra Dun for military training. By the age of twenty he had been appointed as commander-in-chief of the state of Kashmir.
Following the death of his uncle Sir Pratap Singh in 1925, Sir Hari Singh ascended the throne of Jammu and Kashmir. He made primary education compulsory in the State, introduced laws prohibiting child marriage, and opened places of worship to the low castes.
Singh was hostile towards the Indian National Congress, in part because of the close friendship between Kashmiri political activist and socialist Sheikh Abdullah and Jawaharlal Nehru. He also opposed the Muslim League and its members’ communalist outlook illustrated in their two-nation theory. During the Second World War, from 1944–1946 Sir Hari Singh was a member of the Imperial War Cabinet.
In 1947, after India gained independence from British rule, Jammu and Kashmir had the option to join either India or Pakistan or to remain independent. He originally maneuvered to maintain his independence by playing off India and Pakistan. There was a widespread belief that rulers of the princely states, in deciding to accede to India or Pakistan, should respect the wishes of the population, but few rulers took any steps to consult on such decisions. Jammu and Kashmir was a Muslim majority state, and Pashtun tribesmen from Pakistan invaded Jammu and Kashmir with the help of Pakistan’s government under the impression that Hari Singh would accede to India. Hari Singh appealed to India for help. Although the Indian Prime Minister Nehru was ready to send troops, the Governor-General of India, Lord Mountbatten of Burma, advised the Maharaja to accede to India before India would send its troops. Hence, considering the emergent situation, the Maharaja signed an Instrument of Accession to the Dominion of India.
Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession on 26 October 1947, acceding the whole of his princely state (including Jammu, Kashmir, Northern Areas, Ladakh, Trans-Karakoram Tract and Aksai Chin) to the Dominion of India. These events triggered the first Indo-Pakistan War.
Hari Singh appointed his son and heir, Yuvraj (Crown Prince) Karan Singh, as Regent of Jammu and Kashmir in 1949, although he remained titular Maharaja of the state until 1952, when the monarchy was abolished. Karan Singh was appointed ‘Sadr-e-Riyasat’ (‘President of the Province’) in 1952 and Governor of the State in 1964.
Hari Singh was considered as a tough and wise statesman and had a somewhat restricted relationship with his son. But this is set to rest by none other than his son Dr Karan Singh himself who in his autobiography writes “…..it was only many years later that I began to realise that my father’s forbidding exterior was really something of a protective armour that he had developed through the circumstances of his own life. An only child, brought up in a cloak and dagger atmosphere of court and family intrigue, he must have been through a traumatic situation before he grew to manhood. And soon thereafter, on his first visit to England, he became the unfortunate victim of a vicious blackmail plot that brought him a great deal of undeserved censure”.
Since Maharaja Hari Singh was the last ruler who had to abandon the throne midway due to Independence of India and political turmoil in Jammu and Kashmir his son Dr Karan Singh could not succeed him as Maharaja but initiated the new political order in the state.
Dr Karan Singh till date enjoys significant clout in political setup of India while his sons have now penetrated the political system through modern democratic system.