The matter of Princely States was under the States Ministry, which was under the charge of Sardar Patel. Patel had ably dealt with the complexity of over 500 Princely States. As such J&K should also have been left to Patel. However, Nehru, as Prime Minister, had decided to handle J&K...
Please check Blunder#5, Blunder#59, and Blunder#111 above to know more about Gopinath Bordoloi, and Bordoloi-Nehru tiff. People often do not appreciate that one of the reasons that a state like Assam is in India today is due to the courageous stand of Gopinath Bordoloi, the first Chief Minister of Assam, who...
Here is an account by of a Hindu survivor who was a witness to the Mirpur tragedy in J&K, reproduced from the Swarajya Mag: “On November 23 [1947], Prem Nath Dogra and Professor Balraj Madhok met Brigadier Paranjape, the Brigade Commander of the Indian Army in Jammu, and requested him to...
Junagadh was a Princely State whose area was about 3,337 square miles, and it was ruled by Nawab Sir Mahabatkhan Rasulkhanji (or Nawab Mahatab Khan III) at the time of independence in 1947. There are many stories of the eccentricity of the Nawab and of his love for dogs, including...
India and Pakistan had agreed in November 1947 that Rupees 55 crores remained to be transferred to Pakistan, as its share of the assets of undivided India. However, at the insistence of Sardar Patel, India informed Pakistan, within two hours of the agreement, that the actual implementation of the agreement...
Was the ‘Instrument of Accession’ signed by Maharaja Hari Singh for J&K different from the other Princely States, and did it incorporate some special provisions? NO. The Instrument of Accession was standard and common for all Princely States. There was no provision in it for any ruler to add or...
The Pakistani raiders were almost on the outskirts of Srinagar by 22 October 1947, and the Maharaja desperately sought help from India. Looking to the precarious situation, Sardar Patel proposed sending the Indian Army to J&K. However, Mountbatten insisted that unless the Instrument of Accession was signed by J&K in...
By June-July 1947 Maharaja Hari Singh of J&K had begun to take steps towards final accession with India, including replacement of his pro-Pak PM Ram Chandra Kak with Mehr Chand Mahajan, a lawyer, and a Congress nominee on the Boundary Commission, who later became the Chief Justice of India. Looking...
Gandhi had spoken thus of Jawaharlal Nehru: “He says whatever is uppermost in his mind, but he always does what I want. When I am gone, he will do what I am doing now. Then he will speak my language too.” Had Gandhi watched from the heavens the acts of...
If Nehru was a true democrat, he should have taken a page out of the US Constitution, and limited the term of a prime minister to just two terms— like the President of the US. Not only that, on completion of two terms passing on the baton to one’s kin...
