SRINAGAR: The instrument of accession, which joined the state of Jammu and Kashmir with the Indian Union in 1947, is pre-dated. The document is dated October 26, but Maharaja Hari Singh actually signed it on October 27 after the Indian troops had landed at the Srinagar airport, says an architect-turned-historian M.S. Pampori, in his recent book, Kashmir in Chains,

Much before the tribal raid, says Pamponi, the Maharaja had sought arms and ammunition from the Government of India to quell the uprising in Poonch, Mirpur and other parts of the state. Sardar Patel, then home minister, assured him assistance of all sorts but never gave any. On October 25, the then secretary of states, V.P. Menon, arrived in Srinagar to tell the Maharaja that the supply of arms and ammunition was subject to the latter’s signing the instrument of accession.

The Maharaja was, apparently, shocked, While fleeing the Valley on the night between October 2526, in view of rumors that the raiders had reached Srinagar, he took all vehicles including the car which was at the disposal of Menon, who was a state guest. Menon and the states prime minister, Mehr Chand Mahajan, took an old jeep to the airfield from where they flew to New Delhi on October 26.

Pampori refutes Menons claim that immediately after the defence council meeting, he flew to Jammu to get the Maharajas signature on the instrument of accession, He points out that while Menon says he was accompanied to Jammu by M.C. Mahajan, the latter says that he spent the day in New Delhi and went to Jammu only after the aerodrome officer in Srinagar had informed him on October 27 morning that Indian troops had landed there. Pampori further refers to Mahajans statement that while leaving for Jammu on the morning of October 27, he had requested the then Indian Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, to give him in his (Nehru’s) handwriting the conditions on which the Maharaja had been given military aid at such a critical juncture. According to Mahajan, the first condition mentioned by Pandit was “His highness should accede to India with regard to three subjects; defence, external affairs and transport.” This, Pampori argues is ample proof that the Maharaja had not signed the instrument of accession by then.

Referring to the condition of the Srinagar-Jammu highway, which made travel slower than it is today, Pampori argues that even if the Maharaja had left Srinagar at 2 a.m. on October 26, as claimed by Mahajan, he could not have reached Jammu before 9 p.m. He quotes the “heir apparent,” Karan Singh, who says the Maharaja reached Jammu in the evening the time when Menon, according to his own statement, was back in Delhi, Pampori notes that in those days air travel from Delhi to Jammu took more than two hours.

Pampori has, in his book, discussed at length Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patels move to rope in the Maharaja who, he says, tried till the last moment to retain his kingdom.

Article extracted from this publication >> September 11, 1992