A LAME DUCK KING OF KASHMIR WHO WAS DENIED ACCESS TO NEWSPAPERS
A Leaf from the History
KHALID BASHIR AHMAD
Maharaja Pratap Singh (1848–1925) was the third generation Dogra ruler of Jammu and Kashmir who succeed his father, Maharaja Ranbir Singh, in 1885. His reign lasted for 40 years, and he ruled a huge territory comprising 222,236 sq km, sharing borders with Russia, Afghanistan and China. A man of short stature and superstitious who, as a devout, visited Hindu shrines and frequently held religious functions in the palace presided over by a royal priest, his rule was considered to be harsh on the majority population of Kashmir who reeled under poverty and disempowerment.
For 16 years, beginning 1889, this powerful ruler of Kashmir was relegated to the position of a lame duck king whose all powers were snatched by the British Raj and who was rendered a paralyzed limb in his own kingdom. Tragically for him, his own brother, Amar Singh, conspired and played a pivotal role in his disempowerment, himself reaping the benefits of the new situation.
Following the Treaty of Amritsar in 1846, through which the East India Company sold Kashmir to Gulab Singh, the ruler of Jammu in lieu of rupees 75 lakh and a nominal annual tribute, following the defeat of the Sikhs who then ruled Kashmir also, in the Anglo-Sikh War of 1846, the British Government of India had been ruing the absence of a provision in the Treaty allowing its direct involvement in the affairs of Kashmir and was looking for an opportunity. Its attempts were not to materialize any time soon. However, in due course of time, all political and commercial dealings with Central Asia, China and Tibet were taken over by the British and with the appointment of a Political Agent in Gilgit and Joint Commissioner in Ladakh, the foreign relations of Kashmir with the countries on its north and north-west borders came under full domination of the British Raj.
The Raj was apprehensive of the Russian intentions towards India and its incursions in Central Asia had pressed the panic button. The expansionist forays of the Kashmir Darbar in Chilas, Ponial, Yasin, Hunza and Nagar that were looked at by the British as facilitation for Kashmir intrigues with Kabul and Moscow had added to the anxiety. The strategic importance of Kashmir had dawned upon them as also the need for a political Resident in Srinagar. In 1851, an Officer on Special Duty was appointed by the Government of India in Kashmir for summer months without any political duty. A window of opportunity for the appointment of a British Resident in Kashmir was opened by the likelihood of Pratap Singh, the meek and timid eldest son of Maharaja Ranbir Singh, succeeding his father who was now on the deathbed. The new Maharaja, who ascended the throne in 1885, suffered intrigues by his own siblings, one of whom, Amar Singh, was the pretender and his father’s choice as successor. Maharaja Ranbir Singh had asked the British Government to nominate his younger son, Amar Singh, as his successor, stating that Amar was wiser than his brothers Pratap and Ram Singh. However, Governor General Lord Ripon, before demitting office, decided in favour of Pratap Singh along with the appointment of a Resident in Kashmir. The Resident’s appointment was announced on 25 September 1885 with the formal proclamation of Pratap Singh as the ruler of Jammu & Kashmir, thirteen days after the death of his father, Maharaja Ranbir Singh.
Sir Oliver St. John became the first Resident in Kashmir. Although Governor General Lord Dufferin had assured an upset Pratap Singh that the Resident would assist him with friendly advice only but Sir Jhon did not mince words about what was to unfold. He told an emissary of the Maharaja that he would leave all the active work of administration to the Darbar, but he should be informed of any matter in detail, which he thought proper to know. He would give advice, if asked for, and if he thought proper he would also give advice on his own, which was to be obeyed.
The appointment of the Resident opened doors for active British interference in political and administrative affairs of Jammu & Kashmir. The subsequent events saw Pratap Singh facing charges of conspiracy with the Czar of Russia. He was accused of misgovernance, disloyal dealings with the Russian Empire, and a plot to murder his brothers and the British Resident. The new Resident, Colonel Nisbet, claimed to be in possession of letters that the Maharaja had purportedly written to the Czar and the Maharaja’s own brother, Amar Singh, testified that the handwriting was of Pratap Singh. Nisbet also accused Pratap Singh as “timid and very superstitious man at the mercy of a set of unscrupulous scoundrels who plunder the State” and recommended to the Foreign Secretary, Government of India, “the practical setting aside of the Maharaja’s authority.” Much as the Maharaja protested that the letters were forged and written in Dogri, a language which only a fool would think he could be writing in to the Czar, the Resident succeeded in extracting voluntary resignation from him by virtue of which he relinquished all powers. In 1889, the administration was entrusted to a State Council comprising his two brothers and an officer nominated by the Government of India.
For the next 16 years, the State Council, with the Resident actually calling the shots, ruled Jammu & Kashmir as Maharaja Pratap Singh was relegated to the sidelines. He was left to make emotional and pathetic representations to the British Raj for restoration of his powers. At one stage, even the newspapers subscribed to by the Maharaja were stopped to be delivered to him on account of non-payment and the only window to the happenings in the world was shut on him. On 6 January 1896, a pathetic Pratap Singh wrote to Amar Singh who called the shots in the Stat Council as its Vice Chairman:
“I see almost all the newspapers subscribed by me have been discontinued for want of payment by the foreign office and I am totally in dark as to what is going on in the world. Besides, this is a disgrace for the State not to pay regularly the subscriptions for the public newspapers. I therefore write you to take early steps for the payment of the arrears from the General Budget and to make regular provision in the new budget for the future.”
In due course, Pratap Singh presented himself as a picture of helplessness and letdown. His recommendations even in ordinary matters were consigned to dustbin by the British Government like in the case of him recommending to the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, William Backworth, a certain Lala Amarnath, a law graduate, for appointment as a Government Pleader at Sialkot in Punjab bordering Jammu. Backworth curtly wrote back that the Legal remembrancer had recommended the Public Prosecutor of Rawalpindi for this position and “I propose to approve his choice in the matter.”
Pratap Singh’s pathetic representations to the Raj continued for years during which time he literally begged his ‘British friends in the Government of India’ to plead his case. They apparently pushed through restoration of his powers which evoked a sympathetic response only in 1905 when powers were restored to him. One such person was Arthur Oliver Villiers, Baron Ampthill and Governor of Madras to whom an obliged Singh addressed a letter of thanks on 16 August 1905 in which he wrote:
I have received an intimation from Government of India that the Secretary of State has sanctioned the proposal of the Government to invest me with extended powers of administration; and that His Excellency the Viceroy would confer them in person at a ceremonial Darbar to be held for the purpose about the middle of October. My heart feels full of gratitude and indebtedness to Your Excellency at this prospect, for verily it is merely due to the keen interest Your Excellency took in my affairs and the promptness with which the matter was pushed through by Your Excellency that we now see the plant bear the desired fruit.
On 26 October 1905, Lord Curzon visited Jammu and restored powers to Pratap Singh at a specially held ceremony and on 10 November, beholden Pratap Singh wrote an emotional letter to Arthur Baron, pouring out his heart in gratitude. He wrote:
“I should have written this letter earlier and I hope Your Excellency will not consider me ungrateful owning to this delay that has unavoidably taken place. I sent Your Excellency a telegram the other day, which I hope has reached you before this. My feelings of heartfelt indebtedness and sincere gratitude to Your Excellency for all the great kindness in being the chief instrument for my restoration to powers are beyond expression. My innermost heart prays for Your Excellency’s long life, happiness and every success and prosperity in life.
His Excellency Lord Curzon, Viceroy and Governor General of India has been exceedingly kind and gracious to me. The Ceremonial Darbar to restore me to powers was held on the 26th of October last; and although Your Excellency was not gracing the Darbar on the occasion by your presence, yet I felt as if the whole Darbar was being inspired with Your Excellency’s kind and good wishes and the great interest Your Excellency has always been pleased to evince in me and my State.
I am exceedingly delighted to find in the papers that Your Excellency will also be present at Bombay to say goodbye to His Excellency Lord Curzon, the Viceroy and it will afford me a chance of meeting my benefactor and sincere friend and well-wisher, I mean Your Excellency. I am also going to Bombay and hope to reach there on the 16th of November.”
Following the restoration of his powers, an obliged Pratap Singh availed every occasion to praise and exhibit his loyalty to the British Emperor. When India was fighting for freedom from the British Rule, he was eulogizing the British Raj. In 1915, on the eve of Christmas, he presided over a function of the All-India Pritinidhi Sabha of the Mahamandal at Benaras (Varanasi) where he declared that “the British Raj was in harmony with the Sanatan Dharma and its whole trend — in its higher and finer effects on the teeming population of India — was towards the progress of Sanatan Dharma.” Unlike his nephew and successor, Hari Singh, who introduced many a social and political reforms and laid foundation of development in the Valley, no discernible good is believed to have flowed in Kashmir from Pratap Singh’s rule.
Maharaja Pratap Singh died issueless on 23 September 1925 at Mirpur following which his nephew, Hari Singh son of Amar Singh, ascended the throne of Jammu & Kashmir.