Maharaja Hari Singh, who acceded his state of Jammu & Kashmir to India on 26 October 1947, died a dejected man in Bombay on 26 April 1961. It was the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, blinded by his misplaced faith in communal Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who conspired to get Singh expelled from his beloved Jammu & Kashmir.

The last ruling monarch of Jammu & Kashmir spent his final years in exile in Bombay (now Mumbai) after being sidelined from power in 1947. It is ironic that the Maharaja, who had signed the Instrument of Accession (IoA) with India, was eased out while the usurper Sheikh was backed to the hilt by Nehru. Was it not Nehru’s treachery and betrayal that enabled Sheikh to ease out the Maharaja in 1949?

Sheikh became Interim Administrator of Jammu & Kashmir on 5 March 1948, as Nehru wished, and the Maharaja, who was the sovereign from whom the power flowed, obliged Nehru. But the wily Nehru backstabbed Hari Singh, splitting his family. Hari Singh’s only son, Karan Singh, stayed in Jammu/Srinagar, his wife moved to Himachal, and the Maharaja himself had to remain in Bombay.

What was the imperative behind forcing Hari Singh, who had willingly made his state the crown jewel of Bharat, out of his own state? Well, a good number of........

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