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Birth of J&K State Sir, Dr. DC Sharma's rejoinder (DE 22/12) to my letter of 16/12 is tantamount to finalizing the course of history when he says that I was in the wrong to write that the Dogra Brother under "Gulab Singh had united areas of Ladakh, Doda, Mirpur, Rajouri and Poonch". No doubt, they had accepted the suzerainty of Maharaja Ranjit Singh who did grant them lordship of Jammu areas in 1820 and conferred upon their father Mian Kishore Singh title of Raja. This was because the Dogra brothers had eliminated Mian Dido to establish the Maharaja's authority in the hills and had helped him in his western capaigns. These areas were actually won by that legendary general Zorawar Singh Kalhuria with the able help of Mehta Basti Ram. The Sikhs had no contribution in these victories. Therefore, it remains a historical fact that Jammu, Ladakh and Gilgit up to Afghanistan were unified for the first time by the Dogra Brothers. Ranjit Singh had conferred on Dhian Singh in 1828 the title of Raj-I-Rajgan. To call it a myth that the Dogras had great power is simply sniping at their achievements. I had quoted from 'The making of J&K State under Maharaja Gulab Singh' by Prof. M L Kapoor about Kaharak Singh (Ranjit Singh's son and successor) who wrote about Dogra Brothers to the British Political Agent at Ludhiana in Aug. 1836: "considering their great power and the means they had....he could not but view (it) with great alarm..."while trying for the British help to secure his own interests. Myths do not create greatness like extension of Jammu's boundaries up to Afghanistan Wakhan corridor for the first time in the recorded history. Instead, a legend was created when Gen. Zorawar Singh attacked Tibet in 1841 and captured Mansarovar from where Brahmputra originates. He further captured Taklakote opposite the British garrison in Almorah. That he perished their is a different story. But, not even Allauddin Khilji, whose empire was one of the three largest ever in India, could proceed to accomplish his intended Tibetan invasion. It's a strange comment that Dogras' myth "was shattered when they were unable to take possession of Kashmir from the last Sikh Governor and they took the help of the British forces to take possession of the Valley." Gulab Singh was conferred with the title of Maharaja in Presence of the British Governor General of India and the Treaty of Amritsar was signed between him and them on March 16th, 1846. Maharaja Gulab Singh was declared sovereign ruler of "all the hilly or mountainous country with its dependencies situated to the east of river Indus and west of river Ravi including Chamba...." Gulab Singh did fail to storm the insurgency in Kashmir while trying to possess it but did it destroy his reputation? Effort to take possession just could not have been an organised attack considering that Imamuddin had worked as Governor of the Sikhs and was bound to honour his new master. Before Gulab Singh could make a concerted effort for this he appealed to the British who "held Lahore Durbar responsible for the gross violation. "Imamuddin covered... that he was acting under written orders of Lal Singh, the Lahore Wazir. " In fact he submitted and Gulab Singh entered the Valley without opposition. Did it break Akbar the great's myth when he failed to conquer Ahmednagar for three years which was defended by that lady 'heroine of Deccani Floklore'-Chand Bibi? "Her successful defence resulted in a treaty in 1596 and "Ahmednagar was allowed to retain its independence". Yours etc... |
