Sir,
It is a matter of great pride to be invited to attend such functions where we get opportunity to pay tribute to our Warriors and great leaders like Maharaja Gulab Singh and also listen about their achievements and contribution to our history, heritage and well being.
These functions provide us an opportunity to study the role of our ancestors and leaders in the changing contests as for example if Maharaja Gulab Singh and Gen Zorawar Singh had not founded the great Dogra Empire in 1846 conquering Ladakh and Gilgit – Baltistan and if Brig Rajinder Singh had not saved it when attacked by Pakistan in 1947 and Maharaja Hari Singh not acceded it to India there would be no Ladakh and no Buddhism in our Country and J&K would have been certainly part of Pakistan like the Western Punjab adjoining the State.
In London Dogras complained that when we tell anyone ‘we are Dogras of Jammu and Kashmir’ they comment ‘ok, Kashmiri Dogras’. They complained that there is no mention of our heroes in our books. Obviously we are not doing enough highlighting our achievements and contribution. They also brought out that someone has claimed that Zorawar Singh was a Sikh. We had to explain that it is clearly mentioned in Gulabnama as ‘Zorawar Singh Kahluria Mian’.
While visiting many Memorials, Castles and Forts in United Kingdom particularly in Scotland we find that they have converted each and every place into a tourist destination and provided excellent road communication and infrastructure for thousands of visitors and each of such tourist spot is earning billions of Pounds and the Scotland has become richer than England and their GDP per capita is $ 43,240 which is 14th in the World where as GDP of India per capita is $ 1581. It is possible to have similar arrangements in J&K State particularly in Jammu region where in each village on the National Highway from Lakhanpur to Banihal we can have tourist villages with paying guest houses and village hotels to showcase what is available with us.
Yours etc….
Maj Gen Goverdhan Singh Jamwal
President
J&K Ex-Services League, Jammu
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