“If Ferozepur Headworks and Gang Canal went to Pakistan, His Highness, in the interests of his subjects of the Gang Canal Colony would have no option left but to opt for Pakistan.” The Viceroy Lord Mountbatten received the message from the Maharaja Sadul Singh of Bikaner and the scheduled declaration of the Radcliffe Report was delayed by two days “to favour India”. When the Award was announced on the night of 17 August 1947, the Ferozepur Headworks and the entire area on the left bank of the Sutlej river in which Gang Canal was located, were left with India. And the Bikaner Princely State became one of the first States to join Indian Union sending her Prime Minister Sardar K.M. Panikkar to the Constituent Assembly of India.
Christopher Beaumont, the Secretary to the Radcliffe Commission had disclosed to The Daily Telegraph (24 February 1992) that Radcliffe was persuaded to change the Award and give the two Muslim majority tehsils Ferozepur and Zira to India. Even Kanwar Sain, the Engineer in the service of the Bikaner State describes the whole story in his Reminiscences of an Engineer published in 1978 by Young Asia Publications. A.G. Noorani, a Supreme Court of India lawyer, quotes both Beaumont as well as Sain quite extensively in “Frontline” magazine (1 May 2015) of the Hindu Group.
The following telegram was immediately dispatched to His Excellency the Viceroy of India from the Maharaja of Bikaner: “It is strongly rumoured that Boundary Commission is likely to award Ferozepur Tehsil to Western Punjab. This Tehsil contains Headworks of Bikaner Gang Canal and under existing agreement, State is entitled to receive for its perennial canal specified amount of water. Fear greatly that administration and regulation of this water exclusively by western Punjab may gravely prejudice interest of Bikaner State as its economic life is to very large extent dependent on water supply from Gang Canal. Have every confidence that Your Excellency in finally arriving at decision on award of Boundary Commission will be good enough to safeguard interests of Bikaner State, especially as we as one of the parties to the Agreement were not consulted in arrangements that are being made. Request Your Excellency to very kindly give an opportunity to my Prime Minister and Chief Engineer, Irrigation, to place facts before Your Excellency prior to final decision being arrived at. They are reaching Delhi on morning of Monday, eleventh.” Since both Mountbatten and Sadul Singh were close friends and “against all odds Mountbatten organized the States’ accession to India, with full authority from the Cabinet and Sardar Patel, who was a supportive role”, Mountbatten could secure Bikaner’s accession to India.
Even Fateh-ul-Mulk Ali Nasir, the ceremonial Mehtar (ruler) of Chitral State in Pakistan wrote in The Friday Times of Lahore on 14 August 2020: “Bikaner had a practical reason for joining Pakistan. The headworks for the canals which fed the agricultural regions of the State around Sri Ganganagar were going to be awarded to Pakistan under Radcliffe Award, so fearing access to the waters from the Sutlej, the Maharaja of Bikaner told Nawab Hamidullah Khan (of Bhopal) to convey it to Jinnah that Bikaner may join Pakistan to ensure their water rights. The Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, got the wind of this development and made sure that the headworks which provided water to Sri Ganganagar would go to East Punjab instead of West Punjab. Thus Bikaner acceded to India and the Maharaja did not meet Jinnah.”
Fateh-ul-Mulk writes further: “One of the rulers who entertained ideas of independence was Nawab Hamidullah Khan of Bhopal. He dreamed of a federation of smaller princely states in Central India led by himself and the Maharaja of Indore, something along the lines of today’s United Arab Emirates or Malaysia. As he was also pro-Muslim League and a close associate of the Quaid Muhammad Ali Jinnah, he acted as the go-between for Mr. Jinnah and three of the most important Maharajas of Rajputana who were playing with the idea of acceding to Pakistan.”
“The principle of geographical contiguity was one of the main issues that Vallabhbhai Patel, the Congress leader who had been tasked by Nehru to deal with the states, always stressed in regards to States joining India or Pakistan. Due to this reason most of the Muslim Princely States, which lay within the boundaries of modern India, could not join Pakistan. Jinnah Sahib used this very principle against him when he reached out to three rulers in Western Rajputana, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Bikaner. All of these States were geographically contiguous with Pakistan and were in many ways linked historically and culturally with the Indus Valley. The Rathores of Jodhpur and Bikaner and the Bhattis of Jaisalmer were also among the oldest and proudest of the States of Rajputana and they did not want to see their ancient legacy fade away under the Congress. Mr Jinnah was offering a way for them to stay politically relevant and internally autonomous.” Of course, all the three Princely States of Rajputana acceded to India.
Even Hugh Purcell, the biographer of Maharaja of Bikaner, concurred: “Maharaja Sadul Singh took Bikaner into India only after he had threatened to join Pakistan unless the Partition boundary through the Punjab was redrawn at the last minute in India’s favour, for the source of the essential Gang Canal water laying the areas of Ferozepur which would have gone to Pakistan. Mountbatten agreed thereby adding to Pakistan’s sense of injustice.”
Next Column: The Cost of Integration and Privy Purses
Photo Line:
Maharaja Sadul Singh of Bikaner playing host for Lord and Lady Mountbatten (Courtesy: The Friday Times, Lahore)
