It is an era of re-writing history in India. These days the descendents of various Maharajas of the Princely States are busy presenting the history of their ancestors in a fashion that they were not just loyalists of the British rulers but were patriotic who supported the cause of Indian freedom movement in their own right. Maharaja Man Singh Pustak Shodh Kendra, Jodhpur has brought out the biography of the last Maharaja of Jodhpur to clear the doubts about his willingness to join the Pakistan dominion. Surprisingly, the biography “Life and Times of Maharaja Hanwant Singh” by Laxman Singh Rathore presents the chapter on “The Accession of the Jodhpur State” calling most of the civil servants including V.P. Menon and K. M. Panikkar doing injustice to the personality of Maharaja. Prof. Rathore, who was the Vice Chancellor of Jaynarayan Vyas University, blames the falsification of facts even by K.M. Munshi in “End of an Era” and praises only the former diplomat Narendra Singh Sarila, IFS, who was from the Princely State of Sarila and was the ADC of Lord Mountbatten, for recording the correct history of the Jodhpur Maharaja interacting with Mohammad Ali Jinnah giving a blank paper signed by him to put conditions for merging his State into Pakistan. Hanwant Singh was the last ruler of Marwad-Jodhpur State for those crucial two years(August 1947-March ’49) and he died in an aircrash in January 1952.
None can deny the fact that the Maharaja “was prepared to line up with Pakistan.” Not only V. P. Menon, the Secretary to the Ministry of States, but even Lord Mountbatten and Sarila recorded these facts in their correspondences and memoires. When the Maharaja of Nawanagar(Jamnagar), Digvijay Singh or Jam Saheb, warned all the Princely States in a meeting of the Chamber of Princes on 25 July 1947 of “without entering into some kind of an organic relationship with the Central Government, Your Highnesses would be totally exposed to the Congress Party-inspired agitations with no help to come as until now from the Reserved Crown Police under the Political Department, most were ready to sign up the Instrument of Accession to India. Sarila describes the incident in his book “The Shadow of the Great Game : The Untold Story of India’s Partition”. He does record Mountbatten notes : “But there were some ‘sluggards’ apart from Hyderabad and Kashmir (and Junagadh), the States which gave the most trouble were Travancore, Indore, Bhopal, Rampur, Jodhpur and Baroda.”
Even Sarila recorded in his book “Once a Prince of Sarila: Of Palaces of Tigers Hunts of Nehrus and Mountbattens” : “Hanuwant Singh, the heir of Jodhpur, who was a few years senior to me at school… by entering into negotiations with Mr. Jinnah to join Pakistan…whipped out a revolver concealed in a pen and threatened to shoot V. P. Menon.” Menon also describes the incident in “Integration of the Indian States”. The House of Jodhpur seems to be furious with K.M. Panikkar since he compared the negotiations of the 23-year old Maharaja of Jodhpur to join Pakistan with his ancestor who invited Mohammed Ghori to India! “Jinnah had offered to sign a treaty with Jodhpur as an independent sovereign State and also to allow Jodhpur to import arms through Karachi without duty. He had also offered Jodhpur the suzerainty of all Rajasthan if he thus associated himself with Pakistan. The Maharaja was dazzled with the prospect of becoming a sort of emperor of all Rajasthan with the help of Pakistan. We cannot forget the historic role of the Rashtrakoots as the allies of the Muslims. It was an ancestor of the Jodhpur Maharaja who invited Mohammed Ghori to India. In later times, the family won favour with the Mughals by offering their women in marriage to the emperors. The secret pact with Jinnah was thus quite in character.”
Col. Kesri Singh was the Maharaja’s secretary and had accompanied him to Jinnah’s residence. “…he could sense the treasonable nature of the whole conspiracy…persuaded him not to sign at once but to consult his mother and other relations.” Menon and even Rathore are on common ground. There were four demands put forward by the Maharaja and Jinnah agreed: “(1) the use of Karachi as a free port;(2) free import of arms;(3)jurisdiction over Jodhpur-Hyderabad(Sind)railway; and (4) a liberal supply of grain for the relief of famine in some of the districts of Jodhpur. After the Maharaja was tempted, Jinnah turned to the Maharajkumar of Jaisalmer who was accompanying him and asked him whether he would follow suit. “The Maharajkumar replied that his State would join Pakistan only on condition that if there were trouble between Hindus and Muslims in his State, he would remain strictly neutral. This unexpected question had made Hanwant Singh cautious about the possible problems.” Even the Maharaja in his interview to Sarila in 1948 had described the incident in these words : “After explaining the offer Jinnah pushed across the table a blank paper with his signature on it asking me to fill in our other terms for acceding to Pakistan. Expecting trouble from the Congresswallas after independence, I was frankly tempted. But the heir-apparent of Jaisalmer who was with me suggested we consult my mother, the Dowager Maharani, and the Sardars (the feudal lords) of Jodhpur. So I thanked Mr. Jinnah for his offer and said we would think about it and then return. As soon as I said this, Jinnah pulled away rather brusquely the blank paper with his signature that I held in my fingers.”
Mountbatten’s report states: “A family Council attended by some headmen ( feudal lords) was held in Jodhpur on 5th August whereat the Majority was against joining Pakistan. The Maharaja still thought that Mr. Jinnah’s offer was the best and telegraphed to the Nawab of Bhopal saying that he would meet him to fix up details in Delhi on 11th August. On 7th August the Maharaja of Jodhpur left for Baroda to persuade the Gaekwad (Pratapsinghrao) not to sign the Instrument of Accession. The same day a telegram was sent to the Maharaja saying that I wanted to see him at once….it was apparent that Sardar Patel (the Home Minister) was prepared to go to any lengths to prevent this from materializing. After branding the action to whip out a revolver by the Maharaja as “a juvenile theatrical”, Menon called Jodhpur terms as “false hopes” and “false promises” on par with those from Jinnah. Menon writes : “ I gave him (Hanwant) a letter conceding some of his demands. Thereafter he signed the Instrument of Accession.” And rest is the history.
Next Column : The Scindia of Gwalior in the Mutiny of 1857
( The writer is a Socio-political Historian. E-mail : [email protected] )
