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| Drawing inspiration from Maharaja Gulab Singh | | Today Is A Great Day | | Neha
Jammu, Oct 20: October 21 is a red letters day in the political history of India. It was on this day 219 years ago that Maharaja Gulab Singh was born. Jammu was very fortunate in the sense that it saw Gulab Singh playing a splendid role in the political history of India and at a time when the princely states were crumbling one by one like any house of cards crumbles before the canny British imperialists. He not only unified and consolidated Jammu province then consisting of nearly two dozen principalities but also established his foothold in the strategic northern areas and put in all to secure the northern frontiers, the lifeline of India. He would have established his foothold in Tibet as well, had the vagaries of nature not taken away General Zorawar Singh's invaluable life. But that is history.
It was Gulab Singh who played a significant role in the Lahore Durbar and defeated comprehensively the British moves. He could cultivate the Lahore Durbar and defeat the British moves because he was a great warrior, great statesman, great diplomat and shrewd and able politician. In fact, he was a great leader. His judgment on men and matters was remarkable. He knew what to do, when to do and where to do. Indeed, he was a great strategist. He started from a scratch and did wonders.
Apart from unifying and consolidating Jammu province, extending his area of influence as far as Gilgit-Baltistan, Hunza, Nagar, Yasin, Ishkoman, to mention only a few strategic places in what we call the northern frontiers, and making a heroic attempt at merging Tibet with his Jammu Kingdom, he established the State of Jammu and Kashmir in March 1846. He did not annex Kashmir with the help of sword; he merged Kashmir province with the Jammu kingdom through his rare diplomatic skills. And, don't forget that the State of Jammu and Kashmir came into being at a time when most of the Rajas and Nawabs across the country had surrendered before the British. The establishment of the State of Jammu and Kashmir in March 1846 was a rare development in the otherwise not-so-inspiring political history of India.
Do we remember this great hero, called Maharaja Gulab Singh, who gave us status and dignity and established an empire no one had ever imagined considering the fact that this legendry figure belonged to a lesser known family living in a remote village? Do we do anything to preserve what he left behind? Do we care for the self-respect he wanted us to take care of and fight for? Unfortunately, the answers to these questions are not in the affirmative. We have virtually forgotten our great hero; we only pay lip service and that, too, on his birth anniversary and death anniversary. Some people gather on these two occasions, pay lip service, enjoy light refreshment, disperse and then forget him and other Maharajas of the state like Ranbir Singh, Pratap Singh and Hari Singh, all enlightened figures.
It is sad that we are behaving in a fashion that makes the admirers of the founder of Jammu and Kashmir State sit up and ponder over what has gone wrong with us. We do not react even when the provocation is grave; even when the Kashmiri leadership denounces Maharaja Gulab Singh and the Dogras in downright language and accuses them of purchasing the "life and dignity" of Kashmiri Muslims. We did not really react when NC president Omar Abdullah abused Maharaja Hari Singh in his public speeches in Samba in 2002. It is true that the people of this area and beyond acted and inflicted a crushing defeat on the NC, as they considered the attack on the Dogra rulers as an affront to their self-respect, but forgot everything after the election. We didn't react when NC leader and Omar Abdullah's uncle Mustafa Kamal publicly abused Maharaja Hari Singh and it happened not-so-long ago. We did not react even when Omar Abdullah as Chief Minister used his blog to denigrate the Dogra Maharajas, including Maharaja Pratap Singh. It needs to be underlined that Omar Abdullah had just a couple of months ago posted on his blog a photograph showing his grandfather Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah sitting on a sofa and Pratap Singh and others on a mat. It was nothing more than a deliberate taunt. It was so insulting. Paradoxically, even the scions of Maharaja Gulab Singh did not react. They overlooked the taunt for reasons best known to them. The worst part of the whole situation is that they seek to maintain good relations with the NC and the Congress overlooking the fact that both these formations have consistently disgraced the Dogra rulers and the Dogras. What the Sheikh and Jawaharlal Nehru did to Maharaja Hari Singh is not a secret. Suffice it to say that they conspired against Maharaja Hari Singh him and helped Kashmir enslave the Dogras, who have been suffering at the hands of Kashmiri leadership and New Delhi ever since then.
It is time for the people of Jammu province, including the scions of Maharaja Gulab Singh, to sit up, retrospect and work as one man to defeat those who want to dismember India by de-linking not only Kashmir but also Jammu and Ladakh from it and establish in the de-linked Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh theocratic rule. Mere remembrance of Maharaja Gulab Singh, the founder of Jammu and Kashmir, on his 219th birthday would not be enough. Ape the late Maharaja Gulab Singh and do what he did for the nation. Draw inspiration from Maharaja Gulab Singh and restore the dignity and honour of the Dogras, including Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. This would be a befitting tribute to the founder of the state. This is the need and exigency of the time. |
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