Perhaps you should do what you advice.
File:Kashmir-Accession-Document-b.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
File:Kashmir-Accession-Document-a.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Kashmir sagaBhashyam KasturiThe Instrument of Accession now available on the Home Ministry's website gives us a glimpse of the original documentTHE UNION Ministry of Home Affairs has done a great service to the nation and to the world by making available on its website the entire original text of the Instrument of Accession signed by Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir on October 26, 1947. This document, long thought to be lost, has generated considerable controversy among historians and others alike.The Instrument of Accession now available on the MHA website gives us a glimpse of the original document as it was signed by the other 550 odd princely states of British India and lets us see Hari Singh's signature. It is not as though the actual document was not available with the government of India. Since 1947, it has been with the government and later it was transferred to the National Archives where it rests in a file with other documents relating to Jammu and Kashmir's accession.Alastair Lamb's claimIt is sad that it took the Centre so long to put out this document on public display, for scholars like Alastair Lamb had already done the damage by claiming that the document did not exist and even if it did, Hari Singh may have never signed it. More damaging for India, Lamb claimed that even if Hari Singh did sign any such document, it was done after the first landing of Indian troops at Srinagar on October 27, 1947.The document that Hari Singh signed makes it clear that he offered accession on October 26, 1947 and that it was accepted by the then Governor General of India, Louis Mountbatten, the next day. Now that the Instrument of Accession has been made available, it remains to be suggested to the MHA that it should put out all the documents available on Jammu and Kashmir on the Internet.The broad outline of how and when Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession has been clear for some time now. As Prem Shankar Jha states in his book, Hari Singh was persuaded by V.P. Menon to sign the Instrument of Accession on the night of October 25/early morning of October 26, 1947. Menon also persuaded Hari Singh to leave Srinagar for Jammu, given the threat from the tribal raiders from Pakistan, which he did at around 2 a.m.After driving almost non-stop, the Maharaja's entourage reached Jammu palace probably around lunchtime on October 26. There they waited for news from Delhi about the request for assistance. V.P. Menon did not come as his flight to Jammu was put off due to bad weather that afternoon. But he had already handed over the Instrument of Accession to Lord Mountbatten on October 26 at the meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet.The other document that is available at many sources is a letter written by Hari Singh to Mountbatten, also dated October 26, 1947. Actually, while the Maharaja had signed the Instrument of Accession, he had not agreed to bring in Sheikh Abdullah to head the emergency administration. To persuade Hari Singh to get Sheikh Abdullah in, Menon went to Jammu on October 27, soon after the first Indian troops were in, and got the Maharaja to append his signature to a letter dated October 26 and datelined "The Palace, Jammu." This letter, probably written originally on October 24-25 had to be redrafted to include at the end the paragraph about Sheikh Abdullah's inclusion in government. This Menon took back to Delhi on the October 27 and then in the evening handed both the Instrument and the Letter offering Accession to Mountbatten to Jawaharlal Nehru.Thus the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India. And now thanks to some bright bureaucrat in the Home Ministry we are able to see the original document signed by Hari Singh.Printer friendly*page***Send this article to Friends by*E-Mail
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