An experiment in Dyarchy and it's failure continues ...

Muslims in Jammu were located in certain Mohallas and they were armed to the teeth and kept on firing at the Hindus. The problem was how to disarm them. The first unit of the army that came from India was the First Patialas.

With the help of the Colonel commanding that unit we were able to dislodge the Muslims from their positions of vantage as they had been playing havoc in the town. After that, peaceful conditions prevailed in the town and law and order was restored.

An account of my career in Kashmir would be incomplete without a mention of the kindness, love and affection with which His Highness the Maharaja treated me. He reposed implicit faith in my judgement and not once did he decline to accept my advice. I gave him unquestioned loyalty and did what I could to maintain his prestige and position in the State.

After the raid and the col-lapse of the State forces, he was absolutely dependent on India for saving the State. India could dictate to him whatever terms she liked and he offered no resistence. At the initial stage, I was able to secure from the Prime Minister of India and Sardar Patel a position for him similar to the one that the Maharaja of Mysore was to hold in his State. Before the raid I had been assured by Sardar Patel that the Maharaja of Kashmir would, in his constitutional status, occupy the same place as the Nizam of Hyderabad. At that time the Nizam was offered very attractive terms but he was riding the high horse and wanted to carve for himself an independent State.

If the Government of India and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru has stuck to the terms of the letter they had given to me at the time of accession and had given to the State a constitution on the then proposed Mysore model, the Maharaja’s position would have been quite secure and Sheikh Abdulla would not have been able to displace him and become practically the autocratic ruler of the State.

To be continued.....