Sanjeev Chopra

extracts from my column in India First (Jaipur) and Garhwal Post (Dehradun) As such this column will be discussing the accession and integration of princely states of Pakistan from 1947-1955, and is based mainly on the magisterial work of Yaqoob Khan Bangash in which he has referred to hitherto , unused inaccessible primary sources to complete the history of Pakistan. The largest, and the most developed of the princely states in Pakistan was Bahawalpur, a seventeen gun salute state, with an area of 16,434 miles, a population of about five lakhs, of which approximately ninety present were Muslims. However with a contiguous border to both India and Pakistan, it could have theoretically acceded to either country, and in the first map of the Indian Dominion. Bahawalpur was put in the category of Punjab states. However, as in the case of several Indian princes ( J&K, Bhopal, Hyderabad and for some time Jodhpur) the Ruler of Bahawalpur , whose official title was General His Highness Nawab Sir Sadiq Mohammad Khan Abbasi V, GCSI, GCSIE, KCVO , too harboured the hope that the lapse of paramountcy meant Independence from either dominion. On 15th August , 1947 , he declared himself Amir and Jalalat –ul-Mulk ala Hazrat ,and ten days later issued the following statement : ‘ the states have once again become fully independent and sovereign territories .. These important and far reaching changes enable us to shape our own destinies... In view of the geographical position of my state and its cultural and economic affinities with the Pakistan Dominion, my representatives should participate in the labours and deliberations of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly... which will enable the two states to arrive at a satisfactory constitutional arrangement ..’ Meanwhile rumours were afloat that Bahawalpur had secret plans of merger with India as the head of the Union of Bahawalpur, Bikaner and Jaisalmer. It may be mentioned that during this period (July-September 1947, the Ruler was in England for long sojourns) and when he returned, he signed the Instrument of Accession on October 5, which was drafted on much the same lines as the one used by the Ministry of States of India. Incidentally the Political department of Pakistan (under Colonel Shah, and Generals Iftikhar and Ikramullah of the Pakistan Army) gave not so subtle hints that independence was out of question. Next , we come to Khairpur, a medium sized state with an area of 6,050 square miles, a population of about two lakhs , but as the Lahore –Karachi railway track lay in the state , its accession was crucial to Pakistan Since 1944, the Ruler was in confinement in Poona for treatment of ‘schizophrenic Simples’, and the minor George Ali Murad Talpur was recognized by the King Emperor as the heir apparent to the Gaddi on July 24, 1947, and even as he was holidaying in Kashmir , Khairpur state celebrated its Independence on 15th August , but in the festivities , there was no mention of an accession to Pakistan. As in the case of Bahawalpur, after the initial buster, the state accepted the Instrument of Accession on October 3. 1947. In the next column, we shall take up the very interesting cases of the frontier states of Chitral, Dir, Swat, Amb, Hunza and Nagar, the frontier states of Pakistan. The status of these states was so obscure that a report in the Kashmir Times in its editorial piece on February 25 opined ‘we admit that these states pay tribute to four governments – British, Chinese, Russian and Kashmiri and situated as they are, derive benefit from all of them!