Gulab Singh can neither read nor write.
—Jacquemont
But [he was exceedingly intelligent] where his interest required he did not hesitate to resort to tricks and stratagems.
—Pannikar
To the ordinary observer, the policy of the Dogras would appear to have been parricidal, as well as fratricidal……….
[But] in all their tortuous intrigue the common Dogra intent was undeviatingly pursued.
—C.Grey
Can’t Kashmir be redeemed? The people are exclusively Musalmans ; the ruler… an alien [Dogra],
—Aitchison
For his pro-British role, that ensured the English victory in face of hopeless odds, Gulab Singh deserved all that happened to him at the conclusion of the Anglo-Sikh Treaty. He was the most potential beneficiary of the special British dispensation and deservedly so because of his scrambling to get the best bargains, and his strict adherence to his double-dealing; a policy that suited him the most.
That a Dogra of a little consequence would one day ‘climb the summit of a lofty mountain’ and gain the ‘desire of his heart’ by carving out an ‘independent’ State for himself was not at all unimaginable. Starting at ‘daybreak’ with unwavering determination and unyielding ambition, the sky-aspiring ‘Jammu fox’ pierced through the depths of the mountain to reach the summit, by sheer dint of his manoeuvrability. With his much bowing and scraping, he had earlier smartened himself up before going into his subservience to Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s desires. He did not even hesitate to dress up, like a damsel, to kill the Maharaja’s attention and excite his emotions and, thereby, prompt him to shower the handsome Dogra lad with wealth, gifts and favours. Contemplating the Maharaja with the delight of his beauty, delicacy, black eyes and cut lips, he secured the employment of his brothers, Dhyan Singh and Suchet Singh, at the Lahore Darbar? Their ‘physique and poise’, also ‘made a deep impression on the Maharaja’s mind’ and as a result they climbed the ladder of great success. All the three Dogra brothers, thus, rose to their full height by exploiting their innate art of satiating the uncurbed ‘profligate’ desires of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Charles Masson writes:
[Dhyan Singh’s] personal attractions pleased the Maharaja; and his subservience to his impure desires has affected his promotion…. and the advancement of his family…. Suchet Singh, it is asserted, was once as much a favourite of the Maharaja as his brothers…..
Even their progeny followed in their footsteps to gain in political strength and influence. The strikingly handsome Hira Singh, son of Dhyan Singh, abundantly bewitched Ranjit Singh with his beauty and charm and lured him into the trap of homosexuality. His readiness to satisfy Ranjit Singh’s carnal desires secured him a special position in Lahore Darbar. To the discomfiture and embarrassment of many dignatories, he was, writes Griffin:
Allowed a chair in the [Maharaja’s] presence when all others…. were compelled to stand. Without him he never went out to take the air.
Born, in 1792 A.D., in a family of doubtful legitimacy’, Gulab Singh or Goolanloo, could ‘neither read nor write; but he was intelligent enough to learn the art of soldiery and develop a tricky character. He was very adaptable and quick to adjust himself to the changes in the political environment to find a niche in the career market. He entered the services of Lahore Darbar in 1809A.D., and within a short span of time rose to the position of a vassal chief and the Raja. Being the major beneficiary of the royal patronage and worldly favours, Gulab Singh often knelt at Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s feet and expressed his gratitude with humility. Vigne writes:
[Gulab Singh said that] he was once only a poor soldier and was ready at the Maharaja’s bidding to become so again—that all he possessed was owing to the bounty and kindness of his master, who had raised him from the low station he once held, and that he would gladly give up all again for his sake if it were necessary.
‘Where his [Gulab Singh’s] interest required’, writes his ardent admire, K.M. Pannikar, ‘he did not hesitate to resort to tricks and stratagems’.Apparently affable and soft-spoken, he was a cold-blooded schemer at heart who could go to any extent, to even stabbing his promoters and employers in the back, to attain his own ends.He, as we have noted, betrayed the same Darbar that had given him employment, patronage, strength, power, status and what not, and had reposed too much trust and confidence in his promises. The shabby tricks he played on the Khalasa, during the Anglo-Sikh war and at the time of negotiating the terms of the Treaty of Lahore which resulted in the dismemberment of the Sikh Kingdom, made him a rather dubious character; a savage tormentor of the Punjabi psyche.
But all said and done, Gulab Singh was the most successful Indian of his times who duped both the Sikhs and the British into carving out a State for himself which survived for over a century. General Charles Napier laments, thus:
What a king to install! Raising from the lowest foulest sediment of debauchery to float on the highest surge of blood he lifted his besmeared front, and England adorned it with a crown.
Though the Treaty of Amritsar made him the Maharaja of a new State of Jammu & Kashmir, Gulab Singh did not get its actual possession without encountering difficulties and stiff local opposition which he was able to overcome only with the active support of his British masters. Neither the people nor the local authorities were prepared to welcome his regime in Kashmir owing to his nasty behaviour and posturing during his Ladakh campaigns conducted to gain control over its lucrative pashm trade; the lifeline for the famous shawl industry of Kashmir. These campaigns had completely strangulated the shawl industry by diverting the supply of pashm to Jammu via Wardwun and Kishtwar and had rendered the weavers jobless; making them, eventually, hostile to his occupation of Kashmir. Besides, these campaigns had closely involved the Kashmir authorities in making possible regular supply of necessaries for the Dogra troops stationed at Ladakh by engaging the Kashmiri porters in began The consequent absence of these porters from their homes resulted in badly affecting agriculture and industry, thus, leaving their families high and dry and completely destitute.Also , in the inauguration of the Hindu ‘Maharaja’s’ rule, they feared the recrudescence of what they had suffered during the Sikh rule (barring the Governorship of Sheikh Mohi-ud-Din and Sheikh Imam- ud-Din): mosque closures; proscription of azan (call for prayers); death-warrant for cow-slaughter; imposition of Zar-I-Nikah (marriage tax); Muslim migrations etc.
Feeling, thus, apprehensive about these adverse results and the consequent extinction of their socio-religious identity under the Dogra regime, the Kashmiris sent urzies or petitions to the British; imploring them not to give Kashmir to Gulab Singh.Their petitions evoked some response from a section of high ranking British officials who condemned their own Government’s decision of installing Gulab singh as the ‘Maharaja’; and forcefully advocated his immediate ouster. Charles Napier wrote:
In the first we admit folly in supporting a man we have not force to put in of what he has paid us for. We shall then be in a false position, cramming down the throats of the Cashmerian people a hated and hateful villain
He even pleaded for Kashmir’s merger with the British dominions which he contemplated a viable economic option for enhancing the Company’s revenues and winning the Kashmiri loyalty. Rationalizing this, he wrote:
It is almost certain that I could take steamer into the heart of Cashmere, and form magazines at Mazafurabad. We could then, early in the spring run into Baramulla when the job would be done. And when Cashmere was ours, a dozen good officers spread through the Valleys, doing justice vigorously and protecting the ryots and manufacturers, would in three months make the grand Valley of Cashmere devoted to us and in a year or two, a happy people would pay 50 lacs a year in money and kind.
A mass resistance headed by the Kashmir authorities and supported by a section of the British was, thus, waiting to prevent the Dogra bid to occupy Kashmir. In building up the tempo of this opposition, the ‘domineering’, attractive, proud and haughty wife of Sheikh Imam-ud-Din played a significant role. Repudiating the Amritsar Treaty, she mobilized the hill chiefs (with whom she had blood relation) and the local people to oppose the new development. Determined to secure to Kashmir an independent Muslim rule under her own sophisticated and cultured husband, she succeeded in gamering support from various sources; Khakha-Bomba tribes; hill-chiefs; farmers; workers; artisans and shawl-bafs among whom she was very popular.
Thus, when the Dogra troops entered Kashmir they faced stiff armed resistance which so impressed and thrilled Charles Napier that he could not resist writing this song:
Oh! Goolab Singh We made you King All our of moderation!
But says Cashmere,
You shan’t come here,
And all is botheration!
Oh! Lord Hardinge,
You made me king,
For a con-sid-eration!
Now give me back
Some hundred lacs
Paid for your moderation
But the Kashmiri resistance movement was quelled with the British support; making possible Gulab Singh’s take-over of Kashmir on November 9, 1846 A.D.; and ushering in a political change that, eventually, vindicated the Kashmiri suspicions.
The new ‘Maharaja’ began his rule with a heavy hand and without least amount of regard to cannons of administration, and surpassed the Sikhs in oppression, tyranny and exploitation. He was determined to recover the huge amount, he had paid in indemnity, from the Kashmiris by hook or crook no matter what happened to these wretched creatures who were already steeped in poverty and had not yet recovered from their desperation to which they had been driven by the Mughals, the Afghans and the Sikhs. So excessive was his desire for wealth that even for a moment he did not miss looking greedily on a small coin; he would pocket as little as a rupee in front of him. Writing about this, Drew observes:
With the customary offering of a rupee, as nazar anyone could get Gulab Singh’s ear. Even in a crowd; one could catch his eye by holding up a rupee and crying out ‘Maharaj aarz hai that is, ‘Maharaj a petition’. He would pounce down like a hawk on the money and having appropriated it, would patiently hear out the petition. Once a man, after this fashion making a complaint when the Maharaja was taking the rupee, closed his hand on it and said, ‘no; first hear what I have to say’. Even this did not go beyond Gulab Singh’s patience. He waited till the fellow had told his tale and opened his hand.
Then taking the money, he gave orders about the case.
Not looking ‘beyond his money-bags’, the Maharaja frequently indulged in private trading and mercantile dealings at an enormous profit; giving a hoot to his royal prestige and decorum. He would wring fifty percent of the harvest out of the farmers and sell the same at double of its price, he retained an absolute monopoly on the sale of shali, the staple produce of the Valley. The tax on singhara was also raised; its annual assessment amounted to hundred thousand rupees. Taxes were collected, almost on daily basis, from every Kashmiri no matter what profession he practised. A poll-tax of, from Company’s rupees 16 to 22, was levied on every tradesman including:
Grocers – bakers – green-grocers – fruit sellers – drapers – money changers – confectioners – saddlers – arms burnishers -washermen – dyers – stone-cutters – hired labourers – boatmen – woodsellers- potters -shoemakers – chintzmakers – butchers – milkmen – leech – rope-makers -seal engravers – papier-machie makers – cleaned-wool-sellers – druggists – silversmith’- tape-makers – cotton-weavers – carriers.
Herbert Edwardes writes:
Every living man is to [Gulab Singh] a blade of golden com, which he will never leave till he has gathered, and threshed, and winnowed, and garnered.
Nor did Gulab Singh spare the grave diggers, the shawl-bafs, gamblers, prostitutes and scavengers. He even taxed the dried cowdung. Khalil Mirjanpri laments:
In the extortion of money he used a hundred arts and opened new doors of tyranny……
Intensifying his rapacious economic programme, Gulab Singh, the money-grubber, drastically raised zari- nikah; bringing further disrepute to his regime. Khalil Mirjanpuri writes:
The flames of tyranny rose to such heights that the wedding tax was increased from ten to one hundred rupees.
Resorting to the practice of begar, the Maharaja did not even spare children. He rounded up thousands of Kashmiris for carrying ammunition to Chilas. Generally he resorted to this practice on Fridays when a large number of Muslims from all over the Valley gathered at the Jama Masjid for prayers; making it easy for the ‘ruffian’ ruler to rope them into the servile begar. To avoid this oppression, and heavy taxation many Kashmiris fled the country. Among these a large number consisted of the shawl-bafs who were seen in thousands in Simla and Punjab by most of the nineteenth century European visitors to Kashmir. On realizing the extent of damage done to the shawl industry by the unending migration of the weavers, the Maharaja banned it under stringent regulations which tightened up the noose round the neck of the shawl-bafs, the real money-spinners for the Dogra regime.
Apart from his undimnishing desire for self- enrichment and out of control grubbing for money, the Maharaja reflected his growing dislike for the Muslims of the Valley by initiating some administrative cleansing measures. He closed the doors of administration to the Muslims and discharged those already working in some departments. Also he confiscated a large number of tax- free jagirs, including those of the Muslim peers, and burnt the houses of the Muslims convicted of cow-slaughter. Frequent cutting off noses and ears of cow-killers presented horrible sight.
Alongside the communal dimension, the Maharaja’s policy had a regional bias that created a sharp divide between the Kashmiris and the Dogras which continues unabated till this day. He gave important posts to the Dogras to weaken the influence of the Kashmiri Pandits especially in the revenue administration. While appointing Devi Ditta Mai as special revenue officer, he issued these instructions:
Now you [Devi Ditta] should collect revenue from every quarter and root out Kashmiri influence from every quarter.
The royal advice had a desired effect; it percolated through the entire Valley to inspire officials to work in keeping with the spirit of these instructions, and oppress the Kashmiris accordingly. And when the Kashmiris protested / complained bitterly about the Dogra high handedness and their anti-Kashmiri attitude, the Maharaja publicly rebuked them by accusing them of nurturing ill-feelings and grudge against the Dogras.
By initiating these measures, which had both communal and regional bias, Maharaja Gulab Singh made critical errors that aroused the Kashmiri sentiment for quite some time. About eight hundred Kashmiris assembled to express their protest, against the rule of thumb that ruled the roost in Kashmir, in a manner that was different from the earlier protest and wide spread uproar held in retaliation to Gulab Singh’s taxation policy. This protest did not create that much stirrings in the echelons of power as the earlier ones had done when the shopkeepers observed complete hartal and the karkhanadars closed their factories and the workers joined the protest.
The Hindu-Muslim cleavage and the Kashmiri- Jammu divide further deepened during the reign of Maharaja Gulab Singh’s successors, when the Kashmiris received a raw deal at the hands of their non-Kashmiri and non-Muslim masters and when the Kashmiri culture began to lose its sheen and shuffle awkwardly and unpleasantly owing to its gradual tailoring to suit the Dogra revenue programme. In its hot pursuit of money-making, the Dogra regime exhibited gross indecency and made an awful social mess by nurturing a culture of ribaldry, and institutionalizing prostitution, sale of girls and white slave trade. It built-up a platoon of prostitutes to augument the State’s income. The number of the licensed prostitutes, eventually, rose to 18,715. They contributed from 15 to 25 percent of the total revenue of the Dogra rulers; the license granting permission for the purchase of a girl cost about 100 Chilkee rupees in Maharaja Ranbir Singh’s time.
The licensed prostitution carried through brothels, established at Maisuma and Tashwan in Srinagar, became a major source of social anxiety and unhealthy climate that, eventually, promoted syphilitic and venereal diseases throughout the Valley. During 1877-1879 A.D., the number of prostitutes detected with syphilitic disease was 12,977 and of these 2,516 were having venereal disease. Besides, these prostitutes continually disturbed the people in the neighbourhood at night by the ribald songs accompanied by different musical instruments. But what really disturbed the people, writes Biscoe:
Were the cries of anguish from the unfortunates, recently forced into this cruel life, many of them quite young, who had been sold by their relations under the pretence that marriages had been arranged for them?
Dr. Abdul Ahad is a well-known historian of Kashmir. He presents a perspective on the Kashmir issue and talks about Kashmir’s history and individuality and personality. For feedback the author can be mailed at drahadhist@yahoo.co.in