Hari Singh

Hari Singh (September 1895 – 26 April 1961) was the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in India.

He was married four times. With his fourth wife, Maharani Tara Devi (1910–1967), he had one son, Yuvraj (Crown Prince) Karan Singh.

Early life

Hari Singh was born into the Hindu Kachwaha caste, part of the Rajput community. He was born on 23 September 1895 at the palace of Amar Mahal, Jammu, the only surviving son of General Raja Sir Amar Singh Jamwal (14 January 1864 – 26 March 1909), the younger son of General Maharajadhiraj Sri Sir Ranbir Singh and the brother of Lieutenant-General Maharajadhiraj Sri Sir Pratap Singh, the then Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir.

Education and preparation for the throne

In 1903, Hari Singh served as a page of honour to Lord Curzon at the grand Delhi Durbar. At the age of thirteen, Hari Singh was dispatched to Mayo College in Ajmer. A year later, in 1909, his father died, and the British took a keen interest in his education and appointed Major H. K. Brar as his guardian. After Mayo College, the ruler-in-waiting went to the British-run Imperial Cadet Corps at Dehra Dun for military training. By the age of twenty he had been appointed as commander-in-chief of the state of Kashmir.

Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir (ⁱ/ˈdʒæmuː ənd ˌkæʃˈmɪər, ˈdʒʌ-, ˈkæʃmɪər/) is a state in northern India. It is located mostly in the Himalayan mountains, and shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south. Jammu and Kashmir has an international border with China in the north and east, and the Line of Control separates it from the Pakistan-controlled territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan in the west and northwest respectively. The state has special autonomy under Article 370 of the Constitution of India.

A part of the erstwhile Princely State of Kashmir and Jammu, the region is the subject of a territorial conflict among China, India and Pakistan. The western districts of the former princely state known as Azad Kashmir and the northern territories known as Gilgit-Baltistan have been under Pakistani control since 1947. The Aksai Chin region in the east, bordering Tibet, has been under Chinese control since 1962.

Jammu and Kashmir consists of three regions: Jammu, the Kashmir Valley and Ladakh. Srinagar is the summer capital, and Jammu is the winter capital. The Kashmir valley is famous for its beautiful mountainous landscape, and Jammu's numerous shrines attract tens of thousands of Hindu pilgrims every year. Ladakh, also known as "Little Tibet", is renowned for its remote mountain beauty and Buddhist culture.

Gulab Singh

Gulab Singh (1792–1857) was the founder of royal Dogra dynasty and first Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, the second largest princely state in British India, which was created after the defeat of the Sikhs in the First Anglo-Sikh War. The Treaty of Amritsar (1846), formalised the sale by the British to Gulab Singh for 7,500,000 Nanakshahee Rupees of all the lands in Kashmir that were ceded to them by the Sikhs by the Treaty of Lahore.

Early career

Gulab Singh was born on 18 October 1792 in a Hindu Jamwal Dogra Rajput family. His father, Kishore Singh Jamwal, was a distant kinsman of Jit Singh, the Raja of Jammu. Gulab Singh grew up in the care of his grandfather, Zorawar Singh, from whom he learned the arts of horse riding and warfare. In 1808, when the Sikh army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh invaded Jammu, the 16-year-old Gulab Singh fought alongside his clansmen in the unsuccessful defense of Jammu. Following this defeat, the Raja of Jammu had internal autonomy of the principality, which became a tributary of the Sikh Empire. In 1809, Gulab Singh headed towards Kabul to join the army of the Afghan King, Shah Shuja as a mercenary. When his men refused to cross the river Indus, he gained employment with Sardar Nihal Singh Attariwala. Soon thereafter, Gulab Singh was found employed as a running footman in Ranjit Singh’s court. He distinguished himself in several campaigns, including the conquest of Multan (1816). He also led an independent campaign in 1816 to conquer the hill-town of Reasi.

Ranjit Singh

Maharaja Ranjit Singh (Punjabi ਰਣਜੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ) (13 November 1780 – 27 June 1839) was the founder of the Sikh Empire, which came to power in the Indian subcontinent in the early half of the 19th century. The empire, based in the Punjab region, existed from 1799 to 1849. It was forged, on the foundations of the Dal Khalsa, under the leadership of Ranjit Singh from a collection of autonomous Sikh Misls. Ranjit Singh was succeeded by his son, Kharak Singh.

Biography

Early life

Ranjit Singh was born on 13 November 1780 in Gujranwala, Punjab, the only son of Maha Singh and Raj Kaur. At first he was named Buddh Singh, but Maha Singh received the news of his son's birth on his return from a victorious battle against the Chattha chief, Pir Muhammad, and renamed his son Ranjit (Victor in War). His grandfather Charat Singh, the founder of the Sukerchakia Misl, was the eldest of the four sons of Sardar Naudh Singh.

As a child he suffered from smallpox which resulted in the loss of one eye. At the time, much of Punjab was ruled by the Sikhs under a Confederate Sarbat Khalsa system, who had divided the territory among factions known as misls. Ranjit Singh's father Maha Singh was the Commander of the Sukerchakia Misl and controlled a territory in the west Punjab based around his headquarters at Gujranwala. After his father's death, Ranjit Singh was raised under the protection of his mother Raj Kaur, and his mother-in-law Sada Kaur.He, at a very young age of 17 years failed Zaman Shah Durrani's invasion to India.He defeated Zaman Shah Durrani in the Battle of Amritsar (1797), Battle of Gujrat (1797) and Battle of Amritsar (1798).

Kashmir

Kashmir (Kashmiri: كشهير kaśhīr, Urdu, Shina: کشمیر kaśmīr, कश्मीर, Hindi) is a geographical region in the north-west of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range. Today, it denotes a larger area that includes the Indian administered territories of Jammu and Kashmir (which consists of Jammu, the Kashmir Valley, and Ladakh), the Pakistan administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit–Baltistan, and the Chinese-administered regions of Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract.

Although Jammu is part of the disputed Kashmir region, it is not geographically part of the Kashmir valley nor the Ladakh region. The Jammu Division is inhabited by the Dogra people who are historically, culturally, linguistically, and geographically connected with the Punjab region and the Pahari regions of the former Punjab Hills States that now comprise the state of Himachal Pradesh.