Disputes arising from the 1947 Partition continue to cause deep and deleterious effects on India and Pakistan. Seventy-two years after it acceded to India to be part of the modern-day Gujarat state, Pakistan has sought to revive its claim on the erstwhile princely state of Junagadh and Manavadar,  adding them to the campaign at home and abroad for Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).  

Along with the entire J&K territory, these princely states are shown on Pakistan’s revised map unveiled on August 4. That marked a year after India (August 5) ended the special status under Article 370 of its Constitution and converted the area it controls of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh into three Union territories.

Now, Muhammad Jahangir Khanji, a grandson of the Nawab of Junagadh who had fled to Pakistan in November 1947, has been resurrected. He has asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to be the “ambassador of Junagadh” and fight for it as Pakistan does for J&K. To begin with, he wants a Junagadh Secretariat to be set up in Islamabad “to bring the (erstwhile) princely state closer to Pakistan.”

His idea of ‘bringing closer’ ignores the fact that although Junagadh is a few hours’ boat ride from Karachi, the Arabian Sea, on which the two are located, has seen numerous high and low tides.

Pakistan's 'social distraction' of Junagadh

Marking November 9 when India affected Junagadh’s accession in 1947 as 'Black Day' at a press conference in Islamabad on November 10, Khanji declared that “a living nation should remember its history and act accordingly.” He claimed ‘loyalty’ of the ‘subjects’ of Junagadh.

“Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi should know that Junagarh would be part of Pakistan,” he was quoted in Dawn newspaper.

Seemingly disapproving of the government’s drive and Khanji’s claims, some newspaper readers’ responses included asking the government to “use the money and time for current Pakistan.” calling it “state-sponsored social distraction” and that “status quo of Junagarh and Kashmir is not going to change.”

When Imran Khan and his Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi unveiled Pakistan’s new map, the latter declared: “our target is Srinagar.” However, the map marked the "return" of the Gujarat principalities along with Hyderabad (called Hyderabad Deccan to distinguish it from the one on Sindh) and Sir Creek in Kutch went largely unnoticed.

These territories have ‘returned’ to the Pakistani propaganda drive. Till 1971, seats for their ‘lawmakers’ were allotted but left vacant in the Pakistan National Assembly. Pakistan reconciled to their ‘losses’ only after the birth of Bangladesh in its east wing. They have been revived with inclusion on the official political map issued on August 4, 2020.  

Junagadh was ruled by the Babi clan of Pathans from the last quarter of the 18th century and later came under British protection. It was among the 500-plus princely states that the British left free to decide whether they wished to join India, Pakistan or be independent.  

The moves of these Muslim-ruled states having majority non-Muslim populations to join Pakistan were thwarted by independent India’s leadership, particularly Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who worked to consolidate the country’s territorial integrity.  This part of contemporary history is well known.

A brief history

From the viewpoint of Pakistan’s founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who had his roots in Kathiawar, Junagadh qualified to be part of Pakistan because of its location on the Arabian Sea. This was unlike the land-locked Hyderabad located far away in the southern peninsula. 

To recall the history in short when the British colonial rule ended, the princely states in the subcontinent, in theory, remained autonomous from the British administration, although totally at the mercy of the British Crown and its viceroy in New Delhi.

The British perceived that the princely states would become independent with the end of their rule. But leaderships of both the new nations were able to persuade/coax/pressurise most of them into signing the Instrument of Accession that was final and binding. Pakistan had 14 principalities, the largest being ruled by the Khan of Qalat that is much of Balochistan province today. India had over 500, some 200 small and big were in what is Gujarat today. Junagadh was one of them.

The bigger exceptions, however, were the Muslim-ruled Hyderabad with Hindu majority and Jammu and Kashmir with a Hindu ruler but a Muslim majority.  The Indian Army’s much-delayed Operation Polo, a three-pronged thrust, ended Hyderabad’s efforts to go to Pakistan. The dilly-dallying by the Kashmir Maharaja and the delay in New Delhi led to a dispute that, taken to the United Nations, remains unresolved to date.  

Almost forgotten is that in India and Pakistan’s declarations of independence, Junagadh had decided to join the latter state. Contemporary history books are generally silent.

Junagadh’s then ruler, Nawab Muhammad Mahabat Khanji III, was persuaded to join Pakistan by his acting Dewan, Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto (father of future prime minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto). It was misconceived and ill-advised. The overwhelmingly Hindu populace began agitating under the influence of the Congress that had organised Praja Mandals (a part of the Indian independence movement from the 1920s in which people living in the princely states, who were subject to the rule of local aristocrats rather than the British Raj, campaigned against those feudatory rulers, and sometimes also the British administration, in attempts to improve their civil rights) in other princely states as well.

While the Hyderabad story has been written about and Kashmir also remains in the news, Junagadh is a forgotten story. Among the few chroniclers, Ramachandra Guha, has detailed how Junagadh Nawab faced opposition from his vassal territories. While the ruler of Manavadar went along, those of Mangrol and Babariawad declared their allegiance to India, delaying Pakistan’s action till September 15, 1947. Indeed, the Nawab of Mangrol, a major in the Indian Army, fought against Pakistan in the 1965 conflict.

Junagadh referendum as ruler flees 

Junagadh’s Nawab and the acting Dewan fled to Pakistan. Fond of dogs whose birthdays and marriages he celebrated with aplomb, the Nawab took them on board the plane as well and flew to Karachi, never to return.

His little Junagadh militia was met by the civilian populace clamouring for freedom before men in uniform arrived. Pakistan, having got the Nawab to safety and preoccupied in Kashmir, did not attempt to send its forces, thus leaving New Delhi in full control.

In his study of that period, Krzysztof Iwanek, a South Asia expert and the head of the Asia Research Centre (War Studies University, Poland) records: “In February 1948, a referendum was held in Junagadh (including all of its vassal states) and as per the will of the majority of the voters the territory acceded to India. For its part, Pakistan never accepted the results of the Junagadh referendum.”

Thus ended a short but eventful period of Junagadh’s accession', though even at that time this status was confirmed only on paper.

Significantly, developments in Junagadh and Jammu and Kashmir were taking place simultaneously, at break-neck speed. Pakistan on October 22, 1947 launched a thinly-veiled attack on Kashmir sending out Pashtun tribesmen, but who were trained and directed by Pakistan Army’s Major General Akbar Khan. Four days later on October 26, the ruler of Kashmir felt cornered and was forced to accede to India. And 12 days after the Indian soldiers began their counter-attack in Kashmir, another contingent also entered Junagadh.

Overall, the Muslim ruler-Hindu-subject (Hyderabad and Junagadh) and Hindu-ruler-Muslim majority population binaries played out with both sides justifying their actions on legal, political and ethical grounds. The ground reality was that Pakistan was envisaged as a Muslim homeland, while a secular India had Muslims, who wilfully chose not to migrate to Pakistan.

Today, there is nothing in Junagadh and its recent history to indicate the one-time, albeit brief, aspirations of its ambitious and misguided erstwhile Nawab to accede to Pakistan.  Pakistan’s curious attempts to revive it through a map or through that ruler’s grandson is of little relevance in the year 2020.

(The writer is President, Commonwealth Journalists Association (CJA). Views expressed are personal.  He can be contacted at mahendraved07@gmail.com)