Both, the Maharaja of Alwar, Sir Tej Singh, and his Prime Minister, Dr. N. B. Khare, belonged to the Hindu Mahasabha where the Muslim subjects were not feeling secured. As such it was a Hindu State where the authorities treated all other than Hindus as the “second-class citizens”. Even though the Meos, a Muslim sect, were in forefront fighting the British in 1857 where at least 6000 of them were killed, the Princely States of Alwar and Bharatpur had faced “the aftermath of the partition and subsequent communal holocaust” states V. P. Menon, the then Secretary to the States Ministry headed by Sardar Patel in “Integration of Indian States”, adding his impression about the Meos as “a troublesome community”. Even today, the Meos are proud of their ancestors’ role in 1857 and would say: “Meos were not pithoos(pets) like (the Rajas of ) Alwar or Bharatpur”. Menon records : “The communal situation in some of the border States was causing anxiety. In October 1947 Sardar called a meeting of the representatives of the provincial and the State governments concerned. The Maharajas of Alwar and Bharatpur and Dr. Khare were also invited.”
At the meeting Sardar emphasized the paramount need for maintaining communal peace. Those who fanned the flames of Communalism , he said were the greatest enemies of the country.” Following the impressions at the meeting and after the visit of Alwar, Menon conveyed his opinion to Patel that “in order to stabilized the situation, Dr. Khare should be replaced by a Premier of our own choice”. “The assassination of Gandhiji about this time led to a panic, in the midst of which any rumour was good enough to implicate anybody. It was alleged that Alwar had been an important training and propaganda centre for the RSS and that some of the conspirators responsible for the murder had been sheltered in the State. In view of Dr. Khare’s pronounced pro-Hindu bias, the allegations gained some credence.” At this juncture the decision to take over the administration of Alwar was taken and both the Maharaja and Dr. Khare were asked to stay in Delhi “until an inquiry into the allegations was completed”. The Muslims of Bharatpur State complained of ill-treatment. The administration of Bharatpur was also taken over by the Government of India. Of course, the enquiry exonerated all the three, i.e. the Maharajas of Alwar and Bharatpur and Dr. Khare too, but it did give a signal from Patel to mend their ways.
“On 7 February 1948, I served the order on the Maharaja of Alwar. He was completely taken aback by the allegations and agreed to dispense with the services of Dr. Khare. The latter was also ordered to remain in Delhi.” Dr. Khare was earlier a Congressman fighting the British. Since he was a Congress nominee as the Premier of the Central Province, he carried grudges against Patel for his removal from the prime post. Disgusted Dr. Khare even approached M.A Jinnah repeatedly for his Muslim League support for being the Premier again, but Jinnah didn’t bother. After leaving the Congress, Dr. Khare even became the Member (Minister) in the Executive Council of the Viceroy.
When Menon along with K. M. Munshi discussed the prospect of forming a Union of four Princely States of Rajasthan i.e. Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur and Karauli, the name Matsya Union, was suggested by Munshi since it was the old name of this region to be found in the ancient books and in Mahabharata. All the four rulers accepted the name. Among the four, Alwar was naturally the most important State and the Maharaja of Alwar should have been the Rajpramukh. But because an enquiry was pending against him as well as the Maharaja of Bharatpur, Menon requested them both to stand down in favour of the Maharaja of Dholpur, who was in any case the oldest of the four rulers. Bharatpur readily agreed; but Alwar was hesitant. Of course, he acquiesced only after a good deal of argument and reluctance. All the four rulers signed on 28 February 1948 and following the Saurashtra model pattern, the Matsya Union was inaugurated by N.V. Gadgil, the then Union Minister for Works, Mines and Power on 18 March. The Matsya Union merged with Greater Rajasthan on 15 May 1949.
The Independence Day was not celebrated in Alwar on 15 August 1947 nor the National Flag was unfurled on any of the public buildings except the Praja Mandal office and some private buildings. R.C. Mody, a native of Alwar and a retired official of Reserve Bank of India, describes the situation in his memoirs : “August 15,1947 came and went. In Alwar, India’s tricolor was not hoisted on any public building. It could be seen only at the office of local Praja Mandal, a local affiliate of the Congress party, or inside a few homes like ours. The Alwar administration insisted that the State had acceded to Indian Union in respect of only three, viz., Defence, Foreign Affairs and Communication. Further, the arrangement was in the nature of a pact that did not make Alwar a part of India. What would one who lived to see freedom all these years feel?” Mody does add : “My worst memories of those days are of the communal holocaust Alwar suffered. Alwar city had a very visible and polished Muslim community, and some of my best teachers and close friends were Muslims. They all disappeared without bidding any one of us good-bye.” He also describes how the Muslims were forced to undergo Shuddhi(purification) where they were reconverted by “ forced to smell and lick a piece of rotten pig’s bone, an act that would be taboo for a Muslim”, shaved off most of the head of the person leaving behind a choti(tuft of hair), which would mark him a Hindu, and a revenue official would issue him a Shuddhi certificate. This would enable the convert to reclaim his land or property that had been confiscated- under what law, I could not know.” Lot many Muslims preferred to run away to Pakistan even after such torturous Shuddhi !
Like the Nawab of Bahawalpur, the Maharaja of Alwar in the 1920s purchased the Rolls-Royces cars and used them for collecting municipal rubbish. His descendant and the present “Maharaja” Jitendra Singh, who was the Union Minister of State in Dr. Manmohan Singh Ministry, is quoted as saying : “That incident was burnt into the collective family memory. We are perhaps the only royal family that was allowed to buy any car except a Rolls-Royces. We have numerous vintage cars but not a single Rolls.”
Next Column: Abdication of Maharaja Hari Singh of J & K
( The writer is a Socio-political Historian. E-mail : [email protected] )
