On 27 October 1947, the then Governor-General of India, Lord Mountbatten accepted the accession. In a letter sent to Maharaja Hari Singh on the same day, he said, "it is my Government's wish that as soon as law and order have been restored in Jammu and Kashmir and her soil cleared of the invader, the question of the State's accession should be settled by a reference to the people."[5]
Islamic Republic of Pakistan's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah stated that the accession was "fraudulent", and that the Maharaja "betrayed" trust by acceding to India at a time when a standstill agreement signed as per his personal request to the Maharaja was still in force.[6][lower-alpha 1]
The accession to India is celebrated on Accession Day, which is held annually on 26 October.[8]
Text
P1. Instrument of accession KašmirP2. Instrument of accession Kašmir
The text of the Instrument of Accession, excluding the schedule mentioned in its third point, is as follows:[9]
Whereas the Indian Independence Act, 1947, provides that as from the fifteenth day of August, 1947, there shall be set up an independent Dominion known as INDIA, and that the Government of India Act, 1935 shall with such omissions, additions, adaptations and modifications as the Governor General may by order specify, be applicable to the Dominion of India.
And whereas the Government of India Act, 1935, as so adapted by the Governor General, provides that an Indian State may accede to the Dominion of India by an Instrument of Accession executed by the Ruler thereof.
Now, therefore, I Shriman Inder Mahinder Rajrajeswar Maharajadhiraj Shri Hari Singhji, Jammu & Kashmir Naresh Tatha Tibbetadi Deshadhipati, Ruler of Jammu & Kashmir State, in the exercise of my Sovereignty in and over my said State do hereby execute this my Instrument of Accession and
I hereby declare that I accede to the Dominion of India with the intent that the Governor General of India, the Dominion Legislature, the Federal Court and any other Dominion authority established for the purposes of the Dominion shall by virtue of this my Instrument of Accession but subject always to the terms thereof, and for the purposes only of the Dominion, exercise in relation to the State of Jammu & Kashmir (hereinafter referred to as "this State") such functions as may be vested in them by or under the Government of India Act, 1935, as in force in the Dominion of India, on the 15th day of August 1947, (which Act as so in force is hereafter referred to as "the Act').
I hereby assume the obligation of ensuring that due effect is given to provisions of the Act within this State so far as they are applicable therein by virtue of this my Instrument of Accession.
I accept the matters specified in the schedule hereto as the matters with respect to which the Dominion Legislature may make law for this State.
I hereby declare that I accede to the Dominion of India on the assurance that if an agreement is made between the Governor General and the Ruler of this State whereby any functions in relation to the administration in this State of any law of the Dominion Legislature shall be exercised by the Ruler of the State, then any such agreement shall be construed and have effect accordingly.
The terms of this my Instrument of Accession shall not be varied by any amendment of the Act or the Indian Independence Act, 1947, unless such amendment is accepted by me by Instrument supplementary to this Instrument.
Nothing in this Instrument shall empower the Dominion Legislature to make any law for this State authorizing the compulsory acquisition of land for any purpose, but I hereby undertake that should the Dominion for the purpose of a Dominion law which applies in this State deem it necessary to acquire any land, I will at their request acquire the land at their expense, or, if the land belongs to me transfer it to them on such terms as may be agreed or, in default of agreement, determined by an arbitrator to be appointed by the Chief Justice of India.
Nothing in this Instrument shall be deemed to commit in any way to acceptance of any future constitution of India or to fetter my discretion to enter into agreement with the Government of India under any such future constitution.
Nothing in this Instrument affects the continuance of my Sovereignty in and over this State, or, save as provided by or under this Instrument, the exercise of any powers, authority and rights now enjoyed by me as Ruler of this State or the validity of any law at present in force in this State.
I hereby declare that I execute this Instrument on behalf of this State and that any reference in this Instrument to me or to the Ruler of the State is to be construed as including a reference to my heirs and successors.
Given under my hand this 26th day of OCTOBER, nineteen hundred and forty seven.
Hari Singh
Maharajadhiraj of Jammu and Kashmir State.
I do hereby accept this Instrument of Accession. Dated this twenty seventh day of October, nineteen hundred and forty seven.
(Mountbatten of Burma, Governor General of India).[9]
Schedule
The Schedule referred to in paragraph 3 of the Instrument of Accession reads as follows:[10]
SCHEDULE OF INSTRUMENT OF ACCESSION THE MATTERS WITH RESPECT TO WHICH THE DOMINION LEGISLATURE MAY MAKE LAWS FOR THIS STATE
A. Defence
The naval, military and air forces of the Dominion and any other armed forces raised or maintained by the Dominion; any armed forces, including forces raised or maintained by an acceding State, which are attached to, or operating with, any of the armed forces of the Dominion.
Naval, military and air force works, administration of cantonment areas.
Arms, fire-arms, ammunition.
Explosives.
B. External Affairs
External affairs; the implementing of treaties and agreements with other countries; extradition, including the surrender of criminals and accused persons to parts of His Majesty's Dominions outside India.
Admission into, and emigration and expulsion from, India, including in relation thereto the regulation of the movements in India of persons who are not British subjects domiciled in India or subjects of any acceding State; pilgrimages to places beyond India.
Naturalisation.
C. Communications
Posts and telegraphs, including telephones, wireless, broadcasting, and other like forms of communication.
Federal railways; the regulation of all railways other than minor railways in respect of safety, maximum and minimum rates and fares, station and services terminal charges, interchange of traffic and the responsibility of railway administrations as carriers of goods and passengers; the regulation of minor railways in respect of safety and the responsibility of the administrations of such railways as carriers of goods and passengers.
Maritime shipping and navigation, including shipping and navigation on tidal waters; Admiralty jurisdiction.
Port quarantine.
Major ports, that is to say, the declaration and delimitation of such ports, and the constitution and powers of Port Authorities therein.
Aircraft and air navigation; the provision of aerodromes; regulation and organisation of air traffic and of aerodromes.
Lighthouses, including lightships, beacons and other provisions for the safety of shipping and aircraft.
Carriage of passengers and goods by sea or by air.
Extension of the powers and jurisdiction of members of the police force belonging to any unit to railway area outside that unit.
D. Ancillary
Election to the Dominion Legislature, subject to the provisions of the Act and of any Order made thereunder.
Offences against laws with respect to any of the aforesaid matters.
Inquiries and statistics for the purposes of any of the aforesaid matters.
Jurisdiction and powers of all courts with respect to any of the aforesaid matters but, except with the consent of the Ruler of the acceding State, not so as to confer any jurisdiction or powers upon any courts other than courts ordinarily exercising jurisdiction in or in relation to that State.[10]
Date
While the Instrument of Accession carries the date of 26 October, some scholars believe that it was actually signed on 27 October.[11] However, the fact that the Governor General accepted the accession on 27 October, the day the Indian troops were airlifted into Kashmir, is generally accepted.[12][13]
An Indian commentator, Prem Shankar Jha, has argued that the accession was actually signed by Hari Singh on 25 October 1947, just before he left Srinagar for Jammu.[14]
Before taking any action on the Maharaja's request for help, the Government of India decided to send V. P. Menon, representing it, who flew to Srinagar on 25 October. On realizing the state of emergency, Menon advised the Maharaja to leave immediately for Jammu, for his own safety. He followed this advice and left Srinagar for Jammu that night, while Menon and Prime Minister Mahajan flew to Delhi early the next morning, 26 October. When they reached there, the Indian Government promised Menon and Mahajan military assistance for Jammu and Kashmir, but only after the Instrument of Accession had been signed. Hence, Menon immediately flew back to Jammu with the Instrument. The official version of events is that on his arrival, he contacted the Maharaja, who was asleep after a long journey, but who at once signed the Instrument. Menon then flew back immediately to Delhi with the legal documents on 26 October.[15]
↑ The stange argument regarding the "standstill agreement" is based on the supposition that Islamic Republic of Pakistan had stepped into the shoes of the former British India as a result of the standstill agreement, and that the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir had surrendered his ability to conduct the foreign policy of his own kingdom. Scholars regard this as a wild exaggeration of the prevailing situation. In fact, no formal standstill agreement had ever been signed, arrangements regarding post and telegraphs and train services had only been confirmed telegraphically.[7]
↑ Raghavan, Srinath (2016), India's War: The Making of Modern South Asia, 1939-1945, Penguin Books Limited, pp.107–108, ISBN978-1-84614-543-8 : "The question of when exactly he signed the instrument of accession has been the focus of much scholarly debate and has resulted in a literature out of all proportion to the importance of the matter. Suffice it to say that it was almost certainly signed on 27 October 1947—not the 26th as claimed by India."
Anand, Adarsh Sein (2001). "Accession of Jammu and Kashmir State – Historical and Legal Perspective". Journal of the Indian Law Institute. 43 (4): 455–468. ISSN0019-5731. JSTOR43953394.
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948, also known as the First Kashmir War, was a war fought between India and Pakistan over the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir from 1947 to 1948. It was the first of four Indo-Pakistani wars between the two newly independent nations. Pakistan precipitated the war a few weeks after its independence by launching tribal lashkar (militias) from Waziristan, in an effort to capture Kashmir and to preempt the possibility of its ruler joining India. Neutral assessments state India emerged victorious as it successfully gained the majority of the contested territory.
A princely state was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, subject to a subsidiary alliance and the suzerainty or paramountcy of the British crown.
Rajpramukh was an administrative title in India which existed from India's independence in 1947 until 1956. Rajpramukhs were the appointed governors of certain Indian provinces and states.
Maharaja Sir Hari Singh was the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Ram Chandra Kak was the prime minister of Jammu and Kashmir during 1945–1947. One of the very few Kashmiri Pandits to ever hold that post, Kak had the intractable job of navigating the troubled waters of the transfer of power from British Raj to the independent dominions of India and Pakistan. He handled the activism of the state's political parties, the National Conference and Muslim Conference, and warded off pressure from the new dominions for the accession of the state. He advised the Maharaja to stay independent for at least a year before making the final decision. His actions were highly unpopular with the state's activist Muslims, and he was dismissed from the post of prime minister shortly before the independence of India and Pakistan in August 1947.
The Indian Independence Act 1947 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that partitioned British India into the two new independent dominions of India and Pakistan. The Act received Royal Assent on 18 July 1947 and thus modern-day India and Pakistan, comprising west and east regions, came into being on 15 August.
The Instrument of Accession was a legal document first introduced by the Government of India Act 1935 and used in 1947 to enable each of the rulers of the princely states under British paramountcy to join one of the new dominions of India or Pakistan created by the Partition of British India.
Vappala Pangunni Menon was an Indian civil servant who served as Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of the States, under Sardar Patel. By appointment from Viceroy and Governor-General of India Wavell, he also served as Secretary to the Governor-General (Public) and later as Secretary to the Cabinet. He also was the Constitutional Adviser and Political Reforms Commissioner to the last three successive Viceroys during British rule in India. In May 1948, at the initiative of V. P. Menon, a meeting was held in Delhi between the Rajpramukhs of the princely unions and the States Department, at the end of which the Rajpramukhs signed new Instruments of Accession which gave the Government of India the power to pass laws in respect of all matters that fell within the seventh schedule of the Government of India Act 1935.
Article 370 of the Indian constitution gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, a region located in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent and part of the larger region of Kashmir which has been the subject of a dispute between India, Pakistan and China since 1947. Jammu and Kashmir was administered by India as a state from 17 November 1952 to 31 October 2019, and Article 370 conferred on it the power to have a separate constitution, a state flag, and autonomy of internal administration.
Before India gained independence in 1947, India was divided into two sets of territories, one under direct British rule, and the other consisting of princely states under the suzerainty of the British Crown, with control over their internal affairs remaining in the hands of their hereditary rulers. The latter included 562 princely states which had different types of revenue-sharing arrangements with the British, often depending on their size, population and local conditions. In addition, there were several colonial enclaves controlled by France and Portugal. After independence, the political integration of these territories into an Indian Union was a declared objective of the Indian National Congress, and the Government of India pursued this over the next decade.
The following is a timeline of the Kashmir conflict, a territorial conflict between India, Pakistan and, to a lesser degree, China. India and Pakistan have been involved in four wars and several border skirmishes over the issue.
Khurshid Hasan Khurshid (Urdu: خورشید حسن خورشید) pronounced [xu:r'ʃi:d ɦəsəɳ xu:r'ʃi:d], popularly known by his acronym, K. H. Khurshid, was the Private Secretary of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the first Governor-General of Pakistan. He served Jinnah from 1944 until his death in 1948. Khurshid was the first elected President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir from 1959 to 1964. He was also the instigator of the Constitution of Azad Kashmir.
The Dogra dynasty of Dogra Rajputs from the Shivalik hills created Jammu and Kashmir when all dynastic kingdoms in India were being absorbed by the East India Company. Events led the Sikh Empire to recognise Jammu as a vassal state in 1820, and later the British added Kashmir to Jammu with the Treaty of Amritsar in 1846. The founder of the dynasty, Gulab Singh, was an influential noble in the court of the Sikh emperor Maharaja Ranjit Singh, while his brother Dhian Singh served as the prime minister of the Sikh Empire. Appointed by Ranjit Singh as the hereditary Raja of the Jammu principality, Gulab Singh established his supremacy over all the hill states surrounding the Kashmir Valley. After the First Anglo-Sikh War in 1846, under the terms of the Treaty of Lahore, 1846, the British Indian government acquired Kashmir from the Sikh Empire and transferred it to Gulab Singh, recognising him as an independent maharaja. Thus, Jammu and Kashmir was established as one of the largest princely states in British India, receiving a 21-gun salute for its Maharaja in 1921. It was ruled by Gulab Singh and his descendants till 1947.
Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir was a body of representatives elected in 1951 to formulate the constitution of Jammu and Kashmir. The Constituent Assembly was dissolved on 26 January 1957, based on Mir Qasim resolution it adopted and ratified on 17 November 1956.
The history of Azad Kashmir, a part of the Kashmir region administered by Pakistan, is related to the history of the Kashmir region during the Dogra rule. Azad Kashmir borders the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the south and west respectively, Gilgit–Baltistan to the north, and the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir to the east.
The princely states of Pakistan were princely states of the British Indian Empire which acceded to the new Dominion of Pakistan between 1947 and 1948, following the partition of British India and its independence.
The Jammu–Sialkot line was a 43 km (27 mi) broad gauge branch of the North Western State Railway from Wazirabad Junction, Punjab, to Jammu, passing through the Sialkot Junction. The section from Sialkot to Jammu (Tawi) was 27 miles (43 km) long, partly in the British Indian province of Punjab and partly in the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir Built in 1890 during the reign of Maharaja Pratap Singh, it was the first railway line in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
A standstill agreement was an agreement signed between the newly independent dominions of India and Pakistan and the princely states of the British Indian Empire prior to their integration in the new dominions. The form of the agreement was bilateral between a dominion and a princely state. It provided that all the administrative arrangements, existing between the British Crown and the state would continue unaltered between the signatory dominion and the princely state, until new arrangements were made.
In spring 1947, an uprising against the Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir broke out in the Poonch jagir, an area bordering the Rawalpindi district of West Punjab and the Hazara district of the North-West Frontier Province in the future Pakistan. It was driven by grievances such as high taxes, the Maharaja's neglect of World War veterans, and above all, Muslim nationalism with a desire to join Pakistan. The leader of the rebellion, Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, escaped to Lahore by the end of August 1947 and persuaded the Pakistani authorities to back the rebellion. In addition to the backing, Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan authorised an invasion of the state, by the ex-Indian National Army personnel in the south and a force led by Major Khurshid Anwar in the north. These invasions eventually led to the First Kashmir War fought between India and Pakistan, and the formation of Azad Kashmir provisional government. The Poonch jagir has since been divided across Azad Kashmir, administered by Pakistan and the state of Jammu and Kashmir, administered by India.
William Alexander BrownMBE was a British military officer based in British-ruled India. He is best known for his actions during the Partition of India, when he assisted the locals of the Gilgit Agency and led a coup d'état against Hari Singh, the Maharaja of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. The successful coup ultimately resulted in the Gilgit Agency becoming a part of Pakistani-administered Kashmir following the First Indo−Pakistani War.
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Maharaja Hari Singh,
Lord Louis Mountbatten 
Index:Instrument of Accession and Standstill Agreement of Jammu and Kashmir to Dominion of India.pdf at Wikisource 
