Complete information and History about Himachal Pradesh

History about Himachal Pradesh

This disillusioned the hill rulers about the intentions of the British and during the Second Sikh War of 1848, some of them succumbed to the instigations of the Lahore Durbar of the Sikhs and revolted, only to suffer still more grievously as at that time Lord Dalhousie, known for his annexations and the Doctrine of Lapse, governed India. A force sent under Lawrence crushed the rebellion by Kangra, Nurpur, Jaswan and Datarpur and their rulers were sent to Almora as prisoners. A valiant son of Nurpur, wazir Ram Singh who proclaimed the independence of his State with the beat of a drum, proved a tough nut and was arrested when a friend betrayed him to the British. He was banished to Singapore where he passed his last days. Thus most of the areas of hill states to the west of Sutlej passed under direct British ad-ministration while the ‘loyal ones’ such as Chamba, Mandi, Suket continued to be called the Punjab Hill States.

During the war of independence of 1857, the role of the hill chiefs, like their counterparts in Punjab, was one of co-operation with the British, with the solitary exception of the Raja of Bushahar, who assumed a more or less neutral attitude. After Queen Victoria’s famous proclamation of 1858, the Crown assumed direct responsibility for governing India. The British policy towards Indian States was also reoriented accordingly. So far as Himachal was concerned, some of the Rajas who were taken to Almora after their insurrection during the Second Sikh War were allowed to return and jagirs were awarded to them. Pensions in the case of some others like the Raja of Nurpur were enhanced. The Declaration of 1858, categorically stated: “We desire no extension of our present territorial possessions”. And this along with such later measures as the permission to rulers to adopt sons and heirs greatly relieved them of their fears.

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By the Act of 1876, Queen Victoria assumed the title of Empress of India. This made the sovereign of England the suzerain of Indian states as well. Britain became the de facto paramount power and it started exercising greater control over the states through the political agents, residents and superintendents of states, who functioned under the Political Department. This position existed more or less when India got independence on 15 August 1947.

The life of the hill people under petty chieftains was worse than that of the subjects of most of the other states in the country. The rulers of small principalities had neither the intention nor the resources to do anything for development. Certain states were in principle against the provision of higher education to their subjects fearing that the new ideas might infect them. The rulers were fond of aping their richer counterparts of the plains in the display of pomp and grandeur which in the context of their shrunken and meagre resources appeared cheap and vulgar to some visiting Englishmen.

According to the prevailing custom, all land belonged to the Raja. In the exercise of this prerogative he kept the best land for himself. His family, his relations and the feudal aristocracy got the next best choice. The ordinary folk had only the marginal land or no land at all. Beth, a system of service land-tenure, and begar, labour without compensation, were prevalent forms of ancient oppression which people bore silently. Princely levies at various occasions made matters intolerable but the Hillman who worshipped his Raja along with his deities remained mostly peaceful, accepting their lot as the gift of god or the result of sins in a previous life.

Writing about the condition of a Hillman, an American missionary, S.N. Stokes, who lived at Kotgarh in the beginning of the twentieth century stated: He is often cursed, sometimes beaten, his interest ignored. The Hillman has gradually been relegated to the position of a beast of burden and a helot. Not only are his rights as a free man denied him and his work interfered with, but the relation in whom he stands to those who can force him to give him services is demoralizing in the extreme.”

To shelter their states against foreign corrupting influence the Rajas discouraged Indian and foreign visitors alike. As there were no roads and other facilities, only the very adventurous could hazard a trek in the forbidden lands. In some cases the visitors had to pay heavy toll duties. Isolated from the plains of India by natural barriers the hill people experienced a medieval existence even till recent times. No wonder the freedom struggle in the rest of India did not find a correspondingly strong echo here, though faint murmurs were heard here and there occasionally. Individual show of resentment or insubordination against the tyrannical dictates of the chiefs by enlightened people educated in the plains or with contacts there by virtue of service were construed as rebellion and crushed mercilessly.

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Y.S. Parmar, a former Chief Minister of the State, who was a district and sessions judge in the erstwhile Sirmur State, before independence was expelled from the State on account of suspected loyalty. There were numerous other cases in which much harsher punishment was handed down. During 1914-15, Mian Jawahar Singh and Rana of Khavigarh and others were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment for organizing a branch of the Ghaddar party in Mandi.

The Ludhiana Session of the All-India States Peoples’ Conference led some hill people in the thirties to organize the Shimla Hill States Himalaya Riyasti Praja Mandal to co-ordinate the activities of political and social workers. These workers usually operated from outside the states or worked underground. On 15 July 1939, resolutions were adopted by Praja Mandal of Dhami (a small state 18 miles from Shimla) urging the ruler to abolish begar, grant 50 per cent remission in land revenue due to crop failure and grant full responsible government in the State. The next day, a deputation of the Praja Mandal wanted to meet the ruler. Thousands of people of Dhami marched with the deputationists to the State capital. Apprehending danger from the crowd, which was infuriated at the arrest of their leader, the police opened fire, as a result of which two persons died and several were injured.

A non-official inquiry held into the tragic happenings of Dhami State reported to Jawaharlal Nehru, then President of the All-India States Peoples’ Conference: “Formerly in the absence of collateral relations up to fifth degree, the state of a childless male proprietor or a widow lapses to the State. Daughters and, their sons have no right of succession as against the state…. Wild beasts such as bears, leopards, kakkars, gorals etc, who damage crops, are not allowed to be killed and if anybody kills them even within his own lands, he is severely punished. Fines ranging from Rs. 50 to Rs. 100 per head are the order of the day. Not only this, even to approach the Rana for protection against the depredations of wild beast is a heinous crime.”

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An extraordinary case, though none the less amusing was cited before the Committee: “About 13 years ago, three men were awarded Rs. 5/- each for having killed a wild bear, who was destroying the crops, and the lambardar was praised for having sent them together with the body of the bear to the headquarters of the State for receiving rewards. Curiously enough, 10 years later, the present Rana reopened the case and fined the three ‘murderers’ of the ‘innocent bear’ Rs. 10 each and the lambardar Rs. 40 for having sent them to the State headquarters for receiving the reward. On the occasion of a marriage in the ruling family, suns varying between Rs. 2 and Rs. 50 and on a death sums varying between Re. 1 and Rs. 5 are charged from the subjects according to their paying capacity. If a death takes place in the family of the Rana, the females of the state are required to remove ornaments from their person and the males are required to shave their heads and moustaches clean. Nobody is allowed to sleep on the cot. Cooking vegetable and other dishes with ghee and spices is forbidden. The subjects cannot celebrate the marriage of their sons or daughters within a year of the death. They are also required to benefit the soul of the dead by going through different kinds of ceremonies and propitiations and if any-body refuses to do so he is fined.

Over and above the land revenue, annas four per rupee of the land revenue is realized. The land belonging to zarn-indars (cultivators) are converted into ‘ghasnis’ (grazing lands) and the state derives all the benefits out of it. If a person sells any commodity to meet any requirement of his family, one paisa is realized per rupee of the sale proceeds as tax. During the Shradh period which lasts every year for 16 days, and on other occasions during the year, every family has to supply milk to Rana Sahib. Recently a road within the State has been constructed for a distance of seven miles or so through the labour of men and women of the state exacted from them from morning till evening without any payment. If a family could not supply males, or there were no males in the family, women were required to work on the road. This road is mostly meant for the use of the motor car of the Rana.”

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Similar or even worse conditions existed in other States in most of which the subjects had to appear barefoot but with head covered before their rulers. The elite and others who had seen conditions in the plains were getting increasingly restless and conscious of their rights. As a result Praja Mandals were organized in most of the states in the early forties.

The Panjhota agitation in Sirmur was a landmark in the peoples’ struggle for emancipation. The Raja started extracting large sums of money for aiding the British war effort in 1942. Besides, he wanted recruits for the army as his assistance to the paramount power in the Second World War. When the exaction reached a limit, the people of Panjhota formed a ‘Kishan Sabha’ and requested the ruler to person-ally listen to their tales of woe against the high-handedness of the officials. On the refusal of the Ruler to accede to their request, they formed an independent government and their stirring slogan was Bhai do na pai. The revolt was ruthlessly suppressed, the area was dynamited and properties of many workers confiscated.

As the Praja Mandal movement gathered momentum, its constituents in various states were merged in 1946, into the Himalayan Hill States Regional Council, which under the leadership of Dr. Y.S. Parmar, Pandit Padam Dev, Mr. Shiva Nand Ramaul and others played an important role in the integration of hill states and the formation of Himachal Pradesh.

The Punjab hill areas, which now form part of Himachal Pradesh, had a different story to tell. Kangra, Kulu and other hill states under the direct control of the British were part of the ethos of the Indian independence movement. The provincial administration under the governor at Lahore was watchful about infiltration of the Congress ideology in these areas which due to their poverty and martial traditions, served as the most useful recruiting ground for the British army.

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Yet nothing could stop the message of Mahatma Gandhi from reaching the remotest villages. It was conveyed through the hill men studying and working in the plains. Congress committees were set up everywhere and the Political Conference organized at Tal in Sujanpur Tira in 1927, was a memo-, rable event. It brought to the forefront leaders like Baba Kanshi Ram who was known as ‘Pahari Gandhi’. The terrorist movement with its centre at Lahore had also its adherents from Kangra and other hilly areas. Yash Pal, the famous revolutionary and Hindi writer, belonged to Kangra and Sher Jung to Sirmur. Kangra always returned Congress candidates during election. The Quit India movement and the anti-recruitment drive all had their repercussions in the areas and a large number of workers courted arrest.

With independence, the protecting hand of the British having disappeared, the rulers of the other states could no more contain the resentment of the people by force. They became conscious of their weak position against the tide of time. They resorted to negotiations and conciliation. Hurriedly, reforms were introduced and a semblance of popular government established. A frantic effort was made by some to retain a separate entity of their respective states. The Ruler of Bilaspur, taking shelter under the interpretations of the lapse of paramount and the option available to any state to loin either of the dominions or to declare its independence, expressed his intention to do so. All these stratagems failed to enthuse the people. They had begun searching for an identity which neither their small size nor integration with Punjab could provide.

The people of the hills have a traditional suspicion and fear of the people of the plains, whom they had known as the tax-collecting officials of the rulers or as the tourists who had scant regard for their way of life and often exploited them. The proposals to integrate hill states with Punjab were rejected as soon as these were mooted. Some of the princes wanted to have a union of the Saurashtra type and decided to call a meeting at Solan on 26 January 1948. But the Praja Mandal people took the wind out of their sails when at a public meeting in Simla, presided over by Dr. Y.S. Parmar, on 25 January 1948, they categorically stated that the states should form a separate province by amalgamating them-selves and the power passed on to the people. The Solan meeting of the rulers passed a resolution on 28 January for framing the constitution of the proposed union. But it was too late.

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The Praja Mandal launched on 18 February 1948, the Suket Satyagraha which got overwhelming support of the people. The small band of satyagrahis which entered the State in the morning swelled to a massive crowd of peaceful agitators during their march and the ruler of Suket yielded. The movement rolled on with the influx of new adherants in each state. A revolution was shaking the Himalayas, and within a week three-fourths of the states had been liberated without firing a shot. Ruler after ruler signed the merger agreement and on 15 April 1948, came into existence the Chief Commissioner’s Province of Himachal Pradesh with the integration of 31 big and small hill states —Chamba, Mandi, Suket, Bushahar, Khaneti, Theog, Madhan, Ghund, Ratesh, Baghal, Jubbal, Rawin, Dhadi, Bhagat, Kumarsain, Bhaji, Mehlog, Belson, Dhami, Kuthar, Kunihar, Mangal, Beja, Darkoti, Theroch, Sangri and Sirmur.

Sardar Patel in a letter dated 18 March 1948 stated:”In the final stage, after this area is sufficiently developed in its resources and administration, it is proposed that its constitution should be similar to that of any other province. The ultimate objective is to enable this area to attain the position of an autonomous province of India”. This historic letter was to be later the mainstay of the arguments advanced by Dr. Parmar during the struggle for the attainment of state-hood for the Pradesh.

Himachal remained a Chief Commissioner’s province from 15 April 1948 to March 1952, when it was made a Part ‘C’ state under a Lieutenant Governor and a popular Minis-try headed by Dr. Y.S. Parmar. On 1 July 1954, the part ‘C’ state of Bilaspur was merged with it. The States Reorganization Commission by a majority verdict recommended the integration of Himachal with Punjab, but its Chairman, Fazal Ali, desired it to be kept separate for development purposes for some years. The Union Government allowed the state to continue as a separate entity but its assembly was abolished and it became a Union Territory. From 1 November 1956, Himachal remained a Union Territory under an Administrator, designated as Lieutenant Governor till 1 July 1963, when democratic set-up was restored and a popular ministry again installed.

When the question of the reorganization of Punjab was reopened in 1966, the people from the Punjab hill areas put up a strong case for including them in Himachal. Their demand was accepted and the Punjab hill areas—the districts of Shimla, Kulu, Kangra, Lahul and Spiti, the Nalagarh area of Ambala district, parts of Una tehsil of Hoshiarpur district, and of Pathankot tehsil of Gurdaspur—were merged with Himachal on 1 November 1966. Though with the integration of hill areas of Punjab, Himachal had an area more than that of Punjab or Haryana it was still a Union Territory. According to Dr. Parmar, who was the chief crusader for statehood, it still lacked ‘proper status’, which it obtained on 25 January 1971, when the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi, inaugurated it as the eighteenth State of the Union.

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Brief History and information about Himachal Pradesh

History and information about Himachal Pradesh

The period that followed Harsha, experienced the greatest power vacuum in India. His death had weakened the bonds which restrained the disruptive forces. The entire country was pushed to a state of anarchical autonomy. Himachal areas were no exception. The dissensions between local petty chiefs invited outside interference. Rajput princes, who had to leave their own states due to pressures or who came in search of new adventures, appeared on the scene. The old Ranas and Thakurs disappeared or became tributaries and in their places were installed new ones by sword and deceit. Some old Ranas and Thakurs continued for some years, owing nominal allegiance to the new Rajas, who finally emerged as the supreme authority with the passage of time. From the genealogical records and from other evidence, it appears that most of the hill states were already formed before the twelfth century. Some of them as Brah-mapura (Brahmaur), Kuluta (Kulu), Spiti and Srughna (ap-proximately Sirmur area) were, however, in existence for quite some centuries and these are mentioned by Hiuen Tsang as also in the earlier records.

Kangra formed part of the Trigarta Shashtha of jalandhara since very early times of Indian history. As a result of the Hun invasion and the incursions by many tribes later the plains were cut off from the hilly areas. The hilly areas constituted a separate state with its capital at Nagarkot or Kangra. With the passage of time from this state sprang the offshoots of Jaswan, Guler, Siba and Datarpur; Jaswan was formed in A.D. 1170 and Guler in A.D. 1405.

Nurpur was founded in about A.D. 1000 by Jethpal, a Tomar Rajput. Its capital was Pratisthan (Pathankot).

According to Panini, Chamba was a `Janapada’ under the name of Brahmagupta and it formed part of Trigarta Shashtha. It became a state sometime in the sixth century and in A.D. 680, a powerful king, Manu Verman, ruled it. Originally, its area was limited to Brahmaur. King Shail Verman extended its boundaries and founded the city of Chamba in A.D. 920.

According to Hiuen Tsang, Kulu was about 75 miles in circuit and was surrounded by high mountains. Raja Brahmpal ruled it in A.D. 500.

Raja Bir Sen, whose ancestors fled from Bengal in the wake of Muslim invasion, founded Suket in A.D. 1288. His brother, Girisen, founded Keonthal.

Mandi state is an offshoot of Suket and was founded by Ban Sen in the fourteenth century. The town of Mandi was built by Ajber Sen in 1527.

Kutlehar was founded by a Brahman, Jaspal, who ranked as a Rajput. Another state Banghal, was similarly founded by another Brahman, Prithipal, in A.D. 1200.

Bir Chand from Chanderi in Bundelkhand, after defeat-ing the local Thakurs in the Sutlej valley, founded the state of Bilaspur (Kehloor) in about A.D. 900. Its capital was Naina Devi at first but it was later shifted to Bilaspur. Nalagarh is an offshoot of Bilaspur and was founded by Ajai Chand a scion of the Kehlur Rajas.

Bushahar was one of the largest states in Himachal. Evidence regarding its foundation is inconclusive. Its ancient seat was Kamru in Baspa valley and was shifted to Sarahan. The Raja of Bushahar defeated the joint forces of Tibet and Ladakh and by a treaty in the seventeenth century pushed the territories of Tibet to its present boundaries. In this he had the support of the Moghul court.

Sirmur was founded by Raja Rasalu, son of Raja Salvahan of Jaisalmer, its area being approximately the same as under the ancient kingdom of Srugna. Its earlier capital, Sirmuri Tal was washed away by the floods in Giri River in the 12th century and later Nahan became the headquarters of the state. Jubbal, Balson, Ratesh were the offshoots of Sirmur.

With the exception of Kangra, Kulu, Bushahar and Chamba, the other states were founded by Rajput adventurers from the plains between the eighth and twelfth centuries and even in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Of the rest, Mandi, Suket, Sirmur and Nurpur were bigger states while the remaining were small principalities, mostly Thakurais. There were 30 Thakurais, divided into two groups of 12 and 18, Barah Thakurai and Atharah Thakurai which were respectively located in lower Shimla hills and in the valleys of Tons, Pabar and Sutlej rivers. These were Keonthal, Baghat, Kuthar, Kunihar, Bhajji, Dhami, Mehlog, Koti, Mangal, Beja, Bharoli and Baghal of the first group and Jubbal, Sari, Rawingarh, Balson, Ratesh, Ghund, Madhan, Theog, Kumarsain, Khneti, Dela th, Karangla, Kotkhai-Kotgarh, Darkoti, Tharoch, Dhadi, Sangri and Dodra Kawar of the second group.

These states were preoccupied with perpetual wars with one another. But these wars were not usually fought to the finish. Being of the same race or clan and also mostly connected by matrimony, the Rajas, Ranas and Thakurs were content to make the other his tributary. Moreover, the nature of the terrain allowed them to fight only limited wars. A battle or two ensued and that led the states to the exhaustion of their resources. Manpower was scanty as population was thin and scattered. It was mostly through a show of force and pomp and glory instead of actual clash of arms, that a chieftain tried to overawe the other. Bloody and destructive wars were few and deceit and diplomacy were the other means resorted to. It was for these reasons that the rulers usurped most of the state finances, which were meager, and spent them on their own households and pompous living.

Their great forts and magnificent palaces at impressive heights, surrounded by the miserable looking shanties of their subjects are memorials to the forced labour (begar) they extracted from them. In the hills the lands were the prerogative of the crown. As such, the select, irrigated and finest portions of land in valleys belonged to the Raja personally, while the people had to struggle and cut terraces in rocky hill-sides to make land cultivable to eke out a living. Even the results of their labour, the small fields, were not under their control. Land is life in the hills and the land belonged to the Raja. He thus controlled everything, life, security, wealth, and prestige. People owed him implicit allegiance and his authority was complete—personal, feudal and religious.

The economy of these states depended on their natural resources and the way the rulers developed them. Size, forests and trade routes determined the economy of these principalities. The rulers vied with one another in the exhibition of pomp and show, the smaller ones overreaching their means in aping the bigger ones. Consequently, they ran into debts and extorted still more from their subjects to pay the loans off. As such, the smaller the state, the more under-developed it remained, barring one or two exceptions where the rulers were enlightened. Only a few of them had annual revenue of more than Rupees six Lakhs.

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