Tag : Brits

New Delhi: The publication of Siddharth Kak and Lily Bhan Kak's 'Love, Exile, Redemption: The Saga of Kashmir's Last Pandit Prime Minister and His English Wife', published by Rupa, has renewed the discussion on Ram Chandra Kak role as prime minister of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in the turbulent months leading up to India's Independence. Was Jammu & Kashmir's last Pandit prime minister only doing the bidding of a 'moody maharaja', as has been argued by Siddharth Kak and Lily Bhan Kak, or was he in cahoots, alternately, with the Political Department of the dying British Raj and Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan? In his book, 'Gilded Cage: Years That Made and Unmade Kashmir', also published by Rupa, Sandeep Bamzai, Editor-in-Chief and Managing Director, IANS, argues that Ram Chandra Kak was anything but a pliant prime minister following the orders of his royal boss. Excerpts: If Sheikh Abdullah was the protagonist of what eventually became a brutal cage match, then his bete noire was the Prime Minister of J&K Pandit Ram Chandra Kak, representing Maharaja Hari Singh in the gladiatorial contest between the monarchy and the harassed praja. Ram Chandra Kak was a faithful servant of the autocracy. He was a hireling of the British. Actually in his case the two very much meant the same. His line of thinking was to save the former with the help of the latter. He knew world reaction was on the offensive. He knew that in the wake of the Second World War, Anglo Americans were the main spearhead of the new western axis. And they were putting heavy premium on every reactionary force in every corner of the world. The experience of Greece, China, Turkey and Iran had taught all reactionaries that they could count on an endl ...