1947 Poonch Rebellion
| 1947 Poonch Rebellion | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
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People of Poonch and Mirpur; Muslim Conference. backed by Pakistan |
Maharaja Hari Singh and his Dogra forces. | ||||||
People of Poonch and Mirpur; Muslim Conference.
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. Starting as a local affair, it eventually led to the First Kashmir War fought between India and Pakistan, and the formation of Azad Kashmir. The Poonch jagir has since been divided across the Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir and the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Poonch was originally an internal jagir (autonomous principality), governed by an alternative family line of Maharaja Hari Singh. The Muslims of Poonch suffered from small landholdings and high taxation and nursed their grievances since 1905. They had also campaigned for the principality to be absorbed into the Punjab province of British India. In 1938, a notable disturbance occurred for religious reasons, but a settlement was reached. From then on, Poonch remained garrisoned by a battalion of State troops.
After the death of Raja Jagatdev Singh of Poonch in 1940, Maharaja Hari Singh appointed a chosen guardian for his minor son, Shiv Ratandev Singh, and used the opportunity to integrate the Poonch jagir into the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Poonch came to be administered by the officers of Jammu and Kashmir as a district of the Jammu province. This resulted in loss of autonomy for Poonch and subjected its people to the increased taxation of the Kashmir state, both of which were resented by the people.
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