In which year, the Dogra ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, Hari Singh, signed the Instrument of Accession in favour of the Indian Union?

Solution (By Examveda Team)

Hari Singh, the then Maharaja of Kashmir, choose to remain independent and not join any of the two country i.e. India and Pakistan after the independence of 1947. He offered to sign Standstill Agreements with both India and Pakistan. Pakistan immediately signed it while India asked for further discussions on its contents. But the discussion never took place. Soon after the Standstill Agreement, as partition-related violence raged across the two new nations, the government of Pakistan pressured Kashmir to join it. Pro-Pakistani rebels took over much of western Kashmir, and in September 1947, Pashtun tribesmen streamed over the border from Pakistan into Kashmir carrying out killings and arsons. The panic-stricken maharaja asked for India's help in staving off the invasion, but India responded that, in order to gain military assistance, Kashmir would have to accede to India, thus becoming part of the new country. Singh agreed and signed the Instrument of Accession in 26^th October 1947.