Shagun Parihar
Every year on 23rd September, the birth anniversary of Maharaja Hari Singh is observed across Jammu and Kashmir with much sentiment. Yet, public memory of the last Dogra ruler often remains polarized.
For some, he is remembered through the prism of political controversies that surrounded the turbulent decades of the 1930s and 1940s; for others, he is celebrated as a symbol of regional pride and authority. In this cacophony of narratives, the reformist dimension of his reign is either overshadowed or selectively recalled. While his social, economic, legal, and agrarian reforms have received sporadic attention, one facet of his governance remains relatively underexplored – his sustained zeal for women’s rights, a vision that placed him far ahead of his contemporaries and aligned him with what we today understand as the foundations of a feminist and welfare state.
Maharaja Hari Singh’s feminist orientation was not an abstract principle but a practical programme of reform. In 1927, he established the Jammu and Kashmir Women’s Welfare Association, an institution organized around education, industry, health, and recreation. At a time when women across much of the subcontinent were still confined to domestic spaces, this body offered free tutorials, vocational training, medical assistance for the destitute, and even recreational opportunities where women could socialize and build confidence outside the home. He complemented these initiatives with substantial state grants to schools and colleges that admitted girls, thereby making education not just a right in principle but a lived reality for hundreds of young women. It was during his reign that the state saw the establishment of its first women’s college, an act of enormous symbolic and practical significance in expanding higher education for women.
His Widow Remarriage Act of 1933 went further by striking at one of the most regressive social practices of the time. By legalizing remarriage for Hindu widows, Hari Singh restored dignity and choice to women who had long been condemned to lives of austerity and social marginalization. Unlike many rulers who hesitated to challenge orthodoxy, he was willing to face resistance from conservative quarters to ensure that women were not denied their basic human right to rebuild their lives. Alongside this, he supported reforms in dress and customs that allowed women greater mobility, encouraged campaigns against dowry and infanticide, and created safe recreational spaces for their public participation.
What makes Hari Singh distinctive is that his reforms were holistic. Unlike token gestures made by several princely rulers elsewhere in India, his initiatives combined legislation, institutional innovation, financial backing, and social advocacy. He understood that empowerment was not possible without structural change, and he used the authority of the state to institutionalize that change. This vision for women’s emancipation was deeply interlinked with his broader commitment to agrarian reforms, public health, education, and social justice, all of which anticipated the modern concept of the welfare state.
To misrepresent Maharaja Hari Singh solely through the lens of political controversy is to commit an injustice to history. His legacy must also be remembered for the courage with which he challenged social orthodoxy, dismantled exploitative structures, and carved out a public space for women in education, employment, and society at large. On his birthday, therefore, it is fitting not only to commemorate him as the last Dogra ruler but also to recognize him as a visionary reformer and a feminist ahead of his time, whose contributions to social justice remain as relevant today as they were revolutionary in his own era.
(The author is MLA of J&K Legislative Assembly)
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