If Maharaja Hari Singh is a hero, what happened to the ideals associated with his legacy?

September 23 has now become an official holiday in Jammu and Kashmir to commemorate the birth anniversary of Maharaja Hari Singh. Politicians across the political spectrum have been paying tributes, organizing events and invoking his name. Yet there is a question that deserves to be asked, and it is a question that goes beyond the symbolism of a holiday:

What exactly are we celebrating?

If Maharaja Hari Singh is being remembered merely as a historical figure, there is little controversy in observing his birth anniversary. But if political parties want to present him as a symbol of Jammu and Kashmir’s interests, then his actual record and the principles associated with his administration cannot conveniently be separated from the celebrations.

One of the most important elements of his legacy was the protection of the rights of State Subjects. His 1927 State Subject framework classified permanent residents and provided preferential treatment to State Subjects in matters including government employment, scholarships and state land. The legal history of these provisions is well documented, including in a Supreme Court judgment examining the evolution of the State Subject framework.

These were not merely symbolic provisions. They reflected a basic principle: the people who belonged to the State should have protection in matters of employment, land and economic opportunity.

Hari Singh’s government also introduced measures relating to agrarian relief and social welfare. The Agriculturists’ Relief Regulation of 1926, for example, was intended to provide relief to indebted agriculturists. His administration also pursued measures in education, health and public administration. Contemporary historical research records a wider program of reforms directed at the social and economic conditions of the State.

This is where today’s politics becomes difficult to reconcile.

It is relatively easy for a political party to celebrate Maharaja Hari Singh’s birthday. It is easy to garland his statue, organize a rally, issue a statement and declare him a great ruler. It is considerably more difficult to defend the underlying principle that the interests of the people of Jammu and Kashmir deserve protection in land, employment and economic opportunity.

A holiday costs nothing politically. Protecting an economic principle can be much more complicated.

The irony becomes particularly visible when the Maharaja is invoked selectively. His name is celebrated, but the broader question of what his State Subject policy represented is often left outside the discussion. His legacy is reduced to a political symbol rather than examined as a body of policies and ideas.

That selective remembrance does not belong exclusively to one political camp. Different parties have, at different times, invoked different parts of Hari Singh’s legacy when politically convenient. Some emphasize his accession to India. Others emphasize his reforms. Still others emphasize his identity as the last ruling Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir.

But a serious engagement with history requires looking at the whole record.

If political parties genuinely believe Hari Singh represents the interests of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, they should be prepared to discuss the principles behind the State Subject framework as seriously as they discuss the holiday itself.

This does not mean pretending that the 1927 system can simply be transplanted into the present. Jammu and Kashmir’s constitutional and legal circumstances have changed dramatically since 1947 and again since 2019. The point is different: the principles behind historical policies can be debated even when the legal framework itself has changed.

The question, therefore, is not whether September 23 should be celebrated. The government has already declared it a holiday, and the date is now part of the official holiday calendar.

The more important question is whether the celebration has any meaning beyond political symbolism.

The recent Assembly controversy illustrates the problem. A demand for restoration of a holiday associated with Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was met with objections over the Maharaja Hari Singh holiday. The debate quickly became a contest over historical symbols.

But Jammu and Kashmir deserves a deeper conversation than a competition over whose birthday should be a holiday.

The people do not need politicians to compete over statues, portraits and holidays. They need a serious discussion about the principles that earlier generations considered important: protection of local interests, access to employment, protection of land, education, social welfare and accountable administration.

If Hari Singh is to be remembered as a reformer, then his reforms deserve to be studied.

If he is to be remembered as a protector of State Subjects, then the historical importance of those protections deserves an honest discussion.

And if he is to be celebrated as a symbol of the interests of Jammu and Kashmir, then those invoking his name should be willing to explain how today’s policies relate to the principles for which they say they admire him.

Otherwise, September 23 risks becoming little more than another date on the political calendar.

Celebrating a historical figure is easy. Understanding his legacy is harder. Living up to the principles one claims to admire is harder still.

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