On 26 October 1947, Hari Singh, Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, signed the Instrument of Accession to the Dominion of India, under the Indian Independence Act 1947 and the Government of India Act 1935 as adapted for the new dominion. The document is dated under his hand 26 October. Lord Mountbatten, Governor-General of India, wrote on the same instrument, “I do hereby accept this Instrument of Accession,” dated 27 October 1947.

Clause 1 declares the accession, so that the Governor-General, the Dominion Legislature, the Federal Court and other Dominion authorities shall, for the purposes of the Dominion only and always subject to the terms of the Instrument, exercise in relation to the State the functions vested in them by the 1935 Act as in force on 15 August 1947. Clause 2 binds the Ruler to give effect to those provisions in the State. Clause 3 accepts the matters in the Schedule as the only matters on which the Dominion Legislature may make law for the State.

The Schedule has four heads. A. Defence: the Dominion’s naval, military and air forces, military works, arms and explosives. B. External Affairs: treaties, extradition, immigration, naturalisation. C. Communications: posts, telegraphs, telephones, federal railways, maritime shipping, aerodromes, lighthouses. D. Ancillary: elections to the Dominion Legislature, offences, statistics, and the jurisdiction of courts over those matters, without conferring, except with the Ruler’s consent, powers on courts other than those ordinarily exercising jurisdiction in the State.

Clause 4 ties the accession to the assurance that a later agreement between the Governor-General and the Ruler on the administration of Dominion laws in the State shall have effect. Clause 5: the terms shall not be varied by amendment of the 1935 Act or the Independence Act unless the Ruler accepts the amendment by a supplementary Instrument. Clause 6 bars compulsory acquisition of land by the Dominion Legislature; land needed is to be acquired by the Ruler at the Dominion’s expense, or transferred by him, with arbitration by the Chief Justice of India if they cannot agree.

Clause 7 says the Instrument does not commit the Ruler to any future constitution of India or fetter his discretion to enter into agreements under such a constitution. Clause 8 preserves his sovereignty over the State and, save as provided here, the powers, rights and laws then in force. Clause 9: he executes the Instrument on behalf of the State, including his heirs and successors.

The Instrument contains no plebiscite clause. Mountbatten’s covering letter to Hari Singh, about a “reference to the people” once order was restored, is a separate text. The American memorandum of 6 February 1950 (FRUS), which doubted whether the signature finally determined the State’s future, is a later opinion, not a 1947 clause. Article 370 of India’s Constitution, the UNCIP resolutions and the 2019 changes are later instruments and decisions.

Image: Hari Niwas, the Jammu palace of the signatory; Harsh25, 2012; CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: Instrument of Accession (Jammu and Kashmir). Treaty text: Instrument of Accession of Jammu and Kashmir State, 26 October 1947.