Article by Maj. Gen. Goverdhan Singh Jamwal, AVSM (Retd.)
Today, when we proudly call Kashmir the “Crown of India,” we often remember the beauty of the Valley, the snow peaks, and the history that binds it to the nation. Yet the truth is that this crown might never have remained part of India had it not been for the courage of one officer and a
small band of Dogra soldiers who chose sacrifice over surrender in October 1947.
That officer was Brigadier Rajendra Singh Jamwal, MVC (Posthumous).
In the turbulent months following Partition, the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir stood at the centre of a dangerous geopolitical contest. Its ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, faced mounting pressure as the newly created dominions of India and Pakistan struggled to shape the future of the subcontinent.
Then, on 22 October 1947, the crisis erupted. Thousands of tribal raiders — commonly known as kabailis — poured into Kashmir from the northwest. They were not merely irregular tribesmen. Historical accounts indicate that the invading columns were supported and guided by elements linked to the Pakistani establishment, turning the assault into a coordinated invasion rather than a spontaneous uprising.
Their numbers were overwhelming. Nearly 6,000 raiders, armed and motivated by the promise of plunder, advanced rapidly through the frontier towns toward Srinagar.
The road to the Valley lay dangerously open.
Against this advancing tide stood a force so small that, on paper, resistance seemed impossible. Brigadier Rajendra Singh MVC (Posth.) gathered roughly one hundred Dogra soldiers of the Jammu and Kashmir State Forces. These men understood the scale of the danger. They also understood the order they had received.
According to historical accounts, Maharaja Hari Singh instructed his Chief of Staff to “hold the enemy till the last man and the last round.”
It was not merely a military directive. It was a call to sacrifice.
Brigadier Rajendra Singh and his soldiers moved swiftly toward the advancing raiders along the road to Uri — the gateway to Srinagar. Their objective was not victory in the conventional sense. Facing thousands with barely a hundred men, victory was impossible.
Their mission was far more crucial: to delay the invaders long enough to save the Valley.
The Dogra soldiers fought a series of desperate rearguard battles in the rugged terrain. Bridge was blown up to slow the enemy’s advance. Defensive positions were improvised along the narrow mountain roads. Small groups of soldiers held off vastly larger formations, buying hour after hour with extraordinary courage.
For nearly 4 critical days, Brigadier Rajender Singh and his men delayed the raiders’ march toward Srinagar.
Those hours would change the course of history.
During this brief but decisive window, Maharaja Hari Singh signed the historic Instrument of Accession of Jammu and Kashmir, formally bringing the state into the Union of India. The decision enabled the Indian government to send troops to defend the valley.
On 27th October 1947, Indian soldiers were airlifted into Srinagar in one of the most dramatic military operations of independent India. Had the invaders reached the Srinagar airfield earlier, that airlift might never have taken place.
The defence of Kashmir could have collapsed before it even began.
Instead, the delay created by Brigadier Rajendra Singh’s small force ensured that the Valley remained beyond the invaders’ grasp.
In the fierce fighting that followed, the Brigadier was mortally wounded. He died as he had fought — leading his men and honouring the order he had accepted.
For his extraordinary courage, he was posthumously awarded the Maha Vir Chakra — one of India’s highest decorations for bravery.
Yet the scale of his contribution goes far beyond a single medal.
Many historians and military observers have since recognised that the defence of Kashmir truly began with Rajinder Singh’s stand. Without his delaying action, Srinagar might have fallen before Indian troops could arrive.
In later years, Karan Singh himself described Brig. Rajendra Singh as the “Saviour of Kashmir.” It was a description that captured the magnitude of what those hundred Dogra soldiers achieved against overwhelming
odds.
And yet, despite the magnitude of this sacrifice, Brigadier Rajendra Singh’s story is not widely known across the country. Generations of Indians have grown up learning about the larger political story of Kashmir but rarely about the officer whose courage first halted the invasion.
This absence from national memory is striking. For when the history of India’s defence is written, Brig. Rajendra Singh’s stand ranks alongside the great acts of battlefield heroism that define the nation’s
military tradition.
Indeed, one might argue that if Kashmir is today known as the crown of India, it is because Brig. Rajender Singh and his Dogra soldiers ensured that the crown was never lost.
Their sacrifice preserved the time required for political decisions to be taken, for reinforcements to arrive, and for the Valley to remain within the Indian Union.
In that sense, Brig. Rajendra Singh’s contribution is not merely regional or military. It is national.
India has honoured many of its greatest sons with the nation’s highest civilian decoration, the Bharat Ratna. Such honours recognise individuals whose service altered the destiny of the nation.
Few acts of courage in independent India had consequences as profound as the stand made by Brigadier Rajendra Singh in October 1947.
Recognising him with the Bharat Ratna would, therefore, not simply honour a soldier. It would acknowledge a defining moment in India’s history, the moment when a hundred Dogra soldiers stood against 6000 kabailies
and refused to yield.
Their sacrifice bought the time that saved Srinagar. In doing so, they preserved Kashmir for India.
That is why Brigadier Rajendra Singh MVC (Posth.) deserves to be remembered not only as a decorated officer of the Jammu and Kashmir State Forces, but as something far greater. The legacy of Brig. Rajendra Singh MVC (Posth.) and his Dogra soldiers thus live on in the ranks of the Indian Army itself. He was and remains the “Saviour of Kashmir”.
