Patel’s Offer of Exchanging Kashmir for Hyderabad

Abstract

In a seminar organised by the Institute of Regional Studies, Islamabad on October 27-28, 1998, one of the Indian participants Prof. Umma Singh of Jawahar Lal University said that Gandhi, Nehru and Patel offered to exchange Hyderabad state for Kashmir but Pakistan did not accept the offer.1 Dr. Nasim Hasan Shah, the former Chief Justice of Pakistan, who was presiding over the session challenged Prof. Singh or any one else to provide proof of such an offer. He characterised it a figment of imagination rather than part of written and sober history. Some preliminary evidence detailed below suggests that such an offer was made at a number of times, though by Patel alone, and was ignored or rejected by Pakistani leaders.