The 18 year old Monarch, Mir Ali Murad, returns to Khairpur from Cambridge, England. 12th Sep.1951.

Honour Gaurd at Faiz Palace, Khairpur.

In 1947, on the 15th of August, British paramountcy over the foreign affairs of the Princely States of India came to an end, leaving them fully independent but also surprised and unprepared. All sovereign rulers had the choice of remaining fully independent or accede to either of the newly formed dominions of India and Pakistan. The States were misled into believing that they would continue to exist in the same relations with the newly formed dominions as they did with the British Empire, if they acceded to either dominion. This they believed until the very last days before independence for India and Pakistan. It was this erroneous belief that led the vast majority of rulers to reject the proposal of a union of princely states such as the United Arab Emirates today, as put forward by the Nawab of Bhopal. After Accession however, the states lost everything except the Ex-Ruler’s titles, privileges and a privy purse which was promised to them by an agreement.

As India failed as a large centralized state in maintaining the relatively higher quality of life that the former subjects of the princely states were used to, there came a great resurgence in the popularity of the princes and they began to participate in politics. ( Even today 300 to 350 million people live below the 'poverty line' in India. The poverty line being 300 Indian Rupees or under 7 US Dollars per month! assuming those earning more than $7 a month are not poor! ) Foreseeing certain defeat in the upcoming elections, Indhira Gandhi (prime minister of India) violated the agreement made with the princes by treacherously abolishing all the privileges and privy purses on 28th December, 1971. These priviliges were guaranteed by the Government of India, and her own father Nehru, the first prime minister of India. The princes were financially destroyed as most of them had not made personal investments during their reign. Suffering great economic hardships they were forced to abandon politics. Furthermore, Bollywood movies were used as propaganda tool with great success, to villianize and discredit the princes. In Pakistan too, in 1972, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto did the same to the rulers even though they had mostly stayed away from politics. The truth was that despite all the palaces and fabulous jewels that the princes had aquired, the cost of maintaining the government along with all the state institutions including the monarchy, was significantly less then the expenditure on comparable areas by the Indian government due to a much smaller bureaucracy. This spared more revenue to be spent on public welfare then the Indian districts could muster. Commisioners, majistrates, governors, even prime ministers and presidents of India could only dream of the legitimacy the Indian Monarchs had in the eyes of their subjects.

In 1947, accession was the only feasible option because the states were given absolutely no opportunity to organize their independence and while many had excellent military forces; their defenses had been completely crippled due to fighting the powerful armies of Hitler and the axis-powers, in alliance with the British in the Second World War. Ironically, it was the British, under labour party control, that were coercing the rulers to surrender to the new successor ‘empires’ of Pakistan and India. (The Kingdom of Bhutan is the only Princely State that survives to this day).

Liaqat Ali Khan giving speech at the Investiture Ceremony of the Mir of Khairpur
The States that successfully acceded to Pakistan were; Khairpur, Bahawalpur, Swat, Dir, Amb, Chitral, and Kalat with its sub-states, between 1947 to 1949. Junagarh and Manavadar were forcefully taken over by India on the grounds that the majority of their population was Hindu. Together, these states (not including Junagarh and Manavadar) contributed one third of Pakistan’s area. (After Junagarh, Khairpur and Bahawalpur were the first States to accede simultaneously to Pakistan on the 3rd of October 1947. At a time when no other state including Baloachistan had joined Pakistan, Khairpur was essential because 1) The State bordered India; 2) Khairpur lay on the Indus River and India could easily nullify the Sukker Barrage had the State acceded to It. ( The boundary of Khairpur lies just 40 yards from the Barrage.); 3) The canals Nara and Rohri, that water southern Sindh pass through Khairpur; 4) The Railway and the Grand Trunk Road which connected the capital of that time (Karachi) with the military base in the north, passed through Khairpur).

The Eighth Sovereign of Khairpur, Mir Ali Murad Khan Talpur II (the present Ex-Ruler) acceded to Pakistan on the 3rd of October 1947 while in his minority through his Regent.

His Highness Sarkar Mir Ali Murad II, 1953. The Last Sindhi King.
Even before accession, Pakistan Day (14th August) was celebrated by Khairpur. From 1947 till mid-1955, Pakistan was a soft amalgam of the paramount State with that of the dependent Sovereign States of the Princes who enjoyed the full support and friendship of the illustrious founders of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan. The States were part of Pakistan, although autonomous and sovereign. In other words they were not administered from the federal capital of Pakistan as the provinces are today. It should be noted that like other Princely States, Khairpur had also surpassed Pakistan in practically all fields of social development. Khairpur had made it its goal to match the economic development of the West and it had made more than sufficient advances towards this goal in the period after Partition, for example:

  * The State had the first democratic elections based on universal adult franchise in Nov.1950, before they were held in Pakistan. Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, and a personal friend of the Mir of Khairpur inaugurated the Khairpur Legislative Assembly. The Mir protected this fledgling democracy from dominance by feudal forces. It was his support of Mr. Kizilbash a non-Sindhi yet progressive administrator that allowed for his election as chief minister. The young monarch even forced his own relatives to wholly follow the policies of Kizilbash. Soon afterwards, following Khairpurs example and much to the chagrin of the dictatorship of Pakistan, the rulers of Bahawalpur and Kalat introduced democracy in their countries as well.

  * The State provided better quality free health care for its citizens, far superior than that provided in Pakistan, spending over 20 times more per capita. Free health care meant free consultations with doctors, free medicine, and free operations. Even food was provided free, both for the patient and his visitors! Eminent foreign doctors were invited to train local doctors by performing operations with them.

  * It had the highest per capita expenditure on education was more than 60 times that of what was spent by Pakistan. The state spent 22% of its budget on education when Pakistan spent less than 1%. European teachers were employed to train local teachers of primary and high schools. The best and most qualified teachers were concentrated in Khairpur for college education. Primary education was compulsory while it was genuinely free up till metric, to all who came. The poorest students were provided with free books, housing, clothing and even food. After metric, scholarships were given generously. Many of these very students attained prominence not just in Khairpur but Sindh, Pakistan and abroad. Indeed, some of these very students that received free clothing and food later became ministers, chief ministers, justices and chief justices. (free education of dubious quality is just now being provided in the Punjab and still remains to become a reality in Sindh - 50 years later! ). After the merger with Pakistan this education came to an end and the children had no choice but to join the oppressive child labour force of Pakistan.

  * Adult education was given attention as well with the setting up of special schools. Furthermore, an industrial school for women was set up with a German lady as principal.

  * Khairpur had a post partition (1947-1955) revenue growth of 309% while Pakistan managed less than 30%.
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  * Khairpur had a budget per capita of Rs.67/= when Pakistan had less than Rs.20/=. At the time one, Tola (12 grams) of gold cost Rs.47/=. Despite having negligible taxes, its budget per capita was more than triple that of Pakistan.

  * It had an extremely low crime rate due to the expeditious disposal of criminal and civil cases, while there were widespread complaints about such in adjoining regions.

  * The State had a swiftly growing industrial base, which formed the main part of its revenue. It was the state’s heavy investment in its human resources through education that provided it with a concentration of skilled labour force technicians and engineers. This allowed for its industrial development as private enterprises began to invest in Khairpur as it provided the necessary workforce. Perhaps the greatest testimony of Khairpur's economic success was that there were negligible agricultural taxes such as dhull etc. despite it being deep in the rural interior of Sindh! Mir Ali Murad had personally toured Europe and chosen the machinery for industry. Khairpur had only built one industrial zone that had led to so much economic growth and welfare. It had developed a new 5 year program to build eight more industrial zones for which roads and power houses were already being built. Loans were being provided to private industry to set up in the new zones, plots of land were already taken over by private firms. God only knows what was in store for the next five year plan after that. But alas it was not to be.

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To provide information to the public, Khairpur State
published every act, and procedure of government
and judiciary. The work was not copyrighted and was
available at a nominal price and this allowed for the
preservation of its history. One such publication is
the Budget Speech 1955.
History - Khairpur-Sindh

Final Page of The Agreement Between Khairpur & Founder of Pakistan, Jinnah.