The charges of misgovernment and treason brought against the Maharaja Ranbir Singh, was so worried and bothered with charges, evolved constant anxiety preyed on his mind.

Here are few instances he was charges sheeted as follows:
1. Maharaja was carrying on a secret correspondence with the Czar Russia in Central Asia.
2. A few years later, Captain Hayward, of the Geographical Society, was deputed by that Society to explore the Central Asian regions. Maharaja Ranbir Singh, in the presence of Sir Donald M’cLeod, late Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, pointed out the dangers of the undertaking, and advised him to give it up. But the Captain was not daunted, and Sir Donald told the Maharaja that he had nothing to fear as the Captain was going on his own responsibility. It resulted the murder of Captain Hayward o the Trans-Gilgit frontier. It may be added that Captain Hayward’s was . not a political mission, and it would, therefore, have been altogether gratuitous for the Maharaja to have arranged for his murder.
3. A Mr. Thorpe, who used to spend many of his days in Cashmere, died at Srinagar due to poisoning supposed to be Maharajas’ involvement .

4. Dr. Elmslie, a, medical missionary, died in British India after a long stay in Cashmere. The lynx-eyed opponents of the Maharaja immediately detected slow-poisoning in his death and pressed for an enquiry against Maharaja.

5. When Mr. Johnson, Joint-Commissioner of Ladakh,died at Jammu of apoplexy, the charge of poisoning was repeated again and the entrails, &c., of the deceased were sent to the Punjab for a chemical examination which ended in a verdict for the Maharaja

6. A dire famine raged in Cashmere in 1879, and it was complained that the Maharaja had ordered hundreds of men to be drowned in the Wular Lake to hide starvation from the eyes of the British Government.

Chapter IV of Robert Thorp’s Cashmere Misgovernment (published by Gulshan Books, Srinagar, edited by S.M. Hassnain, price Rs.450) is a thorough exposure of Dogra misrule. He records how the regime even gave licences to “State prostitutes”. In 1880, the Maharaja received 15-20 per cent of the revenues of his State from the earnings of his licensed prostitutes. Which other State had such a regime?

The Viceroy Lord Lytton wrote to London on February 25, 1880. “The people are systematically oppressed and depressed; the administration thoroughly rotten; the land settlement vicious; the officials corrupt and unscrupulous; and their pay in arrears. …I consider the time has come when we must decisively intervene for the rescue of a perishing population on whose behalf we certainly contracted moral obligations and responsibilities when we handed them over to the uncontrolled rule of a power alien to them in face and creed, and representing no civilisation higher than theirs.”
“Lord Cranbrook, the Secretary of State for India, tended to agree with the Viceroy. He was incensed at the treatment of the Muslim population by the Hindu Dogras, ‘It is true,’ he admitted, ‘that we are not directly responsible, but we have relations with Cashmere which would justify strong interference with their enormities and the use of a tone which ought to have its effect…. We ought to have influence to prevent the annihilation of a race whose only crime is a different religion from that of the powers in authority….’ ”
On May 23, 1885, Secretary of State for India Lord Kimberley supported the proposals for internal reform in Kashmir: “It may, indeed, be a question, whether having regard to the circumstances under which the sovereignty of the country was entrusted to the present Hindoo ruling family, the intervention of the British government on behalf of the Mahommedan population had not already been too long delayed…”

A purwana of the Maharaja’s, ordering the diabolical deed, was produced, and the ” Officer on Special Duty ” took a leading part in pressing the case against Maharaja. A large number of witnesses, who had been promised Jagirs
and rewards, were examined, matters began to assume a serious aspect, and the Maharaja’s ruin seemed inevitable,
when the men alleged to have been drowned presented themselves and the whole thing ended in miserable fiasco.
the life of the Kashmiris remained saga of poverty and oppression. Everything and everybody was taxed. Production of silk, saffron, paper, tobacco, wine, and salt, as well as the sale of grain, was the monopoly of the state. The State police ruled mercilessly. For minor offences people were thrown in jail, often without trial. As late as the 1920s it was a capital offence for a Muslim to kill a cow; later, the penalty was reduced to ten years of imprisonment and still later to seven years (Section 219 of Ranbir Penal Code).

“We find that apart from imprisonment, severe fines were imposed upon the people who were suspected to be involved in cow slaughter. Even sometimes the Dogra police burned some localities, wherein it was understood that hathai was committed, to ashes. Chakpath [a village near modern Anantnag] is still commemorative of the destruction caused by the Dogra police to those inhabitations whose inhabitants were found involved in slaughter of cows, oxen or buffaloes” ( Where Three Empires Meet