India – Indian Independence Propaganda Poem in support of Akali Jaito Morcha Sympathiser Maharajah Nabha. An original Indian Patriotic propaganda poem by MK Acharya, supporting and seeking justice for Maharajah Ripudam of Nabha, who had been exiled by the British Government. A line of the poem reads: ‘If traitor he has proved, blow him in air: the Sikh in him will gladly hail to be shot.’ In 1923, the Akalis decided to take over the Gurdwara Gangsar at Jaitu (or Jaito) in the Nabha State. The Maharaja gave them support and had been sympathetic to the Akali Movement and the Indian nationalist cause, but was deposed the British Government. When the SGPC launched an agitation, its leaders and members were arrested on the charge of sedition. He spoke on behalf of the Sikh interest and pioneered reformist legislation. Shocked by the events of the Amritsar Massacre in 1919, he later became an Indian revolutionary and publicly opposed the British, clashing with his distant cousin Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, who was a strong supporter of British rule in India. In 1923, he was forced to relinquish control of Nabha to a British administrator Ripudaman Singh agreed to leave Nabha and to settle at Dehra Dun. However, he continued to intrigue and attempt to regain control of Nabha to some degree. In 1928 he was formally deposed by the British for sedition and succeeded by his eldest son, Pratap Singh. He was stripped of his rank and titles and exiled to Kodaikanal in the Madras Presidency where he died in 1942. The poem is complimented with a signed letter from MK Acharya, who wrote to the Maharajah of Gondal after visitor Maharaja Ripudam at Kodiakanal, he writes ‘His grief moved me so greatly indeed. I have since been tempted to express my feelings in verse...I venture to hope that his Highness there will evince some kindly sympathy in the present hard lot as a brother prince.’