The last Hindu king of Pakistan. The name Amarkot is known…

They have always maintained friendly relations with the rulers. The Mughal court and the Rana of Amarkot had special respect because Emperor Akbar was born in the shelter of Amarkot Raj. They did not even have to attend court regularly.

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Dara Shikohar provided Rana supplies to Amarkot during his expedition to Kandahar.
But another reason why the name of this Amarkot is inextricably linked with the history of the subcontinent is the partition of the country.
Sodha is the family name of the Maharajas of..

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Amarkot,They were originally known as Sodha Rajputs. Despite possessing a very small kingdom, he was far ahead in terms of wealth and honor. During the British rule, Rana Ratan Singh led the anti-British movement in Sindh. In 1753, the British occupied the state of Amarkot,
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which was his and his ancestral home, and hanged Rana Ratan Singh on a high platform on the walls of Amarkot fort. It hangs in front for a few days. Even today, a folk song called "Mor tor tilaya rana" is very popular in Sindhi language.
After the capture of the fort by the
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British, the next Rana Jagir Sodha and his family moved 12 km from the fort. He started living in a pink mansion with four rooms of 42 rooms away. The present Rana still lives there. After the country became independent,the government of Pakistan took possession of the fort.
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There is a museum inside the fort. At present Amarkot state belongs to Mithi district.
In 1946,Jawaharlal Nehru went to Amarkot to invite the then Maharaja Rana Arjun Singh to join the Congress. At that time Amarkot had a population of 12,000 Hindus which was 90% of the
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the total population of Amarkot at that time. Rana then joined the Muslim League under Jinnah's influence. The Congress persuaded him in various ways not to join the Muslim League, but to no avail because Rana said at the time that his kingdom was geographically surrounded
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..by Muslim territory. So it would be better for him to join the Muslim League.
In fact, the reason behind Rana joining the Muslim League was different. The Maharaja of Jodhpur had a perpetual hostile relationship with the Rana of Amarkot from the twelfth century onwards.
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It is said that the Rana of Amarkot once took off the turban of the envoy of Jodhpur which was quite disrespectful. Since then there was enmity between the two Rajput kings for hundreds of years. When VP Menon approached Rana Chander Singh Sodhar of Amarkot with the
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Instrument of Accession, he first asked which country Jodhpur had joined. Speaking of Menon's India, he said he would join Pakistan without further ado. Amarkot then moved to Pakistan as the only Hindu Rajput state.
During the war on the western battlefield in 1971,
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the Indian army was able to reach 20 km from Amarkot. Many at the time thought that the Indian army might capture Amarkot. Although Rana played a neutral role at that time. Many Hindus crossed the border into India at that time. Indian troops did not capture Amarkot later.
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After the war,Zulfikar Ali Bhutto requested the Rana to bring back those who had fled to India. Later,many returned.
Rana Chander Singh Sodha is a very conservative person personally and he even adheres to the caste system very well even though he maintained perfect
Harmony
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in his area and he was a very good friend of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. The Maharaja and Bhutto of Amarkot were the largest landowners in the Indus. Rana Chandra is the only Member of Parliament to have won the largest and ever overwhelming majority in the history of Pakistan.
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He has been elected Member of Parliament seven times. He also served as agriculture minister in Bhutto's cabinet. He was nominated by Benazir Bhutto to run for president, although he lost. He also formed a party called Pakistan Hindu Party which had the Gerua flag
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emblazoned with the logo of Om and Trishul in between. But later, as the party was not accepted, he rejoined the Pakistan People's Party. During Ziaul Haque's time, a military jeep collided with a shop in his area and the shopkeeper was injured. The captain in the jeep
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Refused to pay the shopkeeper's compensation. Ziaul Haque later heard everything and compensated the shopkeeper.
His son Hamir Singh Sodha was also the Minister of Agriculture in the Sindh Provincial Council and is currently the Member of Parliament for Pakistan.

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He married into the royal family and married his three daughters to the royal family of Jaipur, Bikaner. Hamir Singh's son Kanwar Karani Singh Sodha married Padmini Singh Rathore, another member of the Jaipur royal family in 2015. About 500 bridesmaids came from..
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.. Pakistan at that time.

References:
1. Desai, Hari. (April 18, 2017). Merger of a Hindu State Amarkot with Pak.
2. Siddiqui, Taha. (2015, 16 January). Footprints: Once upon a time in Umerkot.
3. Debas, Maninder. (March 6, 2017). Here Is The Story Of Umerkot.

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