Indira Gandhi imprisoned Jaipur’s Rajmata Gayatri Devi during 1975 Emergency due to…, launched treasure hunt for Mughal gold, stirred uproar in Pakistan because…
Jaigarh Fort Treasure: The 1975 Emergency is arguably one of the darkest phases in the history of post-Independence India as the Indira Gandhi government crushed dissent with an iron fist, suspended and violated civil liberties and freedoms, muzzled free press, and jailed political opponents across the country.
Among those political opponents imprisoned under false cases was Rajmata Gayatri Devi, the former titular ‘Maharani’ of Jaipur, who had emerged victorious against Congress candidates in three Lok Sabha elections.
However, Gayatri Devi’s imprisonment was only the beginning of a larger plan by the Indira Gandhi regime to hunt for a fabled Mughal-era treasure at the Jaigarh Fort in Jaipur. Shortly after Gayatri’s arrest, a treasure-hunt that involved the Army, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Income Tax Department, and the Rajasthan Police, was launched by the central government.
The legend of Mughal emperor Akbar’s treasure
According to legend, in 1581 AD, Mughal emperor Akbar had deployed Raja Man Singh I of Jaipur, one of his most trusted commanders, on a military campaign to the northwest frontier, and returned from Kabul with massive cache of gold, jewels, and other valuables. Man Singh, as the story goes, stashed it in Jaigarh fort.
Though Man Singh was fiercely loyal, historians believe that he did not inform the emperor of the treasure he had brought back from Kabul, and instead hid away the wealth, allegedly within the water tanks or chambers around the Amber and Jaigarh forts in Jaipur. This legend was later bolstered by Arabian text, Haft Tilismat-e-Amberi, which spoke of the “seven magical treasuries of Amber”.
“Raja Man Singh I, one of the greatest generals in India’s medieval history, is said to have brought a huge amount of wealth from his Kabul expedition (1581–1587). The wealth was stored in no other fort than the Jaigarh,” RS Khangarot and PS Nathawat write in their 1990 book “Jaigarh, The Invincible Fort of Amber”.
Indira Gandhi’s hunt for Mughal gold
While the British colonials had also searched for the fabled treasure in the past, it was the Indira Gandhi regime during the 1975 Emergency that launched full-scale treasure hunt for Man Singh’s legendary treasure. Equipped with modern excavation equipment, the entire might of the state, with Army helicopters and ground troops, descended upon Jaipur’s Jaigarh Fort.
As Gayatri Devi spent more than five months in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, Indira Gandhi’s forces raided Jaigarh Fort in search of the legendary treasure, even as her son and heir apparent, Sanjay Gandhi, also paid a visit to the site.
“As army helicopters would fly in and out of the fort, speculation about the treasure being found intensified, which was further fuelled by the visit of Indira’s heir apparent Sanjay Gandhi on a chopper. The Jaigarh Fort was dug up and ravaged,” writes senior journalist Shams Taahir Khan.
Pakistan wants its ‘share’
Meanwhile, amid speculations that the Indira Gandhi government had succeeded in retrieving the treasure, Pakistan also laid claim to the Mughal-era gold. In a letter addressed to Indira Gandhi in August 1976, Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto asked for his country’s share of the purported treasure.
“I am writing to you about the treasure which is being unearthed in Jaipur under your Government’s orders… I would urge you to remain cognisant of Pakistan’s claim to its due share of this wealth…” Bhutto wrote.
Months later, the Indian Prime Minister in her reply said that Pakistan has no claim on the treasure, citing legal experts. “I had asked our legal experts to give careful consideration to the claim you made on behalf of Pakistan. They are of the clear opinion that the claim has no legal basis,” Indira Gandhi wrote.
Did Indira Gandhi find Man Singh’s treasure?
While its difficult to sift the truth amid a sea of conspiracy theories surrounding the treasure, experts believe that some treasure was indeed found inside the Jaigarh Fort, but not anywhere near what the government had expected. “Indira Gandhi officially informed that no treasure was found in the Jaigarh Fort. Just 230 kg of silver was found,” Shams Taahir Khan is quoted as saying.
Notably, several moves by the Indira Gandhi regime during the five-month long treasure hunt that ended in November 1976 have raised suspicions about the the volume of treasure found in the Jaipur fort. For example, the Delhi-Jaipur highway was closed for traffic for day during which 50-60 trucks were seen moving from Jaipur to Delhi, according to a Crime Tak report.
According to one theory, there is a secret tunnel linking the Jaigarh and Amber forts, while another, citing a man who claimed to be a part of the operation, claims that the treasure “shipped to Delhi in an army convoy”. Other theories claims the treasure being melted, shipped to Swiss vaults, or quietly used.
The ‘curse’ of Jaigarh treasure
There have also been legends claiming that the treasure itself being ‘cursed’, with Gayatri Devi claiming in later interviews that the fate of Sanjay Gandhi and Indira Gandhi, was directly linked to the Jaigarh treasure curse.
Nevertheless, cursed or not, the legend of Jaigarh fort treasure continues to intrigue people, even as we may never know the complete story about whether it was actually found or the Indira Gandhi regime’s effort was a mere “wild goose hunt”, as Khangarot and Nathawat note in the last chapter of their book.
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