Srinagar, Aug. 13 -- By Dr. Harjeet Singh

Kashmir's chequered history keeps returning to one test: whether a ruler shows up when a crisis strikes.

Colonel Mihan Singh passed that test in April 1834, setting a standard few administrators since have matched.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh sent him to Srinagar because reports of suffering had grown too loud to dismiss.

The valley had spent years under drought and famine, its economy gutted, its people scattered or dying.

When Mihan Singh reached the city, he found streets without light, fields without livestock, a population undone by hunger.

Historian accounts describe him unable to eat for three days after witnessing the scene firsthand.

That detail matters as evidence: he understood, immedi...