Robert Thorp, a young British Army officer, arrived in Kashmir as a tourist in 1865. It was the time

when British had defeated the Sikhs. The Dogra ruler Maharaja Gulab Singh, a feudal beneficiary under Sikh rule

, deceived them and helped the Britishin the war. As a war indemnity the Sikhs handed over Kashmir to British and in turn it was sold to Gulab Singh as a reward for his help. A hugely unpopular man, the Maharaja regarded Kashmir as his personal fiefdom and never gave a thought to peoples‟ aspirations, or reform and reconstruction of his state.

Foreigners required permission of the British authorities to enter Kashmir at the time. They could not stay in the Valley for more than two months. Twenty-seven-year-old Thorp stayed longer to study the appalling condition of the people of his mother‟s birthplace. He raised his voice at the time when there were severe restrictions on independent

information reaching the Government of India. He was motivated by a deep empathy for the Kashmiri people and a desire to deliver them from their miserable and disenfranchised conditions . Thorp took it on himself to inform and educate British public opinion about the situation in Kashmir by writing to the British Press. Thorp felt that the British owed a moral responsibility to Kashmiris, as it was they who had sold Kashmir to the Maharaja under the Treaty of Amritsar. He believed that public opinion was paramount to influence the government to do what was needed.