Ram Chandra Kak was the last Pandit Prime Minister of the princely state of Kashmir and was arrested by Maharaja Hari Singh because he resigned his post on the eve of Independence. In an email interview, Siddharth Kak of ‘Surabhi’ fame, talks about Love, Exile, Redemption: The Saga of Kashmir’s Last Pandit Prime Minister and his English Wife, a biographical memoir he co-authored with Lila Kak Bhan. The English wife is Margaret Mary Allcock (also known as Bended), mother of Lila Kak Bhan, and step grandmother of Siddharth Kak. RCK, or Bhaiji, and Kak’s grandfather, may have been the Prime Minister, but is a forgotten figure, and the authors wrote the book, after researching her letters, diaries and his unpublished memoirs, to keep alive his memory. Edited excerpts:
