From late August/early September, His Royal Highness, Maharaja Hari Singh, was willing (and tried to!) accede to India. The ineptness of the Indian government and the desperate refusal to accept his accession till he gave away his kingdom to Sheikh Abdullah is the cause of PoJK.
Maharaja Hari Singh was a genuine Indian patriot (which is one reason why the Brits loathed him). He refused very handsome offers from the Pakistanis (including huge internal autonomy in J&K) to try to accede to India. The way India treated him is abominable, to say the least.
Maharaja Hari Singh got several assurances from the Muslim Conference of Jammu, the rulers of Hunza, Chitral, etc, that they would remain totally loyal to him if he acceded to Pakistan. He also withstood threats from them to invade his kingdom if he refused. Still, he stood away.
And how did India treat him? Abominably. That is the only word to describe what was done to him. Nehru and Patel just played the `good cop, bad cop' on him to force him to submit to the most atrocious and humiliating conditions. That, I guess, is the reward of patriotism.
