Bhimber

• 1. The Door to Kashmir

  ›

  Bhimber is known as Baab-e-Kashmir, the Door to Kashmir. About 47 kilometers southeast of Mirpur, the town occupies the narrow corridor between Pakistan proper and the Jammu region of Indian-administered Kashmir. Every overland route from the Punjab plains into the Kashmir Valley passed through this point. That geography made Bhimber a recurring presence in the records of empires across several centuries. A single royal house held it as their capital for well over four centuries. What they built there, and how those arrangements eventually changed, are the questions this documentary follows. The town sits in a valley where the climate is classified as warm and temperate. Temperatures reach their annual peak in June. The wettest months of July and August bring an average yearly rainfall of 974 millimeters.

• 2. The Chibhal Dynasty

  ›

  The Chibhal dynasty made Bhimber their capital in 1400 and held it for 456 years, until 1856. That tenure required active defense. In 1486, Raja Howns of Bhimber, also recorded in the sources as Hans, faced an army from the Punjab attempting to push through town. He defeated it.

  By around 1595, the Mughal administrative compendium known as the Ain-i Akbari had catalogued Bhimber as a mahal within the Lahore Subah province. A mahal was a standard administrative subdivision. The compilers placed it within a sub-region called the Jech Doab. The assessed revenue attached to Bhimber in that record was 1,200,000 dams, a substantial figure by the standards of the survey. What made the entry notable was an absence. Unlike many localities recorded at comparable revenue levels, Bhimber was not listed as contributing troops to the Mughal army. The reasons for that exception are not spelled out in the text.

  The Ain-i Akbari captured one dimension of Bhimber's importance. The personal accounts of Mughal emperors who traveled through on their way to Srinagar captured something else entirely.

• 3. Emperors and Cartographers

  ›

  Jahangir's memoir, the Tuzk-e-Jahangiri, names Bhimber among the places the emperor encountered during his reign. He was not the only Mughal ruler to make the journey. The emperors traveled frequently to the Kashmir Valley, and the route from the Punjab plains passed through Bhimber each time. The Mughals used the town as their standard staging point before the road entered the mountain terrain leading toward Srinagar.

  In 1665, the Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu published the Atlas Maior. Bhimber's name appears on page 19 of that work. Blaeu's atlas was among the most detailed cartographic projects of the 17th century. Its inclusion of Bhimber reflects the town's consistent presence in travel records of the period.

  The Mughals' interest in Bhimber outlasted their empire. By the early 19th century, a new set of powers was drawing lines around the same territory.

• 4. Inheritance and Exile

  ›

  Around 1822, the Chibhal territory, including Bhimber and Poonch, was granted as a jagir to Raja Dhian Singh of the Dogra dynasty. Dhian Singh was the brother of Maharaja Gulab Singh, under whose authority the region had come. A jagir was a feudal land grant: the holder collected revenues at the pleasure of a superior authority.

  The death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh destabilized the Sikh court and set off a period of factional violence. Dhian Singh was murdered in the intrigue that followed. After that upheaval, the British established the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir under their suzerainty. The jagir arrangement was carried forward within the new order. Dhian Singh's sons, Moti Singh and Jawahir Singh, were recognized as Rajas of their inherited territories.

  In 1852, the brothers came into open dispute. The Punjab Board of Revenue adjudicated the quarrel. Moti Singh was awarded Poonch. Jawahir Singh received Bhimber, along with Mirpur and Kotli.

  In 1859, Maharaja Ranbir Singh accused Jawahir Singh of treacherous conspiracy. Ranbir Singh had succeeded Gulab Singh and reigned from 1857 to 1885. The British agreed with the accusation. Jawahir Singh was forced into exile in Ambala. Ranbir Singh paid him an annual stipend of Rs. 100,000 until his death. Jawahir Singh left no heirs, and the territory passed entirely to Ranbir Singh.

  The appropriated land was organized as the Bhimber district in 1860. In the decade before 1911, the administrative seat shifted to Mirpur, and the district took Mirpur's name. Bhimber remained a tehsil headquarters until 1947, with a predominantly Hindu population drawn mainly from the Mahajan community. The district that moved its seat to Mirpur before 1911 now bears Bhimber's own name.