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Kashmir: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Kashmir
The word Kashmir is thought to have been derived from Sanskrit, yet a popular local etymology suggests it means land desiccated from water, a name that seems to contradict the region's reputation as a paradise of lakes and rivers. This northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent has been a center of Hinduism and later Buddhism during the first half of the first millennium, before becoming a Muslim-ruled state in 1320 when Rinchan Shah became the first Muslim ruler. The region's history is a tapestry woven from diverse threads, including the Hindu dynasties that ruled until 1346 and the subsequent Muslim rule under the Mughal Empire from 1586 to 1751. The Kashmir Valley, once a spiritual heartland, has since become a geopolitical flashpoint, with its fate intertwined with the rise and fall of empires from the Sikh Empire to the British Crown. The ancient Greeks called the region Kasperia, and the earliest text to directly mention the name Kashmir is in Ashtadhyayi written by the Sanskrit grammarian Pānini during the 5th century BC, who called the people of Kashmir Kashmirikas. This ancient heritage stands in stark contrast to the modern reality of a region divided among three countries, where the political boundaries drawn in the 19th and 20th centuries have created a legacy of conflict that continues to shape the lives of millions.
The Sikh And The Maharaja
In 1819, the Kashmir Valley passed from the control of the Durrani Empire of Afghanistan to the conquering armies of the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh of the Punjab, ending four centuries of Muslim rule. The Kashmiris initially welcomed the new Sikh rulers, but the Sikh governors turned out to be hard taskmasters, enacting anti-Muslim laws that included handing out death sentences for cow slaughter and closing down the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar. High taxes under the Sikhs had depopulated large tracts of the countryside, allowing only one-sixteenth of the cultivable land to be cultivated, and many Kashmiri peasants migrated to the plains of the Punjab. However, after a famine in 1832, the Sikhs reduced the land tax to half the produce of the land and began to offer interest-free loans to farmers, making Kashmir the second highest revenue earner for the Sikh Empire. The state of Jammu, which had been on the ascendant after the decline of the Mughal Empire, came under the sway of the Sikhs in 1770 and was fully conquered by Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1808. Gulab Singh, then a youngster in the House of Jammu, enrolled in the Sikh troops and, by distinguishing himself in campaigns, gradually rose in power and influence. In 1822, he was anointed as the Raja of Jammu, and along with his able general Zorawar Singh Kahluria, he conquered and subdued Rajouri, Kishtwar, Suru valley, Kargil, Ladakh, and Baltistan, thereby surrounding the Kashmir Valley. He became a wealthy and influential noble in the Sikh court, setting the stage for the creation of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The word Kashmir is thought to have been derived from Sanskrit, yet a popular local etymology suggests it means land desiccated from water. The earliest text to directly mention the name Kashmir is in Ashtadhyayi written by the Sanskrit grammarian Pānini during the 5th century BC, who called the people of Kashmir Kashmirikas.
When did Kashmir become a Muslim-ruled state?
Kashmir became a Muslim-ruled state in 1320 when Rinchan Shah became the first Muslim ruler. The region remained under Muslim rule until 1819 when the Kashmir Valley passed from the control of the Durrani Empire of Afghanistan to the conquering armies of the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh of the Punjab.
Who created the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir?
The princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was created by the British after the first defeat of the Sikhs in 1846 as a reward to Gulab Singh, a former official who had sided with the British. Gulab Singh became a wealthy and influential noble in the Sikh court and was anointed as the Raja of Jammu in 1822 before acquiring the Vale of Kashmir through treaties concluded in 1846.
When did the Kashmir insurgency cause the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits?
The Kashmiri Pandits underwent a complete exodus in the 1990s due to the Kashmir insurgency. Approximately 100,000 of the total Kashmiri Pandit population of 140,000 left the valley during that decade, with other authors suggesting a higher figure ranging from the entire population of over 150 thousand to 300 thousand.
What is the current territorial division of the Kashmir region?
The Kashmir region is divided among three countries in a territorial dispute, with Pakistan controlling the northwest portion, India controlling the central and southern portion, and the People's Republic of China controlling the northeastern portion. India controls about half the area of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, which comprises Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, while Pakistan controls a third of the region, divided into two provinces, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
When was the state of Jammu and Kashmir bifurcated by India?
The state of Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated on the 5th of August 2019, when its limited autonomy was revoked. Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are now administered by India as union territories, having formed a single state until that date.
In 1845, the First Anglo-Sikh War broke out, and Gulab Singh contrived to hold himself aloof until the battle of Sobraon in 1846, when he appeared as a useful mediator and the trusted advisor of Sir Henry Lawrence. Two treaties were concluded, and by the second, the British made over to Gulab Singh for 75 lakhs all the hilly or mountainous country situated to the east of the Indus and the west of the Ravi, i.e., the Vale of Kashmir. The Princely State of Kashmir and Jammu, as it was first called, combined disparate regions, religions, and ethnicities, with Ladakh being ethnically and culturally Tibetan and its inhabitants practicing Buddhism, and Jammu having a mixed population of Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs. In the heavily populated central Kashmir valley, the population was overwhelmingly Muslim, mostly Sunni, but there was also a small but influential Hindu minority, the brahmin Kashmiri Pandits. To the northeast, sparsely populated Baltistan had a population ethnically related to that of Ladakh, but which practiced Shia Islam. To the north, also sparsely populated, the Gilgit Agency was an area of diverse, mostly Shia groups, and to the west, the Punch was populated mostly by Muslims of a different ethnicity than that of the Kashmir valley. After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, in which Kashmir sided with the British, and the subsequent assumption of direct rule by Great Britain, the princely state of Kashmir came under the suzerainty of the British Crown. In the British census of India of 1941, Kashmir registered a Muslim majority population of 77%, a Hindu population of 20%, and a sparse population of Buddhists and Sikhs comprising the remaining 3%.
The Partition And The Plebiscite
Ranbir Singh's grandson Hari Singh, who had ascended the throne of Kashmir in 1925, was the reigning monarch in 1947 at the conclusion of British rule of the subcontinent and the subsequent partition of the British Indian Empire into the newly independent Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. Kashmir was neither as large nor as old an independent state as Hyderabad; it had been created rather off-handedly by the British after the first defeat of the Sikhs in 1846, as a reward to a former official who had sided with the British. The Himalayan kingdom was connected to India through a district of the Punjab, but its population was 77 percent Muslim, and it shared a boundary with Pakistan. Hence, it was anticipated that the maharaja would accede to Pakistan when the British paramountcy ended on the 14th and the 15th of August 1947. When he hesitated to do this, Pakistan launched a guerrilla onslaught meant to frighten its ruler into submission. Instead, the Maharaja appealed to Mountbatten, and the governor-general agreed on the condition that the ruler accede to India. Indian soldiers entered Kashmir and drove the Pakistani-sponsored irregulars from all but a small section of the state. The United Nations was then invited to mediate the quarrel, and the UN mission insisted that the opinion of Kashmiris must be ascertained, while India insisted that no referendum could occur until all of the state had been cleared of irregulars. In the last days of 1948, a ceasefire was agreed under UN auspices, but since the plebiscite demanded by the UN was never conducted, relations between India and Pakistan soured, and eventually led to two more wars over Kashmir in 1965 and 1999.
The Line Of Control
The region is divided among three countries in a territorial dispute, with Pakistan controlling the northwest portion, India controlling the central and southern portion, and the People's Republic of China controlling the northeastern portion. India controls about half the area of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, which comprises Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, while Pakistan controls a third of the region, divided into two provinces, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are administered by India as union territories, and they formed a single state until the 5th of August 2019, when the state was bifurcated, and its limited autonomy was revoked. The eastern region of the former princely state of Kashmir is also involved in a boundary dispute that began in the late 19th century and continues into the 21st century. Although some boundary agreements were signed between Great Britain, Afghanistan, and Russia over the northern borders of Kashmir, China never accepted these agreements, and China's official position has not changed following the communist revolution of 1949 that established the People's Republic of China. By the mid-1950s, the Chinese army had entered the north-east portion of Ladakh, and by 1956, 57, they had completed a military road through the Aksai Chin area to provide better communication between Xinjiang and western Tibet. India's belated discovery of this road led to border clashes between the two countries that culminated in the Sino-Indian War of October 1962. The region is one of the most militarized zones in the world, with the Line of Control, agreed to in 1972, dividing the Indian- and Pakistani-administered portions, although neither country recognizes it as an international boundary.
Mountains And Rivers
The Kashmir region lies between latitudes 32° and 36° N, and longitudes 74° and 80° E, and has an area of 222,236 square kilometers. It is bordered to the north and east by China, to the northwest by Afghanistan, to the west by Pakistan, and to the south by India. The topography of Kashmir is mostly mountainous, traversed mainly by the Western Himalayas, and the Himalayas terminate in the western boundary of Kashmir at Nanga Parbat, the ninth-highest mountain on Earth. Kashmir is traversed by three rivers, namely the Indus, the Jhelum, and the Chenab, which divide the region into three valleys separated by high mountain ranges. The Indus valley forms the north and north-eastern portion of the region, which includes bare and desolate areas of Baltistan and Ladakh. The upper portion of the Jhelum valley forms the proper Vale of Kashmir, surrounded by high mountain ranges. The Chenab valley forms the southern portion of the Kashmir region, with its denuded hills towards the south. High altitude lakes are frequent at high elevations, and lower down in the Vale of Kashmir, there are many freshwater lakes and large areas of swamplands, which include Wular Lake, Dal Lake, and Hokersar near Srinagar. To the north and northeast, beyond the Great Himalayas, the region is traversed by the Karakoram mountains, and to the northwest lies the Hindu Kush mountain range. The Karakoram is the most heavily glaciated part of the world outside the polar regions, and the Siachen Glacier and the Biafo Glacier rank as the world's second and third longest glaciers outside the polar regions. Karakoram is home to four eight-thousander mountain peaks, with K2, the second-highest peak in the world at 8,611 meters.
Fauna And Flora
Kashmir has a recorded forest area of 19,385 square kilometers, along with some national parks and reserves. The forests vary according to the climatic conditions and the altitude, ranging from the subtropical deciduous forests in the foothills of Jammu and Muzaffarabad to the temperate forests throughout the Vale of Kashmir and to the alpine grasslands and high altitude meadows in Gilgit-Baltistan and Ladakh. The Kashmir region has four well-defined zones of vegetation in the tree growth, due to the elevation difference, including the Phulai and Olive Zone, the Chir Pine Zone, the Blue Pine Zone, and the Birch Zone. Kashmir is often referred to as a beauty spot for the medicinal and herbaceous flora in the Himalayas, with hundreds of different species of wild flowers recorded in the alpine meadows of the region. The botanical garden and the tulip gardens of Srinagar, built in the Zabarwans, grow 300 breeds of flora and 60 varieties of tulips, respectively, and the latter is considered Asia's largest Tulip Garden. The Kashmir region is home to several rare animal species, many of which are protected by sanctuaries and reserves. The Dachigam National Park in the Valley is home to the last viable population of Kashmir stag and the largest population of black bear in Asia. In Gilgit-Baltistan, the Deosai National Park is designated to protect the largest population of Himalayan brown bears in the western Himalayas. Snow leopards are found in high density in the Hemis National Park in Ladakh, and the region is home to musk deer, markhor, leopard cat, jungle cat, red fox, jackal, Himalayan wolf, serow, Himalayan yellow-throated marten, long-tailed marmot, Indian crested porcupine, Himalayan mouse-hare, langur, and Himalayan weasel. At least 711 bird species are recorded in the valley alone, with 31 classified as globally threatened species.
The Exile And The Economy
The Kashmiri Pandits, the only Hindus of the Kashmir valley, who had stably constituted approximately 4 to 5% of the population of the valley during Dogra rule, underwent a complete exodus in the 1990s due to the Kashmir insurgency. According to numerous authors, approximately 100,000 of the total Kashmiri Pandit population of 140,000 left the valley during that decade, with other authors suggesting a higher figure, ranging from the entire population of over 150 thousand to 300 thousand. The economy of Kashmir is centered around agriculture, with traditionally the staple crop of the valley being rice, which formed the chief food of the people. In addition, Indian corn, wheat, barley, and oats were also grown, and given its temperate climate, it is suited for crops like asparagus, artichoke, seakale, broad beans, scarletrunners, beetroot, cauliflower, and cabbage. Fruit trees are common in the valley, and the cultivated orchards yield pears, apples, peaches, and cherries. Historically, Kashmir became known worldwide when Cashmere wool was exported to other regions and nations, and Kashmiris are well adept at knitting and making Pashmina shawls, silk carpets, rugs, kurtas, and pottery. Saffron, too, is grown in Kashmir, and Srinagar is known for its silver-work, papier-mâché, wood-carving, and the weaving of silk. The economy was badly damaged by the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, which, as of the 8th of October 2005, resulted in over 70,000 deaths in the Pakistan-administered territory of Azad Kashmir and around 1,500 deaths in the India-administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Transport is predominantly by air or road vehicles in the region, and Kashmir has a 190-kilometer long modern railway line that started in October 2009, and was last extended in 2013, connecting Baramulla, in the western part of Kashmir, to Srinagar and Banihal.