epilogue magazine, january 2011

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ISSN : 0974-5653J&K'S MONTH LY MAGAZI NE

J a m m u

, J a n u a r y 0 1 , 2

0 1 1 / V o l 5 / I s s u e 0 1 P r i c e R s . 3

0 I I P o s t a l R e g d . N o . J

K - 3 5 0 . 2

0 0 9 I I w w w . e p i l o g u e . i n

Epilogue

Has

Omar

Abdullah

Arrived?

by Prof J I G A R M O H A M M E DJammu ♦♦♦♦♦ Kashmir ♦♦♦♦♦ Ladakh

random notes on

H i s t o r y

N E W S , C U R R E N T A F F A I R S, S O C I A L S C I E N C E S

CROSS - LOC

TRADEINTERVIEWS

PREETI BAKAYA:Yesterday, today

and if it is there, a tomorrow…

ABDUL HAMEED PUNJABI

SHAKEEL QALANDER



www.epilogue.in Vol. 4 Issus 12 Epilogue, December 2010

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PROLOGUE

www.epilogue.in Vol. 4 Issus 12 Epilogue, December 2010

3

Our Resolution for 2011

Dear Reader,

As always, January is a special occa-sion for us. A time of special joy asEpilogue's anniversary coincides with

New Year eve. For you it is a time for

resolutions as how to make best of your

life in the year and for us it is time to

plan what to offer you next 12 months.In 2011, it is our fourth anniversary

and we step into fifth year with new

hopes, firm resolutions and a vision for

expanding the knowledge society in

Jammu and Kashmir and telling the restof world the best of our stories. In last

10 to 15 years Jammu and Kashmir hasseen huge expansion of print media.

There is deluge of newspapers. TheRegistrar of Newspapers puts the fig-

ures in thousands but around 460 titles

are actually reported in daily, weekly

or monthly publication cycles. At least

a dozen newspapers -both in Englishand Hindi -come from outside the

state. Epilogue is just a small drop in

this huge ocean of Press in Jammu and

Kashmir. Though we are small, we hit

stands only once a month, we operatefrom small office with a small staff but

it is our vision, we believe, which

makes us feel large enough. While we

are proud to be part of diverse and

large media community of Jammu andKashmir but we find a serious flaw with

the Press in this state. Over the years,

the Press is becoming increasingly re-

gionally chauvinistic which is a danger-ous trend for a place like Jammu and

Kashmir. It is agreed that there are

differences of opinions, perceptions

and sentiments between three regions

but the Press can play a vital role in bridg-

ing those divides. Instead, the Press ismostly catering to the regional senti-ments and therefore widening the gulfs

between Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh.

At Epilogue, bridging regional divides is

at the heart of our editorial policy. In our

state, the politics of conflict and con-flict of politics occupy major space in the

media and therefore the basics remain

unattended. While it is bit difficult for a

logistically disadvantaged monthly pub-

lication like Epilogue to attend to all is-sues of development and bring stories

from the margins but the minimum wecan offer to the readers is the basic in-

troduction to the issues that matter. Inlast four years we have focussed on key

issues month after month. As we step

into the fifth year, there is a yearlong

plan for our readers -we intend to con-

centrate more on the social sciences andpiece together the basic knowledge about

various facets of life in Jammu and Kash-

mir. Therefore the first issue of 2011 is

devoted to History. Rest of month you

will get to read on political and identi-ties, business and economy, banking and

communication, education, healthcare

and infrastructure. We hope to arm our

readers with complete set of basic knowl-

edge about Jammu and Kashmir beforeour fifth anniversary. While presenting

this first issue of New Year, we renew

our request to every reader to get in-

volved in your magazine sending yourfeedback and writing for Epilogue. Wish-

ing you very a happy New Year and happy

reading in New Year.

ZAFAR CHOUDHARY



55555

www.epilogue.in Vol. 5, Issue 01 Epilogue, January 2011

diehard abhorrent of India andhe is a darling in Kashmir. GiveOmar an anti-India agenda and

see the emergence of a new herowith sustenance guarantee fornext several decades. Then why

ask this question which no oneis comfortable with. Once youmove into Chief Minister's office,

immediately you become the topIndian agent in Kashmir. Andwhen you are pushed to the wallin Kashmir, it is safe for thepeople outside the four walls of Valley to conclude your failure.

These arguments of the consti-tutional burden apart, Omar can-not be exonerated so easily. Somemistakes have to be attributed

to him -of inheritance, lineageand complacency.

It is strongly argued thatJammu and Kashmir needs ex-perienced and politically matureleaders. If this argument is basedon the age then there can't beanything wrong than this. Before

Omar's arrival in 2009, the lastdecade saw two leaders -MuftiMohammad Sayeed and GhulamNabi Azad -becoming Chief Min-isters of Jammu and Kashmir for

first time. Farooq Abdullah wassworn in as Chief Minister fourtimes but his two first timer suc-cessors -Omar's two predeces-sors -were rated better thanAbdullah senior in terms of per-formance and seriousness. Omarbrings more advantages and el-ements of trust with him than anyof the Chief Ministers in last twodecades. He is accused of enter-ing the Chief Minister's officehands down in a smooth sail for

being grandson of SheikhMohammad Abdullah. This viewhas no strength. Unlike most of the leaders in Jammu and Kash-mir, Omar cannot be bundled asa product of circumstances. Hisway to the top office was dottedby hard struggle, experiences of

working at high positions of re-sponsibility and courage of ac-cepting defeats with humility -aquick burden of inheritance whenfather pushed him as Minister inBJP led government at Centre,

presidentship of grand old partyNational Conference at a veryyoung age, party's loss and per-sonal loss in election at family's

safe turf when he was projectedas Chief Ministerial candidate, sixyears of a humiliating role in op-position when he was not even amember of Assembly, dozens of important party leaders includingtwo Legislators breaking ranksand joining the rival ruling camp.

After having gone through all thisone doesn't need to white his hairand while away the age to con-vince people that now he is ma-ture enough to take the top job.

A question of legitimacy is alsoraised in case of Omar Abdullah.Politicians and political scientistsargue that Omar lacks the legiti-macy of mandate as the vote of 2008, in Kashmir, was for PeoplesDemocratic Party and he was im-

posed on Jammu and Kashmir bySonia Gandhi on advice of RahulGandhi and lobbying by SachinPilot. Let's take a look at the re-cent political arrangements to un-derstand the question of legiti-

macy. When Mufti MohammadSayeed of Peoples DemocraticParty was cleared by the Congressto become Chief Minister, hisparty had only 16 seats in Houseof 87 and alliance partner Con-gress had 20 seats. Interestingly,Mufti's party had no Assemblyseat at all from Jammu province.Should there have been a ques-tion that he lacked legitimacy;more so, in Jammu and Ladakh?

What is going good Post-August 2010 public engagements

have significantly increased. He is go-ing to places, meeting people and let-

ting people meet him when he is in capi-

tal. Rapport with party cadres is being

structured at personal level. Sensing thatNC President, Abdullah senior, is mostly

away in Delhi, Omar is on one-to-one

contacts with the party people. Present administrative arrangement

seems to be best of times except needfor changes at a couple of places. In most

of 2009 performers were relegated to

oblivion and people known for ineffi-ciency and biases ruled the key posts. Grip on cabinet colleagues and ad-

ministration seems to have tightened.

No reports of any usual coalition troubles

during any of the 25 cabinet meetings in

2010. Element of accountability is return-

ing, though slowly, among the security

forces. In this connection, support of

Home Minister P Chidambaram is dis-

cernible

What is not Two years was enough time to bring

the State Accountability Commission back

to life but serious thought has been

given. Chief Minister is personally but that

is not enough. Corruption is becoming

more vibrant top-down phenomenon and

there are not any visibly strong measures

to put check.

Blame has been shifted on the leaderof opposition PDP but Chief Minister still

owes an answer to his commitments as

why the government could not get a chair-person for the State Information Commis-

sion. Panchayat elections could have an

answer to many problems of dissent. No

time frame has been fixed for devolutionof powers.

As Jyoti Thotam of Times Magazine writes

in late August 2010

issue that being Chief Minister of Jammu andKashmir is world'stoughest job, Omar

seems to have learntfew lessons.

POLITICS

TWO YEARS OF OMAR



His predecessor, Ghulam NabiAzad become a Chief Ministerwhen his party had only 20 seats.National Conference returned in2008 with a far better number

and some amount of trust fromall three regions. Social media,particularly the facebook is newrage in Jammu and Kashmir.Hundreds and thousands of young and old are hooked on, en-

gaged in hot debates. In the sum-mer of 2010 while thousandspelted stones on the streets of Kashmir, no less than thousandsfired more lethal salvos throughthe facebook. A list of invectives

would cross 100 which were usedfor Omar. His real name 'OmarAbdullah' found an overwhelmingmention on almost all statusposts on August 15 with a shoeflying over him at the venue of

Independence Day parade inSrinagar's Bakshi Stadium. Hun-dreds of comments followed. APoliceman Ahad Jan became aquick hero. Father Farooq said,in a typical reaction, 'Omar hasjoined the elite group of George

Bush and P Chidambaram' whosimilar hurling earlier. As the

scene was widely televised, AhadJan introduced Omar Abdullah asa stable and mature leader whois balanced and not impulsive.While there were murmurs in thecrowd, not even once did Omarlook back to see what happened.He did not react at all as if noth-ing had happened. Only uponconclusion of his Independence

Day address, the Chief Ministersaid, 'somebody has thrown ashoe, I welcome if people throw

shoes instead of stones'. A stablebody language went off as leastwatched over picture of the year

and calm reaction on shoe throw-ing was perhaps the most under-played statement of the year. Tendays later there was another evi-dence of the arrival of OmarAbdullah: a ruthlessly unsparingreshuffle at top echelons of ad-ministration. Perhaps somepeople were parked at wrong

places and the reshuffle meanttaking all square pegs off theround tables and putting them atplaces that they deserved. Sack-ing of Works Minister Ghulam

Mohammad Saroori was anotherbold step which Chief Ministersare required to take. It involvedmore than a question of moral-ity. Saroori was reported to havecrossed lines with the Chief Min-

ister a couple of times earlier andallegations of wrongdoings in hisdepartment were taking rounds.

Omar's first year in officewas marred by a perception of inefficiency and non-serious-

ness. His weekend flights to Delhiand frequent family holidaysshowed him as a man far re-moved from the ground. Impul-sive reactions like his responseto PDP's Muzaffar Hussain Baig's

allegations in Legislative Assem-bly and errors of judgments ashe made many during protests onalleged Shopian rape and murderreflected something missingfrom key ingredients of a leadercharged with most sensitive re-

sponsibility. As Jyoti Thotam of Times Magazine writes in late Au-

gust 2010 issue that being Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmiris world's toughest job, Omarseems to have learnt few lessons.Which is why in latter half of hissecond year in office, one findsa new man in charge. That, per-haps, marks the arrival of OmarAbdullah which youth of Jammuand Kashmir would have looked

forward to. He has four years togo and the job needs him to workharder to live up to the expecta-

tions.

Whi le t here were murmurs in t he crowd, not even once did Omar look back t o see what

happened. He did not r eact at all as i f not hing had hap-

pened. Only upon conclusion

of his Independence Day address, t he Chief Minister said,' somebody has t hrown a shoe,

I welcome if people t hrow shoes i nst ead of st ones' . A

st able body l anguage went off as least wat ched over pict ure of t he year and calm react i on on shoe t hrowing was perhaps

t he most underplayed st at e-

ment of t he year.

Unli ke most of t he leaders in Jammu and

Kashmir, Omar cannot be bundled as a product

of circumst ances. His way t o the t op off ice was

dot t ed by hard st ruggle, exper iences of

working at high posi t ions of responsibil i t y and

courage of accept ing defeat s wit h humil i t y


POLITICS

TWO YEARS OF OMAR

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Not All Weekends Are SameDATELINE, NEW DELHI

EPILOGUE BUREAU

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, NEW DELHI

• Attends Chief Ministers' Conference on prices of essential commodi-

ties. Warns that Jammu and Kashmir could be headed for a drought, asks the

Centre for higher food grains allocations to meet the increased demand. Omarsaid his Government has already informed the Ministry of Consumer Affairs,

Food and Public Distribution that the requirement of food grains for distribu-

tion at affordable rates under the PDS system was much more than the cur-

rent allocation. "We in our State are heading for severe drought next summer

in view of low levels of precipitation during this winter. Fortunately, now rainand snow have arrived and we expect some respite. Talking about the steps

taken against hoarders, he said the State Government has already prescribed

stock hoarding limits for essential commodities like sugar, pulses of all vari-

eties, paddy, edible oils of all brands, edible oil seeds, rice and wheat andformed apex squads to crack down on hoarders. During 2009, the CM said3,445 inspections and 1,213 raids were conducted as a result of which 210

persons were arrested and convicted whereas 45 Fair Price Shops licences

were suspended. He said the state police has registered 449 cases, arrested

449 persons and prosecuted 227 persons under sections 3/7 of the EssentialCommodities Act, 1955 during 2009.

TUESDAY, MARCH 4, NEW DELHI

• Meets Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and apprises him of the secu-

rity situation in the state, including growing attempts of infiltration from across

the border. During the meeting, Omar complimented the Prime Minister on hisstatement after meeting Saudi Arabia King Abdullah that the gulf nation should

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 7, NEW DELHI

• Attends Chief Ministers' Conference on Internal Security. Seeks theCentre's help in formulating a new surrender policy for youths in Pakistan

administered Kashmir willing to return to the mainstream. Omar Abdullah,

who was among the first speakers at the Conference on Internal Securitychaired by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, said "to encourage more mili-tants to return to State and manage their transition to civilian life, a new

surrender and rehabilitation policy of militants is under active consideration

of my Government".

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27, JAMMU

Is in winter capital, meets people atresidence

SUNDAY, MARCH 13,GANDERBAL

Conducts extensive tour of his elec-tions constituency Ganderbal, in-spects dev works, meets deputations

SUNDAY, MARCH 20, JAMMU

Is in winter capital, meets people atresidence

SUNDAY, APRIL 17, JAMMU

Meets various delegations atresidence in Jammu

SUNDAY, JUNE 5, SRINAGAR

Inaugurates a building in Srinagar.

Expresses worries about public un-rest, cautions people against rumour

mongers, appeals for tolerance

SUNDAY, JUNE 12, LEH

Inaugurates Singhey Khabab Sindhufestival; says Ladakh to be better

connected to make it all-year desti-nation. Is accompanied by family

SUNDAY, JUNE 19, TULMULA(KASHMIR)

POLITICS

TWO YEARS OF OMAR

Chief Minister's Saturday sojourns to family in Delhi seem to have

ended. On 37 weekends of 2010 he was either meeting leaders in

Delhi or had public engagements back home.

77777



POLITICS

TWO YEARS OF OMAR

Visits Khir Bhawani on the occasionof congregation of Kashmiri Pandits,

says that many attempts had beenmade to damage this trait but people

foiled the ill designs time and againexhibiting their firm faith inKashmiriyat.


Presides over a meeting of a groupof Ministers and senior officers toreview emerging situation in Kash-mir after four youths were killing in

CRPF firing

SUNDAY, JULY 10, SRINAGAR

Amidst spiraling violence in Kashmir,spends a hectic day in Srinagar phon-

ing up leaders of various parties, in-cluding Mehbooba Mufti of PDP, to at-tend the All Party Meeting.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 7, SRINAGAR/

LEH/DELHI

Chairs a meeting in Srinagar in themorning, conducted aerial survey of

the Leh area to assess the damagesdue to flash floods; flies to Delhi

SUNDAY, AUGUST 14, SRINAGAR

Attends several meetings in the day,makes television address ahead of Independence Day. Omar announces50,000 youth to be engaged in Gov-ernment in next few months

SUNDAY, AUGUST 21, SRINAGAR

Attends meetings, meets delega-tions. Assures Sikh community of their security

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11,

SRINAGAR

One of the most violent days inSrinagar when public erupted on theeve of Eid. Omar is in Srinagar of-

use its offices with Pakistan to stop

terror elements from operating from

that country. The Chief Minister drew

Singh's attention towards the increasein attempts from across the border to

push in terrorists into the state, blam-ing it for the violent incidents in Feb-

ruary this year, official sources said.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, NEWDELHI

• Omar calls on Congress PresidentSonia Gandhi and discusses with her

political and developmental aspects

of Jammu and Kashmir. The main

agenda of meeting was to discussissue of inter-district recruitment bill

which saw some irritation within theruling Coalition partners-Congress

and National Conference. The Chief

Minister reportedly informed UPAChairperson that not only from rul-

ing National Conference Legislators,

the Coalition Government is also fac-

ing mounting pressure from the main

Opposition party in the State-People'sDemocratic Party (PDP) for imposing

ban on the inter-district recruitment.

He sought the help of Sonia Gandhi

in bringing an end to political unrest

over the issue in the State.

MONDAY, APRIL 26, NEW DELHI

• Chief Minister meets Home Minister P Chidambaram and discusses law and

order and security scenario, prevailing in Jammu and Kashmir. Spokesman

said that Omar laid a strong emphasis on strict commitment of both the state

and the central governments for upholding human rights and exhibiting zerotolerance against Human Rights violations. He mentioned that there has to

be a coordinated effort between the Paramilitary forces as well as local police

administration to deal with the security issues so that the problems are tack-

led keeping in view the local sensitivities as well. The Chief Minister during

the meeting raised the issue of vacation of the Government establishmentsby the Security forces at strategic locations in view of the improved security

situation in the State.


• Calls up Home Minister P. Chidambaram and expresses his strong concern

about the recent death of civilians allegedly by the troopers of central paramili-

tary force CRPF. According to an official spokesman, the Home Minister assured

the Chief Minister that together the Union government and the state govern-ment will deal with the situation. The Home Minister said the Union government

is committed to support the state government in its endeavor to bring peace and

order in the state and shall do everything possible in this regard.

8



POLITICS

TWO YEARS OF OMAR


fers Eid prayers at Ziarat Syed YaqoobSahib Sonawar

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, JAMMU

Reviews development works in win-ter capital, meets deputations, indi-viduals

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2, SRINAGAR

Meets scores of deputations, indi-viduals in Srinagar


Omar sees off first batch of Hajj pil-grims


Commissions Jawahar Nagar Receiv-ing Station in Srinagar, gets an im-pressive reception by the residents,first of its kinds after months of tur-moil

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, JAMMU

Is in Jammu, attends meetings,meets deputations

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18,KULGAM

Chairs meeting of District Develop-ment Board Kulgam

SATURDAY, JULY 17, NEW DELHI

• Series of meetings with Central leaders, including Prime Minister DrManmohan Singh, who assured him all help and support to overcome the

present crisis in Jammu and Kashmir. The Chief Minister began his day with

a meeting with Home Minister P Chidambaram with whom he had a detailed

discussion about the prevailing situation in the State and the steps being

taken to improve it. Also met Congress President Sonia Gandhi and discussedwith her the functioning of his Government. This round of meetings was at

the height of tension in Kashmir when speculations were rife over removal of

Omar as Chief Minister.

SUNDAY, JULY 24, NEW DELHI

• Attends National Development Council meeting in New Delhi. Reiter-ates that Jammu and Kashmir is not a problem of economics but that of

political, underlines the need for pursuing the external dialogue process and

initiating internal talks with diverse political opinion in an inclusive manner.

MONDAY, AUGUST 2, NEW DELHI

• Omar meets Prime Minister and other senior central Ministers includ-

ing Home Minister P Chidambaram while he was battling upsurge in violence

in the state. He said that the state needs a political initiative to deal with the

situation but made it clear that for that to happen a semblance of normalcy isa precursor. After meeting PM, Omar told a press conference "Jammu and

Kashmir is a political situation. It needs political handling. It requires a po-

litical package more than an economic package". By political package, the

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, NEW DELHI

• Meets Home Minister P Chidambaram

and emphasizes the need for political initiativeswhich he has been reiterating over the last eigh-

teen months to assuage the feelings of thepeople. The Chief Minister reiterated the need

to have a re-look at the AFSPA and take suit-

able steps for its amendment or revocation. He

also made out a strong case for the Union Gov-

ernment to consider relocation of armed forcesin the areas where it is not required, on need

basis. Omar urged the Union Government to

announce a comprehensive employment pack-

age for the six lakh unemployed youth of thestate.

SATURDAY, MAY 29, JAMMU

• Congress President Sonia Gandhi is in Jammu on a brief visit. Omar holds

a one-to-one meeting with Sonia after she inaugurated a building of an NGO

of Gujjars. The two discussed issues pertaining to the development of the

state of Jammu and Kashmir and the functioning of the coalition governmentin the state.

Chief Minister said he meant dealing with issues like Armed Forces SpecialPowers Act, footprint of the security forces, rehabilitation package for young-

sters who are across the line of control andcompensation for victims of the ongoing

trouble.

9



Cabinet meetings

Index of smooth governanceEPILOGUE BUREAU

Large scale and f requent t ransfers and post ings though remained a key f eatur e of most of t he meet ings of stat e cabinet in 2010 but a near t otal cohesion bet ween the coali t ion part ners was rat her more remarkable feature. Give it t o the grip of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah or

political maturity of his Ministers of 25 meetings of cabinet which took place in 2010, fissures were report ed in not even one even as one meet ing was boycot t ed by two Minist ers of Congress when amendments in Panchayat i Raj act were on discussion agenda. Peaceful meet ings ref lect

an index of smooth governance and a lar ge degree of comfor t between coali t ion par t ners Na- t ional Confer ence and Congress despi t e the cont roversial i ssues under di scussion, l i ke rehabil i - t at ion of mili t ant s. Of 25 meet ings held in t he year, major t ransfers and post ings were car- r ied out in 11. In it s meet ing on July 27, t he cabinet decided t o meet ever Tuesday morning.However, meet ings did not t ake place on al l Tuesday s. In 2009, t he Omar Abdul lah cabinet met 20 t imes. Here is a glossary of import ant decisions t aken by Omar' s cabinet in 2010

JAN 7

• Cabinet sanctions release of July, 2009 install-

ment of Dearness Allowance (DA) at the rate of 5% of

basic pay raising the total DA payable with effect fromJuly, 2009 to 27% of pay to the State Government em-

ployees including work charge/whole time contingent paid

employees working on regular time scale.19 senior Government officers are transferred and nine

are promoted from Time Scale KAS officers to the Selec-

tion Grade of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Ser-

vice. It also created two posts of Registrar and Joint Reg-

istrar for State Information Commission.

FEB 15

• Cabinet decided to go ahead with elections to

urban local bodies (which, however, could not be held tillthe end of 2010) rejecting a proposal to extend their

tenure beyond five years.

• Nod to construction of remaining portion of Ravi

Tawi canal from Ranjit Sagar dam for irrigation of Kandi

belt of Kathua and Samba districts which will make the

State foodgrain surplus in next two decades enabling it

to even go for exports to other States. It would increase

foodgrains production by 2.66 lakh tones per annum. The

Cabinet decided to seek Rs 8599 cr compensation from

Punjab on account of power and water losses for con-

struction of Ranit Sagar dam. Approved Governor's Ad-

dress to joint session of Legislature

MARCH 12

Cabinet approves for tabling in the Legislative Assemblythe draft legislations with regard to regularization of

adhoc and contractual appointees and reforms in thepower sector. The proposed J&K State Electricity Act, 2010

aims at paving the way for introduction of consumer

friendly reforms in the power sector in the State.

APRIL 5

• The Cabinet invokes provisions 'no work, nowages' provisions of Essential Services Maintenance Act

(ESMA), which is currently operational, against the strik-

ing employees. Briefing about the Cabinet decision, Fi-

nance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather, said that the State

Cabinet unanimously decided these measures and em-

phasized that such of the employees who will resort tostrike or remain unauthorizedly absent from their du-

ties will be dealt under the provisos of ESMA. The em-

ployees were agitating for revision of their salaries and

release of arrears as per recommendations of the SixthPay Commission. The Finance Minister said that the All

Parties Delegation shall be going to meet the Prime Min-

ister in Delhi shortly for considering the special dispen-

sation of making available resources for clearing theemployees' arrears. On the enhancement in retirement

age, the Finance Minister said that it is under the con-

sideration of the Government. Since one or two parties

did not participate in the All Parties Meeting, the Gov-

ernment will consult them also on this issue.


POLITICS

TWO YEARS OF OMAR

10



subsequently to Rs 600 with effect from April 1, 2011.

• The cabinet also approved the placement of four

in-charge Superintending Engineers (R&B) as in-charge

Chief Engineers from the dates mentioned against them.

MAY 31

Massive administrative overhaul is carried out. Cabinet

approved fresh transfers and posting 34 top to middle

level officers in civil administration and 56 officers, in-cluding two Inspectors General, in Police. Promotions are

also accorded to seven Police officers.

JUNE 28

The Cabinet meet to discuss prevailing law and order

situation in the Kashmir Valley.

JULY 27

• Cabinet constitutes Commission of Inquiry con-

sisting of Justice Syed Basher-ud-Din (Retd) as the Chair-

man and Justice Y.P. Nargotra (Retd) to probe civilian

causalities in 17 incidents in Kashmir division in whichfatalities had occurred on account of action by the State

Police/Security Forces since June 11, 2010. The Com-

mission is required to submit its report within three

months.

• The also Cabinet approved that the review com-

mittee constituted vide Government Order No. Home-

2501-(PB-V) of 2002 dated 26-12-2002 will immediately

review the cases of detention under the Public Safety

Act and make recommendations about the release of detenues.

• The cabinet also approved a package, as a one-

time exception, in favour of the relatives of those civil-

ians, who have lost their lives since June 11, 2010 as a

result of violence attributable to the breach of law andorder and are not found directly or indirectly involved in

actual violence or instigation thereof.

• The Cabinet also approved placement of 6 in-charge Superintendent Engineers as in-charge Chief En-

gineers.

• The cabinet also approved use of 3.75 hectares

of forest land for setting up of modern abattoir at JagtiNagrota in Jammu by Jammu Municipal Corporation.

• The cabinet also approved notification of 35 in-

stallments of COLA due from 1st January, 2009 to 31st

December, 2009 and 31 installments due from 1st Janu-

ary, 2010 to 30th April, 2010 for the employees of State

PSUs.

• In addition, the cabinet also approved transfers

and postings of four officers in the middle rung of ad-

ministration

• The Cabinet also approved draft transfer policyaimed at making transfers rational, transparent and sup-

portive of good governance. It inter-alia envisages cal-

endar for transfers, tenures and delegation of powers.

The Cabinet also approved some transfers and postings

at echelons of state administration besides placing the

services of Principal Secretary Anil Goswami at the dis-

posal of Government of India for his further posting as

Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs

MAY 12

Cabinet approves top-notch level transfers and postings

in administration. Of 25 officers transferred, 11 are fromIAS and four from IFS

MAY 14

The cabinet meets to take a brief from its sub-commit-

tee which was earlier constituted to hold discussions with

employees on the issue of their pay arrears. The Cabinet

Sub Committee briefs the Cabinet about the discussions

held on the 29th April, 2010 with the representatives of

the employees on their key demands. The Cabinet SubCommittee is advised to hold further discussions with

the representatives of the employees.

MAY 24

• Cabinet sanctions release of January 2010 instal-

ment of 8% D.A to employees, pensioners, raising the

total Dearness Allowance payable with effect from

01.01.2010 from 27 percent to 35 percent of pay to theState Government employees including work charges/

whole time contingent paid employees working on regu-

lar time scale.

•In another decision, the cabinet accorded sanc-tion to the establishment of new R&B Division at Sumbal

and creation of two Superintending Engineers one each

for Ganderbal and Bandipora districts and Pulwama,

Shopian districts along-with supporting staff.

• The cabinet also accorded sanction to the pay-ment of claim amounting to Rs 25.40lakh for reimburse-

ment to the J&K Tourism Development Corporation on

account of providing boarding facility to the officers/of-

ficials of 'Raj Bhawan at Zethyar by the JKTDC during the

year 1995 - 1996 to 1998-1999.

• The cabinet also confirmed Director General of

Police's DGP's proposal for augmenting of manpower in

SKPA Udhampur, PTS, Kathua, PTS Manigam and regular-ization of PTI Vijaypur, STC Sheree and STC Talwara.

• The cabinet also authorized the Managing Direc-tor Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corpo-

ration Limited to issue the Letter of Intent (LOI) to the

successful bidder namely M/S GVK Development Projects

Private Limited (GVKDPPL) for development of the 690

MW Ratle Hydro Electric Project and also authorized theAdministrative Secretary of Power Development Depart-

ment to sign the Power Purchase Agreement with the

seller.

• The cabinet revised ration money allowance tonon-gazetted personnel of Prisons and Fire and Emergency

Departments to Rs 450 per month from April1, 2010 and


POLITICS

TWO YEARS OF OMAR

11



income limit has also been raised from Rs. 50, 000/- to

Rs. 1.5 lakh per annum. The Cabinet has also approved

increase of Rs. 100 in the VSA applicable under the SKEWPY

across the board. The Cabinet also constituted a cabinet

sub-committee comprising Minister for PHE, Irrigationand Flood Control, Minister for Agriculture Production and

Minister for Higher Education, Labour and Employmentwith a view to carrying out a comprehensive review to

the implementation of the programme especially the rea-

son for its slow off take and make appropriate recom-mendation for bringing about further improvement in its

implementation.

The Cabinet also approved transfers and postings of six

officers at key positions

AUGUST 27

In a major and daring administrative overhaul, the Cabi-

net orders transfer of top 14 IAS officers and 15 IPS of-

ficers. Among those reshuffled are administrative secre-tary of Home department, Principal Secretary to Chief

Minister, state CID chief, Divisional Commissioner of Po-

lice and Inspector General of Kashmir Police. In wake of

the then prevailing crisis in Kashmir where lack of coor-dination and immediate administrative responses were

cited as some of the reasons for mishandling of the situ-

ation, the state cabinet approved important changes at

top level of Civil and Police administration.

AUGUST 31

•Cabinet approves modifications in Sher-e-Kash-

mir Employment and Welfare Programme for Youth

(SKEWPY) to increase its reach conveniently to maximum

number of unemployed youth in the State. These amend-

ments were proposed by a Cabinet Sub Committee.

Through modification, the Government waives off condi-tion of land holding for giving Voluntary Service Allow-

ance (VSA) to the unemployed youth of the State. Also

reduced the age of eligible candidates from 28 to 26 years,

the VSA will now be disbursed to the candidates in theage group of 26 to 37 years. Government also increases

Rs 100 allowance for all categories, the VSA will now be

given in the range of Rs 600 to Rs 1200, starting from

matriculates to post- graduates and engineering andmedical graduates.The relaxation is also given in the annual income slab,

which is raised from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.50 lakh. He said

with the waiving off these conditions as many as addi-

tional 32000 unemployed youth will be brought under the

ambit of scheme, raising the total number of eligible youthto 1.57 lakh in the State.

In a significant decision the cabinet decides to reduce

the qualifying service for getting full pensionery benefits

from 30 to 28 years so that maximum employees are ben-efited. The decision is expected to benefit over 50,000

employees of the state. Earlier, the employees with 30

years' service were entitled to full pensionery benefits.

• The Cabinet also approved establishment of

Bangus Lolab Development Authority.

• The Cabinet also decided to meet on every Tues-

day at 10 a.m. In case any Tuesday is public holiday, the

meeting will be held on the following day.

• The cabinet also approved promotion of 14 of-

ficers of Legal Service and 9 officers of Accounts Ser-vice.

• The cabinet also approved construction of auto-

mechanically operated gated barrage having approxi-mately length of 370 meters and height of 4 meters with

sluice gates across river Tawi at an estimated cost of Rs

70 crore.

• The cabinet also approved promotion of Mr.Jagdish Keshwan PCCF to the apex fixed scale of Rs

80,000 and promotion of Mr. Vinod Ranjan, IFS as addi-

tional PCCF.

AUGUST 3

Cabinet approves filling of teachers on Rehbr-e-Taleem

pattern in far flung areas, approves sanction to golden

handshake, absorption of 17 CONFED employees , the

absorption of these employees is approved for the Co-operative Department against available posts of Junior

Assistants or equivalent. The cabinet also approved ab-

sorption of 45 employees of CONFED against 16 class-IV

posts available in Cooperative Department and 29 poststo be identified by General Administration Department

in other departments.

Transfers and postings of five officers in the middle rung

of administration are also approved

AUGUST 10

• The State Cabinet met to express deep shock

and sorrow over the loss of life and property in Leh due

to the cloudbursts and flash floods. It was decided thatthe Chief Minister will make an appeal to the Council of

Ministers to donate one month's or one week's salary

towards the Chief Minister's Relief Fund for relief and

rehabilitation of the flood victims in Leh and other partsof the state. Similar appeal made to legislators and Gov-

ernment employees to donate one week's and one day's

salary respectively to augment the resources for relief

and rehabilitation.The Cabinet also approved some transfer and postingsin administration. On the same day, through a separate

order, 29 KAS officers were transferred

AUGUST 17

• Cabinet approves amendment to the Sher-i-Kash-

mir Employment and Welfare Programme for the Youth

(SKEWPY) to broad base and further enhance its accept-

ability among the educated youth. As per the amend-ment the age limit for eligibility to Voluntary Service Al-

liance (VSA) has now be reduced to 26 from 28 years and

there shall be no ceiling on land holdings. Moreover, the


POLITICS

TWO YEARS OF OMAR

12



SEPTEMBER 13

Cabinet takes stock of various incidents of law and order

breakdown in different parts of the State which wereprompted by reports about alleged incidents of desecra-

tion of holy Quran in the United States of America. Cabi-net made a fervent appeal to the people of the State not

to take law in their own hands while staging protests

against the alleged incidents of desecration of holy Quran,which only results in an avoidable loss of life and prop-

erty.

SEPTEMBER 28

Approval for three new treasuries in the state one each

at Dachhan in Kishtwar, Mandi in Poonch and Paisuru in

Kargil district; also decided that those empty trucks shall

be exempted from payment of basic toll at Lakhanpur

arriving to Kashmir valley for a period of three monthsfrom October 1 to ending December, 2010. The decision

has been taken in view of incentvizing and encouraging

movement of empty trucks for transport of fruit to out-

side markets.Cabinet enhanced payment of damage to movable and

immoveable property from existing Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10

lakh. Any person suffering loss or damage to movable

and immovable property during any counter terrorist op-eration shall be entitled to a maximum compensation

which has been enhanced from existing Rs 1 lakh to Rs

10 lakh. Accordingly the decision has been taken that to-

tal ceiling of one lakh or 50 % of total loss whichever is

lesser has been enhanced to maximum ceiling of 7 lakh.The cabinet further decided to fix payment of compensa-

tion for loss to movable property to a maximum of Rs 3

lakh or assessed loss whichever is less.

OCTOBER 6

Cabinet constitutes a Sub-Committee for detailed study

of the report of Prime Minister's 5th Working Group headed

by Justice Sageer Ahmed on Centre-State relations andits pros and cons keeping in view the aspirations of people

of all the three regions of the State before making nec-

essary recommendations to the Cabinet

OCTOBER 14

In a decision which government described as landmark,

the Cabinet approved engagement of 43,000 casual/sea-

sonal labours in the departments of Power Development,

PHE, Irrigation, Flood Control, Public Works, Rural De-velopment, Floriculture, School Education and Forests.

Of the 43,000 engagements as many as 20,500 will be

made in Jammu division and the same number in Kash-

mir division while 2,000 engagements will be made inLadakh region. An expenditure of Rs. 143 crores on the

scheme is proposed to be met as per the arrangement

which envisages loading of Rs. 23 crores on the cost of

new projects under implementation, enhancing the ex-

isting provisions in the non-plan maintenance budget of

the respective departments to the tune of Rs. 40 crores

and Rs. 80 crores as maintenance provisions in the An-

nual Plan 2010-11 in different sectors. In another deci-sion, the Cabinet approved the creation of 10 posts of

Chief Executive Officer/Secretary, Accounts Officer, Sec-tion Officer, Accountant, Accounts Assistant, Senior As-

sistant, Junior Assistant, Driver one each and two Or-

derlies in the J&K Building and Other Construction Work-ers Welfare Board.

OCTOBER 27

• The cabinet approves road map for settlement

of the arrears of the Sixth Pay Commission in respect of

the employees of the State Government.

• Two IAS officers BB Vyas, and Suresh Kumar are

promoted to the next higher administrative grade. Six

other IAS officers are also promoted to Super Time Scale.• The Cabinet also approved transfers and postings

of Deputy Commissioners of Jammu, Leh, Kathua and

Ramban

• The Cabinet also approved the appointment of MY Khan, former Chairman of J&K Bank as Chairman of

the Board of Directors of JVC for execution of Pakal Dul

and other two projects in the Chenab basin.

NOVEMBER 22

• Cabinet approves policy for rehabilitation of

former militants and others who crossed over to the Pa-

kistan administered Kashmir. The broader contours of the policy are:

1. Those who have gone to Pak/Pakistan between

1.1.1989 and 31.12.2009 and their dependents will be

eligible for consideration under the policy.

2. The District Superintendent of Police of the con-cerned district where the prospective returnee normally

resided before crossing over to PoK/Pakistan would be

the designated authority to whom the parents or close

relatives (in case there are no parents) of the prospec-tive returnee or, in exception circumstances, the pro-

spective returnee himself may apply in the prescribed

Proforma.

3. All such applications would be first scrutinizedby the District Superintendents of Police and then for-warded to CID Hqrs along-with their comments. The State

CID will then scrutinize all the applications in consulta-

tion with the Central Intelligence agencies/Security

Forces, wherever necessary, review the cases registered

against the persons and prepare a dossier based on whicha recommendations can be made about whether the pro-

spective returnee can be permitted to return.

4. The dossier so prepared will be forwarded to the

Home Department by the State CID where a final deci-sion on whether the application should be accepted or

otherwise would be taken by a committee comprising,

Financial Commissioner (Home)- Chairman and Director


POLITICS

TWO YEARS OF OMAR

13



General of Police, Additional Director General of Police,

CID Principal Secretary, Law Department, Zonal IGPs,

Joint Secretary (K), MHA as members.

5. Formal orders would be issued by the Home De-partment and communicated to the authorities concerned

with making arrangements for the return of the person.

6. All such former militants permitted to returnunder the proposed policy would be permitted to enter

only through JCP Wagah, Attari or through Salamabad orChakan-da-bagh crossings on the Line of Control or

through the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New

Delhi.

7. After completion of the formalities at the cross-

ing points, the returnees and their dependents will beescorted to the State of J&K and the District authorities

will be duly informed. A record of their entry into India

and to J&K will be maintained by the Immigration au-

thorities at the crossing point and by the J&K CID re-spectively.

8. The wives, children and other dependants of those returnees who have married in PoK/Pakistan dur-

ing the period 1.1.1989 to 31.12.2009, will be consid-

ered for entry into the country as per the existing lawsof the land and the necessary certificate for entry will

be issued to them.

9. Counseling Centres will be established where all

the returnees along-with their wives and children would

be lodged for a period of three months or for such longertime as would be necessary till they are thoroughly in-

terviewed, de-briefed and all necessary documentation

is prepared.

10 . The returnee shall not be entitled to any of the

special benefits or Privileges available in the existingsurrender/rehabilitation Policy.

11 . No general amnesty is envisaged under this

policy and the returnees would be duly prosecuted in cases

registered against them which are of a serious nature.However, cases registered against them for having

crossed over to PoK/Pakistan would be reviewed.

12. The returnees will be given training in suitable

trades or skills in ITIs or other training institutions in

order to enable their re-integration into society.

13. The conduct and behavior of the returnee willbe closely monitored by the local Police and by State CID

for a period of two years from the completion of thecounseling process.

14. The State Government will make the policy and

the application forms available on the internet (siteaddress to be given) so as to facilitate online registra-

tion by the returnees and their family members eligible

to apply.

Cabinet also approved transfers and postings of four

KAS officers, including a Deputy Commssioner

DECEMBER 1

Cabinet approves creation of staff for Katra Develop-

ment Authority, accorded approval to the creation of oneeach post of Chief Executive officer, Secretary, Assis-

tant Town Planner, Accountant, Senior Assistant and Jun-

ior Assistant for the development Authority.

DECEMBER 10:

Setting up of State Election Commission is recom-

mended. Cabinet approves pay anomaly report, amend-

ments in Panchayati Raj Act. Also approved creation of one post of Additional Advocate General, headquartered

at New Delhi and additional standing counsel for the

State at the Supreme Court. An IAS officer is granted

extension in service while another officer is re-employed

DECEMBER 21:

Major reshuffle in Police. Two Additional DGs, two IGs

among 87 officers transferred


POLITICS

TWO YEARS OF OMAR

Our January 2009 issue focussed on the mandate of 2008; February 2009 issue outlined anexpert agenda for Omar Abdullah Government and February 2010 issue examined one-yearperformance of NC-Congress coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir

14



IN TERVIEW

CROSS-LOC TRADE

1 5

'Kashmiri Goods Ought to ReachRawalpindi and Karachi'

ABDUL HAMEED PUNJABI, senior Vice President Kashmir Chamber

of Commerce and Indust r ies in conversat ion wi t h NADIR ALI

Nadi r Ali : What i s your assessment of i nt ra-Kashmir t rade over t he last t wo years? What i s t he est imat ed wort h of dail y t ransacti ons? Abdul Hameed Punjabi: We have an unofficial graph ac-cording to which the estimated value of trade is around100 crore rupees a day.

NA: What count ri es do you export your pr oducts t o? What i s t he t otal quant it y of tr ade? AHP: Handicrafts and horticulture products, as usual, re-main our potential exports. We export them to Europeancountries, the US etc. We earn in foreign currencies be-cause they do not import from us. They buy our goodsand provide payment. The estimated turn out in Kashmiris around 1500 crores.

NA: Which sect ions of societ y benef it most f rom t rade in Kashmir ? AHP: Trade affects the whole of Kashmir, not just any

particular class or organization. For example, around 20-25 lakh are involved in the handicraft industry.

NA: Which is t he bigger i ndust ry in Kashmir: hort icul- t ure or t ouri sm? AHP: These are two different sections. The tourism in-dustry holds a lot of potential in terms of economic de-velopment. As far as the horticulture industry is consid-ered, we get its feedback from rural areas, which havedeveloped economically and socially. Hence both theseindustries aid economic development in Kashmir.

NA: What about cross-LoC t rade? What i t ems do you

general ly send across t o Pakist an- administ ered Kash- mir and what do they send t o our part of Kashmir ? AHP: The governments of India and Pakistan fixed a listof items for Cross-LOC trade. From the Indian side theitems were horticulture products like apples, cherries etc,and handicrafts. Pakistan also formulated a list of trad-able items to be sent across to Indian-administered Kash-mir. Cross-LoC trade isa good initiative for Kashmir. Ithas much potential to boost Kashmir's economy and de-velop it immensely.

NA: Cross-LoC t rade means t rade between Indian-administ ered Kashmir (IAK) and Pakist an-administered Kashmir (PAK). If you send your product s to Pakistan (Rawalpi ndi, Karachi etc) dir ect ly, would you call it

cross-LoC t rade? AHP: We believe that cross-LoC trade implies trade be-tween IAK and PAK only. But we would be interested insending goods to Pakistan directly as well. It would cer-tainly boost our economy. A central point in PAK would be

advisable, like we have in Delhi. However, if we send ourproducts or goods directly to Pakistan, then it would notbe called cross-LOC trade but international trade.

NA: Do you beli eve cross-LoC t rade should go f orward? AHP: Yes, we are keen on it. It is a good avenue forprofit-making. We send our items to Delhi, from where itis exported. Cross-LoC trade could work along similar lines,so that our items can also be exported to Rawalpindi,Karachi etc.

NA: Cross-LoC t rade is pri mari ly a bar t er t rade. There is no banking tr ansact ion system, any excise depar t - ment and cust om et c. Are you sat isf ied wi t h thi s sys-

t em? Would you li ke to cont inue wit h bart er t rade? AHP: Yes, cross-LoC trade is barter trade, which is an oldtrading system. We are not satisfied with it and do notsupport it at all. It does not benefit the traders. In today'strade, money should be involved. We would like the gov-ernments of India and Pakistan to make informed deci-sions on cross-LoC trade. A banking transaction system,excise department and custom services would be pre-ferred. I believe such formalities will ensure that trade issuccessful in both parts of Kashmir.

NA: The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce init iat ed cross- LoC t rade in collaborat ion wit h other stakeholders. Did

you suggest bart er t rade as an opti on to begin wi t h? AHP: No, we did not suggest barter trade. Both the gov-ernments of India and Pakistan come to this conclusion ontheir own. They wanted initiatives for trade and decidedto start with the barter system. They did not fix any mo-dalities.

NA: Given these const raint s, what does cross LoC t rade signify? AHP: It is just a symbol. It only means cross-LoC tradecan occur even though that trade (which is primarily bar-ter trade) may not benefit Kashmiri traders adequately.The governments of India and Pakistan should work to-

wards a better system, one that promotes trade acrossLoC more profitably.




1 6 IN TERVIEW

CROSS-LOC TRADE

NA: What needs t o be done t o enhance cross-LoC t rade? AHP: We have already taken decisions on improving cross-LoC trade.Communication should be very easy. Without communication, no tradeis possible. Also, buyers and sellers should have the opportunity to meet.Kashmiri traders from both sides of the border should visit the otherside and meet their potential traders and buyers. This would enablethem to determine the market preferences. It would be immensely ben-eficial for traders.

NA: Has t he Kashmir Chamber of Commerce t aken any ini t iat ives f or t he development of Kashmir t rade? AHP: We have been working very hard to develop trade in Kashmir. In2008, we made a number of suggestions to the government of India forCross-LoC trade, on the premise that it would be very advantageous fortrade in Kashmir

NA: How can more Kashmir i p roduct s and it ems enter t he interna- t ional market ? AHP: Exports can be made from Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore etc. Our prod-ucts go to Europe and the US, among other places. However, we would

also like to export our goods to the Middle East, Gulf countries andCentral Asia. Recently Central Asia has opened a new door for trade. Itwould thus help if we could also export our goods from Pakistan-admin-istered Kashmir.

NA: Over the last three years we have witnessed frequent strikes and curf ews in Kashmir. Can you give us some idea of t he losses suf - fered? AHP: Curfews and strikes mean a loss of around 100 crore rupees a day.This year we had 114 such days, so we lost 114 x 100 crore rupees,approximately.

NA: Did you tal k t o t he St at e and Centr al government s for compen-

sation? AHP: We do want to be compensated for the losses suffered. Kashmir isa political issue and it needs a political solution. If the government isnot willing to address this issue it would have an adverse affect on ourtraders and business community. So I would suppose compensation ismust for Kashmiri traders to help sustain their enthusiasm.

NA: Should a specif ic r elaxat ion be offered t o Kashmir i t raders f or internat ional t rade? AHP: Marketing is essential. Communities like the United Nations shouldintervene. They have many organizations to assist traders and businesscommunities in conflict zones. We appeal to the UN to intervene in thismatter, especially since the economic situation in Kashmir is quite un-

stable. For the last twenty years the business community has sufferedsignificantly. Kashmir is political issue and until and unless it is notsolved politically, trade and business will not pick up in Kashmir in thereal sense.

NA: Prior to the 1990s, handicraft trade had a huge potential in Kashmir, but since then it has been on the decline. What are the reasons f or t his down curve? AHP: There are three reasons for this. First is the worldwide economicrecession. However, even then we exported 1500 crore rupees of Kashmirihandicrafts in 2009. But it was our individual effort and the fact that Kashmirihandicraft has its own brand name that aided sales. The second reason hasto be the political unrest in the Valley. It has obviously impacted the handi-craft industry. Also, I would say that the tastes and preferences have al-

tered considerably in the present times, such as in Europe.

'Remittance is theWay Forward for

Cross-LoC Trade'SHAKEEL QALANDER,

President Federat ion Chamber of Indust r ies, Kashmir, i n an i nt ervi ew t o NADIR ALI

Nadir Ali : What is your assessment of t he cross-LoC t rade over t he last t wo years? What are t he problems and pros- pect s associat ed wit h this t rade?

Shakeel Qalander: Cross-LOC trade wasinitiated as a Confidence Building Mea-

sure (CBM) in 2008, when the political situ-ation in Kashmir was worsening. The gov-ernments across both sides responded posi-tively and the process began in earnest.Our Chamber has always been keen thatgoods produced in J&K is made tradableacross the border and vice-versa. Whenformal trade relations actually began, wetold the governments of India and Paki-stan that they should provide us modali-ties on how to operate this process. Thegovernments decided to start with around

21 items from either side, these productswere to be traded with each other. But,the trading items that we were interestedin were not allowed. This was a disadvan-tage because of the restricted tradableitems.The other disadvantage was the poor in-frastructure at hand. We wanted a big scan-ner; one that could scan our big trucks andcheck goods and items. Another distinctdisadvantage was that the bridge connect-ing us to Pakistan- Administered Kashmir(PAK) had a very low capacity of only oneton. This made it quite unviable and costly.We did have a variety of goods which werebig in volume and less in terms of price,but the transportation cost was very high.What this meant was that goods generallyheavy but low on cost could not be tradeddue to huge transportation costs.Another important issue is telephone com-munication across the LoC. Unfortunatelypeople from our side of Kashmir cannotmake phone calls to the other side, althoughthey can call us from their side. This meansthat Kashmiri traders have not been ableto build healthy and sustained relationships

with traders from Pakistan- administeredKashmir. We appealed the government that



1 7

men. Thus, similar schemes are beingcreated for the farmers. I believe thatthus far only traders and exporters havebenefited, not farmers and artisans.It is time to change this trend.

NA: What steps should be taken to enhance tr ade? SQ: The first step is to increase pro-duction and productivity. We have tostrengthen growth impulses. Ourhandicrafts products are on the wane.During the 1970s, 15 lakh artisans wereinvolved in the handicraft industry.Today, the number has come down to2.5 lakh. It is a matter of serious con-cern. In the horticulture industry, pro-duction is quite less, especially in com-parison to other places that haveequivalent areas of arable land. There

should be good Universities and scien-tists educating farmers about land use

and cultivation.

NA: What would int ernati onal t rade offer us? SQ: I think international trade holdspromise. When trade activity isstrengthened, there is obvious eco-nomic development. We have a lot

of resources here, both natural andhuman. We are capable of producingan immense range of exportable

items which can be exported nation-ally and internationally.

NA: Should t here be any speci f ic international trade relaxations for Kashmir t raders? SQ: There need to be some specialinterventions. We have raised somedemands and the government is giv-ing them due consideration. We donot have an Inland Container Depot.Ours goods go to Mumbai, Delhi, Ban-galore etc for export purposes. If wehave an Inland Container Depot in our

state, people will be able to book ex-port material in Kashmir and hencesave on transportation costs. Thegovernment of India has providedfunds for an Inland Container Depot

which is under construction atRangrate, Srinagar. It is expectedto be completed by next year. Wewould also expect interventions inother areas. Our crafts sector alsoneed to modernize. Things are gradu-ally improving. Let us hope for thebest.

traders be allowed telephone communication across LoC. However, the govern-ment allowed some phone connections only after a year and a half (Our chamberwas among the recipients). How is a trader from Pulwama or Kupwar expected tocome to our office to make phone calls to Pakistan administered Kashmir? Trad-ers would have to dedicate one entire day just for one phone call. This to me isthe biggest disadvantage in Cross-LoC trade. Without proper communication

facilities good trade relations is impossible. We want communication with thePAK traders, who have established modes of communication with us. We wouldlike the Indian government to provide us with similar facilities.Another serious disadvantage is the barter system which is dated, and our trad-ers are not happy with because it has no provision for information regardingbuyers and the people who are supposed to be approached for receiving pay-ments from. We want the remittance system instead.

NA: How can t he above i ssues be addressed? SQ: The important point is 'remittance'. The Remittance system is very impor-tant for Cross-LoC trade. In fact, remittance is the solution to most of our prob-lems. At the moment, we don't know who is paying and who is taking our goods.We suggested the idea of a dual currency system in Kashmir that can be realizedif accounts are maintained with two separate banks. It was proposed to the

government of India and the Reserve Bank that the J&K Bank should open Nostroand Vostro accounts(The account a correspondent bank holds on behalf of a for-eign bank).This implies an account in any state bank of Pakistan, whose branch is inMuzaffarabad or Pakistan- Administrated Kashmir, albeit in Pakistani rupees. Inaddition, Pakistan- Administrated Kashmir should also open Nostro and Vostroaccounts with the J&K Bank in Indian rupees. All transactions should then bemaintained through these two accounts. This would benefit Kashmiri traders onboth sides. Unfortunately this did not happen. It would also have had other posi-tive impacts. We could have used their currency and they could have used ours.I am sure that if the governments of India and Pakistan work towards this end, itwould be economically beneficial to both sides of Kashmir.Two months back I was approached by the Indian government. They said that the

RBI had decided to open an Escrow account (A separate bank account for keepingmoney that is the property of others) in the J&K Bank, in Indian rupees whichwould be converted into dollars, instead of a Vostro account. Trade would becarried out in dollars and its conversion would be in Indian rupees, and the trans-actions would be carried out accordingly. Subsequently, we spoke to the Presidentof Pakistan's Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Zulfikar Abassi, on this issue. However,he did not show any inclination, citing the Nostro and Vostro accounts (dualcurrency system) as a better option. Currently, we do not have either the VNsotroand Vostro accounts or Escrow.Over the last two years, cross-LoC trade has amounted to a total of 300 crorerupees. But this trade should not be restricted only to sending items from ourrespective Kashmirs. Goods and items from other Indian states can also be trans-ported across the LoC in Kashmir. If it entails custom duties, the traders shouldpay them here. If the government of India opens this window for trade, our local

traders would be immensely benefited.

NA: If you send your pr oduct s dir ect ly t o Rawalpindi or Karachi in Pakist an,would i t be cross-LoC t rade or internati onal t rade? SQ: It would be international trade and not Cross-LoC trade. This is why I saidthat if goods are sent directly to Pakistan and it entails tax, people would have topay the tax. They should be prepared for it.

NA: Which class or sect ion benef it s most f rom t he t rade? SQ: Exporters benefit considerably from handicrafts, but we would like the arti-sans to reap equal gains. We are creating schemes with the help of the govern-ment to ensure that artisans export their own products and secure benefits. Inthe horticulture industry, farmers should get their due profit and not the middle


IN TERVIEW

CROSS-LOC TRADE



1 8

Yesterday, today and if it is there, a tomorrow…

PREETI BAKAYA

1947 to 2010 is a long t ime and yet i t 's like we are st uck in a t ime warp when it comes t o Kashmir. The generat ion which should be t alki ng about 2020 or 2050 i s t alki ng about 1947. If t hey have t o look back, why don't t hey look back at t he achievements of Sult an Zain-ul-Abidi n "Badshah", t he poet ry of Maj hoor and t he phi losophy of Lal Ded and Nund Rishi?

Recently I came across a status

update by one of my KashmiriMuslim friend on Facebook. The

update was on the 1947 massacre of

Kashmiri Muslims in Jammu, in which

he lost his grandfather who left be-

hind a young wife and son. While notmeaning to be offensive I did not

express sympathy or comment on it.

My reasons were twofold; one that I

did not have enough knowledge of the

incident and while I felt sad for thefamily, I didn't think it was right to

have the religious incident mentioned

60 years later, triggering a series of

unrelated comments on the social me-dia page.

If any of us read the political and

religious history of Kashmir, there are

more incidents involving violence and

bloodshed than peace and prosperity.At times it is a marvel that despite

so much blood and gore, the valley

still managed to produce ideas of

Kashmiriyat, Sufi philosophy and a

beautiful artistry of various hues. Ascarriers of such a tumultuous past,

have we learnt anything from it ex-

cept to continue to be pallbearers of

such hatred?If today as a Kashmiri Pandit I

start quoting the violent conversion

of my community in the state, then I

will not be able to have even a de-

cent conversation with any of myMuslim brethren. Is that the kind of

future we are looking at in Kashmir?

If the 1947 accession treaty signed

by a runaway Maharaja is such a sore

point amongst his largely Kashmiri

Muslim population, when already 60years have passed and we have the

fourth or the fifth generation getting

killed and maimed, are we now go-

ing to ensure that the next few gen-

erations also continue to suffer?The state of turmoil today is not

in Jammu or Ladakh. It is only

anything to do with India. Their ha-

tred is partly justified as the last 20years have created a parallel gover-

nance of the forces, leading to a more

military than civilian form of admin-

istration.

Recent events in the valley showedan unfamiliar aspect of Kashmir to In-

dia. It lifted the news censorship that

had evaded the valley for the last two

decades. The Indian media has

started questioning and airing theviewpoints of the youth of the valley.

Many of them are studying and work-

ing across India. One of them men-

tioned to me that as soon as you areout of the Jawahar Tunnel, you real-

ize you are entering a completely dif-

ferent world altogether. A world where

no one stops you for random checks

and asks you for an ID after every onekm. However none of them has ever

stopped for a minute to ask why is it

that the armed forces are in the val-

ley and not in Jammu or Ladakh? Why

did the militarization of the valleytake place in 1990? Did they expect

the government of India to sit qui-

etly and allow the Afghan Mujahiddens

and other foreign mercenaries to takecontrol of a state of their country?

The sequence of violence has to

stop somewhere. We, Kashmiris to-

day are caught in the cycle of finger

pointing and history digging. Our pastis very tumultuous, where each reli-

gion and ethnicity has lost much.

When the Kashmiri Muslims ask for a

redressal mechanism of the abuses

amongst the Kashmiri Muslims of the

valley who-along with the 1947 ac-

cession treaty, years of pro-Pakistan

inclination leading to the central gov-ernment in India suffering from a

fear psychosis and the militarization

of the valley-do not want to have

If any of us read the polit ical

and religious history of

Kashmir, t here are more

incidents involving violence

and bloodshed than peace

and prosperi t y. At t imes it is

a marvel t hat despit e so

much blood and gore, t he

valley st il l managed to pro-

duce ideas of Kashmir iyat ,

Sufi philosophy and a beaut i-

ful art istr y of var ious hues.

As carr iers of such a t umul-

t uous past , have we learnt anything from it except t o

continue to be pallbearers of

such hat red?


TIME WARP SYMPTOMS

N ATIVE N ARRATIVE



TIME WARP SYMPTOMS

N ATIVE N ARRATIVE 1 9

by the forces, the Pandits too ask for a similar redressal of the rapists of

Sarla Bhat and other Pandit women as well as killings of many, for which the

fingers of accusation are hurled towards Yasin Malik, Shabir Shah and Bitta

Karate.

1947 to 2010 is a long time and yet it's like we are stuck in a time warpwhen it comes to Kashmir. The generation which should be talking about 2020

or 2050 is talking about 1947. If they have to look back, why don't they look

back at the achievements of Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin "Badshah", the poetry of

Majhoor and the philosophy of Lal Ded and Nund Rishi? Yes India is respon-sible but so are the people of the valley. You cannot propogate love for an

enemy neighbour to a country of which you are geographically a part of and

think that it will not evoke suspicion. You cannot expect that you will have

unemployed mercenaries running amok in your state with the armed forces

of the country standing aside and letting them do it.It is not only the body count which is a part of the tragedy in Kashmir. The

very fabric of the society - its culture and heritage is now in shreds. Kashmiris

cannot have another generation lost to violence, anger and frustration. You

cannot have battle-hardened men, women and children in the 21st centurywhen the rest of the country is enjoying a peaceful period of economic growth.

You cannot have young boys suddenly falling dead or disappearing because of

an event that happened 60 years back.

Indians today want peace in Kashmir. Recently, when Kashmiri Muslim youth

outside the valley organized candle lights for those dying in the valley, theywere not alone. Young Indians were standing next to them with the media

and intelligentsia questioning the governance tactics. If Syed Ali Shah Geelani

spoke on a podium in central Delhi, his audience did not only include Kashmiri

Muslims. There were many Indians also who wanted to know what exactly was

happening in the vale. Kashmiris need to realize that when the rest of the

country is trying to understand them

and extend a hand of peace andfriendship, they cannot again go back

in their cocoon. It is a strange di-

chotomy where the rest of India looksupon Kashmir as its own but theyhave always refused to be a part of

the country. This stubborn refusal is

quite an enigma to many in India. The

latter has tried to assimilate and ad-

just to the religious and ethnic back-grounds of varied communities and

religions. Of course there are prob-

lems and differences. Even a nucleur

family has differences and we are

talking about a nation of more than abillion. Kashmiri Muslims want azadi

from India. However it is also timethat they took azadi from the shack-

les of continuous quoting of historytextbooks where every party, includ-

ing they themselves stand accused.

The next generation of Kashmir needs

a future and not a scenario "where

we did this to you, so I will do this toyou" so that by the time anything is

ever resolved we are all ghosts haunt-ing our future for time immemorial.


It is not only t he body count w hich is a part of the tragedy in Kashmir. The very fabric of the

societ y - it s cult ure and herit age is now in shreds. Kashmiris cannot have another generation lost to violence, anger and

frustration. You cannot have battle-hardened men, w omen and children in t he 21st century

w hen t he rest of t he count ry i s enjoy ing a peaceful period of economic grow t h. You

cannot have young boys suddenly falling dead or disappearing because of an event that

happened 60 years back.



20

Historiography in Kashmir

Historiography was one of themost effective and popular

medium of intellectual exer-

cises of the world during medieval

period. The Arabs. Persians and Cen-

tral Asians made the historiographya source of discovering themselves

and others in terms of their achieve-

ments and failures from the 7th cen-

tury onwards. But the science of his-

toriography was absent in the Indiansub-continent before the 12th century.

It was Kashmir which invented the

science of historiography during the

12th century A.D. Kalhan was the firsthistorian of Kashmir who produced

first historical work entitled the

Rajatarangini. It is important to men-

tion that the historiography's first and

foremost component is the source of information from which a historian

derives information pertaining to the

theme of his or her work. A writing

which does not mention the sourceof its information is not a history

writing. Kalhan was the first writer

who established the method of using

the sources of information pertain-

ing to various historical event con-cerning with the past and present.

Kalhan wrote his Rajatarangini in

A.D.1148-49 in the Sanskrit. It is

edited and translated by Sir M.A.

Stein. It is known that Kalhan was theson Lord Campaka, a very capable

minister of King Harsha (1089-1101)

of Kashmir. Kalhan presents his workin form of the narrative poem. Hecovers the historical events of Kash-

mir from earliest times to the 12th

century A.D. Kalhan collected infor-

mation from the popular traditions,

Nilmatapurana, Kshemendra'sNrpavali, Helaraja's Parthivavali, the

Chavillakara, the Mahatmyas and in-

scriptions etc. He has used these

sources very meticulously. According

to Romila Thapar, one of the mostexpert modern historians, "Kalhan's

use of inscriptions as source mate-

rial is a strikingly original element inhis historical writing. He refers to

inscriptions found in temples, the

prashastis (eulogies) on past kings,the inscriptions referring to grants,

mainly of land of revenue, made by

earlier rulers. The reference to in-

scriptions in itself is not what is so

important as the fact that he usesthe information they contain as a le-

gitimate source of history." (Romila

Thapar, 'Historical Ideas of Kalhan as

Expressed in the Rajatarangini' in

Mohibul Hasan (ed.), Historians of Medieval India, Delhi, 1968, pp.1-2).

The introduction of the historiog-

raphy by Kalhan gave a concept of

regional identity to the Kashmiris.

The latter started dialogue betweentheir past and present and assessed

themselves in the light of the histori-

cal events in the past. Kalhan's his-

toriography created the time con-sciousness in Kashmir. It provided

information about the stages of so-

cial changes in Kashmir period-wise.

It is important to mention that Kalhanmentions both the mythological andhistorical versions of the origin and

growth of Kashmir in terms of his-

torical geography, political develop-

ments and socio-economic life. For

Kalhan, before human settlement inKashmir it was a lake. It was drained

by Kashyap Rishi and became fit for

habitation. Similarly, Kalhan traces

the emergence of kingship in Kash-mir from the Mahabharat period. He

mentions Gonada I as the first king

of Kashmir, a contemporary of theMahabharat period.

Kalhan's historiography estab-lished a tradition of preservation and

propagation of the people making the

history of Kashmir in multi-dimen-

sional forms. Kalhan records both the

indigenous and outsiders who partici-pated in the history of Kashmir in a

given period. Kalhan makes Kashmir

as part of the Mauryan empire under

it emperor Ashoka (B.C. 273-232).Ashoka is credited with the founda-


PROFESSOR JIGAR MOHAMMED

Author teaches history at the University of Jammu

IN FOCUS

HISTORY



2 1

tion of the city of Srinagar and the

founder of the Buddhism in Kashmir.

Kalhan presents Ashoka as the pro-

moter of the Buddhism in terms of the building Stupas. Kalhan,s depic-

tion of the rule of Ashoka and his son

Jaluka also made Kashmiris aware of the rule of others in Kashmir. More-

over, he presents Kashmir to beknown to the world, since outsiders

worked politically as well as socially.

Kalhan also apprises the

Kashmiris of the religious changes inKashmir during the ancient and early

medieval period which created multi-

colours society in terms of the fol-

lowers of the diverse religious trends.

The Nagas, a popular cult of Kash-mir, the Brahmanism and the Bud-

dhism are presented in forms of reli-gious changes in accordance with the

people's inclinations. Similarly, he also

shows the existence of the fatalismin Kashmir society. He ascribes the

occurrence of famine to the will of

the gods and prayer of the queen as

the source of the removal of the mis-eries of people. His mention of the

witch-craft in Kashmir shows people's

superstitious believe. Through put-

ting these beliefs in historical man-

ner Kalhan contributes to spread a

message of social changes as a con-tinuous process of the history of Kash-

mir. He also establishes that Kash-

mir incorporated new religious trends

either emerged at local level or camefrom outsides. His historiography

conveys people that religious changes

were inevitable in a given society

from the ancient period onwards.More importantly, it speaks of

Kashmir's tradition of accepting

changes as the historical develop-

ments and welcoming the new trends.

The introduction of historiographyby Kalhan made it possible for the

Kashmiris to estimate their political

capacity and strength of their region

in a given period. They also found the

prime movers of the history of theirown state. Kalhan ascribes the sta-

bility and strength of the state to

those rulers who believed in huge ter-

ritorial aggrandizement. He high-lights the significance of the huge

conquests of King Lalitaditya -

Muktapida (A.D. 725-53), belonging

to the Karkota dynasty. He is not only

described as a conqueror of many

states of the north, south and east

India, but also as a conqueror of Ti-bet and some parts of the Central

Asia. Kalhan gives huge credit to

Lalitaditya for appointing some intel-ligent persons in his court. Lalitaditya

is shown to be provider of opportu-nity to the persons of multiple back-

ground, virtually making Kashmir as

a region of multi-culturism. Kalhan

mentions that one of the most intel-ligent courtiers of Lalitaditya be-

longed to the Central Asia (Tukhara),

known as Cankuna. The description

of the conquests of Lalitaditya shows

the assertion of the armed power of Kashmir and its participation in the

world trend of the warfare. More im-portantly, it also presents the

Kashmiris' vision of world, according

to which, though whole world wasinhabited by the persons of different

ethnic backgrounds, all could be

brought together by a statesman and

strategist like Lalitaditya. Thus thehistoriography introduced a concept

of the empire building with the inclu-

sion of multi-identities.

Kalhan's historiography associated

a warrior with construction and jus-

tice. According to Kalhan, "There wasnot a town or village, or island, or

river, or seas, where he (Lalitaditya)

did not raise triumphal monuments.

These monuments he named accord-ing to the event or the time. When

he set out on his expedition, he felt

certain of conquest and built a town

named Sunishchitpur, or the "City of Certainty". When in his pride of con-

quest, he built another named

Darpitipura, or the "City of Pride," in

which he set up an image of Keshva.

And when his conquest were over, andhe was enjoying the fruits of his vic-

tories, he raised another city which

he named Phalapura (Phala signifies

fruit or effect). He completed

Parnotsa and built a house for amuse-ment named Krirarama, the name

indicating the purpose of the build-

ing. In the kingdom of the females

he set up an image of Nrisingha-un-supported by any thing but placed in

the air between two loadstones, one

above and one below. When he was


out in conquest, is viceroy built a

town after the king's name, but he

incurred the king's anger. In the town

of Lalitpura, there was an image of the sun, to which he bestowed the

city of Kanyakubja with the adjoin-

ing lands and villages. At Hushkapurahe built an image of the god

Muktasvami and built a large monas-tery with a stupa for the Buddhists.

He set out on his conquest with one

koti (ten millions) of cirremt cois. On

his return he bestowed eleven kotisto Bhutesha for his purification. He

raised the stone-house of

Jeshtarudra and bestowed many vil-

lages and lands to it. He also planted

a series of machines at Chakradharato draw water from the Vitsta. Also

he raised a strong wall of stone roundthe temple of the sun. He erected a

town adorned with vines, and for the

spiritual benefit of the people, andbestowed it with many villages to god

Vishnu." (Kalhan, Rajatarangini,I Eng.

Tr. by Jogesh Chunder Dutt in Kings

of Kashmira, pp. 70-71).Kalhana conceives a ruler to be

visionary. His historiography estab-

lishes that though both the liberal and

bigot rulers were the parts of history,

it was the liberal and visionary ruler

who made not only the history of hisown, but also made parts of the his-

tory of his own kingdom. For him,

Lalitaditya was very much respectful

to both the Brahmanism and Bud-dhism. Kalhan narrates the contribu-

tions of Lalitaditya to the building

of both the Hindu temples and Bud-

dhist monasteries in a very lucid man-ner. According to Kalhan, "He built a

beautiful town named Parihaspura.

Here he set up a silver image of

Vishnu, named Shiparihasakeshva,

and another gold named,Shrimuktakeshva, also an image of

Mahavarsha, the mail of this last im-

age being made of gold. He also set

up a silver image of

Govardhanadhara. He planted asingle piece of stone fifty-four cubits

high, on which was planted a banner,

on the top which he set up an image

of Garura. He likewise built a templeof Buddha, which had a square court-

yard, also a chaitya, and a monas-

tery. The image of Muktakeshva was

IN FOCUS

HISTORY



built of eighty-four thousand tolas of

gold, that Shriparihasakeshava was

built of eighty four thousand palas of

silver. The image of Buddha which heset up was built of eighty four thou-

sand prasthas of brass. The monas-

tery which had a squire court-yard and

the chaitya, were built for eighty-fourthousand pieces of the current coin.

The rich king built gods of gold and

silver by the side of the great gods

of the country." Kalhana's historiog-

raphy set a trend of publicizing theconstructive activities of the rulers

so that society was to be mobilized

in the same direction. Along with the

ruler's constructive activities Kalhan

also highlighted the constructive ac-tivities of other persons hold some

political power. Kamlawati , the queen

of Lalitaditya , is also shown as a rich

person and the builder of a silver of image of Lord Vishnu.

Chakramardika, another queen of

Lalitaditya has been shown as a

founder of a town named Chakrapura

with seven thousand houses. Thusthrough historiography Kalhan pre-

sents women of Kashmir as the par-

ticipants in socio-economic develop-

ments of the region. The political

powers of the queens of Kashmir suchas Sugandha and Didda are narrated

by Kalhan in such a way as they made

history for themselves.

The Sanskrit historiography of

Kashmir not only produced a biogra-phy of the region of Kashmir, but also

the adjoining states and other con-

temporary regions of India and for-

eign countries find some space. Someof the important areas of Jammu hills

such as Rajouri, Punch and Kishtwar

etc. are presented by Kalhan with their

historical events. Kalhan mentions

Rajouri as Rajapuri and Kishtwar as

Kashtwata. Through his history writ-ing Kalhan established that a region

was not surviving in exclusive term.

But it was very much associated with

the others. He established that thehistory moved around the multi-iden-

tities of a region. His narratives show

that the political, religious changes

in Kashmir were usual phenomena.

He has shown that the historicalchanges took place in Kashmir in a

very usual manner. The Nagas,

Shaivites, Vaishnavites, Buddhist and

some others emerged and grew in

different phases. All these cults foundtheir own followers in the region.

Similarly, Kalhan shows that dynastic

changes in terms of political power

were also took place in continuousprocesses. No dynasty was everlast-

ing in terms of retention of its rule

in Kashmir. The Karkota, Utpala,

Gupta and Lohara dynasties of Kash-

mir contributed to the political, so-cial and economic developments in

Kashmir. But common people of Kash-

mir did not identify themselves to any

particular ruling dynasty. The dynas-

tic changes did not influence the workculture in Kashmir. For the common

people, dynastic changes were just

transfer of power from one dynasty

to another. They identified them-

selves more with their socio-eco-nomic problems than the ruling dy-

nasties.

However, Kalhan established that

historiography created a mingling of diverse thoughts, religious and lin-

gual identities. He has shown that


1420-70

Sultan Zainul Abidin andHindus of Kashmir

The establishment of the Sul

tanate in Kashmir during the

fourteenth century A.D. made

a great impact on the socio-politi-cal and economic life of Kashmir.

Though the ruling class of the Sul-

tanate of Kashmir followed the con-cept of despotism in political terms,

inclusiveness remained the dominant

trend of the socio-political life of

both the centripetal and centrifugal

tendencies were parts of history of a

region. Similarly, both the construc-

tive and destructive elements were

parts of the history of a region. But aregion flourished in a popular man-

ner when the constructive elementsoutnumbered the destructive ele-

ments. And these constructive ele-

ments belonged to multiple back-grounds. Uniformity was not the

popular and dominant historical

trends of Kashmir. Kalhan shows that

both the king Lalitaditya andAwantivarman (855-83) belonged to

two different dynasties of Kashmir,

former from the Karkota dynasty and

later from the Utpala; but both of

them brought huge dividends for

Kashmir in terms of economic devel-opments, promotion of the art and

architectures and social justice.

The emergence of historiography

in Kashmir made people conscious of their regional identities. They not

only realized the significance of his-

torical sources in knowing the phases

of the social changes at regional level,

more importantly, they made historywriting one of the most effective

means of preservation and promotion

of the heritage of the region. It is

important to mention that Kashmiris one of the few hill states of Indiawhich historical heritage are well

documented in historical terms. The

local crafts and craftsmen represent

their regional identity in various partsof world with a sense of historical

pride. Thus the historiography has

been instrumental in making dialogue

between past and present in a con-

tinuous process.

22IN FOCUS

HISTORY



Kashmir. It is important to mention

that in early fourteenth century, i.e.

before the establishment of the Sul-

tanate Kashmir faced a serious law

and order problems. Udayandeva(1323-39), the Damra ruler, was too

weak to deal with both the foreigninvaders and the recalcitrant feudal

lords of Kashmir. One Shah Mir, who

was appointed as an officer in Kash-mir by its famous Damra ruler

Suhadeva (1301-23), was given the

resposiblity to restore law and order

in Kashmir by Udayandeva. Shah Mirworked very sincerely for protection

of the life and property of the people

of Kashmir. Consequently, both the

nobility and masses of Kashmir

treated him as their saviour. After the

death of Udayandeva in 1339 hisqueen Kota Rani acquired the sover-

eignty of Kashmir. But she was not

comfotable with the increasing power

of Shah Mir. Therefore, She decidedto reduce the political infuence of

Shah Mir in Kashmir. But she failed in

her design. Contrary to it Kota Rani

was captured and imprisoned by Shah

Mir. After some times she died. ShahMir usurped the political power of

Kashmir and founded Sultanate there.

He entitled himself as Shamsuddin

(1339-42) and became the first Sul-tan of the Sultanate of Kashmir. Hisdynasty is known as Shah Mir. It is

believed that he belonged to the Khasa

tribe. His dynasty ruled Kashmir over

two centuries and produced some verypowerful and enlightened rulers. Ex-

cept Sultan Sikandar (1389-1413) al-

most all the rulers ruled Kashmir on

the concept of peace with all.

Among the rulers of medievalKashmir, Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin(1420-

70) was, however, unsurpassed for his

tolerance, generosity, liberal outlookand rational approach as well as jus-

tice. His sagacious and liberal poli-cies provided opportunity to the per-

sons of the different social back-

ground to exhibit their skills in vari-

ous fields such as army, agricultural

and industrial productions, literature,art and architecture. During the reign

of Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin the Hindus

of Kashmir enjoyed all types of free-

dom in terms of their representationin the bureacracy, performance of

their religious practices and respect

to their sentiments.

Under Zainul Abibidin the

Hindus occupied prime posts in al-

most each administrative institu-tion of the state. The Sultan ap-

pointed Shiva Bhatta, a KashmiriBrahman, as his court physician.

The latter was treated his most con-

fidant by the sultan. Shirya Bhatta,a Kashmiri Brahman, was appointed

the suprintendent of the Sultan's

court of justice. He acted as one of

the chief advisors of the sultan. Itis known that Shirya Bhatta utilised

the sultan's favour in elevating the

position of the Kashmiri Brahmans.

The extent of ths Sultan's faith in

his ability and efficiency may be

estimated from the fact that the Sul-tan never turnd down any proposal

of Shirya Bhatta. The Sultan ap-

pointed Kapur Bhatta and Rupya

Bhatta as his personal physician andastrologer respectively. Most of the

Sultan's Pratiharas (minister-in-

waiting) belonged to Hindu commu-

nity. Abhimanyu, Aajanak and Rig

were the prominent Prahtihars of the Sultan. On his birth day Zain-

ul-Abidin appointed Jaya Simha the

governor(Bhupati) of Rajouri. Jaya

Simha performed his services to thestate sincerely and proved his worthfor the betterment of the Sultanate

of Kashmir. Impressed by the sin-

cerity and loyalty, the sutan re-

warded him with the responsibilityto work for the welfare of the Brah-

mans. Jaya Bhatta, another

Kashmiri Brahman, was appointed

as a treasurer and also acted as the

incharge of the distribution of thecharity. The sultan extended One

crore dinars to Jaya Bhatta for dis-

tribution as charity. Two of thesultan's commanders, Daulat Chand

and Malik Autar Chand, belonged tothe Hindu community. Zain-ul-Abidin

trusted Malik Autar Chand very

much and treated him promoter of

the interests of his Sultanate. It is

evident that for the conquest of Kashgarr in Ladakh, Zain-ul-Abidin

selected Malik Autar Chand to lead

the army. The latter led the success-

ful expedition of Kashghar andbrought it to the Sultanate of Kash-

mir. Zail-ul-Abidin also appointed

Tilakcharya, a Buddhist, as one of his

prominent counsellors.

Zain-ul-Abidin appreciated the

intellectual capabilities of the Sanskritscholars and treated them promoter of

knowledge in Kashmir. He providedthem favourable atmosphere for intel-

lectual exercise. Jonaraja, Srivara,

Yodha Bhatta and Autara, all KashmiriBrahmans ans Sanskrit scholars, re-

ceived tremendous royal patronage.

More importantly, the Sultan extended

large financial support to them in termsof land grant (gramahemadyaugrah).

The Sultan also commissioned Jonaraja

and Srivara to restart the writing of

the Rajatarangini from the period of

the death of Kalhan.

To respect the Hindu senti-ments Zain-ul-Abidin started to cel-

ebrate the Hindu festivals such as

Nagayatra, Ganachakra, Vitisa and

chantra etc. Similarly, the Sultan par-ticipated in the Jain festival with the

monks of the Sri Jainvatika. The Sul-

tan also opened free kitchen for the

welfare of the Hindu devotees. He un-

dertook the pilgrimage of the Hindusacred places such as Sharda,

Amarnath, Vijayeshwara, Naubandhana

and Lord Vishnu's foot mark at Konsar

lake. Most importantly, Zain-ul-Abidinwas the first ruler of the medievalworld who prohibited the cow slaugh-

tering in his state. He also paid great

respect to the Hindu scriptures, phi-

losophy and rituals. He used to listenthe Nilmatpurana and other Shastras.

He enjoyed to listen the Gitagovinda

from Srivara. To widen the scope of

the Hindu scriptures Zain-ul-Abidin or-

dered the translation of the Sanskritworks into Persian and other non-San-

skrit languages. The Sanskrit works

such as Rajatarangini(Kalhan),Brihathakatha, Dasavatara,

Hatheshwara and Puranas were trans-lated into Persian under Zain-ul-Abidin.

All the expenses of the translation

works were born out by the state trea-

sury. Under Zain-ul-Abidin the Hin-

dus of Kashmir not only enjoyed adominant socio-political status, but,

more importantly, they also found an

opportunity to work for the progress

of Kashmir under the concepts of mu-tual trust, mutual co-operation, reli-

23 IN FOCUS

HISTORY




Annexation of Kashmirto the Mughal Empire

Archaeological and historicalstudies show that Kashmir has

been one of the most ancient

regions of the Indian sub-continent.

From ancient period onwards dynas-

tic changes in terms of political domi-nation in Kashmir were usual phe-

nomena. Both indigenous and non-

indigenous warrior groups ruled Kash-

mir. It is known that the Mauryan KingAshoka (273-232 B.C.) was the first

non-indigenous king who established

his rule in Kashmir and made certain

socio-political changes including in-troduction of the Buddhism. SimilarlyKanishka, the Kushan ruler, also con-

quered and ruled Kashmir in the first

and second century A.D. However, till

first half of the 16th century A.D. the

kingdom of Kashmir was largely ruledby its indigenous ruling families who

believed in both the maintenance of

independent political authority in

Kashmir and its territorial expan-sion. The ruling dynasties such as the

Karkota, Gupta, Lohara and Damra

worked for the socio-economic andpolitical developments in Kashmir.

When in 1339 Shah Mir founded Sul-tanate in Kashmir several adminis-

trative and socio-economic changes

were made in Kashmir. The Sultans

such as Shamsuddin or Shah Mir

(1339-42), Alauddin (1343-54),Shihabuddin(1354-73), Qutubuddin

(1373-89) and Zainul-Abidin (1420-

70) intensified the processes of cul-

tural developments in Kashmir andconquered some of the neighbouring

areas. But after the death of the Sul-tan Zainul-Abidin, political stability in

Kashmir started to diminish because

of struggle for throne among his suc-

cessors.

When Zahiruddin MuhammadBabur founded Mughal rule in the north

India he tried to introduce his rule in

Kashmir. Though an army sent by

Babur defeated the army of Kashmir,

Mughal army collected wealth and leftKashmir. After Babur's death, his son

Kamran also attacked Kashmir, but he

was defeated by the army of Kash-mir. Mirza Haider Dughlat was the

first Mughal who conquered Kashmirin 1540 and established his political

dominance in Kashmir. Though Mirza

Haider Dughlat virtually acted as the

sovereign of Kashmir for elevenyears, he did not declare himself as

the ruler of Kashmir. He made Nazuk

Shah as the Sultan of Kashmir. How-

ever, Mirza Haider Dughlat formulated

all the major policies of Kashmir andkept Nazuk Shah as the approver and

legitimizer of his policies. When MirzaHaider Dughlat died in 1551, Kash-

mir again faced the political crisis.

After ten years of his death the ruleof Shah Mir dynasty came to an end.

In 1561 the Chaks, a dominant tribe

of Kashmir, under the leadership of

Ghazi Chak, dethroned Sultan HabibShah (1557-61), the last Sultan of

Shah Mir dynasty, and laid the foun-

dation of the rule of the Chak dynasty.

Ghazi Chak (1561-63) was declared

as the sultan of Kashmir. Ghazi Chak,

gious tolerance and inclcusiveness.

It is important to mention that the

Kashmiri Brahmans legitimised thepolicies of Zain-ul-Abidin in terms

of socio-economic developments

and religious freedom. Jonaraja and

Srivara, contemporary Kashmiri his-

torians belonging to the Brahman

families, call Zain-ul-Abidin as an

incarnationof Lord

Vishnu(Vishnuavatara), his rule as

the Rama Raj, his capital as Dwarika

and his age as the Satyuga. Thus un-der Zain-ul-Abidin, the Hindus lived

with dignity and pride. The inclusiveform of the governance of Zainul

Abidin retained them as the major

sharer of the political power of Kash-

mir. They not only practised and pro-

fessed their religion with confi-

dence, but, more importantly, theHindus of Kashmir also acted as a

dominant religious group in terms of the holding of the executive power.

24IN FOCUS

HISTORY




Husain Shah (1563-70), Ali Shah

(1570-78) and Yusuf Shah Chak (1579-

86) were the four important sultans

of Chak dynasty. But under Yusuf

Shah Chak several administrativeproblems emerged in Kashmir. Though

Yusuf Shah Chak was a very gener-ous ruler, he lacked administrative

qualities. Very soon he became very

unpopular because of neglecting hisadministrative duties. He failed to

suppress his opponents. Ultimately,

Yusuf Shah Chak abdicated his throne

in favour of Lohar Chak.Lohar Chak ruled Kashmir for thir-

teen months. But in 1580 Yusuf Shah

Chak decided to regain his lost sov-

ereignty. For that he made contact

with Man Singh, the Mughal gover-

nor of Lahore. Man Singh asked Yusuf Shah Chak to meet the Mughal Em-

peror Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar

(1556-1605) at Agra. Yusuf Shah ac-

cepted the advice of Man Singh andwent to Agra. Akbar welcomed Yusuf

Shah Chak and agreed to help him in

restoration of his sovereignty in Kash-

mir. It is important to mention that

the Mughal emperor Akbar believedin Centralised political authority. Ac-

cording to his political theory, local

ruling class was to be granted politi-

cal autonomy by the Mughal emperorwithin the Mughal empire. Therefore,he promised Yusuf Shah Chak to pro-

vide him military assistance for the

reestablishment of his rule in Kash-

mir and making the latter a tributaryof the Mughal empire. Akbar sent his

army under the commond of Raja Man

Singh, the most competent and

trusted army officer of the Mughal

empire, for the help of Yusuf ShahChak in Kashmir. But when Yusuf Shah

Chak was on way from Agra to Kash-

mir he became suspicious of theMughal help to him in terms of his

political authority. He thought thatthe restoration of his authority in

Kashmir with the Mughal assistance

could make him a weak ruler and he

had to depend on the Mughal for the

maintenace of his authority in Kash-mir throughout his life. Therefore, he

adopted a diplomatic policy to avoid

the entry of the Mughals in Kashmir.

He requested Raja Man Singh not toaccompany him to Kashmir so that he

could garner large socio-political sup-

port of the Kashmir. Raja Man Singh

accepted the request of Yusuf ShahChak and the latter entered Kashmir.

He defeated his rivals and reestab-

lished his rule in Kashmir.

After his success in Kashmir, Yusuf

Shah Chak was expected to inviteRaja Man Singh to Kashmir. But this

never happened. Raja Man Singh felt

to be deceived by Yusuf Shah Chak

and decided to take action against

the latter. The Mughal emperor Akbardeclared that India from Kabul to the

sea was one counrty. Therefore there

could be only one sovereign power and

one empire; others were to be tribu-taries of the Mughal empire. Describ-

ing Akbar's perception of India's

boundaries the famous historian Abul

Fazl of Akbar's court writes,

"Hindustan is described as enclosedon the east, west and south by the

ocean, but Ceylon, Achin, Molacca and

considerable number of islands are

accounted within its extent. To the

north is a lofty range of mountains,part of which streches along the ut-

termost limits of Hindustan, its other

extremity passes into Turkestan and

Persia. An immediate region lies be-tween this and the vast frontier of

China, inhabited by various races,

such as Kashmir, Great and Little Ti-

bet, Kishtwar and others." (Ain-i-

Akbari, Vol.III, Eng. Tr. by ColonelH.S. Jarret, Corrected and further

annotated by Sir J.N. Sarkar, Delhi,

1994, p. 1). To act in accordance with

his political theory Akbar decided to

make all the states, from Kabul tosouth, as the tributaries of the Mughal

empire. Strategically, Kashmir was a

very important state from Mughal

point of view. It was closely associ-ated with Central Asia and the Uzbeks

were one of the worst rivals of the

Mughals. It is important to mention

that Babur was expelled from Central

Asia by the Uzbek leader ShaibaniKhan. Therefore, the Mughals were

very cautious of the Uzbeks and de-

cided to keep Uzbeks far from the

frontiers of the Mughal empire. More-

over, Kashmir was ruled by MirzaHaider Dughalat, an ancestor of

Akbar, therefore, Akbar thought to

bring Kashmir under his control. It is

important to mention that from very

beginning the Chak Sultans sent rich

gifts to Akbar which were symbol of

their loyalty to the Mughal emperor.

But when Yusuf Shah Chak failed toexpress his gratitude to Akbar after

regaining his rule in Kashmir, Akbartook it as a rebellious attitude of

Yusuf Shah Chak.

To realise Yusuf Shah Chak thathe was a vassal of the Mughal em-

pire Akbar ordered him to appear at

the Mughal court. But Yusuf Shah Chak

sent his younger son to the Mughalcourt. Akbar did not accept the ac-

tions of Yusuf Shah Chak and once

again asked his personal appearance

at the Mughal court as a symbol of

his loyalty to the emperor. But again

Yusuf Shah Chak sent his son YaqubChak to the Mughal court. Akbar was

very much annoyed with the attitude

of Yusuf Shah Chak and decided to

take action against him. In August,1585 Akbar went to Kabul for admin-

istrative purpose. In October, 1585,

Akbar left Kabul, but when he reached

Kalanaur (in Punjab) he sent his two

officers, Hakim Ali Gilani andBahauddin Kambu to Kashmir to bring

Yusuf Shah Chak with them. Mean-

while, Yaqub Chak who was with

Akbar left Mughal camp and came toSrinagar before the arrival of theroyal envoys. The escape of Yaqub

Chak from the royal camp with per-

mission of the emperor was very

much resented by the latter. Yusuf Shah Chak was also very much

distrurbed with the arrival of his son

in Srinagar without permission of the

Mughal emperor. After some time the

Mughal envoys, sent by Akbar, alsocame to Srinagar and told Yusuf Shah

Chak that he had to go to Kalanaur to

meet the Mughal emperor. Yusuf ShahChak received these envoy honourably

and agreed to accompany them to theMughal Court. But the decision of

Yusuf Shah Chak to meet the Mughal

emperor was opposed by his nobles

and army. Therefore, Yusuf Shah Chak

cancelled his plan to meet the Mughalemperor. When the two Mughal en-

voys came back from Srinagar to the

Mughal court and told the attitude of

Yusuf shah Chak, his nobles andarmymen Akbar decided to change his

25 IN FOCUS

HISTORY



policy of Kashmir.

When Akbar failed to establish his

sovereigned in Kashmir through ne-

gotiation and peaceful means and

found that his theory of kingship wasnot accepted by Yusuf Shah Chak, he

decided to follow the policy of war

against the latter. It is important tomention that some of the Kashmirishad already approached the Mughal

emperor for the removal of Yusuf

Shah Chak. In December 1585, Akbar

sent army under Mirza Shah Rukh,

Raja Bhagwan Das and Shah Mahramto attack Kashmir. The Mughal em-

peror ordered Haider Chaka and

Shah Yaqub Sharfi (both of them

were Kashmiri and anti-Yusuf Shah

Chak, to guide the Mughal army toKashmir. The Mughal army followed

the route of Pakli and reachedKashmir. However, when the

Kashmiris came to know about thearrival of the Mughal army they

compelled Yusuf Shah Chak to check

the advancement of the Mughal

army. Though Yusuf Shah Chak

never wanted to come into conflictwith the Mughal emperor, he re-

sisted the entry of the Mughal

forces in Kashmir. Since it was the

winter season, the snow and other

weather adversaries did not allow

the Mughals to achieve any successagainst the Kashmiri force. Though

Kashmiri forces succeeded in check

the advancement of the Mughalforce, Raja Bhagwan Das decided

to make negotiation with Yusuf

Shah Chak for the establishment of

Akbar's sovereignty in Kashmir. He

sent his two agents with a letterstating that the present defeat of

the Mughals did not mean that they

would leave Kashmir. He warned

Yusuf Shah Chak very soon an other

Mughal force was expected to ar-rive Kashmir to suppress the

Kashmiri resistance and it was bet-

ter for Yusuf Shah Chak to visit

Mughal court. Ultimately, Yusuf Shah Chak agreed with the proposal

of Raja Bhagwan Das and in Febru-

ary 1586 he reached the Mughal

camp. But the Kashmiris continued

their res istance against theMughals and declared Yaqub Chak,

the son of Yusuf Shah Chak as the

new Sultan. Again the Mughals

faced the weather problems i.e.

snow, cold, rain and scarcity of food. Therefore, he opened nego-

tiation with Yaqub for peace.

Though the latter agreed the peace

proposal of Raja Bhagwan Das,

peace was signed between Yusuf Shah Chak and the Mughals. Ac-

cording to the agreement, Yusuf

Shah Chak accepted the sover-

eignty of Akbar and promised to

send son Yaqub to the MughalCourt. The Mughals agreed to leave

Kashmir and promised that the

throne of Kashmir to be retained

by Yusuf Shah. Yusuf Shah accom-panied Raja Bhagwan Das and at

Attock he met the Mughal emperor.

Akbar welcomed Yusuf Shah Chak,

but did not allow him to retain the

sultanship of Kashmir. Akbar im-prisoned Yusuf Shah Chak. Raja

Bhagwan Das felt very much humili-

ated with the treatment meted out

to Yusuf Shah Chak. But Akbar re-

tained Yusuf Shah Chak under thecustody of Raja Todar Mal for two

and a half years. Afterwardshe re-

leased Yusuf Shah Chak and as-

signed him a mansab (rank) andsent him to Bihar.

However, the Kashmiris contin-

ued their resistance against the

Mughals under the leadership of

Yaqub Chak. But very soon YaqubChak lost the support of some of

his powerful nobles because of his

arbitrary and fanatic policies. The

dissatisfied Kashmir nobles ap-

proached the Mughal emperoragainst Yaqub Chak. The Mughal

emperor sent an army under the

command Qasim Khan to attack

Kashmir and dethrone Yaqub Chak.Consequently, in September 1586

Qasim Khan attacked Kashmir.

Though Yaqub Chak marched to

check the Mughal advancement, he

was deserted by his own nobles whoal l ied themselves with the

Mughals. Ultimately, dissession

among the Kashmiri nobles led to

the success of the Mughals in Kash-

mir. Finding himself in a very ad-verse situation in Kashmir Yaqub

fled to Kishtwar. The Mughal con-

quest of Kashmir in 1586 led to the

introduction of Mughal administra-

tion there and its annexation to the

Mughal empire. Qasim Khan wasappointed as the first Mughal gov-

ernor of Kashmir. Although Yaqub

Chak tried to recapture Kashmir

many times, he was unsuccessful.

In 1589 Akbar came to Kashmir.Yaqub Shah Chak submitted before

the emperor. Thus the processes of

annexation of Kashmir were com-

pleted. With it annexation to the

Mughal empire, Kashmir was de-clared a part of the Mughal Suba of

Kabul. Abul Fazl's Ain-i-Akbari men-

tions Kashmir as a Sarkar (district)

of the Suba of Kabul. Since theMughal emperor Akbar believed in

policy of Sulh-i-Kul (peace with all)

accelerated the processes of the

cultural developments in Kashmir.

He founded a new city Nagar Nagar.Akabr intorduced garden culture in

Kashmir and laid out the gardens

such as Nasim Bagh, Hari Parbat

garden and Wah Bagh. He also

brought cherry(Shahalu) from Kabuland planted it in Kashmir. The pro-

cesses of Cultural development in

Kashmir under Akbar were intensi-

fied by his successors. The Mughalemperor ensured that the fruits of

developments in Kashmir were to

be shared and enjoyed by the

Kashmiris. The Mughals contrib-

uted to the development of touristplaces in Kashmir on large scale.

At the time natural calamity huge

financial support was extended to

the Kashmiris by the Mughal em-

peror. Thus the annexation of Kash-mir to the Mughal empire led to the

strengthening of the security of its

frontier and end of the political in-

stability in Kashmir. Under theMughals Kashmir was connected

with different parts of India as well

as other countries. The arts and

crafts of Kashmir received huge

publicity during the Mughal period.Several Kashmiris were provided

opportunity to exhibit their skills

in the Mughal empire. Akbar got

Kalhan's Rajtarangini translated

into Persian. A Kashmiricalligraphist in the Mughal court

was honoured with the title of

Zarrin qalam or golden pen.

26IN FOCUS

HISTORY



Empire and Regional Identities:Kashmir under the Mughals

Part-I

Mughal emperor Jalal-ud-din

Muhammed Akbar initiated

the policy of defining the

boundary of the Mughal India. He de-

clared that India was a country spread-ing from Kabul to the Sea or South

India. He planned to introduce Mughal

rule in whole India. He devised two

methods for the introduction Mughalrule in different areas from Kabul to

South India: 1. through the policy of annexation and 2. through making

tributary states. The concept of

Akbar's empire is well defined by AbulFazl, a court historian, "Hindustan is

described as enclosed on the east,

west and south by the ocean, but

Ceylon, Achin, the Moluccas, Malacca

and a considerable number of islandsare accounted within its extent. To the

north is lofty range of mountains, part

of which stretches along the uttermost

limits of Hindustan, and its other ex-

tremity passes into Turkestan and Per-sia. An immediate region lies between

this vast frontiers of china, inhabited

by various races, such as Kashmir,

Great and Little Tibet, Kishtwar andothers. This quarter may therefore

be likened to another ocean . With all

its magnitude of extent and harvests

and the equable temperament of its

people.". Abul Fazl' mention clearlyshows that for Akbar Kashmir was to

be part of the Mughal empire .Conse-

quently, whe Akbar started the empire

building process in India he decidedto bring Kashmir under the

Mughals.After its conquest Akbar an-

nexed Kashmir to the Mughal empire

in 1586. Since it was the policy of

Akbar to recognize and maintain re-gional identities of his empire, he

treated Kashmir as a distinct region

and worked for the preservation and

propagation of both tangible Although

the Mughals followed the concept of huge territorial aggrandizement, they

believed that the regional identities

were to be protected and were to be

the means of the strength of the

Mughal Empire. When the Mughal

Emperor Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar

(1556-1605) annexed Kashmir to theMughal empire in 1586, he initiated

the policy of integration of Kashmir

with his empire through the concept

of the mutual respect and cooperation.He perceived that Kashmir was a re-

gion which consisted of physical envi-ronment different from other parts of

India. He also understood that Kash-

mir was a region which people weremostly ruled by its indigenous rulers

from ancient period onwards. For

Akbar, Kashmir had huge potentiali-

ties of the expansion of horticulture

and trade and commerce. However,Akbar first decided to record the re-

gional identities of Kashmir so that

he could formulate a policy getting

social legitimacy of his rule in Kash-

mir. Akbar's work of tapping the localidentities of Kashmir was accom-

plished by his court historian Abul Fazl.

When the latter recorded the history

of Kashmir he gave more emphasis onthe land and its people. Abul Fazl de-

fined the identities of Kashmir cover-

ing the features from its boundary to

pre-Mughal rulers of Kashmir from

ancient period onwards. Describingthe boundary of Kashmir Abul Fazl

writes, "It (Kashmir) lies in the third

and fourth climates. Its length from

Qamber Ver to Kishan Ganga is 120kos, and it breadth from 10 to 25 kos.

On the east are Paristan and the river

Chinab; on the south-east Banihal and

the Jammu mountains; on the north-

east, Great Tibet (Tibet-i-Kalan, i.e.Ladakh); on the south-west, the

Gakkhar country; on the north-west,

Little Tibet (Baltistan or Tibet-i-

Khurd). It is encompassed on all sides

by the Himalayan ranges. Twenty sixdifferent roads lead into Hindustan,

but those by Bhimbar and Pakli are the

2 7 IN FOCUS

HISTORY



best and the generally practicable on

horseback. The first mentioned is the

nearest and it has several routes of

which three are good; viz., (1) Hast

Bhanj which was former route for themarch of troops; (2) Pir Panjal, which

His Majesty (Akbar) has thrice tra-versed on his way to the rose garden

of Kashmir. If on these hills an ox or a

horse be killed , storm clouds and windarise with a fall of snow and rain; (3)

Tangatala." The writings of Abul Fazl

on Kashmir show that the Mughal

emperor Akbar felt it necessary tohighlight the local characteristics of

Kashmir for making it an integral

part of his empire. He found it ef-

fective to associate the Kashmiris

with the Mughal empire though re-

specting their natural heritage andsocio-economic life. For Abul Fazl,

"The country (Kashmir) is enchant-

ing and might be fittingly called a

garden of perpetual spring surround-ing a citadel terraced to the skies,

and deservedly appropriate to be

either the delight of the worldling

or retired abode recluse. Its streamsare sweet to the taste, its water-

falls music to ears, and its climate

invigorating. The rainfall and snow-

fall are similar to that of Turkestan

and Persia and its periodical rainsoccur at the same season as in

Hindustan. The lands are artificially

watered or dependent on rains for

irrigation. The flowers are enchant-

ing and fill the heart with delight.Violets, the red roses and wild nar-

cissus cover the plains. To enumer-

ate its flora would impossible. Its

spring and autumn are extremelybeautiful. The houses are of wood

and of stories and some of more,

but its not enclose them. Tulips are

grown on the roofs which present alovely sight in the spring time.Cattle and sundry stores are kept in

the lower storey, the second contains

family apartments, and in the third

and fourth are the household chat-

tels. On account of the abundanceof wood and earthquake, houses of

stone and bricks are not built, but

the ancient temples inspire aston-

ishment. At present day many of them are in ruins. Woollen fabrics

are made in high perfection, espe-

cially shawls which are sent as valu-

able gift every clime. But the bane

of the country is its people, yet

strange to say, not withstanding itsnumerous population and the scanti-

ness of the means of subsistence,

thieving and begging are rare. Be-sides plums and mulberries, the

fruits are numerous. Melons, apples,peaches, apricots are excellent. Al-

though grapes are in plenty, the finer

qualities are rare and the vines bear

mulberry trees. The mulberry iseaten. Its leaves are reserved for

silkworm. The eggs are brought from

Gilgit and Little Tibet, in the former

of which they are produced in abun-

dance and are of more choice. Thefood of people is chiefly rice, wine,

fish and various vegetables, and lastmentioned they dry and preserve.

Rice is cooked and kept overnight to

be eaten. Though shali rice is plen-tiful, the finest quality is not obtain-

able. Wheat is small in grain and

black in color, and there is little of

it, and little consumed. Gram and

barley are nowhere found. The havespecies of sheep which they call

handu, delicate and sweet in flavor

and wholesome. Apparel is generally

of wool, a coat of which will last for

some years." Abul Fazl's these narra-tives of the characteristics of Kash-

mir in terms its agricultural and arti-

sans' productions, built heritage, na-

ture of houses and food items etc.helped the Mughal emperor to admin-

ister Kashmir in a way that could en-

sure the survival of the local identi-

ties. The Mughals found the

Kashmiris hard working persons andvery much devoted to the concept of

the self-reliance. To propagate and

encourage the skills of the Kashmiris

the Mughals gave huge space to themin their literary works. Appreciating

the skills and hard works of the

Kashmiris Abul Fazl writes, "There are

artificers of various kinds who might

be deservedly employed in the greatecities…The carriage of goods is ef-

fected by the boat, but men also carry

great loads over the most difficult

country. Boatmen and carpenters

drive a thriving trade. The Brahmanclass is very numerous. Although Kash-

mir has a dialect of its own, their

learned books in the Sanskrit lan-

guage. They have a separate charac-

ter which they use for manuscript

work, and they write chiefly on Tuz

which is the bark of a tree, workedinto sheets with some rude art and

which keeps for years. All their an-cient documents are written on this.

Their ink is so prepared as to be in-

delible by washing. Although, in an-cient times, the learning of the Hin-

dus was in vogue, at present day,

various sciences are studied and their

knowledge is of a more general char-acter. Their astrological art and as-

tronomy are after the manner of the

Hindus… Their musicians are exceed-

ingly many … the most respectableclass is that of the Brahmans, who

notwithstanding their need of free-dom from the bonds of tradition andcustom, are true worshippers of God." Mughals respected the reli-gious and political sentiments of theKashmiris. Recoding the sacred placesof the Hindus of Kashmir Abul Fazlwrites, "The whole country is re-garded as holy ground by the Hindusages. Forty five shrines are dedi-cated to Mahadeva, sixty four toVishnu, three to Brahma, and twentytwo to Durga. In seven hundred placesthere are graven images of snakeswhich they worship and regardingwhich wonderful legends are told."Through the identification of the vari-ous aspects of the Kashmiri culturesthe Mughal emperor Akbar started theprocesses of the inclusion of theKashmiris in the Mughal empire. Heappointed them in the Mughal admin-istrative institutions as calligraphists,revenue officials, horticulturalists,poets and musicians etc. He encour-aged the participation of theKashmiris in the trade and commerce

of the empire. More importantly,Akbar made the route of Kashmir toDelhi safer and beneficial for theKashmiris. It is evident that he spentlarge sum to construct a road fromRajouri via Punch to Kashmir, whichbecame famous as the Mughal road.It was the concept of the coalition be-tween the region and empire for socio-economic development which intensi-

fied and strengthened the processes

of the integration of Kashmir with theMughal empire.

28IN FOCUS

HISTORY



Part II

K

ashmir has one of the historical regions of the Indian sub-

Continent from ancient period

onwards. Its people not only made his-

tory of their own, but more impor-tantly they also participated in the

processes of the making of the his-

tory of the other regions of the In-

dian sub-Continent. Kashmir was the

region which introduced the art of his-toriography. Kalhan not only con-

structed the history of Kashmir, but

also incorporated the historical

events of other regions showing his-

toricity of them. The establishmentof rule of the Mauryan and Kushans

in Kashmir led to the introduction and

spread of Buddhism there. Before its

annexation to the Mughal empire bythe Mughal emperor Jalaluddin

Muhammad Akbar (1556-1605) Kash-

mir was mostly ruled by the native

rulers. The Karkota was the first na-

tive ruling dynasty which widened thecontacts of Kashmir with other re-

gion. It is well established fact that

its ruler Lalitaditya Muktapida (725-

53 A.D) was one of the most success-

ful conquerors of the world of 8thcentury A.D. The rulers of the Utpala,

Lohara, Gupta and Damra dynasties

maintained and strengthened the re-

gional identity of Kashmir in termsof social and economic developments.

Kashmir was only the region of India

where women exercised socio-politi-

cal authority in a big way. It produced

three queens, Sugandha (904-06),Didda (958-1003) and Kota Rani

(1338-39) exercised huge political

authority and established that women

were eligible to acquire and command

political power.With the establishment of

the Sultanate under Shamsuddin Shah

Mir in 1339 the processes of the ter-

ritorial expansion and cultural con-tacts of Kashmir were intensified. The

sultans of Kashmir, Shah Mir to Yusuf

Shah Chak (1339-1586) largely re-

spected the sentiments of the people

of multi-social backgrounds and en-gaged the latter in the constructive

works. Under the Sultanate of Kash-

mir many new crafts such as papier-machie, shawl-weaving, carpet mak-

ing, calligraphy and sericulture etc

were introduced. Sultan Zainul Abidin

(1420-70) encouraged Kashmiri, San-skrit and Persian literatures in Kash-

mir. Both the Sufism and Bhaktism

flourished in Kashmir under the Sul-

tans. It is important to mention both

Nuruddin Rishi or Nand Rishi and LalDed or Lalleshwari, the voices of the

subalterns of Kashmir developed and

propagated the concepts of dignity

of labour and inclusion during the

Sultanate period.However, in 1586-87 Kashmir

was annexed to the Mughal empire

by the Mughal emperor Akbar. First

time Kashmir became a part of theMughal empire, famous all over world

for its political grandeur and eco-

nomic prosperity. Since Akbar be-

lieved in the concept of pluralism, he

treated the regional identities of Kashmir as important as his own.

Abul Fazl, a court or official histo-

rian of Akbar and author of the

Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari, was in-

structed by the Mughal emperor togive due space to the regional iden-

tities in his historical works. Conse-

quently, Abul Fazl discovered various

cultural and physical identities of Kashmir and incorporated in his

works so that others could know the

characteristics of the Kashmiri cul-

ture. The Mughals not gave huge pub-

licity to the existing cultural identi-ties of Kashmir through their literary

works, but they contributed signifi-

cantly to the tracing of the history of

Kashmir. Abul Fazl in his Ain-i-Akbari

records some of the historical eventsof Kashmir showing how the

Kashmiris worked to make them-

selves politically and economically

noticeable by the world. The sincer-ity of the Mughals to the cause of the

Kashmiris in terms of their history

and culture can be estimated from the

fact that when Abul Fazl initiated the

processes of the discovery of the his-torical changes and developments in

Kashmir. He tried his best to see them

29 IN FOCUS

HISTORY



from the sources of Kashmir. Abul fazl

found that the Rajtarangini was the

most authentic source of the historyof Kashmir. Consequently he utilized

it for the tracing of the history of

Kashmir.

Abul Fazl discovers that his-torical developments of Kashmir in an

inclusive way. His works contain the

historical events from the policies

and achievements of the political

masters to the Amarnath shrine of Kashmir. It is important to mention

that the Mughals had a very strong

tradition of historiography and their

history books were consulted through-

out India during the 17th and 18thcenturies. Since the Mughals had es-

tablished a coalition form of the gov-

ernment, the description of the re-

gional identities became a mostpopular medium of the interactions

among multiple identities of India.

To give a definite shape to

the historical developments of Kash-

mir Abul Fazl studied theRajatarangini and collected informa-

tion from it regarding the history of Kashmir from earliest period to the

first half of the 12th century A.D. Abul

Fazl gives all credit to the Mughalemperor Akbar for tracing the histori-

cal and natural heritage of Kashmir.

The extent of the Mughal emperor's

interests in the heritage of Kashmiir

can be estimated from some of thenarratives of Abul Fazl. According to

one of the narratives of Abul Fazl,

"When the Imperial standards

(Mughals) were for the first time born

aloft in this garden of perpetualspring, a book called Raj Tarangini

written in Sanskrit tongue contain-

ing account of the prices of Kashmir

during a period of some four thou-sand years, was presented to His

Majesty (Akbar). It had been the cus-

tom of that country (Kashmir) for its

rulers to employ certain learned men

in writing its annals. His Majesty whowas desirous of extending the bounds

of knowledge appointed capable in-

terpreters in its translation which in

a short time was highly accomplished.

In this work it is stated that the wholeof the mountainous region was sub-

merged under water and called Sati

Sar. Sati is the name of the wife of

Mahadev, and Sar signifies the alake. One day of Brahma comprises

14 manavantras. Up to the 40th year

of the Divine Era, of the seventh

manvantara, at which time Kashmir

began to be inhabited, 27 (Kalpas)each of four cycles (yug) as before

mentioned, have elapsed and of the

twenty-eighth three cycles and of the

fourth cycles, 4701 solar years. Andwhen, according to the legend which

they relate, the waters had somewhat

subsided, Kasyapa who is regarded as

on of the most sublime among the

ascetics, brought in the Brahmans toinhabit the new region. When men

began to multiply they sought to have

a just ruler over them and experi-

enced elders, solicitous of the public

weal met together in council andelected to the supreme authority one

who was distinguished for his wis-

dom, his large understanding, his

comprehensive benevolence and his

personal courage." (Ain-i-Akbari,Vol.II, English translation, pp.375-

76). It is very interesting and knowl-

edgeable to mention that the Mughals

tapped the information pertaining tothe origin and growth of socio-politi-

cal system of Kashmir in a historical

perspective. Abul Fazl approximates

the age of society and polity of Kash-

mir in accordance with the social andpolitical changes in the region. For

Abul Fazl, Ugnand was the first king

of Kashmir who ruled 4044 years prior

to 1595-96 A.D. Narrating the nature

of the political power of the earlykings of Kashmir Abul Fazl writes, "

Ugnand fell by the hand of Balbhadra,

the elder brother of Kishan in the

battle fought at Mathura betweenKishan and Jarasandha raja of Behar.

Damodara (his son), to avenge his

death marched against some of the

relations of Kishan who were hasten-

ing to a marriage festival in Qandhar,and was killed fighting on the banks

of the Sind…Thirty five princes suc-

ceeded, but through their tyranny

their names are no more remem-

bered. When Lavah ascended thethrone, their justice was universally

administered and deeds met their

just recognition. He founded inKamraj the great city of Lavapur the

ruins of which still to be traced." The

Mughals accepted that the Rajas and

Sultans of Kashmir were very muchconscious to their power and prestige.According to Abul fifty three kings

reigned Kashmir during 1266 years.

Abul Fazl's lists of the rulers of Kash-

mir mentions Ugnand as its first king

and Yaqub Khan as the last sultan be-fore the establishment of the Mughal

rule in Kashmir.

Once the Mughals made Kash-

mir part of their Indian empire, theydevised a plan to keep the works of

the previous rulers of the state

memorable so that local people couldmake their histories as the sources

of their inspiration. Abul Fazl men-tions that Raja Pravarasena, a ruler

of the ancient Kashmir, earned a huge

fame through his good governance

and constructive activities. Describ-

ing the achievements of the Raja AbulFazl writes, "Pravarasena was univer-

sally distinguished for his justice and

liberality. He founded Srinagar, the

capital of the country (Kashmir) ren-dered it populous during his reign with

600,000 houses." Similarly RajaLalitaditya of 8th century A.D. Kash-

mir has been portrayed by Abul Fazl

as one of the most powerful warriorsof the world in terms of his territo-

rial aggrandizement. For Abul Fazl,

"Raja Lalitaditya devoted himself to

the prosperity of his kingdom and in

the strength of the divine aid over-ran Iran, Turan (Central Asia), Fars,

Hindustan, Khata, and the whole hos-

pitable globe, and administered his

dominions with justice. He died in the

mountains of the north, and it is saidtha he was turned into stone by the

curse of an ascetic, but others relate

the story differently."

Through the identification of the political changes in Kashmir from

the ancient period onwards the

Mughals preserved and propagated

that the Kashmiri ruling families fol-

lowed the despotism which was mosteffective form of the government of

the ancient and medieval period. But

30IN FOCUS

HISTORY



the Mughals also presented many

Kashmiri rulers as enlightened and

just. Abul Fazl found that the SultanZainul Abidin made Kashmir an active

participant in Asia in terms of terri-

torial expansion, public welfare ac-

tivities, economic developments andpromotion of knowledge. Abul Fazlmake the works of Zainul Abidin

memorable in these words, "Zainul

Abidin overran Tibet and Sind. He was

a wise prince, devoted to philosophi-

cal studies and it was his fortune toenjoy universal peace. He was re-

garded by high and low as a special

servant of God and venerated as a

saint. He was credited with the power

of divesting himself of his corporalform, and he foretold that under the

dynasty of the Chaks, the sovereigntyof Kashmir would be transferred from

that family to the monarchs of Hindustan, which prediction after a

period of years was accomplished. His

benevolence and love of his people

induced him to prohibit the slaugh-

tering of cows, as well as penaltiesand presents of all kinds. He added

somewhat to the measure of the

Jarib. His private revenues were

drawn from copper mines. He often

personally administered medicinal

remedies and resolved all difficult un-dertakings with ease. Robbers were

employed in chained gangs on public

works. His gentleness of dispositiondissuaded men from the pursuit of

game, and he himself ate no flesh or

meat. He caused many works to be

translated from the Arabic, Persian,

Kashmiri and Sanskrit languages.During his reign musician from Per-

sia and Turkestan flocked to his

court; among them Mulla Undi, the

immediate pupil of the famousKhwajah Abdul Qadir arrived from

Khurasan and Mulla Jamil who in sing-

ing and painting was pre-eminent

among his contemporaries, SultanAbu Said Mirza sent him presents of Arab horses and dromedaries from

Khurasan and Bahlol Lodi King of

Delhi and Sultan Mahmud of Gujarat

were in friendly alliance with him."The Mughals identified the reli-

gious centres of Kashmir. Abul Fazl

depicts them in terms of their loca-

tion, religious sanctity and existing

structural conditions. He gives agraphic picture of Amarnath shrine.

According to him, "Between Great

Tibet (Tibet-i-Kalan or Ladakh)…Parganah (Dachchhinparah) is a

cave which an image in ice calledAmar Nat. It is considered a shrine

of great sanctity. When the new moon

rises from her throne of rays, a

bubble as it were of ice is formed inthe cave which daily increases little

by little fro fifteen days till it is some-

what higher than two yards; with the

waning moon, the image likewise

begins to decrease, till no trace of itremains when the moon disappears.

They believe it to be the image of Mahadeva and regarded it as a

means (through supplication) of ful-

fillment of their desires. Near thecave is a rill called Amraoti, the clay

of which is extremely white. The

snows of this mountainous tract no-

where melt, and from the extremelycold, the straitness of the defiles and

the rough inequalities of road, they

are surmounted with great toil." But

Abul Fazl identifies Martand in a di-

lapidated condition. He narrated it in

these words, "Matan (Martand)stands upon a hill and once possessed

a large temple. There is a small pool

on the summit, the water of whichnever decreases. Some suppose this

to be the Wall of Babylon, but at thepresent day there is no trace of any-

thing but ordinary pit." Through the

recognition and propagation of the

local identities of Kashmir the Mughalsrealized the Kashmiris that the latter's

regional identities deserved to be

highlighted and historically they were

as useful as other identities of the

Mughal India. It is well accepted thatthe Mughal emperor Akbar practiced

and propagated the concept of 'peacewith all' (Sulh-i-Kul), largely followed

by his successors. Consequently, the

literary men followed the concept of inclusion in selecting themes of their

writings. Since Kashmir was an impor-

tant frontier region of the Mughal em-

pire, the Mughals understood it a their

duty to it respecting the local identi-ties. The descriptions of these iden-

tities by the Mughal literary works

show that they treated the Kashmiris

as the makers of their own histories.

The Mughals also accepted that bothempire and region could work together

when the latter's cultural identities

were respected by the empire. The

Mughals' policy of the treating the re-gional identities as the basis of the

strength of a region led to the inten-

sification in the process of the asso-

ciation of the Kashmiris with the

Mughal empire.

Formation of Jammuand Kashmir state

The state of Jammu and Kash

mir came into existence in

1846. It cosists of three cultural

zones, Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.

But before the formation of the state

these regions represented various

types of political identities. It is

known that the modern Jammu re-

gion was divided into twenty two

principalities. The major states of

3 1 IN FOCUS

HISTORY



Jammu region were Jammu, Mankot,

Jasrota, Lakhanpur, Samba, Bhau,Bhoti, Chanehni, Bandralta, Kishtwar,

Rajouri, Punch, Bhimbher and Khari-

Khariyali etc. These states of Jammu

region were ruled by the Rajputs be-longing to both the Hindu and Mus-lim communities. Raja Ranjit Dev

(1733-82) was only the king of Jammu

who tried to bring all these states

under his control through the con-

quests. Otherwise, fragmented politi-cal authority was the dominant trend

of Jammu region upto the early 19th

century. Similarly, Kashmir was a

separate political entity. Though in1586 it was annexed to the Mughal

empire by the Mughal emperor Jalal-

ud-din Akbar (1556-1605), socio-po-litically it maintained its identity. In

1753 Mughal rule came to an end inKashmir and it was replaced by the

Afghan rule. The Afghans ruled Kash-

mir for about 66 years (1753-1819).

The modern Ladakh region was also

divided into several principalities.Lahchen and Namgyal were the ma-

jor dynasties which ruled major parts

of Ladakh.

The processes converting the dif-ferent political entities of the mod-

ern Jammu and Kashmir in one po-litical unit started in early 19th cen-

tury. It was Maharaja Ranjit

Singh(1800-39) of Lahore Darbar whodecided to conquer the states of

Jammu and Kashmir regions. In 1808

Maharaja Ranjit Singh compelled Jit

Dev, the last king of Jammu state, to

accept his sovereignity and in 1816annexed Jammu to the Lahore

Darbar. After its annexation to the

Lahore Darbar Jammu was assigned

in Jagir to Prince Kharak Singh, the

son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. But therule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was

opposed by the local people of Jammu

under the leadership of Mian Dido.

Though Mian Dido was a JamwalRajput and belonged to a branch of

ruling family of Jammu, he fought for

the cause of common people of

Jammu. He received huge support of

the common people of Jammu againstMaharaja Ranjit Singh rule. He

emerged as a folk hero. The resis-

tance of Mian Dido against the rule

of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was sostrong that it became very difficult

for the latter to successfully run the

administration of the state. Finally,

Maharaja Ranjit Singh decided to

utilise the services of Gulab Singh, aDogra army officer working under

him.

Gulab Singh, born on October 21,

1792, joined the services of Maha-

raja Ranjit Singh in 1810. ThoughGulab Singh started his career as a

trooper under Maharaja Ranjit Singh,

his courage, chivalry and sincerity

brought him to the post of a com-mander of an army of the Maharaja.

The latter found Gulab Singh as the

most competent and suitable army

commonder for the suppression of Mian Dido. Consequently Gulab Singhwas sent to Jammu by Maharaja

Ranjit Singh to overpower Mian Dido.

Gulab Singh worked in accordance

with the expectation of Maharaja

Ranjit Singh and in 1820 defeated andkilled Mian Dido. The success of

Gulab Singh against Mian Dido im-

pressed Maharaja Ranjit Singh so

much that the latter assigned him theduty of conquering other states of

Jammu hills and annexing them to

Lahore Darbar. Gulab Singh con-quered Kishtwar and Rajouri and

other states of Jammu hills. More im-portantly, Maharaja Ranjit Singh

honoured Gulab Singh with the title

of Raja. In June 1822 Gulab crowned

himself as the king of Jammu on the

bank of Chenab river. Raja GulabSingh appointed Zorawar Singh

Kahaluria as his Wazir. In 1834

Zorawar, ordered by Gulab Singh, at-

tacked Ladakh and defeated its rulerTsepal Namgyal and after two years

Ladakh was annexed to the JammuKingdom.

As far as Kashmir was con-

cerned, it was conquered and an-nexed to Lahore Darbar in 1819. The

rule of Lahore darbar in Kashmir

continued upto 1846. However,

when Maharaja Ranjit Singh died in

1839 the strength of Lahore Darbarstarted to be weakened. The weak-

ness of Lahore Darbar in Kashmir

after 1839 paved the way for the

change in the political life of Kash-

mir.In 1845 the British forces at-

tacked Punjab and first Anglo-

Punjab war was fought. The British

defeated the army of Lahore Darbar

and compelled its ruler Dalip Singhto sign a treaty. Raja Gulab Singh

plalyed a vital role in signing the

treaty between Maharaja Dalip

Singh and British on March 9, 1846.

It is called treaty of Lahore. Accord-ing to one of the clauses of the

treaty, Maharaja Dalip Singh ac-

cepted Gulab Singh as an indepen-

dent sovereign. Afterwards, BritishViceroy Hardinge devised a plan to

hand over Kashmir and other hill

territories to Gulab Singh on the

condition of payment of waridemnity. Consequently, on March15, 1846 the British governent con-

ferred the title of the Maharaja on

Raja Gulab Singh and on March 16,

1846 signed a treaty with Maharaja

Gulab Singh. It is called the treatyof Amritsar. According to the treaty,

British agreed to hand over Kash-

mir and other hill territories to Ma-

haraja on the condition of the pay-ment of Rupees seventy five lakhs

as war idemnity to the British. Ma-

haraja Gulab Singh accepted thecondition and received Kashmir.

Though Maharaja Gulab Singh paidRupees seventy five lakhs to Brit-

ish in lieu of Kashmir, he did not

acquire independent position . He

remained as a tributary of the Brit-

ish Government. The treaty of Amritsar consists of ten articles.

According to the Article 10, "Maha-

raja acknowledges the supermacy of

of the British Government, and will,

in token of such supermacy, present

annually to the British government

one horse, twelve perfect shawls

goats of approved breed (six male

and six female) and three pairs of

Kashmiri shawls". (S.D.S. Charak

(Tr.), Gulabnama, Delhi, 1977,

p.422). Thus the through the pay-

ment of seventy five rupees Maha-

raja Gulab Singh did not purchase

Kashmir from the British Govern-

ment. Bsut he paid the amount as

war idemnity and occupied Kashmir

as a tributary power of the British

32IN FOCUS

HISTORY



India. With occupation of Kashmir

on March 16, 1846 Maharaja laid

the foundation of Jammu and Kash-

mir, consisting of three cultural

zones, Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.

Thus Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh

were politically united by Maharaja

GulabSingh and concept of political

fragmentation in these region was

ended by him. It was Maharaja Gulab

Singh's efforts which resulted in the

formation of Jammu and Kashmir

state. The formation of Jammu and

Kashmir state not only accelerated

the process of the socio-economic

development in the state under Ma-

haraja Gulab Singh and his

successros, but the unity of Jammu

and Kashmir state is instrumental

for the strength of the people of the

three regions, Jamm, Kashmir and

Ladakh. All these three regions are

inter-dependent on each other for

their socio-economic growth. More

importantly, they the collective re-

pository of cultural heritage of the

state. The state of Jammu and

Kashmir fosters the composite cul-

ture and encourages the people to

grow in differences.

Oral Traditions and History

of Jammu Hill States

It is customary among the commonpeople to narrate historical events

and keep alive the collectivememory in the form of folktales and

folk songs. In the different parts of

the Indian subcontinent, the wander-

ing singers present folktales and folksongs in the form of public perfor-

mances in the rural areas. These sing-

ers are known by such names as

mirasis, jogis and faqirs. They en-tertain the people with songs/stories

describing the heroic deeds of past

heroes or narrate the resistance

against foreign invaders. Moreover,

these singers also sing songs in thememory of local deities, rituals, cus-

toms and other cultural develop-

ments. It is important to mention

that these singers' songs did not re-strict themselves to the events of a

particular chronological span. In-

stead, they incorporated the events

of different periods in their stock of

themes. Similarly, it is a commonpractice for the people in India to

quote legends, myths and supersti-

tions in support of their actions,

thoughts and beliefs. Besides, a large

number of jokes and satires havebeen manufactured at the popular

level against the deeds of people be-

longing to the diverse (other/alien)social groups. However, the oral tra-

ditions in various forms tends to re-move, to a large extent, the diffi-

culties and hindrances caused by the

non-availability of written records,

hitherto considered essential for re-constructing the history of a region,

race, people and period. It has al-

ready been pointed out that many

societies or communities or socialgroups (and regions) of India do not

possess adequate and suitable his-

torical records, either in the form of

archaeological remains or written

documents. In such a scenario, theavailability of oral evidence inspires

the people to trace their own history.

The modern Jammu region is

quite poor in terms of the availabil-ity of written records. It is quite well

known that the region was divided

into twenty two Rajput principalities

during medieval period, particularly

from the fifteenth century onwards.These principalities were ruled by lin-

eages that were both Hindu and

Muslim. For example, the rulers of

Jammu, Jasrota, Bilawar, Bhadrawah

and Mankot belonged to the HinduRajput dynasties,, whereas the rul-

ers of Rajouri and Punch belonged

33 IN FOCUS

HISTORY



to the Muslim Rajput dynasties.

Though some Mughal chronicles pro-

vide scattered information regardingthe socio-political and economic life

of these principalities, there are

hardly any indigenous source in localor non-local languages, providing in-

formation regarding the past. J.Hutchison and J. Ph. Vogel, the au-

thors of the History of the Punjab Hill

States, the pioneer work on the his-

tory of Jammu hill states, dependmainly on the traditional genealogi-

cal tables (Vanshawalis) for tracing

the dynastic history of these petty

chiefdoms. But as far as the oral tra-

ditions are concerned, they yield richdata regarding the historical devel-

opment in the region. Highlighting theimportance of the oral traditions in

historical perspective, Hutchison and

Vogel write, "…common tradition isoften useful in throwing light on the

events of past, and much informa-

tion of a fairly reliable character has

come down to us through this chan-nel. In the hills social conditions have

been prevalent from remote times,

which give to traditionary lore an im-

portance and credibility which it would

not elsewhere possess. Till compara-

tively recent years the hills were al-most entirely isolated from the

plains. The rugged character of the

country made invasion difficult and

conquest practically impossible. Thisis the chief reason why we read of so

few dynastic changes…Nor is this

claim to ancient lineage confined to

the families of the ruling chiefs. ManyBrahmans also can prove, by the title

deeds to their possession, that their

ancestors have held their lands in

unbroken tenure for many centuries,

and in some cases of nearly thousandyears. Even the common farmers, in

numerous instances, reside in same

villages and till the same lands as

their ancestors have done from time

immemorial. And families older thaneven these are to be found in the hills

- the descendents of petty chiefs

called Ranas and Thakurs, who ac-

cording to common tradition, heldindependent rule in the dim and misty

past, long before the Rajas appeared

on the scene. If to all this be added

the glamour and romance of the hills:

the conservative character of the

people and their devoted attachment

to their hereditary chiefs, and theirnative land in all its interests: we

have those conditions, in full mea-

sure, which tend foster a love of tra-ditionary lore, and to create an at-

mosphere most favourable for itstransmission, with remarkable accu-

racy of detail, to posterity." The

statement of Hutchison and Vogel

seems to be correct in the light of the specific socio-political conditions

of the Jammu hill states. It may be

mentioned that almost all castes and

tribes, inhabiting the hills, practiced

agriculture and animal rearing as ba-sis of their livelihood. All the social

groups maintained their indigenoustraditions. Instead of depending on

the imperial records, the people of

Jammu hills generally quoted the oraltraditions while tracing their past.

The oral traditions of Jammu

hills are available in form of heroic

ballads, folk stories, (lokgatha) folksongs etc. These traditions contain

a great variety of historical themes.

Moreover, the oral traditions are avail-

able in different languages and dia-

lects of the region. Though the Dogri

is the major language in terms of themaking of oral traditions, some other

dialects such as Bhadrawahi and

Kishtwari have also been employed for

making stories, songs and proverbs.The oral traditions are preserved by

the people in accordance with the

themes. For instance, the ballads

known as karaks are sung to narratethe life and works of a saint of the

area concerned. These are sung by

hereditary and professional singers

known as garadi. Similarly, the bal-

lads sung to describe the valorousdeeds of the warriors are called bars.

However, all types of oral traditions

contain some basic ingredient that

can be used for reconstructing at least

some aspect of an otherwise hazypast. Generally, the origin of all the

states of Jammu region is traced on

the basis of oral traditions. For in-

stance, one of such traditions showsthat Jammu was an ancient state. Its

firs king was Angibaran, who was a

brother or kinsman of the ruler of

Ayodhya. Another oral tradition shows

that the state of Jammu was founded

by a king called Jammu-Lochan. Ac-

cording to this tradition, "Jammu-Lochan on becoming Raja wished to

found another town as his capital and

name it after himself. With this inview he went out hunting one day

accompanied by his officials, andcrossing the Tawi (river) he saw in

the jungle a deer and tiger drinking

at the same tank. Being surprised at

the sight he returned to his tent, andcalling his ministers enquired the

meaning of such strange occurance.

They replied that the explanation lay

in the fact that the soil of the place

excelled in virtue, and for that rea-son no living creature bore enmity

against another. The Raja, therefore,came to the conclusion that this was

just the kind of site he was in search

of, and founded a new town callingJambupura." Similar types of oral

evidences are available pertaining to

the political developments from an-

cient to medieval times. Another oraltradition of Bhadrawah state (situ-

ated in the modern Doda district of

the Jammu region) mentions that

Nagpal, a king of the sixteenth cen-

tury, accepted the Mughal sover-

eignty. Another oral tradition showsthat a poet of the eighteenth century

Bhadrawah composed a poem to

please the reigning king. The follow-

ing Dogri couplet substantiates thepoint:

Kad chhutta munh jalda karne gilra

Sumpat Pale ki kian rijhana

This couplet may be translated as"Being dumb and dwarf with a goitre

on neck, I do not know how to please

the Raja Sampat Pal.

In the Jammu hills the localheroes, struggling for the protection

of the interests of the common

people, have always been treated as

the local deities from the early medi-

eval period onwards. The main rea-son behind the their immense popu-

larity was their selfless struggle that

inspired the local people to fight for

their their socio-economic rights. Thelocal heroes inspired the common

people to raise their voice against an

oppressive state and the tax-collec-

tors' exploitative methods. These

34IN FOCUS

HISTORY



struggle of the local heroes is pre-

served in the oral traditions. Some

local heroes such as Baba Jitto andMian Dido have acquired an iconic

status in the oral traditions of the

Jammu region. These oral traditionsare available in form of Karak and

sung by the singers till date. Profes-sor Ram Nath Shastri has collected a

large number of such oral traditions

pertaining to the lives of Baba Jitto

and Mian Dido and other local heroesand has utilised them in highlighting

their contribution to the socio-eco-

nomic developments in the Jammu

region. His book entitled Duggar de

Lok Nayak, written in the Dogri lan-guage, is largely based on the oral

traditions of the region. These oraltraditions narrate both the life and

works of these local heroes. For in-

stance the following oral traditiondescribes the birth of Baba Jittoo:

Ghar Rupa de thaugar truthe

Aund narain lai

Bhale nashtar janam Babe daNaren mangal gai

The above couplet may be trans-

lated as : "God was pleased with

Rupa and brought all hope to fruition.

The Baba was born under an auspi-

cious constellation and the womenfolk sang their blessings." The above

karak is not only source of the birth

of the Baba. But it does indicate the

name of his mother i.e. Rupa. In theIndian society, generally the father's

name was recorded during medieval

and early modern times. In this case,

however, it was the name of themother that has been recorded. It

appears that among the peasant

families of the Jammu hills, the

women acted as the prime movers of

their respective families.

The following karak focuses on

the marriage of Baba Jitto:

Magh mahine naveen the lagenDitta baya rachai

Sheel vanti nek kule di

Lale Babe bayai

Magh mahine naveen the lagenDitta baya rachai

Sheel vanti nek kule di

Lale Babe bayai

The above couplet may be translated as

: "Marriage preparations were set afoot

on the ninth of the month of Magh. Babawas wedded to a gentle and well born girl."

Oral traditions of Jammu hills

cover multiple cultural developmentswhich took place during the medieval and

modern periods. Besides the local heroes,the historical events pertaining to the

ruling classes, caste system, local festi-

vals and customs are narrated by the the

oral traditions of the Jammu hills. Thecollection, compilation and translation of

these oral traditions may be very helpful

in the construction of the history of the

Jammu hills. Though there is a need of

the authentication of these oral traditionsfor these uses in historical terms, one

may contribute to the making of historyof Jammu hills through the establishment

of the historiocity as reflected in these

oral traditions.History of Ladakh in the Mughal His-

torical Sources

Ladakh's cultural relations with Cen-

tral Asia and parts of India can be tracedfrom the ancient period. During the me-

dieval period the process of Ladakh's in-

teraction with the different parts of Asia

was intensified. It is known that Mir

Sayyid Ali Hamdani, a sufi of Persia, vis-

ited Ladakh in 1383 en route toTurkestan. It was medieval period when

the people of the neighbouring states of

Ladakh came closer to the Ladakhis

through commercial, literary and reli-gious activities. It is an established fact

that some of the Central Asians were well

versed to the routes to Ladakh during the

medieval period. It is substantiated fromthat the Central Asians invaded Ladakh

frequently from the first half of the 16th

century onwards. Though it was Mirza

Haidar Dughlat invasion in 1532 which

influenced the political life of Ladakh verymuch, there are references to the Cen-

tral Asian invasions on Ladakh prior to

it. Mirza Haidar Dughlat himself admits

that his predecessors invaded Ladakh.

When Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur es-tablished the Mughal empire in the north

India, Mughals' cultural contacts with

Kashmir and Ladakh were further

strengthened and expanded. The Mughalsthemselves came to India from Central

Asia. Consequently, they retained their

contacts with Ladakh.

Since the Mughals planned to

make their Indian empire stron-

gest and largest in the world in

terms of territorial expansion andeconomic prosperity, they made

Ladakh a part of Mughal India.

More importantly, the Mughalsmade a policy to acquire the

knowledge of cultural life of theconquered areas. The acquisition

of the knowledge of the cultural

life of the conquered and

neighbouring areas of the Mughalempire was not only the part of

the intellectual activities of the

contemporary historians and pro-

fessional writers, but the Mughal

emperors themselves were verymuch interested in collecting the

information pertaining to thevarious cultures. In his autobiog-

raphy the Mughal emperor

Jahangir (1605-27) not only men-tions the events of his own em-

pire, but he also incorporates

some information of the non-

Mughal empire areas such as Ti-bet and Ladakh. He mentions

that with the exceptions of shawls

other woollen materials were

manufactured of better quality in

Tibet. The wool for good quality

of shawls was imported to Kash-mir from Tibet and Ladakh. The

goat which produced the wool for

the Kashmiri shawls was peculiar

to Tibet. Similarly the historiansof the Mughal period make men-

tion of the known historical facts

pertaining to Ladakh in their own

account.The Mughals' curiosity to

have information of the socio-

economic and political aspects of

the different neighbouring areas

of their empire inspired the con-temporary historians to widen the

scope of their literary works. Con-

sequently Ladakh found impor-

tant space in the historical

sources of the Mughal empire.During the 17th century A.D. the

Mughal emperors' particularly

Shihabuddin Muhammad

Shahjahan (1628-58), extendedthe boundary of India upto the

Transoxiana region. Ladakh was

well connected with Central Asian

countries. Both the commercial

35 IN FOCUS

HISTORY



and diplomatic contacts of Ladakh was

intensified with the Central Asian

Countries because of Ladakh beingsituated on one of the route between

the Central Asia and North India. The

historical works of the Mughal em-pire during Shahjahan's period made

Ladakh one of new themes of theirregional studies.

Some aspects of the history and

culture of the seventeenth century

are very well depicted in theShahjahan Nama, a famous Mughal

source dedicated to the Mughal em-

peror Shahjahan (1628-58). It was

written by Inayat Khan. The latter

belonged to an aristocratic back-ground. His father Zafar Khan was the

governor of Kashmir and was assignedthe work of the conquest of Ladak

and Tibet by the Mughal emperor

Shahjahan in 1637. Inayat Khan heldthe post of superintendent of the Royal

library (Darogha-i-Kutub Khana) un-

der Shahjahan. Thus Inayat Khan had

both the opportunity and capabilityof gathering information from differ-

ent quarters about the events of

Ladakh. Being the superintendent of

the Royal Library he enjoyed large

facilities in terms of the collection of

the book. His social background en-abled to collect materials about the

political and socio-economic life of the

seventeenth century Ladakh.

The Shahjahan Nama gives vari-ous types of information such as po-

litical relations between the Mughals

and Tibet and the Mughals and

Baltistan, the forts, the trade routes,agricultural and horticultural produc-

tions and the zamindars etc. of

Ladakh and Tibet. It is known that

Shahjahan was the first Mughal em-

peror who extended the Mughal em-pire up to Ladakh and Tibet. The

planning of the conquest of Tibet has

been described by Inayat Khan in a

very systematic way. For him the sub-

jugation of Ladak and Tibat was oneof the most prospering events of the

Mughal empire. He not only gives an

explicit description of the conquest

of Tibet and Ladakh, but also dis-closes that Shahjahan's father

Jahangir planned to establish the

Mughal sovereignty in Ladakh, but he

did not succeed. According to him,

"Although it had been a favourite

project with the late emperor

Jahangir to subdue the country of Ti-bet, the contemplated enterprise had

never been carried into execution.

During the period of his governingKashmir, Hashim Khan, son of Qasim

Khan Mir Bahr, once collected at thelate emperor's command an army of

soldiers and zamindars, and set out

on the expedition. However, finding

it impossible to penetrate into thecountry, he completely failed in his

attempt, and after great number of

his force were killed and many more

taken as prisoners, he effected a di-

sastrous retreat."Shahjahan appointed Zafar Khan

as the commander of the army forthe conquest of Tibet in 1637. Zafar

Khan collected an army of 2000 cav-

alry and 10000 infantry out of theprovincial troops, his own followers

and those of the zamindars. After-

ward, according to Inayat Khan, fol-

lowed the route of Gurach, which was64 kos (two miles) far from Tibet.

This was very difficult route. But Zafar

Khan successfully made journey

through this route and reached a vil-

lage called Sadpara. Inayat Khan

found a very useful gorge at Sadparavillage, which was used by the local

people for defence purpose. He men-

tions: "…there (Sadpara) is a narrow

gorge with a torrent flowing through.By throwing a dam across this, the

enemy had formed a large lake which

blocked up the road through the cen-

tre of the pass, while on both sidesthere were frowning precipices. On

one side, where it was just possible

to climb the steep ascent, they had

built up a strong wall of stone and

mortar from the water's edge to thesummit of the mountain so as to

present anyone from passing that

way the opposite side being naturally

so inaccessible as not to require the

precaution. The natives of Tibat hadfortified this place long ago, so that

whenever any invading army might

advance against their country, they

could ascend the heights and arresttheir further progress. In fact, it was

at this very spot that Hashim Khan,

when he marched against Tibat, was

defeated and forced to retreat."

Abdal, a chief (Zamindar) of Tibet,

gave tough resistance to the Mughal

force. He posted his army men alongthe height to check the advancement

of the Mughal army. Consequently,

Zafar Khan had to change his strat-egy and divide his army in three col-

umns so that Abdal's army was to beattacked from different directions.

Inayat Khan again mentions that

when his father's army reached

Skardu, it became very difficult forhim to make further advancement.

The forts of Tibet were the main ob-

struction in the way of the Mughal

victory of it.

The Shahjahan Nama's descriptionof the forts of Ladakh is very useful

for the study of the heritage and ar-chitectural activities of Ladakh and

Tibet. It mentions that there were

thirty seven forts in Tibet andLadakh. Ianyat Khan was very much

impressed from the strength of the

forts of Ali Rai, Shigar, Garewcha and

Ganjak. According to him these fortshelped the local rulers and people con-

siderably against the Mughal forces.

He writes, "As soon as my father

(Zafar Khan) saw the loftiness and

strength of the two forts, he felt con-

vinced that it would be immenselydifficult to capture them either by

storming or siege. The whole period

for military operations in Tibet does

not exceed two months, and if anarmy were to stay longer than this,

the passes would become closed by

snow and return would be rendered

impracticable. Moreover, should thewinter happen to be protracted one,

the troops would all perish for want

of provisions." But Inayat Khan also

mentions that the soldiery and peas-

antry of Tibet were highly dissatis-fied with Abdal's rule. Such situation

helped Zafar Khan and the latter ex-

ploited it. However, after a long chase

the Mughal succeeded in capturing

Abdal. Inayat Khan gives a long de-scription of the battle between the

Mughas and the Ladakhis. He also

mentions that some Tibetans were

recruited in the Mughal army."There were two major two of

Ladakh and Tibet which attracted the

attention of Inayat Khan very much,

first through Gurach and through Lar.

36IN FOCUS

HISTORY



Both of these routes created difficul-

ties for the travellers because of the

existence of high mountains, diffi-cult passes and innumerable gorges.

He mentions Ladakh a weak country

in terms of cultivation. Wheat andbarley were the chief crops of the

region. The total revenue of Ladakhwas one Lakh of rupees. But it was

rich region for the extraction of gold

and horticulture. He observes, "It

contains one stream from the bed of which minute particles of not over

pure gold are extracted by washing

its slit, which privilege is formed out

at a yearly rent of nearly 2000 tolas

of gold. Most of the species of fruitsindigenous to a cold climate such as

apricot, peach, melons and grapes

Rajput Rulers and Sufis of Jammu

It is an established fact that theRajput rulers of the various parts

of India welcomed the arrival of

all those who were willing to work and

contributed to the flourishment of

their states. Similarly, the political lifeof Jammu state has also been domi-

nated by the Rajputs from early me-

dieval period onwards. The Dev

Rajput dynasty of always welcomed

the diverse shades of thought, socialtrends and persons of the different

art and crafts. They believed in the

concept of justice in diversity and dis-

couraged the concept of uniformity.The arrival of sufism was one of the

most important social developments

of medieval Jammu. The socio-politi-

cal history of Jammu shows that theDev Rajput rulers of Jammu treatedthe Sufis and their shrines as the

important sources of cultural devel-

opment in their state. They not only

provided favourable atmosphere for

the flourishment of the Sufi's philoso-phy of the Unity of Being, but, more

importantly, they also established so-

cial contact with them and worked for

their settlement and maitenance of their their shrines.

From the 13th century onwards

sufism became one of the popular

philosophies in the Jammu hills andthe activities of the Sufis received

tremendous social support. The sufis

performed different types of the ac-

tivities. Most of the Sufis of theJammu hills performed miracles

(Kashf wa Karamat). Some of the

miracles of Pir Roshan Ali Shah are

mentioned by the Rajdarshani. It is

said that the king of Jammu was somuch impressed from the miracles of

Pir Roshan Shah Wali that he came to

meet the sufi. The king is known as

Raja Sarab-li- Dhar. The later was so

much influenced with the miracles of the Pir that he requested the Pir to

settle in Jammu. The Pir accepted the

offer of the king and settled down at

Jammu. The king of provided all typesof facilities to the Pir. Another

miracle, narrated by Rajdarshani is

associated with the death of Pir

Roshan Shah Wali. Ganeshdas

Badehra, the author of Rajdharshani,found the shrine and Khanqah of Pir

Roshan Wali to be very popular and

thriving during the 19th century. Nar-

rating the arrival,meeting of the Pir

with the Raja and his deathGaneshdas Badehra writes, "…a long

man of towering body named Roshan

Shah Wali, one of the close associ-

thrive well in Tibat and the fruit is of

excellent flavour. There is also a va-

riety of reddish apple, the inside of which resembles in redness. The

mulberry, cucumber, apricot, peach,

melon and grape all blossom at thesame season there." This shows that

the Shahjahan Nama of Inayat Khannot only describes the exploits of the

Mughals in Ladakh and Tibet, but

more importantly it also contains his-

torical facts concerning the socio-eco-nomic activities, heritage and politi-

cal situation of these regions.

The description of Ladakh by the

author of the Shahjahan Nama pre-

sents the Mughal perception of Ladakh and Ladakhis. It enables the

modern historians to study the his-

torical development and changes in

Ladakh from others point of view.

Though the historians of the Mughalempire were very much influenced by

the Persian trends of historiography,

they did not underestimate the con-tribution of the Ladakhis to mainte-

nance and flourishment of the re-gional identities. The mentions of the

Shahjahan Nama pertaining to the

history and culture of Ladakh convey

that the Ladakh was treated one of the well established historical regions

of the 17th century world and the

Ladakhis as a regional identity well

placed on the map of the world. The

Mughal sources contributed to thepropagation of Ladakh's cultural iden-

tity in non-Tibetan speaking regions.

3 7 IN FOCUS

HISTORY



ates of the Prophet, of an Arab-like

gait, came to the chakla of Jammu

like a Faqir and met Raja Sarab-li-Dhar and gave him the tidings of

safety, that the army of Islam would

not endanger his life and faith, norwould it harm Jammu. But the coun-

tries of the Punjab and Hindustanwould be trampled under hoofs of the

seeds of the Musalman. "So I a feeble

ant, has been deputed by the Holy and

popular Rasul to guard Jammu." Heuttered such words, took off his skull

from his head like turban, walked

headless for some steps and going

near the Gumat gate, sat in side and

gave up the ghost. They buried himthere as per his will. His Khanqah

exists to this day and enjoys the samereverence."

About the Pir Mitha it is famous

that once he tied his horse nearbyhis hut and went out of his home.

After some time the horse felt

thirstyness, there was nobody to

provide water to the horse. Butsuddenly a fountain was raised and

two trees sprang up. The horse

drank the water and ate the leaves

of the trees and met his both

thirstiness and hunger. Another

miracle associated with Pir Mithashows that he possessed merit to

cure a patient with his action. Ac-

cording to a hagiographical story,

a queen of Jammu fell ill and shecould not recover for long time de-

spite all the royal efforts. Pir Mitha

came to know about the illness of

the queen through some of theroyal water carriers (Bhishtis). It is

known that during fifteenth cen-

tury water supply to the royal pal-

ace, situated at modern Dalpatian

Mohallah, was maintained by thewater carriers through the river

and wells. Generally the water car-

riers carried water from Peer Koh

to the palace. The house of Pir

Mitha was situated at a place fromwhich the water carriers went to

Peer Koh. Once when a water car-

rier, carrying water from Peer Koh,

reached at the near the house of Pir Mitha, the latter asked about

the illness of the queen. When he

came to known that queen's con-

tinued to suffer from the disease

he touched the water pot of the

water carrier. The latter did not ap-

prove the action of Pir Mitha andthrew all the water decalaring it to

have become impure. But whenever

that water carrier passed by thehouse of the Pir he touched the wa-

ter pot. Ultimately, the water car-rier carried the water, touched by

the Pir, to the palace. When the

queen drank this water she recov-

ered from the disease. It was amatter of surprise for all including

the King. When the King came to

know that it was the miracle of the

Pir which cured the queen he be-

came his follower. It is known thatafter the death of the Pir his shrine

received continous royal patronage.Several such types of miracles are

associated with the almost all the

sufis of the Jammu hills. But thesemiracles had great significance in

terms of the popularity of the sufis.

A large number of the persons be-

came the followers of the sufis.Several persons became the

disciples(Murids) of the Sufis.

Through the narration of these

miracles the sufis' life and works

are kept alive from the days of the

sufis concerned to modern times.It may be mentioned that not

only the common people of Jammu

hills work together in terms of pro-

tecting the shrines and propagationof the teachings of the sufis, but

the Maharajas of Jammu from Ma-

haraja Gulab Singh onwards worked

for the preservation of theseshrines. It is known that Gulab

Singh, as a jagirdar of Maharaja

Ranjit Singh, requested the Maha-

raja for the grant of land to the

shrine of Shah Ghulam Badshah,situated in Rajouri district. Maha-

raja accepted the request and

granted land for the expenses of

the shrine. Similarly, Maharaja

Gulab Singh granted fifty Kanallands to the shrine of Pir Wali Shah

at Katra in Udhampur district. Both

Maharaja Ranbir Singh (1857-85)

and Maharaja Pratap Singh ex-tended financial support and reno-

vated a number of the sufi shrines

of Jammu hills. More importantly,

Jai Singh, the king of Kishtwar, ac-

cepted Islam under the influence of

Sayyid Farid-ud-din Qadiri during

the 17th century and received thetitle of Bakhtiyar Khan. Baba Jiwan

Shah was very much respected by

the Maharaja Pratap Singh (1885-1925) and his brother Amar Singh.

It is known that Maharaja PratapSingh extended financial support to

Baba Jiwan Shah both in cash

(wazifa) and kind to meet the ex-

penses of his mystic activities. TheMaharaja loved to meet the Baba.

Therefore, he frequently invited

the Baba to his palace. Maharaja

is said to have presented a hukka

and a dhoosa to the Baba duringhis visit to the palace.

It is known that MaharajaPratap Singh respected the sufis

and their shrines very much. He

constructed a road upto the shrine

of Mian Muhammad Ibrahim.

Therefore people started to call

him Rah Baba. This shows that

people accepted that the sufi was

the source of the construction of

the road and also his activities

were respected by the Maharaja.

The tradition of the annual com-

memoration of the death anniver-

sary (Urs) and people's visits to thesufi shrines on every Thursday

were instrumental in organisation

of the commercial activities around

the sufi shrines. Thus these sufis

and their shrines worked for inter-

connecting the people of one area

to other and the route followed by

the visitors became the means of

socio-economic development. The

sense of isolation, prevailing in

hills, was converted into binding

force. It is important to mention

that the extension of the royal pa-

tronage to the Sufis and their

shrines in Jammu shows that the

Rajput ruling class of Jammu

worked for the promotion and

propagation of the diverse cultures

and philosophies. It was the accep-

tance of the concept of unity in dif-

ferences by the ruling class of

Jammu which inspired them to

found Jammu and Kashmir state in

1846 under the leadership of the

Maharaja Gulab Singh.

.38IN FOCUS

HISTORY



IN FOCUS

HISTORY

History of Ladakh in the

Mughal Historical Sources

Ladakh's cultural relations withCentral Asia and parts of Indiacan be traced from the ancient

period. During the medieval periodthe process of Ladakh's interactionwith the different parts of Asia wasintensified. It is known that MirSayyid Ali Hamdani, a sufi of Persia,visited Ladakh in 1383 en route toTurkestan. It was medieval period

when the people of the neighbouringstates of Ladakh came closer to theLadakhis through commercial, liter-ary and religious activities. It is anestablished fact that some of theCentral Asians were well versed to theroutes to Ladakh during the medievalperiod. It is substantiated from thatthe Central Asians invaded Ladakh fre-quently from the first half of the 16thcentury onwards. Though it was MirzaHaidar Dughlat invasion in 1532 whichinfluenced the political life of Ladakhvery much, there are references tothe Central Asian invasions onLadakh prior to it. Mirza HaidarDughlat himself admits that his pre-decessors invaded Ladakh. WhenZahiruddin Muhammad Babur estab-lished the Mughal empire in the northIndia, Mughals' cultural contacts withKashmir and Ladakh were furtherstrengthened and expanded. TheMughals themselves came to Indiafrom Central Asia. Consequently, theyretained their contacts with Ladakh.

Since the Mughals planned tomake their Indian empire strongestand largest in the world in terms of territorial expansion and economicprosperity, they made Ladakh a partof Mughal India. More importantly,the Mughals made a policy to acquirethe knowledge of cultural life of theconquered areas. The acquisition of the knowledge of the cultural life of the conquered and neighbouring ar-eas of the Mughal empire was not onlythe part of the intellectual activitiesof the contemporary historians andprofessional writers, but the Mughalemperors themselves were very muchinterested in collecting the informa-

tion pertaining to the various cul-tures. In his autobiography theMughal emperor Jahangir (1605-27)not only mentions the events of hisown empire, but he also incorporatessome information of the non-Mughalempire areas such as Tibet andLadakh. He mentions that with theexceptions of shawls other woollenmaterials were manufactured of bet-

ter quality in Tibet. The wool for goodquality of shawls was imported toKashmir from Tibet and Ladakh. Thegoat which produced the wool for theKashmiri shawls was peculiar to Ti-bet. Similarly the historians of theMughal period make mention of theknown historical facts pertaining toLadakh in their own account.

The Mughals' curiosity to have in-formation of the socio-economic andpolitical aspects of the differentneighbouring areas of their empireinspired the contemporary historiansto widen the scope of their literaryworks. Consequently Ladakh foundimportant space in the historicalsources of the Mughal empire. Dur-ing the 17th century A.D. the Mughalemperors' particularly ShihabuddinMuhammad Shahjahan (1628-58),extended the boundary of India uptothe Transoxiana region. Ladakh waswell connected with Central Asiancountries. Both the commercial anddiplomatic contacts of Ladakh wasintensified with the Central AsianCountries because of Ladakh beingsituated on one of the route betweenthe Central Asia and North India. Thehistorical works of the Mughal em-pire during Shahjahan's period madeLadakh one of new themes of theirregional studies.

Some aspects of the history andculture of the seventeenth centuryare very well depicted in theShahjahan Nama, a famous Mughalsource dedicated to the Mughal em-peror Shahjahan (1628-58). It waswritten by Inayat Khan. The latterbelonged to an aristocratic back-ground. His father Zafar Khan was the

governor of Kashmir and was assignedthe work of the conquest of Ladakand Tibet by the Mughal emperorShahjahan in 1637. Inayat Khan heldthe post of superintendent of theRoyal library (Darogha-i-Kutub Khana)under Shahjahan. Thus Inayat Khanhad both the opportunity and capa-bility of gathering information fromdifferent quarters about the eventsof Ladakh. Being the superintendentof the Royal Library he enjoyed largefacilities in terms of the collectionof the book. His social backgroundenabled to collect materials about thepolitical and socio-economic life of the seventeenth century Ladakh.

The Shahjahan Nama gives vari-ous types of information such as po-litical relations between the Mughalsand Tibet and the Mughals andBaltistan, the forts, the trade routes,agricultural and horticultural produc-tions and the zamindars etc. of

Ladakh and Tibet. It is known thatShahjahan was the first Mughal em-peror who extended the Mughal em-pire up to Ladakh and Tibet. Theplanning of the conquest of Tibet hasbeen described by Inayat Khan in avery systematic way. For him the sub-jugation of Ladak and Tibat was oneof the most prospering events of theMughal empire. He not only gives anexplicit description of the conquestof Tibet and Ladakh, but also dis-closes that Shahjahan's fatherJahangir planned to establish theMughal sovereignty in Ladakh, but he

did not succeed. According to him,"Although it had been a favouriteproject with the late emperorJahangir to subdue the country of Tibet, the contemplated enterprisehad never been carried into execu-tion. During the period of his gov-erning Kashmir, Hashim Khan, son of Qasim Khan Mir Bahr, once collectedat the late emperor's command anarmy of soldiers and zamindars, andset out on the expedition. However,finding it impossible to penetrateinto the country, he completely failed

39



IN FOCUS

HISTORY

in his attempt, and after great num-ber of his force were killed and manymore taken as prisoners, he effecteda disastrous retreat."

Shahjahan appointed Zafar Khan

as the commander of the army forthe conquest of Tibet in 1637. ZafarKhan collected an army of 2000 cav-alry and 10000 infantry out of theprovincial troops, his own followersand those of the zamindars. After-ward, according to Inayat Khan, fol-lowed the route of Gurach, which was64 kos (two miles) far from Tibet.This was very difficult route. But ZafarKhan successfully made journeythrough this route and reached a vil-lage called Sadpara. Inayat Khanfound a very useful gorge at Sadparavillage, which was used by the local

people for defence purpose. He men-tions: "…there (Sadpara) is a narrowgorge with a torrent flowing through.By throwing a dam across this, theenemy had formed a large lake whichblocked up the road through the cen-tre of the pass, while on both sidesthere were frowning precipices. Onone side, where it was just possibleto climb the steep ascent, they hadbuilt up a strong wall of stone andmortar from the water's edge to thesummit of the mountain so as topresent anyone from passing thatway the opposite side being naturallyso inaccessible as not to require theprecaution. The natives of Tibat hadfortified this place long ago, so thatwhenever any invading army mightadvance against their country, theycould ascend the heights and arresttheir further progress. In fact, it wasat this very spot that Hashim Khan,when he marched against Tibat, wasdefeated and forced to retreat."Abdal, a chief (Zamindar) of Tibet,gave tough resistance to the Mughalforce. He posted his army men alongthe height to check the advancementof the Mughal army. Consequently,Zafar Khan had to change his strat-egy and divide his army in three col-umns so that Abdal's army was to beattacked from different directions.Inayat Khan again mentions thatwhen his father's army reachedSkardu, it became very difficult forhim to make further advancement.The forts of Tibet were the main ob-struction in the way of the Mughalvictory of it.

The Shahjahan Nama's descriptionof the forts of Ladakh is very useful

for the study of the heritage and ar-chitectural activities of Ladakh andTibet. It mentions that there werethirty seven forts in Tibet andLadakh. Ianyat Khan was very much

impressed from the strength of theforts of Ali Rai, Shigar, Garewcha andGanjak. According to him these fortshelped the local rulers and peopleconsiderably against the Mughalforces. He writes, "As soon as myfather (Zafar Khan) saw the loftinessand strength of the two forts, he feltconvinced that it would be immenselydifficult to capture them either bystorming or siege. The whole period

mentions that some Tibetans wererecruited in the Mughal army."

There were two major two of Ladakh and Tibet which attracted theattention of Inayat Khan very much,

first through Gurach and through Lar.Both of these routes created difficul-ties for the travellers because of theexistence of high mountains, diffi-cult passes and innumerable gorges.He mentions Ladakh a weak countryin terms of cultivation. Wheat andbarley were the chief crops of theregion. The total revenue of Ladakhwas one Lakh of rupees. But it wasrich region for the extraction of goldand horticulture. He observes, "Itcontains one stream from the bed of which minute particles of not overpure gold are extracted by washing

its slit, which privilege is formed outat a yearly rent of nearly 2000 tolasof gold. Most of the species of fruitsindigenous to a cold climate such asapricot, peach, melons and grapesthrive well in Tibat and the fruit is of excellent flavour. There is also a va-riety of reddish apple, the inside of which resembles in redness. Themulberry, cucumber, apricot, peach,melon and grape all blossom at thesame season there." This shows thatthe Shahjahan Nama of Inayat Khannot only describes the exploits of theMughals in Ladakh and Tibet, but

more importantly it also contains his-torical facts concerning the socio-economic activities, heritage andpolitical situation of these regions.

The description of Ladakh by theauthor of the Shahjahan Nama pre-sents the Mughal perception of Ladakh and Ladakhis. It enables themodern historians to study the his-torical development and changes inLadakh from others point of view.Though the historians of the Mughalempire were very much influenced bythe Persian trends of historiography,they did not underestimate the con-

tribution of the Ladakhis to mainte-nance and flourishment of the re-gional identities. The mentions of theShahjahan Nama pertaining to thehistory and culture of Ladakh conveythat the Ladakh was treated one of the well established historical regionsof the 17th century world and theLadakhis as a regional identity wellplaced on the map of the world. TheMughal sources contributed to thepropagation of Ladakh's cultural iden-tity in non-Tibetan speaking regions.

for military operations in Tibet doesnot exceed two months, and if anarmy were to stay longer than this,the passes would become closed bysnow and return would be renderedimpracticable. Moreover, should thewinter happen to be protracted one,the troops would all perish for wantof provisions." But Inayat Khan alsomentions that the soldiery and peas-antry of Tibet were highly dissatis-fied with Abdal's rule. Such situationhelped Zafar Khan and the latter ex-ploited it. However, after a long chasethe Mughal succeeded in capturingAbdal. Inayat Khan gives a long de-scription of the battle between theMughas and the Ladakhis. He also

The nat ives of Tibat had f ort if ied t his place long

ago, so t hat whenever any invadi ng army might advance against t hei r count ry, t hey could ascend t he height s and arrest t heir f urt her

progress. In fact , i t was at t his very spot t hat

Hashim Khan, when he marched against Tibat ,was defeat ed and forced

t o ret reat. " Abdal, a chief (Zamindar) of Tibet ,gave t ough resist ance t o

t he Mughal f orce. He post ed his army men

along t he height t o check t he advancement of t he

Mughal ar my.

40



Relevalence of Sufism inContemporary India

The socio-religious movements

have been a continuous process of

dialogue between past and presentin terms of social changes and de-

velopments in a given civilization.Medieval world witnessed numerous

types of social changes which influ-

enced the life and culture of the

mankind. Some of the social devel-opments of the medieval period con-

tinued to be a source of global unity,

peace and happiness in the modern

world. From its emergence in early

medieval period till the date Sufismhas been accepted as a concept of

fostering universal brotherhood. Itis an established fact that the mod-

ern world has made tremendous

progress in the scientific and eco-nomic fields. The man of the con-

temporary world is more fortunate

in terms of educational facilities,

transport, communication, food and

dress etc. But it is also an estab-lished fact the man of the modern

world is facing larger political and

socio-economic problems. Existence

of the problems is not a new phe-

nomena of the modern world, butthe social tensions, evils, territo-

rial aggrandizement, suppression of

the rights of the common people,

religious persecution and propertydisputes have been prevailing in the

world since the ancient times. How-

ever, in every age people invented

some methods for the minimization

of their tensions and conflicts. It isknown that during the ancient pe-

riod when social tensions and evils

emerged in the different parts of the world and importance of the

common people and dignity of workwere threatened, various types of

religions, social organizations and

movements emerged to restore thedignity of the human beings. For

example the Budhism, Jainism,

Christianity and Islam emerged

against the social injustice of the

period. The foundation of Islam byProphet Muhammad led to the emer-

gence of equality among the Mus-

lims and all types of prejudices,

superstitions and exploitations were

challenged and a process of theelimination of the social evils

started in Arabia.

However, the emergence of

the Sufism, ans offshoot of Islam,intensified process of the social jus-

tice and social service to the man-

kind. It is established fact that the

sufism emerged as a social protest

against the emergence of the king-ship in the Islamic world. But it did

not confine to the Muslim countries.

In the last decade of the 12th cen-

tury the Sufism entered India as asocial movement. The Chishti Silsila

was the first sufi order which ar-

rived in India. At the arrival of this

Silsila the Muslim population in In-

dia was negligible. But the Chishtisufis did not find any difficulty in

performing their activities. Within

short period they became very

popular in India. The social popu-

larity of the sufis was not estab-lished because any political or eco-

nomic grandeur, but their social ac-tivities meant for the common

people brought them great fame. Alarge number of people found the

activities of the sufis as the source

of their peace and progress. TheChishti Sufis' main activities were

to organize social discussion at

their khanqah(houses) to provide

financial support to the needy, im-

part education, organize auditionparty(Sama), keep themselves far

from the state, preach the philoso-

phy of the Unity of Being(Wahadat-

ul-Wajud), promote vernacular lan-

guage, establish dignity of labourand adjust oneself according to the

local environment. All these activi-

ties were meant for the people of

each section of the Indian societyirrespective of religion and caste.

Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, the

founder of the Chishti silsila in In-

dia, declared that helping the poor

and needy was the highest form of devotion. Farid-ud-din Ganj-I

Shakar, popularly known as Baba

Farid introduced langar(free

Kitchen) for the welfare of the poor.Amir Khusro wrote loris and pahelis

which are still popular among the

common people of India. The Chishti

Sufis established the concept that

poverty knows no religion. All theseactivities of the Sufis were very

much appreciated by the Indian so-

ciety. The sufis' khanqah became a

place of social gatherings and meet-

ing place of the Islam and Hindu-ism. The popularity of the sufis can

IN FOCUS

HISTORY

41



be estimated from the fact that af-ter their death their shrines became

the places of worship, a symbol of

Indian Islam.In the contemporary world each

nation, society, community and so-cial group are trying to establish

their domination on each. The con-

cept of exclusiveness is the main

trend of the contemporary world.

People of one community understandthe people of other community as

their rival and others. The pro-

cesses of establishing domination

on the others and to adopt the lifeof exclusiveness are the causes of

international conflicts, social ten-

sion, economic crisis and law and

order problem all over the world,

particularly in the Asian continent.It is important to mention that the

teachings and practices of the

Chishti sufis discourage and are

helpful in eliminating the causes of

the people's miseries. During me-dieval period the Chishti sufis es-

tablished that concept of oneness

was strongest source of peace and

happiness. It is known that duringthe medieval period there were two

ways to make people loyal to a par-

ticular authority and social group,

firstly, it was theology and secondly

the armed power. None of them waspossessed by the common people

But the Chishti Sufis did not take

help of any of them in establishing

their base in the Indian society. They

believed that performance of socialservice was the most important

duty of the human being. They dis-

carded the concepts of others and

exclusiveness. Their philosophy of the Wahadat-ul-Wujud(Unity of Be-

ing) determines the places where

people of different social back-

ground can sit together and contrib-

ute to the better of society collec-tively. For the creation of oneness

and inclusiveness the Chishti Sufis

recommend the performance of so-

cial services and continuos social

mingling.According to the Chishti

Sufis' philosophy and practices, noplace of the world can be called

backward. Every area has potenti-

alities of the progress provided thepeople work sincerely for that. For

example, when Chishti Sufis cameto India they established their cen-

tres of activities without any con-

sideration of the prominence of the

place. Contrary to it they settled at

the places which were inhabited bythe common people. It is known that

when Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti

came to Ajmer and settled their, it

was predominantly Hindu populatedarea and a seat of the power of the

Chauhan Rajputs. But Khwaja

Moinuddin Chishti decided to make

Ajmer as his permanent residence.

His disciple Shaikh Hamiduddinsettled at Suwal, a village in Nagaur

in Rajputana. It is understood that

he was earliest Muslim settled in

the village. Khwaja Qutubiddin

Bakhtiyar Kaki, another disciple of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. Through

his association with the people in

terms of organizing assembly of

people he became one of thefavourites of local population. His

large social support may be justi-

fied from the fact that Qutubuddin

Aibak(1206-10), the Turkish ruler,

constructed Qutub Minar at Mehrauliin the name of the Sufi Qutubuddin

Bakhtiyar Kaki. This shows that

Bakhtiyar Kaki realised the people

that difficulties of an area were to

be solved by the people themselves.Similarly, it is duty of a person

to perform their duties which en-

courage inclusiveness. Khwaja

Moinuddin Chishti used to say thatthe generosity was the effective

source of the people's happiness. He

remarked that the trust in God of

only those persons is confirmed who

do not cause problems forhumanity(Khalq-i-Khuda). He de-

fines three duties of a person as

highest form of the devotion to the

God: 1. To redress the miseries of

those in distress(Fariyad rastee), 2.To help the need (Bechargan) and

3. To feed the hungry(Gursigan).Nizamuddin describes two types of

devotion to the God: 1.

Intransitive(lazmi) and 2.Transitive(mutaaddi). According

to him, "The intransitive devotionis that by which only the devotee

gets benefited, and that consists

of prayer, hajj, fasting, the rep-

etition of l itanie(awrad wa

tasbihat) and similar other things.But the transitive devotion is that

which comes forth in the form of,

for example, expending on and

being helpful to others out of sheerlove for their good and comfort and

the reward of this transitive is

immense and immeasurable. In

transitive devotion sincerity is the

first accepted by the Almighty,while the acts of transitive devo-

tion are acceptable (to God) and

would be rewarded in whatever

form they are performed".9 Re-

garding feeding the peopleNizamuddin Aulia observed, "A pi-

ous man has stated that serving

food worth only a dirham before

friends carries reward of morethan a sadaqah(charity) of twenty

dirhams". He advised his disciples

that whenever a visitor came to

them first they had to

greet(salam), then serve him withfood and make conversation with

him.

For the welfare of people

the Chishti Sufis propagated the

offering of charity(sadaqah) to theneedy. Shaikh Nizamuddin Aulia re-

marked that charity was to be

given with full sincerity and truth-

fulness. He puts five conditions forthe giver of the charity: 1. Legiti-

mate earning, 2. The intention of

giving it to a man of good charac-

ter so; that it might not be spent

wrongly, 3. Cheerfulness, humilityand open heartedness, 4. Complete

secrecy in giving it and 5. After

giving it the giver had never talk

or reveal to any body. To encour-

age circulation of wealth amongthe people the Chishti sufis dis-

IN FOCUS

HISTORY

4 2



couraged the accumulation andhoarding of wealth. They encour-

aged the renunciation of wealth.

Regarding the renunciation of

wealth Shaikh Nizamuddin Aulia ob-serves "This is no renunciations

that one strips himself to the skin,

ties the langota around his waist and

retires(to a corner). The true re-

nunciation is in that one puts on(proper) clothes and takes his food

as usual, he is contented with what-

ever reaches him, has no inclina-

tion to accumulate that and refuses

to be attached to anything. This isRenunciation". The concept of the

renunciation of wealth laid by the

sufis is very much applicable to the

contemporary world. It is generallyhappened that people of certain ar-

eas face starvation because of some

natural calamity or non-availability

of sufficient resources for survival.

But if the people of fertile areas,controller of resources and wealthy

persons share a small part of their

wealth and resources with the needy

the problem of food may be mini-

mized to a great extent.The Chishti Sufis advised

people that social services were not

to be performed in speech but they

are to be in deed. It is known thatBaba Farid introduced langar(open

kitchen).14 By organizing the open

kitchen Chishti sufis not only en-

abled the poor and needy to feel se-

cured in meeting their hunger, butmore importantly they provided op-

portunity to the downtrodden to par-

ticipate in food party without any

complex. The concept of open

kitchen is not simply an act of help-ing the needy, but it very helpful in

bring people closer to each other

and creating the concept of inclu-

siveness. In the contemporary worlda great disparity exists in terms of

class, religion and caste. On the ba-

sis of these disparities the concept

of others is widened between privi-

leged and non-privileged people. Assuch the application of Sufis' meth-

odology for providing food to the

needy may help in shortening social

disparity.The Chishti Sufis practiced

the distribution of wealth among the

needy and poor as service to the hu-

manity. It is established fact thatmost of the Chishti Sufis accepted

unasked donation or charity(futuh).

They hardly spent the donation on

their maintenance, but whatever

donation they received was meantfor the welfare of the common

people. They distributed the dona-

tion within the day on which it was

collected. Nothing was to be saved

for the next day. Shaikh NizamuddinAulia advised his disciples to use

only one-tenth part of the received

unasked charity for their personal

expenditure. He did not accept anyfutuh which could be instrumental

for the publicity of the giver or dis-

tributor. He prescribed the fol low-

ing rules for the acceptance of the

futuh: 1. No guaranteed paymentcould be accepted, 2. To accept only

the unconditional payment, 3. No

acceptance of immovable property

such as lands, villages and build-

ings, 4. Nothing was to be saved fortomorrow and 5. To accept Futuh ac-

cording to the need and capacity

of distribution. It seems that the

Chishti Sufis formulated the saidrules so that wealth collected in form

of charity was to make the collec-

tor as an exploiter. It is important

to mention that Chishti Sufis were

against all types burden imposedupon the people. They thought that

wealth was meant for whole society

not for an individual. According to

Sayyid Muhammad bin Kirmani,

"Some time futuh and Nazrana cameto khanqah large quantity.

Nizamuddin Aulia started to

weep(because of difficulty how to

distribute), but when he heard thatall futuh had been distributed (ac-

cording to prescribed rules) among

the poor he realized great comfort".

It is said that once Shaikh

Nizamuddin Aulia was walking onside of Jamuna river, he saw that

an old woman was fetching water

from a well. He was very much sur-

prised and asked the woman whenJamuna river was so was so near to

her why was she taking so much

pain drawing the water from the

well. She replied that the water of Jamuna was so sweet and pure that

it increased the hunger very much

which she was unable to meet with

her resources. Nizamuddin Aulia

realized the poor condition of thewoman and ordered his disciple

Iqbal to "go and ask her how much

she needs for her daily expenses and

send her expenses every month

without failing".He instructed hisdisciples to provide two times food

which was justified. He also told

that it had always been a righ-

teous act of to feed the people.17It is important to mention that the

Chishti Sufis extended these help as

their duty to society and to get any

fame. Since during the contempo-

rary world people stress mainly onthe collection and expenditure on

the personal maintenance, there are

hardly any sense of satisfaction

among the people. On the contrary

people are trapped in social tensionirrespective of social background.

Thus here lies the relevance of prac-

tices of the Chishti Sufis that the

collection and distribution of thewealth are to go parallel.

The Chishti Sufis stressed

on the enjoyment of the fruits of

development with limits so that all

member of society could enjoythem. More importantly, they them-

selves used minimum food, cloth

and lived in ordinary houses. They

preferred to live in poverty. Both

Khwaja Moinuddin and KhwajaBakhtiyar Kaki did not have their

own houses. Baba Farid always lived

in brickless(Kutcha) house. Even

this also was built during last stageof his life. When a disciple of Baba

Farid expressed his desire to built

a masonry house for him, he told

his disciple, "Masud will not put

brick on brick". Shaikh Najijb-Uddin Mutawakkil, brother, of

Baba, Farid lived in a thatched

house(Chhappar) along with his wife

IN FOCUS

HISTORY

43



and children throughout his life.Shaikh Nizamudin Aulia did not have

any house in Delhi for many years.

Ultimately, he built a thatched

house at Ghiyaspur.20 By living insimple and small the Chishti Sufis

established that a house was to be

according to the need of the family.

Now-days some people build pala-

tial houses and large number of people live without roof. Such type

of distinction is an important cause

of the social tension in the modern

world. Sufis' life style in terms of

houses may not only provide houseevery body, but it may create con-

genial atmosphere for the people.

The Chishti Sufis always took

small quantity of food and its qual-ity was very simple. In no way the

quality of the food of the Sufis was

better than the food of the down-

trodden and subalterns. Generally,

they observed fast throughout theirlife. When they broke their fast

they took very simple things. Baba

Farid broke his fast with Sharbat

which was brought to him in a bowl

with some raisin in it. He distrib-uted half or about two-third of it

among the people present in the

Majlis by mixing it with water in a

drinking vessels. The remaining of one-third of the Sharbat he took

and even out of it he gave some-

one to whosoever he wished. Be-

tween Iftar and namaz he was given

two loaves of bread. He broke oneof the two loaves to pieces and dis-

tributed them among the people

around. The other loaf he himself

ate and even out of that he offered

some to whosoever he wished andthereafter he did not eat till the

time of Iftar of next evening.20 It

may be mentioned that in modern

times large expenditure and vari-eties of food are understood as a

symbol of higher status. But the

persons of such thinking do not un-

derstand that their extravagancy

cost a large section of societyheavily. They should understand that

the Chishti Sufis lived long because

of their moderate habit of taking

food and to be concerned about thefood of the others.

The medieval period was an age

of despotism and persons of armed

background were understood themost dominant section of society.

But during the same period the sufis

successfully promoted the concept

of non-violence and created a large

followers. They preached people topromote social harmony and discard

the means of animosity. Nizamuddin

Aulia observed, "there are two

things: lower self(nafs) and

heart(Qalb). The former has acri-mony, violence and discord in it

while the latter, besides other vir-

tues, has peace, acquiescence, be-

nignity and kindness. If one behavesunder the spell of the nafs, the

other's response should be from the

side of the qalb. This would rest the

nafs being overpowered. But if any-

body confronts nafs with nafs, therewill be no end to animosity and dis-

cord. He further observes, "If a man

places thorns (in your way) and you

do the same, it will be thorns ev-

erywhere". In the contemporaryworld when arms race is understood

the solution of all problems the non-

violence philosophy of the Sufis may

be a guide to happiness and peace.. Four important Sufi Silsilas, the

Chishti, Suhrawardi, Qadiri and

Naqshbandi, came to India during

the period from 13th to 16th cen-

tury. Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, thefounder of the Chishti Silsila in In-

dia, was the first Sufi who intro-

duced sufism as an universal social

philosophy and way of life in India.

Up to the sixteenth century almostall parts of India realised the pres-

ence of the sufis of the different

Silsilas. Almost all the Sufis of all

Silsilas, settled in different parts of India, started their activities in

form of social service. It is impor-

tant to mention that the sufis of

India received social acceptance in

terms of spread of their philosophy.Though the early sufis came to In-

dia as the foreigners, their social

activities made them as promoters

of the opinion of the indigenouspeople.

Although the sufis declared Is-

lam as the basis of their activities,

they started to work in the non-Mus-lim dominated areas. They success-

fully spread their message of the so-

cial service in different parts of In-

dia. The main reasons behind the

success of the Sufis of the differ-ent silsilas were their philosophy,

interactions with the different sec-

tions of the Indian society and their

adjustment in accordance with the

local environment. Most of the Sufiorders of India worked on the prin-

ciples of the philosophy of Wahadat-

ul-Wujud or Unity of Being. Under

this philosophy the sufis treatedwhole world as one social unit. They

propagated their philosophy among

the people of the different social

order. They never made the unifor-

mity as the basis of the propaga-tion of their philosophy. Conse-

quently, all the people realised that

the philosophy of the Unity of Being

was source of their inspiration. It

provided sense of equality to thepersons of the different religions,

sect, castes and classes. It is im-

portant to mention that when the

sufis propagated their philosophy,they did not attack the local prac-

tices and beliefs. They only propa-

gated that each segment of society

was important in eyes of the God.

Each areas had potentialities of thepeace and progress. No social hier-

archy existed on the basis of na-

ture of the population of the dif-

ferent areas. It is evident that that

most of the sufis settled in thoseareas which were not socio-eco-

nomically well established and fa-

mous. Shaikh Farid-ud-din Ganj-I-

Shakar, popularly known as BabaFarid, settled in Ajodhan which was

virtually a desolated and unknown

place before his settlement. Simi-

larly, Nizamuddin Aulia settled at

Ghiyaspur in Delhi, a place of com-moners.

During their life times the

sufis worked for the promotion of

IN FOCUS

HISTORY

4 4



peace and cooperation among the

persons of different beliefs. It was

a regular activities of the sufis toorganise social discourse at their

Khanqahs and such types of dis-

courses were open to all. Even

Hindu Yogis and Sanyasis also at-

tended the social discussion at theJamatkhana of Baba Farid and

Nizamuddin Aulia. The participation

of the these Jogis and Sanyasis is

well illustrated by Hasan Sijzi's

Fawaid-ul-Fuad. Though theorganisation of langar was intro-

duced by Baba Farid, almost all the

sufis organised langar at their

Khanqahs. Most of the sufis, par-ticularly the Chishti Sufis, used ver-

nacular language as medium their

communication with the common

people of India. They avoided to use

the either official or priestly ortheological languages. The

organisation of the Sama or music

party was also an uninterrupted ac-

tivity of the most of the sufis of

medieval India. All these activitieswere sources of the inspiration of

common people. When the people

reached the sufi Khanqahs and

joined the different programme,they realised that their life and

works also mattered in terms of the

completion of the activities of the

sufi Khanqahs. They also felt that

the atmosphere of peace and coop-eration was instrumental in the

elimination of their problems. They

realised that inclusiveness was bet-

ter option than exclusiveness for the

productive activities. The activitiesof the sufis established that

unity in differences could acceler-

ate the socio-cultural activities in

better way than unity in uniformity.Consequently a large number of

people became followers of these

Sufis during the medieval period.

From king to peasants became the

visitors of these Khanqahs. It isknown that Sultans such as

Iltutmish(1210-36), Ghiyasuddin

Balban (1267-87) and Alauddin Khilji

(1296-1316) respected the sufis

very much and visited the Khanqah

of the Chishti sufis Qutub-ud-din

Bakhtiyar Kaki, Farid-ud-din Ganj-

I-Shakar and Nizamuddin Aulia re-spectively. Even Qutub-ud-din

Aibak(1206-19), the first ruler of

the Turkish dynasty, started the

construction of the Qutub Minar inthe memory of the Chishti Sufi saint

Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki.

After death of these Sufis their

shrines started to be identified as

the representatives of the buriedsufis' philosophy and activities. Al-

most each part of the Indian sub-

continent consists of some sufi

shrines. The people of these areasare not only well versed with the

name and place of the buried sufi,

but more importantly they are also

well versed with the period, philoso-

phy and works of these sufis. Dur-ing the medieval period the sufis

were identified with their stages

(tariqa), cult (taifa) and different

social activities, but during the mod-

ern period these shrines are identi-fied by the people as the promoter

of the concept of living together. It

is customary that on every Thursdaypeople visit the different sufi shrinesof their localities. The visitors be-

long to the different religions,

castes and classes. These visitors

follow the norms and discipline of the

shrine concerned. Both the male andfemale visitors keep their heads cov-

ered with some caps, turban and

dupatta. During their visit all the

people identify themselves as the

followers of the buried sufi.The visit of the sufi shrines is not

confined to the local people, but mostof the shrines of India have tradi-

tion of attracting the crowd at in-ter-district, intra-region and inter-

regional level. Some the shrines at-

tract the crowd at both the national

and international level. The hetero-

geneous nature of the visitors pro-motes the exchange of thoughts and

cultural synthesis among the persons

of the different ethnic, religious and

national identities. The sufi shrines

act as the meeting places of the dif-

ferent cultures.

Apart from the usual weekly vis-

its, all the sufi shrines organise an-nual Urs(death anniversary) of the

bried sufis. It is generally believed

that visiting of the sufi shrines at

the time of Urs is the highest formof paying tribute to the Sufis. Con-

sequently a large number of people

go to the shrines to pay tribute to-

gether. At the time of the annual Urs

one can find a cosmopolitan type of atmosphere at the sufi shrines. The

organisation of the of the Urs in

continuous process and gathering of

huge crowd on the occasion are veryeffective measures to promote the

social and regional cooperation.

The sufi shrines promote the idea

of working together and praying to-

gether. It is important to mentionthat whenever the people visit the

sufi shrines they offer certain things

such as Chadars, flowers and sweets.

These materials are sold by the per-

sons of different religious back-grounds. The shopkeepers find op-

portunity to sell the materials re-

quired for the completion of ritualsof the shrines. Around almost all thesufi shrines some shops are estab-

lished. No religious and class distinc-

tion work in the sale and purchase

of the different materials.

The organisation of thelangar(free kitchen) is an other im-

portant socio-economic activity of

the sufi shrines of Indian sub-conti-

nent. During the Urs free food and

water are served to the devotees of the shrines. The langar is organised

with the financial support of thepeople. To meet the expenditures of

the langar contribution of the eachindividual and social group is ac-

cepted. During the medieval period

such types of contributions or dona-

tions were called Futuh(unasked

charity). The acceptance of the do-nations always remains uncondi-

tional and unclaimed. Generally no

publicity is given to the name of the

IN FOCUS

HISTORY

45



donors. Moreover, when people are

served the food, no distinction is

made on the basis of religion, caste

and class. Even no such demand is

made by the devotees. All of themtook food together. Participation in

the langar is understood a pious duty.

Distribution of food during the

langar is not simply an act of char-ity or providing food to the needy

persons, but more importantly it

also reflect the acceptance and pro-

motion of the concept of inclusive-

ness. Generally the human beingsprefer the inclusiveness in terms of

their knowledge and life styles, but

whenever they join the langar, they

give up all the symbols of the exclu-siveness. It is important mention

that the tradition of the langar was

started by Baba Farid during the thir-

teenth century. It is continuing till

the date. The credit of the successof the langar institution of the sufi

shrines goes to the people. Thus the

langar institutions not only provides

food to the needy persons, but it also

inspires people preserve and propa-gate the concept of common good.

Although the controllers of the

most of the sufi shrines belong tothe Muslim community, there aresome shrines which controllers be-

long to the Hindu and Sikh commu-

nities. The controllers of these

shrines are known as the

Sajjadanashin, Gaddinashin and piretc. The sanctity of the controller of

a shrine is never based on his indi-

vidual religious background. He is

respected by the devotees because

of his contribution to the mainte-nance of the shrines. It is a com-

mon belief that the controller of theshrine possess the blessing of the

buried sufi and the actions of theformer bring relief and peace for the

people. Generally the

Sajjadanashins give

amulets(amulets) to the people for

the removal of their problems. Suchtypes of amulets are used by the

people of each segment of Indian so-

ciety. The wearing of the amulets is

not the practice of any particular

social group, but it exists among the

poor persons, shop keepers, indus-

trialists and players etc. It is impor-

tant to mention that the institutionof the sajjadanashin enjoy the uni-

versal acceptance. The existence of

the sufi shrines are treated one of

the most important components of the fame and identity of locality con-

cerned. The places such as Ajmer,

Delhi, Kichhauch Sharif(U.P),

Sirhind(Punjab), Ajodhan(in Paki-

stan), Kishtwar(Jammu and Kash-mir), Rajouri(Jammu and Kashmir),

Cherar-I-Sharif(Jammu and Kashmir)

Gulbarga(Karnataka) are famous be-

cause of the existence of shrines of the famous sufi saints. These are vis-

ited by the regional, national and

foreign tourists. The sufi shrines are

playing important role in the promo-

tion of religious tourism in differ-ent parts of India. Moreover, certain

areas are known in the name of the

sufi concerns. In Jammu district the

localities such as Lakhdatta Bazar

and Pir Mitha are named in thememory of the buried sufi. It is im-

portant to mentions that nature of

the population around the shrines iscomposite. The sufi shrines aretreated by the people as the joint

heritage of the all communities of

India. In the Punjab and Jammu and

Kashmir many shrines are known as

the shrines of the Sanjha Pir and SainBaba. The shrine of famous Rishi

Sufi Nuruddin of Cherar-i-Sharif in

Kashmir addressed by the Kashmir

Hindus as the shrine of Nand Rishi.

The composite responsibility for themaintenance of the sufi shrine is

very helpful in the minimisation of the communal and separatist ten-

sions. Such types of practicesstrengthen the concept of

inclusiveness.The sufi shrines are

contributing to the maintenance of

ecological balance and security in

areas concerned. The story of sa-cred water tanks and trees are as-

sociated with the majority of the

sufi shrines. There is a tree near

the shrine of Baba Ghulam Badshah

in Rajouri district of Jammu and

Kashmir. It is believed that it was

planted by the sufi Baba Ghulam

Badshah during the 19th century. Itgives fruits throughout the year.Whosoever takes the fruits of thetree, his or her sufferings are elimi-nated. The controller of the mostof the shrines encourage the plan-tation of the trees. It is also a com-mon belief that the water tank ex-isting in the premises of the sufishrine contains sacred water. Its useare understood as a source of theelimination of many diseases.Therefore, people try to maintainthe purity of water and avoid the

its pollution.Thus, the Sufi shrines of In-

dia are treated by the people as theeverlasting tangible heritage interms of mingling of various oceans.The sufi shrines are one of thestrongest mediums of the mainte-nance of unity in difference. Theirexistences from generation to gen-eration speak of their relevance interms of maintenance of mutualrespect, co-existence and conceptof living together. They are promot-

ers of the concepts of praying to-gether, eating together and work-ing together. It is important to men-tion that almost all the religions of the world propagate exclusiveness,but sufi shrines propagate the in-tegration of exclusiveness into in-clusiveness. The popularity of theSufi shrines among the people of different religions, races, castesand classes teaches the modernworld that only those persons are re-spected by the common people whowork for the betterment of human-

ity. It is important to mention thathardly people go to the graves of the rulers of medieval India to keeptheir graves as the symbols of au-thority. But the common people al-ways go to sufi shrines to keep theirteachings and practices alive forpropagation and protection of theconcepts of living together, worktogether and solve their problemstogether.

IN FOCUS

HISTORY

46



4 74 74 74 74 7


LA D A K H A F F A I R S

EDUCATION

Rigzin Spalbar, the newly nominated chairman/chief executive councilor, has been electedfrom two constituencies. The District Congress Committee president Mr. Rigzin Spalbarwon the Lower-Leh seat defeating the BJP Candidate Mr. Nawang Samstan by 2092 votes.Mr. Spalbar had already won the Sku-Markha constituency uncontested. He had been thechairman/chief executive councilor for a year and a half in the 3rd LAHDC also. Spalbar hasbeen elected to the LAHDC continuously since the formation of the Hill Council in 1995.

RIGZIN SPALBAR,

Thupstan Angchuk has beenelected from Nyoma constituencyon Congress ticket. He is a newface in politics. Angchuk is theyoungest among the all thecouncilors. Demchok area whichhad been news last year alsocomes under his constituency.

THUPSTAN ANGCHUK

Abdul Ali won the Turtuk Constitu-ency on Congress mandate. He hasthe experience of serving as thevillage Sarpanch in Bogdang forone term. On October 16th lateevening when polling was just over,his forehead was hit with a stonepelted by an unidentified person.Subsequently he was hospitalizedfor a few days.

ABDUL ALI

Tsering Angchuk is elected forthe second time in consecu-tive from Panamik Constitu-ency on Congress ticket. Aformer government employeein the medical department,Angchuk stepped into politicswith the 3rd LAHDC GeneralCouncil in 2005. He is one of the councilors to have leftLUTF and joined the IndianNational Congress.

TSERING ANGCHUK

Dr. Sonam Wangchuk wonHunder Constituency onCongress ticket. DoctorWangchuk is a child specialist.He retired from governmentservice few years ago. DoctorWangchuk is now the Execu-tive Councillor for Health.

DR. SONAM WANGCHUK

A grooup photograph of LAHDC, Leh Councillors

CORRECTION: In December issue, photographs and profiles of some of the Councillors got inadvertantlymismatched; those photographs are posted again with correct profile. -Error is regretted



LA D A K H A F F A I R S

EDUCATION

Significance

Bakula Rinpoche Memorial

Education WeekTSEWANG RIGZIN

Kushok Bakula Rinpoche Memorial Educat ion campaign week is observed in November every year across length and breadt h of Leh Ladakh as an endeavor t o st rengthen the rural government schools.

This annual f eature was start ed aft er passing away of Bakula Rinpochey in November 2003.

His Holiness Kushok BakulaRinpoche was a renowned spiri-

tual and political leader of Ladakh inthe latter half of the 20th Century -the post independence era - Rinpochejoined politics in 1949 when Ladakhhad just entered a new era of a demo-cratic society. Therefore he is oftenregarded as the architect of modernLadakh. One of the great contribu-tions by Kushok Bakula Rinpoche wasspreading the light of modern edu-cation to Ladakhi society. He playeda vital role in motivating Ladakhipeople to send their children toschools. All through his political lifeBakula always stressed on the impor-tance of modern education while pre-serving ancestral knowledge, valuesand wisdom.

"Although Rinpoche did not re-ceive a modern education, he under-stood the importance of scientificeducation, and he made gigantic ef-forts to spread education in Ladakh.He convinced illiterate parents, Bud-dhist and Muslim alike, to send theirchildren to school and, he opened onein every village in Ladakh. He alsoprovided opportunities for hundreds

of poor Ladakhi children to go out-side Ladakh for higher studies."These words by Sonam WangchukShakspo, Rinpoche's private secre-tary, in the book 'Kushok BakulaRinpoche Saint and Statesman' sumsup the great contributions made byRinpoche in spreading the light of education among the people of Ladakh at a stage when educationthrough modern schooling systemwas something new to Ladakhi soci-ety and accordingly most people werefound reluctant to enroll their chil-dren to schools for modern educa-

tion. Besides these efforts he was

also the man behind opening of pub-lic institutes like the Vishesh KendriyaVidyalaya in Delhi and the Central In-stitute of Buddhist Studies in Leh.

To pay tribute to BakulaRinpoche's great contribution toLadakhi society, particularly in the of education, the Ladakh AutonomousHill Development Council (LAHDC)Leh in collaboration with the civilsociety organizations of Leh decidedto observe an education campaignweek in every November in the nameof Padma Bhushan Kushok BakulaRinpoche, making it an institution-alized annual feature.

So what happens in the educationcampaign week? All Councillors of theLAHDC, the officials of Education De-partment, the Religious Organizationsand the Non Government Organiza-tions (NGOs) undertake extensivetours to every nook and corner of Lehdistrict to bring awareness among themasses about education and espe-cially to strengthen the governmentschools to make education accessibleto all poor and rich. The Councillorsof the LAHDC go to their respectiveconstituencies to see obstacles be-

ing faced by the schools of their con-stituencies. They come back to theCouncil Secretariat and give a pre-sentation of what they have seen

during the campaign week.

Each year the campaign has a dif-ferent theme as required for everydifferent year. These education cam-paigns also aim at changing the con-ventional mindset of the people andmaking education more relevant toone's life. By and large the presentsystem of education produce thou-sands of people with a governmentjob obsessed minds which preventmany educated youngsters from tak-ing up something more creative, en-terprising and innovative than onlygovernment jobs. Such issues areaddressed in these campaigns so that

people enroll their children in schoolsto become not just government em-ployees but also to become good hu-man beings so as to ensure a pros-perous and a peaceful future of oursociety. Last year the campaign weekwas observed from November 22, notin every village but at all cluster lev-els wherein councillors of the area,concerned zonal education officer,representatives of an NGO and a re-ligious organization and the VillageEducation Committee (VEC) membersof villages of the cluster participatedto bring awareness among the peopleabout education.

-Under NFI Fellowship Program

4848484848



49


Wavell: The Prophet Maligned…

RAKESH ANKIT

Field Marshall Archibald Wavell is atragic figure. Fate dealt him a diffi-cult hand as it made his successorsmen who dazzled their way to history,

in the process, overshadowing thereticent Wavell and his considerableachievements. Given Montgomery inAfrica and Mountbatten in India tocontend with, history-writing has nottreated Wavell kindly. To an extent,he himself was responsible. He wasa poor self-publicist, lacked show-manship, had a self-deprecating at-titude and a low opinion of 'politics' -fatal flaws when it comes to carvinga niche in the affairs of men andstate. Full-length treatments of him

have come about only recently withAdrian Fort and Victoria Schoefeldrestoring this servant of British Em-pire who was both soldierly andstatesmanlike to his rightful pedes-tal.

This piece limits itself to a few ofWavell's remarks from his Wavell -The Viceroy's Journal, sensitively ed-ited by the distinguished Sir PenderelMoon and brought out by Oxford Uni-versity Press in 1973. It remains thebible for the years 1943 to 1947 in

India - encompassing a wide rangeof personality and policy issues. And,it reflects how right Wavell was onhow many issues given the unfairopprobrium that Messers Attlee andBevin heaped on him, although as IanTalbot has said, his brand of 'realismalmost bordered on pessimism' andthis did not endear him to his politi-cal masters. The issues that this piecehighlights are Palestine, partition andKashmir.

Wavell sensed the troubles of 1948

Palestine as early as 1943. He had anidea that Winston Churchill was a'confirmed Zionist' but he confessedin his diary of having 'never quite

realised the lengths to which he wasprepared to go, in speech at any rate,or the strength of the pro-Jewish feel-ing in the Cabinet. No one seemedprepared to say anything at all on theArab side'. Over the next two years,as Churchill and Amery hardenedtheir stances on partition in both Pal-estine and India, Wavell was left torepeatedly note ruefully that 'thoughIndia has over 90 million of Moslems,many of whom feel very stronglyabout Palestine', London had effec-

tively excluded him from any brain-storming. In moments of anguish, hewould term it 'scandalous'. Wheneverhe got a chance, he felt duty-boundto argue 'the interest of the IndianMuslims in the problem and the Arabcase' against the Churchill-Amerycombine.

By the time, Churchill left officein July 1945, four things were clear,namely, US was the next mighty mili-tary power; second, the war time al-liance was breaking, particularly post-

Yalta as Stalin tightened the screwsover Eastern Europe; third, India hadto go - in one piece or more and,fourth, a way had to be found to re-linquish formal control in India yetretain informal influence given India'simportance to the Empire's unity, se-curity and welfare. To these last ends,Churchill memorably gave Wavell alittle piece advice on 3 August 1945 -'Keep a bit of India'. The question waswhich bit was desirable and whetherthose in that bit would like to remain

with UK/US.Wavell was pretty prescient about

the troubles of 1947 in Kashmir too.Almost exactly two years before

troubles began, on 17 October 1945,Wavell wrote:

'Kashmir is likely to be the seat ofpolitical trouble before long; thereare two factions, both Moslem(80% of the population is Moslem),one of which supports and is supported by the Congress, the otherMuslim League'.

He was not alone here. A. V.Alexander, who would come to Indiafor three months as a member of thethree-member Cabinet Mission and

who would be the Defence Ministerwhen the conflict broke out in Kash-mir charged with the sensitive issueof what to do with the British offic-ers serving with the Indian and Paki-stani forces, too felt, in April 1946that 'this Muslim population…howeverseem to be divided in Kashmir intoalmost equal proportions of MuslimLeague and Muslim National Confer-ence' - thus pointing to the absolutecrux of the claims and counter-claimsof representativeness made by

Sheikh Abdullah/India and MuslimConference/Pakistan later.

When the Cabinet Commissioncame to India in March 1946, Wavellwasted no time in suggesting to themthat 'they must have some more defi-nite ideas about Pakistan…I pointedout that Pakistan issue affected notonly India but the whole Empire, sinceit might lead to a conflict with Mos-lems'. Alexander later rememberedthat Wavell had mentioned on 25 April1946 that the 'Anglo-American report

New Research on Kashmir

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50


on Palestine now about to be pub-lished would, he feared, have mostunfortunate repercussions in Pales-tine and the Middle East on the Arabpopulation and would be likely to

harden the Muslim League in their ad-herence to Pakistan'. Wavell had de-veloped a mutual friendship and re-spect for Alexander; with Pethick-Lawrence he parted 'on quite friendlybut not cordial terms'. He howeverdid not get along with Stafford Crippsand did not meet him when the Cabi-net Mission departed India. He wasto soon pay for this.

Meanwhile, however, in May 1946Wavell produced an 'Appreciation ofpossibilities in India', which was to

be later infamous as Wavell's Break-down Plan. In his own words, it en-tailed the following:

'If we are forced into an extremeposition, we should hand over theHindu provinces, by agreementand as peaceably as possible, toHindu rule, withdrawing ourtroops, officials and nationals inan orderly manner; and should atthe same time support theMuslim provinces of India againstHindu domination and assist them

to work out their own constitution'.'It is not suggested that this arrangement should be apermanency; and that we shouldmaintain indefinitely what wouldamount to a "Northern Ireland" inIndia. We should endeavour tobring about a Union of India onthe nest terms possible; and thenwithdraw altogether'.

Two months later, in July 1946, hethought 'HMG's proposals [of partition

on Palestine] quite disastrous andsaid so in very plain language. Theeffect in India at this juncture willbe deplorable'. The Wavell Plan hadstarted trickling to London from Sep-tember 1946 in its various draft ava-tars but it was not until 4 December1946 that the besieged Viceroyreached London to hand it over per-sonally to the Attlee Cabinet. He hada frosty reception from Attlee, Bevinand Cripps though they did not havemuch by way of an alternative. Wavell

noted that 'Bevin was pessimisticabout our position generally [and] saidthat everyone was kicking us around,in Palestine, Egypt, Sudan, India andthat our international prestige was

very low. He said that the USA werevery worried about India' and wasquick to see through the left, social-ist, anti-empire façade of the For-eign Minister: 'Bevin like everyoneelse hates the idea of our leaving In-dia, but like everyone else has no al-ternative to suggest. Both he andAlexander are in reality imperialistsand dislike any idea of leaving India'.

Indeed, the great Bevin 'could bereprimanded for residual imperialnostalgia' and alongwith Attlee and

Cripps presided over the sacking ofWavell, condemned as 'defeatist'.Cripps returned from India in July1946 and had been suggesting fromSeptember-October onwards to re-place Wavell. This 'defeatist' slur onWavell though took some time incrystallising and first emerged dur-ing the Bevin-Attlee exchange of 1-2January 1947.

Ironically, Wavell's withdrawal plangave Britain more time, till mid-1948,to prepare for the succession than did

the Labour government's scramble toget out which left contradictions inthe wake of its hasty departure - thegreatest of which was the Kashmir dis-pute. It also stemmed from Wavell'srationale - later justified in a gorymanner - that too much blood wouldbe spilled if power were transferredsimultaneously to the subcontinent asa whole. And yet the breakdown planled to the summary dismissal ofWavell. The telegram which inti-mated him of the same in February

1947 was drafted by the determinedStafford Cripps. Restrained in pub-lic, Wavell wrote in his diary on 4February 1947 that 'it was not verycourteously done'. This 'termination'had been coming. Wavell had a lowopinion of politicians while Labour -despite admiring his soldier's realism,strategic shrewdness and lack of vice-regal vanity - considered him 'politi-cally inept'. Their relations had beengetting severely strained. In the ulti-mate analysis, his two-stage military

withdrawal/evacuation plan consid-ered 'pessimistic'/'unworkable' byAttlee, Bevin and co. was the last nailin the coffin of Wavell's viceroyalty.

Mountbatten took over and the

subcontinent hurtled towards free-dom/partition in India and then in-vasion/accession in Kashmir. Onemonth after the first of the batch ofraiders had started for Srinagar, on20 November 1947, Wavell noted -after a conversation with his succes-sor in London - that 'Mountbatten hasvery much gone over to the Congressside, as was I suppose inevitable inhis position; says Jinnah has becomean impossible megalomaniac; andthat Nehru has shown himself a re-

ally great man'. This was a classiccase of one partisan man eyeing theother from his one-eye. As Alexanderremembered from his Cabinet Mis-sion trip:

'Wavell had no conscious feelingthat he had been partisan infavour of the Muslim League, butI could understand that as he hadbeen C-in-C in India in 1942, hewas bound to remember thatwhilst the Muslim League were notpolitically active in his support,

they did not - as the Congressparty - had organised thesabotage and destruction of hiscommunications whilst he wastrying to keep the Japs out ofIndia'.More importantly for our purpose

now and more worryingly for Wavell'sthen, he was also informed byMountbatten that the 'Service Chiefsat home seemed to him to be playingwith the idea of making a base ofPakistan and letting India go, if she

wished'. Wavell thought 'such a policywould be suicidal'. This reflected thegrowing awareness among the Brit-ish Chief of Staff about the useful ofthe north-western rim of the Indiansub-continent (now in Pakistan) aswell as its willingness (unlike Nehru'smuch-vaunted non-aligned stance) topartake in the Anglo-American con-cerns and attempts vis-à-vis the erst-while USSR in Central Asia.

London was acutely sensitive toBritish interests in the subcontinent


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and to Pakistan's particular impor-tance in their pursuit. Three monthsbefore the creation of Pakistan, theChief of Staff had succinctly summedup that strategically 'Western India'(post-1947 Pakistan) - with Karachiand Peshawar - was crucial for Brit-ish and Commonwealth interests. Im-portantly, by assisting Pakistan Brit-ain could increase its prestige andreputation in the Muslim World, im-prove relations and achieve their co-operation. Five weeks before parti-tion, the Chief of Staff concluded:

The area of Pakistan is strategically the most important in thecontinent of India and themajority of our strategicrequirements could be met by anagreement with Pakistan alone.We do not therefore consider thatfailure to obtain the [defence]agreement with India would causeus to modify any of our requirements.

On 12 October, the CommonwealthRelations Office had written to UKHigh-Commissioners in India and Pa-kistan to 'look after United Kingdom'sinterests in Kashmir and other IndianStates in Pakistan sphere'. It was

equally aware of Kashmir's importance for Pakistan. For Pakistan to remain apolitically viable pivot for Britain's strategic interest in the Middle East and SoutheastAsia, Kashmir was vital as a buffer between the volatile NWFP and a potentiallyhostile India. Pakistan's lack of geographical depth was a cause of concern for Britainas was the presence of a resourceful and unfriendly neighbour; its vulnerable de-fence, transport and communication links and industrial infrastructure and the de-pendence of her irrigation and energy systems on rivers flowing through Kashmir.Wavell also had a suspicious attitude towards the UN - not uncommon in his genera-tion of inter-war realists. He felt that the way of reaching decisions in UN - 'theprocess of dishonest and discreditable lobbying among the smaller powers' - was'disgraceful' and as an ardent Arabist, he was shocked that a vital question like thepartition of Palestine 'should be decided by the venal votes of such countries as Haiti,Liberia, [and] Paraguay'. By December 1949, when the Kashmir question had beenwith the UN for almost a year, a tired Wavell wrote to H. M. Close in Peshawar, interms which showed his views on the past of India-Kashmir-Pakistan and his percep-tions on the future of India-USA-Pakistan, both borne out by history:

'If only this wretched Kashmir business could be settled, I am surethat Pakistan would soon goahead. Of course, it ought to havegone to Pakistan from the first,with possibly some adjustments infrontier on the south; just asHyderabad was bound to go in withIndia. I am very glad that LiaquatAli Khan is going to America, I amsure that his personality andcommonsense will impress itselfon the Americans; India has hadtoo much of the limelight sincepartition'.

3 July 194322 July 194421 March 194524 March 194521 April 1946, AVAR 6/2, A. V. Alexander Papers, Churchill Archives Centre (CAC), Churchill College, Cambridge4 March 194629 June-1 July 194629 July 194624 December 1946Kenneth Morgan, Labour People (Oxford, 1987), p. 141

Ibid., p. 1681-2 January 1947, Bevin-Attlee exchange, FO 800/470/IND/47/1/2, TNAMichael Brecher, Nehru (Oxford, 1959), p. 337Peter Clarke, The Cripps Version (London, 2002), pp. 470-1Judith Brown, Nehru (Oxford, 2003), p. 16926 June 1946, AVAR 6/2, CAC29.11.46, COS (46-47) L/WS/1/1030, Tp (46), TNA7.7.47, COS Tp (47) 90, TNA12.10.47, CRO to Shone and Graffety-Smith, T. No. 210, L/PS/13/1845 b, IOR1 December 194713 December 1949, Wavell to Close, MSS Eur Photo Eur 393, India Office Records, British Library

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5252525252CALEN D AR: DECEMBER 2010

J & K AFFAIRS

JAMMU, DECEMBER 1: Six persons including threeminor girls are killed and nearly 40 others injured in abus accident near Kalakote in Rajouri district of Jammuprovince. The bus with approved capacity of 16 passen-gers was reportedly carrying 52 passengers.

SRINAGAR, DECEMBER 1: Chairman of moderatefaction of Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq saysthe separatist amalgam will continue its efforts to edu-cate the people of India about the genesis of Kashmirissue and need for its resolution.

REASI, DECEMBER 2: Three members of a familyare among four persons killed while five others injuredafter a Tata Sumo skidded off the road and fell into nearly700-feet deep gorge in Mahore area of this district inJammu province.

JAMMU, DECEMBER 2: Pakistan Army resorts toheavy firing on Indian positions on the Line of Control(LoC) in Balnoi area of Krishna Ghati sector in Poonchdistrict in an apparent attempt to push militants intothis side taking advantage of adverse weather condi-tions and dense forests.

SRINAGAR, DECEMBER 3: A delegation of Parlia-mentarians and Civil Society members including filmmakers and journalists arrived in summer capital on athree-day fact-finding mission and hear the family of ateenager whose death in police action triggered a five-month unrest in the Valley. The delegation includes Par-liamentarians Ram Vilas Paswan, Nama Nageshwara Rao,Maheshwari Hazari, D Raja and Bansa Gopal Choudhury.The other prominent figures in the delegation were film-maker Mahesh Bhatt, Prof Kamal Mitra Chenoy and jour-nalist Seema Mustafa.

JAMMU, DECEMBER 4: The CBI has registers a casein the alleged bungling of more than Rs 3.7 crore in thecontract of dewatering work on Katra-Laole section ofUdhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Project.

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 4: Railways report suc-cessful completion of construction of a crucial tunnelbetween the Katra-Qazigund section of the prestigiousKashmir rail link project. "The major breakthrough cameyesterday with the completion of the tunnel, the secondin the section at Sangaldhan in Ramban district of theState," said a Northern Railway spokesperson.

Srinagar, DECEMBER 5: Chief Minister Omar Abdullahsays that Kashmir is a political problem requiring a po-litical solution and urges the separatist leaders to entera dialogue with Centre for its resolution. Addressing sev-eral functions to mark the 105th birth anniversary of hisgrandfather and National Conference founder Sheikh

Mohammad Abdullah, Omar said violence cannot solve anyissue and the only way to resolve problems was throughthe dialogue. "If they can hold talks with Parliamentariansand Pakistan High Commissioner, what is the problem intalking to the Central Government," he said. Union Minis-ter and NC President Dr Farooq Abdullah attended func-tions with CM.

KATHUA, DECEMBER 5: Congress leader and stateMinister for Health Sham Lal Sharma courts controversyby advocating Azadi for Kashmir and separate state forJammu and Union Territory status to Ladakh. Addressinga Congress rally chaired by Pradesh Congress Committeechief Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz at remote town of Bani in dis-trict Kathua, the Congress Minister gave a surprise to manysenior party leaders sharing dais with Prof Soz, when heraised the demand of making Jammu separate State andaccording UT status to Ladakh.

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 6: The Supreme Court seeksa response from Jammu and Kashmir Government on theRs 1,618- crore special package offered by the Centre forrestoring properties of and providing jobs to KashmiriPandits who migrated from the Valley in the wake of out-break of militancy. The apex court, which sought the replyof the State Government within four weeks, however, ex-pressed its reservations against the Centre's scheme whichwas not clear as to how the migrants on return will staywithout any accommodation.

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 7: A delegation of TradeUnion representatives from Jammu and Kashmir led byCPI MP and AITUC leader Gurudas Dasgupta calls on PrimeMinister Dr Manmohan Singh and seek his interventionfor revival of sick Central units in the State and ensuringpayment of wages and other benefits to their employees."Terrorism or secessionism cannot be fought "if the work-ers are left to suffer in starvation", Dasgupta said. In ameeting with Dr Singh at Parliament House, the unions,representing handicraft, carpet and anganwadi workersand PSUs like IRCON, HMT Chinar Factory, Centaur Hoteland Indian Telephone Industry, sought revival of theseunits.

SRINAGAR, DECEMBER 7: Criticising National Con-ference led coalition regime for brazenly taking benefit ofthe prevailing anarchy in the State, People's DemocraticParty president Mehbooba Mufti today said that insteadof addressing problems of the people this Government hasindulged in corrupt practices. She said that on the onehand harassment of innocent people has been going un-abated while on the other, Government has been lootingpublic exchequer due to lack of transparency and account-ability. She said that developmental activities have virtu-ally come to stand still and ruling elite has been indulgedin corrupt practices.




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NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 8: The Government of Indiainforms Lok Sabha that "track II" talks with Pakistan in-cludes issues like Jammu and Kashmir and are not officialin nature. "There are informal channels of communica-tion between India and Pakistan, also referred to as trackII in popular parlance... These meetings, which take placeon a broad range of subjects, including Jammu and Kash-mir, are not official in nature," Minister of State for Ex-ternal Affairs Preneet Kaur said.

JAMMU, DECEMBER 9: Five members of a marriageparty are killed and 23 others injured, when a bus carry-ing them, rolled down into a nullah near Garnai under thejurisdiction of Rehmbal Police Station in Udhampur dis-trict.

JAMMU, DECEMBER 10: State Cabinet approves therecommendations of the Pay Anomaly Committee besidesgiving nod to the amendments in the J&K Panchayati RajAct, 1989. The Finance as well as other Departments willstart issuing notifications vis-à-vis implementation of therecommendations of the Pay Anomaly Committee reportwithin next 10 to 15 days, the cabinet decided.

RAMBAN, DECEMBER 10: Four persons are killed andfour others injured in two separate road accidents in thisdistrict.

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 11: J&K Health MinisterSham Lal Sharma who advocated Azadi for Kashmir isserved with show-cause notice by Congress high command.

JAMMU, DECEMBER 12 : The State Government asksthe Election Department of the State to go ahead withpreparation for Panchayat elections on the ground thatconstitution of the State Election Commission (SEC) wasa mandatory provision asked by the Central Governmentto five States and it will take care of future requirements.Government has conveys to the Election Department tohold first phase of Panchayat elections by the end of Janu-ary and complete entire exercise by April end.

JAMMU, DECEMBER 13: Chief Minister Omar Abdullahsays that the call of separatists and few other outfits forboycott of ensuing Panchayat elections in the State willnot have any impact on the polls as they had been givingsuch calls time and again and the people have defied themrepeatedly. "There is nothing new (in the boycott call ofelections). They (the separatists) had given such calls inthe past also. Despite their boycott calls, the people hadparticipated in the elections in large number and they willdo so this time as well'', Mr Abdullah said.

JAMMU, DECEMBER 14 : Seven Indian Air Force per-sonnel including a Squadron Leader and two engineers ofthe Konkan Railways Corporation Limited are injured when

a MI-26 Helicopter crashed shortly after taking off fromthe Technical Airport adjoining the domestic airport ofJammu. The helicopter was airlifting heavy road andtunnel construction machinery for the Northern Railwaysto Reasi-Sangaldan stretch of the Katra-Qazigund Rail-way Project.

UDHAMPUR, DECEMBER 15: Four persons are killedand 10 others sustain injuries, one of them critically,when an over-speeding bus turns turtle on Udhampur-Ramnagar road.

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 15: The Central Govern-ment decides to double subsidy for micro, small andmedium enterprises (MSMEs) in Jammu and Kashmir, atpar with North Eastern States. The decision to modifythe Central Capital Investment Subsidy Schemes for J&Kis taken at a Cabinet meeting. The capital investmentsubsidy for the MSMEs in the State will be enhanced to30 per cent of the investment on plant and machinery.

SRINAGAR, DECEMBER 16: General Officer Com-manding of Army's Srinagar based 15 Corps Lt General SA Hasnain says he would be adopting a humane approachwith the people of Kashmir in his efforts to usher instability to the Valley. "My approach is entirely humaneand nothing more than that. I think my force should notbe seen as a force with arms everywhere," Lt GenHasnain, who became only second Muslim officer to com-mand 15 Corps in the past 20 years, told reporters onthe occasion of Vijay Diwas, marking the victory overPakistan Army in 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.

JAMMU, DECEMBER 16 : TheNational Conference-Congress Coordination Committee meets under the chair-manship of Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz. It was discussed that since the 73rd Amend-ment has empowered the Panchayati Raj Institutions andfurther democratized them in the country, it is neces-sary to adopt the provision of amendment.

JAMMU, DECEMBER 17: The Interlocutors on Jammuand Kashmir arrive in the winter capital on their thirdvisit to state. They said that implementation of the Con-fidence Building Measures (CBMs), listed by them aftertheir first two visits, will facilitate the process of dia-logue in the State but said their ultimate task was towork out a political settlement of the problem accept-able to all three regions and communities residing withinthe every region.

POONCH, DECEMBER 18: Interlocutors meet a crosssection of people in Poonch. Members of several del-egations that called on them said that they talked aboutdevelopment and rejected the idea of Azadi. The people,cutting across party affiliations, lamented discrimina-

tion meted out to the district on account of develop

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patriarch and former Prime Minister Atal BehariVajpayee

JAMMU, DECEMBER 26 : Holy cave shrine of MataVaishno Devi surpasses past pilgrimage records at 8.5million for 2010.

SHIMLA, DECEMBER 29: Railway Minister Mamata

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NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 1: The Government deniesthat there was any proposal to withdraw the Armed ForcesSpecial Powers Act 1958 at present from Jammu and Kash-mir, saying the Act (AFSPA) was needed in states andareas in a disturbed or dangerous condition that mayrequire use of the Act. In a written reply in the RajyaSabha, Minister of State for Home Affairs MRamachandran said that although several legislations didexist for curbing underground activities in the North-Eastern region, the AFSPA was needed.

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 2: Lt Gen A S Lamba'sname is cleared to take over as new Army Vice Chief.Lamba, who was the Shimla-based Army Training Com-mand chief, replaces Lt Gen P C Bharadwaj who retiredfrom service on November 30. The Government also ap-proved the appointment of Lt Gen S K Singh, who washitherto Leh-based 14 Corps Commander, to take overas Jaipur-based South Western Command chief.

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 6: French President Nicho-las Sarkozy, Delhi, calls upon Pakistan to fight terrorismwith determination and advises the country to live inpeace with India. Sarkozy assured India of his country'sfull cooperation in fighting terrorism. "Our cooperationon counter-terrorism is without limits and when Mumbaibecame a martyr city with hundreds killed and injured,France stood shoulder to shoulder with India. France willdo all it can to help India. Pakistan must live in peacealongside its Indian neighbours," Mr Sarkozy said in aninteraction with the media after the signing of severalagreements with India in the field of civil nuclear coop-eration and other areas

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 9: Union Home Minister PChidambaram says that contours of a political solutionto the Kashmir problem were expected to emerge in thenext few months. He said this while addressing a meet-ing here of the Parliamentary Consultative Committeeattached to his Ministry and the subject of the discus-sion was "Matters relating to Jammu and Kashmir".Chidambaram said the first and second reports of the

group of interlocutors for Jammu and Kashmir dealt withconfidence-building measures and added that he had nowasked the group to focus on finding the contours of a po-litical solution

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 14: Bharat Petroleum Corphikes petrol prices by about Rs 2.96 a litre effective mid-night tonight, and other State-owned oil companies IOCand HPCL will follow suit tomorrow. The Oil Ministry givesthe three companies a go-ahead to raise petrol prices af-ter international crude oil prices touched USD 90 per bar-rel. BPCL, the second largest fuel retailer in the country,took the lead to raise petrol prices by Rs 2.96 a litre to Rs55.87 per litre in Delhi.

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 14: Information CommissionerSatyananda Mishra is named as the new chief of the CentralInformation Commission, replacing CIC A N Tiwari. Mishra isa former IAS officer of 1973 batch, Madhya Pradesh cadre.

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 15: Former regent of Jammuand Kashmir and senior Congress leader Karan Singh re-fuses to receive a Chinese award given away by PremierWen Jiabao in Delhi for promotion of friendship betweenthe two countries as he did not want to be seen as pro-China. Singh, a Rajya Sabha member and President of In-dian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), did not turn upfor the award function this evening where Wen honourednine prominent persons including CPI(M) leader SitaramYechury for fostering Sino-India ties.

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 16: Talks between ChinesePremier Wen Jiabao and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singhfail to yield any breakthrough on India's key concerns---stapled visa to people of Jammu and Kashmir and terror-ism emanating from Pakistan-- and in getting support forits bid for a UNSC permanent seat. Wen, who is on a fence-mending mission after one year of unease in bilateral ties,held talks with Dr Singh for over one hour during whichbilateral, regional and global issues were discussed. Thoughthe issue of stapled visa did not figure in the joint com-munique, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told reporters

Banerjee forwards Rs 22,831 crore project to clearBhanupali-Leh railway line to Planning Commission, HimachalPradesh Chief Minister, Prem Kumar says in Shimla. A let-ter received from Union Minister of State for Railways EAhemad, said the Centre has prepared the estimate ofBhanupali-Leh railway line after completing its survey, MrDhumal said. He said that Rs 22,381 crore project has beenforwarded to Planning Commission to get its consent to laydown broad gauge line between Bhanupali to Leh.

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after the talks that the Chinese Pre-mier himself raised the issue andsuggested that officials from both thecountries should have in-depth con-sultations to resolve the issue. "Wen

said China takes this issue very seri-ously and takes our concern on thisissue very seriously," Rao said butnoted that "the ball is in their court.There is no doubt about that."

BALASORE, ORISSA, DECEMBER

22: Two Prithvi-II nuclear-capable bal-listic missiles with a strike range of


350 km were successfully test-fired in an hour's gap as part of user trials bythe Army from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur off Orissa coast."Two indigenously developed surface-to-surface Prithvi-II missiles were test-fired from the ITR and both the trials were fully successful," ITR Director S PDash said. The missiles, mounted on mobile launchers and aimed at different

targets, were test-fired from launch complex-3 in the ITR at around 0815 and0915 hrs.

SRIHARIKOTA (AP), DECEMBER 25: In a setback that some fear could delayIndia's manned moon mission, one of ISRO's communication satellites aboard aGeosynchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) exploded mid-air less than a minute afterlift-off from the spaceport here and fell into the sea.GSAT-5P, carrying 24 C-bandand 12 extended C-band transponders, aboard a homegrown vehicle GSLV F06failed after the rocket veered from its flight path and broke into pieces

CROSS - LOC

POONCH, DECEMBER 6: After a long time, 35 guests reach Poonch fromPakistan administered Kashmir as 56 civilians cross the Line of Control (LoC)from Chakan-Da-Bagh on Poonch-Rawlakote route. However, the traders ofPaK announced suspension of trade for this week, reportedly demanding thattax imposed by their Government on the import-export, should be waived off.

POONCH, DECEMBER 13: For the first time since cross-LoC bus waslaunched on Poonch-Rawlakote route between two parts of the divided State,it left Poonch without a single passenger on the board today. `The bus leftPoonch with only a driver and a helper. No passenger turned up to visit PaKwriting a new chapter in the history of cross-LoC movement of passengers.

POONCH, DECEMBER 15: Surpassing past trends, cross-LoC trade onPoonch-Rawlakote route crosses Rs 10 crore during two days of this week,recording an all time high figure. Yesterday, items worth Rs 5.16 crore wereimported-exported from Chakan-Da-Bagh by the traders of two parts of di-vided State while today Rs 5.02 crore worth trade was recorded.

POONCH, DECEMBER 20: While no one took the Rawalakote bus fromPoonch, from PaK, 50 civilians reached Poonch in weekly Rawlakote-Poonch busservice. Of them, 47 were the guests from PaK, who reached here to meet theirdivided family members and relatives while three others were citizens of thisside who returned home after meeting their relatives on other side.

SRINAGAR DECEMBER 23: Eight fresh guests from PaK arrive here while12 Kashmiris crossed over to other side of the Line of Control at Kaman Post,the last Indian military post on this side of the border in Uri sector. The busservice could not operate last week in view of the Muharram. As many as 24residents of PaK and this part of the LoC also crossed the sides after complet-ing their stay with their relatives. So far 522 PaK residents and 212 Kashmirishave crossed sides to meet each others relatives in 2010.

Poonch, DECEMBER 27: Fifty-five civilians cross sides from Chakan-Da-Bagh at the Line of Control in weekly Poonch-Rawlakote bus service. 23civilians left Poonch for Rawlakote in Pakistan administered Kashmir. Therewere only two civilians on board the bus from this part of divided State, wholeft for Rawlakote to meet their divided family members and relatives. Twentyothers on board the bus were PaK citizens, who returned home after complet-ing their stay on this side..

POONCH, DECEMBER 28/29: Cross-LoC trade on Poonch-Rawlakote

route on day-one of this weektouches Rs 4 crore as 48 trucks ex-change sides from the Line of Con-trol at Chakan-Da-Bagh.Twenty-three trucks left Poonch forRawlakote carrying coconut, drychilly, red chilly, embroidery suits andherbs worth Rs 1.42 crore. FromRawlakote, 25 trucks reached Poonchloaded with walnuts, kinnows, dates,anardana, pista, dry grapes and jainamaz. Imports from PoK were val-ued at Rs 2.58 crore. During secondday of weekly trade onions worthabout Rs 1 crore were imported bythe traders of this side from theircounterparts from across the Line ofControl. Out of Rs 2.86 crore worthitems imported from Rawlakote, PaKby the traders of this side, onionscomprised majority of imports val-ued at nearly Rs 1 crore.

SRINAGAR Dec 30 : Goodsworth Rs 18 crore are traded be-tween Kashmir and PaK during theweekly Line of Control trade on theSrinagar-Muzaffarabad road. Trad-ers from Kashmir sent goods worthRs 6.6 crore in 129 trucks to PaK,while the traders across LoC sentgoods worth Rs 11.57 crore onTuesday and Wednesday. 920tonnes of goods, consisting of redchilli and cococut were exported toPoK, while 794 tonnes of goods in124 trucks crossed this side. Or-anges formed nearly 70 per cent ofthe imported goods, which also in-cluded dry fruit and carpets, headded.

epilogue magazine, january 2011

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