What to write on Srinagar? The current political history is well-known and the city (and the valley of Kashmir) are so conflicted, that even this apolitical statement might trigger some fellow being. But this post shall try to capture the point where the first initial sparks of discontent started to creep in, and it was way before independence and even the creation of Pakistan.
Let's turn our clocks to the 19th century, when under the Dogra rule the Kashmir (and only Kashmir) valley was soaked in. Famine, poverty, filth, underdevelopment, and mass-scale anarchy had already crept in Kashmir valley by the 19th century, and Srinagar remained just as good as a historic site, screaming to be taken out from the misery. The population of Srinagar crumbled down to a mere 60,000 in 1877-79 after the great famine. The Dogra rule in Kashmir is indeed considered as the most troublesome, gruesome and inhumane phase prior to India's independence and involvement of Pakistan since 1947. Prior to 1846, it was just the territory of Jammu that was ruled by the Dogra Rajputs, while Kashmir valley was still intact by the Afghans under Durrani Empire, and Ladakh stretched a bit longer as an independent Buddhist kingdom, only to be annexed by the Dogra ruler Gulab Singh in 1834. Baltistan, a Tibeto-Muslim region was integrated in the same way in the 1830s, thus the degradation of Srinagar was consequential to the degradation of the entire Princely State of Jammu & Kashmir.
The negligence of the Dogra dynasty over their own territory and it's close affection and alliance with the British, led to a major mistrust of Kashmiris over their ruler. A prince whose religion was different than the majority population - a sentiment that still lingers in the populace narrative, and hence the roots of separatism started generating a century before independence. The economic negligence was one of the earliest triggering point for an emotion that couldn't connect with the popular narrative of anti-imperialism. Annexation of Jammu, Ladakh and Baltistan - which had both cultural similarities and differences - added more salt to the wounds. But did this economic disparity calm down ever?
By early 1920s, with increased education and more opportunities to the youth, situation in Srinagar started to marginally improve. The Municipal Corporation of Srinagar saw a welcoming of educated and intelligent people who envisioned in improving the conditions. Road maintenance and repair works, drainage system, metalled roads and other infrastructure started to gear up. Drinking water was made available to more people than before and a proper sewer line was constructed. Early 20th century also show a momentous construction of houses in Srinagar, thus leading to congestion but also expansion of the city and by 1931, the city's density had sprang to more 15,779 acres, compared to a mere 5,139 acres expansion in 1911.
Not just urban space, but also administrative reforms, with the incoming of British and an establishment of a Residency, the connection of Kashmiri intellectuals such as Jia Lal Kilam, Shankar Lal Koul, Jia Lal Jalali, etc. with the Raj improved heavily and by the 1930s, several new changes were brought in the educational sphere. Medicine, arts-crafts, agriculture, horticulture, science, etc. were improved during the British times and the horrifying nostalgia that lingered in the valley till the early Dogra regime, started to fade slowly.
If the infrastructure and social atmosphere had started to improve in the early 20th century, the feelings of alienation should have lessened by now, logically. But there were several other factors that forms a layered answer to this tensed question, the pivotal point after which turbulence slipped in slowly. Because as much as the initiatives of development were introduced majorly by the British, like any other region, it came at a heavy cost. The educational and social reforms brought in by the English, benefited majorly the Hindu population, thus keeping Muslims at a backseat, of which they were fully aware and concerned. The discontent among Muslims also rooted from the fact that there was a heavy disconnection between them and the Dogra government and at times, when grievances were put forward to the British authorities, the Hindu government would take offence. Thus, several micro-groups were formed within the Muslim community, such as the Reading Room Party, to organise and agitate the people against the tyranny of Dogra oppression, including heavy taxes, destruction of carpet industries, punishing for cow-slaughter and topics that bothered Hindu community more, than focusing on the apathy of Muslims. This was also the origin of the stone-pelting activity in 1931, when when Dogra forces killed 22 Muslim demonstrators outside Srinagar Central Jail during Abdul Qadeer’s (an anti-Dogra advocate) trial, sparking mass unrest and the first major instance of stone pelting as a form of political resistance.
But the information till now, is majorly referenced from the book 'History of Srinagar' by Mohammad Ishaaq Khan - a Kashmiri historian and academia. To avoid biasing and any probability of bias, let's also explore the work composed by a Kashmiri Pandit historian, going by the name Prem Nath Bazaz.
Bazaz also mentions the tyrannical Afghan regime of Kashmir that was equally traumatising for both Hindus and Muslims, and how it expanded to the Sikh rule as well, and barbarism of their Muslim governors controlling the province from Lahore. Both the historians agree on the apathy of the early Dogra rule in the valley and mentions the disastrous famine of 1877 - an event etched in every Kashmiri's conscience. The famine had destroyed almost half of Srinagar and more than a thousand of people had died in the valley, with horror show on street with dead bodies piling up roadside. Moreover, the Dogras had prohibited any British intervention, even though the rulers themselves were not literate and well-educated; with the fear of people opening up too much under British influence. The reign passed on from Gulab Singh to Ranbir Singh, and later to Pratap Singh in 1885. But the condition of Srinagar and Kashmir was beyond repair and to add to it's misery, came the outbreak of numerous cholera and plague epidemics between 1888 to 1904. The Dogras were there, but their contribution was negligible - both economically and intellectually.
Several attempts were reached out to the British to intervene and restore life, to the least, in Kashmir but the Dogra dominance and the status of a Princely State, prohibited the English to take any direct measures. But the proximity to the Czarist Russia and the corrupt Dogra house's succession politics after the death of Ranbir Singh in 1885, pushed British interference, which surprisingly was a blessing in disguise for the Kashmiris.
Bazaz also mentions how under the Dogra rule, education didn't touch much of Muslim households and when certain sensible Muslims did approach both the Dogra authorities and the British, they hardly contributed anything to their betterment. The resources were scarce, motivation low, and with priority given to the Pandits, the Muslims found no space to grow in the sphere of education. Even when, after constant pressure, a British Educational Commissioner Mr. Sharp was authorised to inspect the educational department in 1916, the Dogra ministers playfully neglected the seriousness of the inspection, indulged the British in their pleasantries and the report was long forgotten in some obscure archival department. Such ill-treatment of Muslim grievances was enough for their initial seeds of resentment towards the Dogra government, thus resulting to the 1931 massacre.
Thus, both (and several other sources) claim the same facts, that the initial seeds of discomfort and discontent among an average Kashmiri, roots from the 19th century and not simply 1947. But today's viewpoint shifts on more recent activities in Kashmir - the genocide of 1990s, the ongoing terrorist attacks in the valley aided and funded by Pakistani sources, the disparity and discomfort among people with the changing political scenarios, etc. Today's youth may consider the history as unjust, but growing uneasiness in present is what defines everything for them. What happened in the past, neither Srinagar nor Kashmir were the only victims - every nook and corner of the world has gone through a typhoon of change and people have come out of the shockwaves of the past. But at the same time, reflecting back at history does give some context to the displeasure among the populace of that region. Unresolved issues, grudges rooted in history, injustices not reaching closure, everything surmounts to a triggering moment, that falls off at the slightest of push.
The maps posted here are (1) Srinagar city map of the early 1900s referenced from 'A handbook for travellers in India, Burma and Ceylon' by J. Murray published in 1911 and (2) part of the larger 'Hindoostan by James Rennell', 1781. What's interesting about the old maps of Kashmir is, that contrary to the popular belief, the territory (or stretched to be labeled as a country at times) is mostly pointed as only the valley portion, part of the larger Kabul province of the Durrani Empire, or Punjab under the Sikh Empire. Ladakh is often noted as Little Tibet and marked as part of the larger Chinese Empire, even though factually it had operated itself as an independent kingdom prior to 1834. The close cultural ties of Tibet with Ladakh could be the sole reason of cartographers marking it as part of the Chinese Empire.
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