Information AboutKashmir |
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| history of jammu and kashmir | |
| disputed territories in asia | |
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, the 9th highest peak in the world and one of the most dangerous for climbers, is in the Northern Areas of the Kashmir Region, in Pakistan.]] Kashmir (. Historically the term Kashmir was used to refer to the Valley lying between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal range. Today Kashmir refers to a larger area that includes the Indian-administered regions of Kashmir Valley , Jammu and Ladakh , the Pakistani administered regions Northern Areas and Azad Kashmir , and the Chinese administered region of Aksai Chin . Kashmir was originally an important centre of Hinduism and later of Buddhism . In 1349 Shah Mirza became the first Muslim ruler of Kashmir and started the line ''Salatin-i-Kashmir''. ''Imperial Gazetteer of India, volume 15''. 1908. Oxford University Press, Oxford and London. pages 93-95. For the next five centuries Kashmir had Muslim rulers, which included Sultan Sikandar (also known as ''Butshikan'', or "iconoclast") who ascended the throne in 1398, Zain-ul-abidin, who became the ruler in 1420, the Mughals , whose rule lasted until 1751, and the Afghan Durranis, who ruled Kashmir from 1752 until 1820. That year, the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh , annexed Kashmir, and held it until 1846, at which time, the Dogras, starting with Gulab Singh , became the rulers of Kashmir upon the purchase of the region from the British under the Treaty of Amritsar. The Dogra Rule (under the ''paramountcy'', or tutelage, of the British Crown) lasted until 1947, when the former princely state became a disputed territory, now administered by three countries, India , Pakistan , and China . The Kashmir region has long been a Muslim majority region. In the 1901 Census of the British Indian Empire, Muslims constituted 74.16% of the total population of the princely state of ''Kashmir and Jammu'', Hindus, 23.72%, and Buddhists, 1.21%. The Hindus were found mainly in Jammu, where they constituted a little less than 50% of the population. ''Imperial Gazetteer of India, volume 15''. 1908. Oxford University Press, Oxford and London. pages 99-102. In the Kashmir Valley, Muslims constituted 93.6% of the population and Hindus 5.24%. These percentages have remained fairly stable for the last 100 years. Forty years later, in the 1941 Census of British India, Muslims accounted for 93.6% of the population of the Kashmir Valley and the Hindus for 4%. Rai, Mridu. 2004. ''Hindu Ruler, Muslim Subjects: Islam and the History of Kashmir''. Princeton University Press. 320 pages. ISBN 0691116881. page 37. In 2003, the percentage of Muslims in the Kashmir Valley was 95%BBC. 2003. ''The Future of Kashmir? In Depth.'' and those of Hindus 4%; the same year, in Jammu, the percentage of Hindus was 66% and those of Muslims 30%. Among well-known people of Kashmiri lineage are Muhammad Iqbal , the Urdu Poet , Jawaharlal Nehru , the first prime minister of India, and Nawaz Sharif , former prime minister of Pakistan. ETYMOLOGY The ''Nilamata Purana'' describes the Valley's origin from the waters, a fact corroborated by prominent geologists, and shows how the very name of the land was derived from the process of desiccation - ''Ka'' means "water" and ''Shimir'' means "to desiccate". Hence, Kashmir stands for "a land desiccated from water". There is also a theory which takes Kashmir to be a contraction of ''Kashyap-mira'' or ''Kashyapmir'' or ''Kashyapmeru'', the "sea or mountain of Kashyapa ", the sage who is credited with having drained the waters of the primordial lake ''Satisar'', that Kashmir was before it was reclaimed. The ''Nilamata Purana'' gives the name ''Kashmira'' to the Valley considering it to be an embodiment of Uma and it is the Kashmir that the world knows today. The Kashmiris, however, call it ''Kashir'', which has been derived phonetically from ''Kashmir'', as pointed out by Aurel Stein in his introduction to the '' Rajatarangini ''. HISTORY See Also: History of Jammu and Kashmir . The names of different regions, important cities, rivers, and mountains are underlined in red.]] By the early 19th century, the Kashmir valley had passed from the control of the ) 75 Lakhs all the hilly or mountainous country situated to the east of Indus and west of Ravi " (''i.e.'' the Vale Of Kashmir ). Soon after Gulab Singh's death in 1857, his son, Ranbir Singh , added the emirates of Hunza , Gilgit and Nagar to the kingdom. and westward of the river The ''Princely State of Kashmir and Jammu'' (as it was then called) was constituted between 1820 and 1858 and was "somewhat artificial in composition and it did not develop a fully coherent identity, partly as a result of its disparate origins and partly as a result of the autocratic rule which it experienced on the fringes of Empire." Bowers, Paul. 2004. "Kashmir." Research Paper 4/28 , International Affairs and Defence, House of Commons Library, United Kingdom. It combined disparate regions, religions, and ethnicities: to the east, Ladakh was ethnically and culturally Tibetan and its inhabitants practised Buddhism; to the south, Jammu had a mixed population of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs; in the heavily populated central Kashmir valley, the population was overwhelmingly ''Sunni'' Muslim, however, there was also a small but influential Hindu minority, the Kashmiri Brahmins or Pandits ; to the northeast, sparsely populated Baltistan had a population ethnically related to Ladakh, but which practised ''Shi'a'' Islam ; to the north, also sparsely populated, Gilgit Agency , was an area of diverse, mostly ''Shi'a'' groups; and, to the west, Punch was Muslim, but of different ethnicity than the Kashmir valley. After the Indian Rebellion Of 1857 , in which Kashmir sided with the British, and the subsequent assumption of Direct Rule by Great Britain, the Princely State of Kashmir came under the Paramountcy of the British Crown. to the Union Of India signed on 26 October 1947, and accepted the following day.]] , with signatures of Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir, and Viscount Mountbatten of Burma, Governor-General Of India .]] Ranbir Singh's grandson Hari Singh , who had ascended the throne of Kashmir in 1925, was the reigning monarch in 1947 at the conclusion of British rule of the subcontinent and the subsequent Partition of the British Indian Empire into the newly independent Union Of India and the Dominion Of Pakistan . As parties to the partition process, both countries had agreed that the rulers of princely states would be given the right to opt for either Pakistan or India or—in special cases—to remain independent. In 1947, Kashmir's population "was 77 per cent Muslim and it shared a boundary with Pakistan. Hence, it was anticipated that the Maharaja would accede to Pakistan, when the British paramountcy ended on 14-15 August. When he hesitated to do this, Pakistan launched a guerilla onslaught meant to frighten its ruler into submission. Instead the Maharaja appealed to Mountbatten Viscount Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of British India, stayed on in independent India from 1947 to 1948, serving as the first Governor-General of the Union of India. for assistance, and the Governor-General agreed on the condition that the ruler accede to India." Stein, Burton. 1998. ''A History of India''. Oxford University Press. 432 pages. ISBN 0195654463. Page 368. Once the Maharaja signed the Instrument Of Accession , which included a clause added by Mountbatten asking that the wishes of the Kashmiri people be taken into account, "Indian soldiers entered Kashmir and drove the Pakistani-sponsored irregulars from all but a small section of the state. The United Nations was then invited to mediate the quarrel. The UN mission insisted that the opinion of Kashmiris must be ascertained, while India insisted that no referendum could occur until all of the state had been cleared of irregulars." In the last days of 1948, a ceasefire was agreed under UN auspices; however, since the Plebiscite demanded by the UN was never conducted, relations between India and Pakistan soured, and eventually led to two more wars over Kashmir in 1965 and 1999 . India has control of about half the area of the former princely state of Jammu And Kashmir ; Pakistan controls a third of the region, the Northern Areas and Azad Kashmir . According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Although there was a clear Muslim majority in Kashmir before the 1947 partition and its economic, cultural, and geographic contiguity with the Muslim-majority area of the Punjab (in Pakistan) could be convincingly demonstrated, the political developments during and after the partition resulted in a division of the region. Pakistan was left with territory that, although basically Muslim in character, was thinly populated, relatively inaccessible, and economically underdeveloped. The largest Muslim group, situated in the Vale of Kashmir and estimated to number more than half the population of the entire region, lay in Indian-administered territory, with its former outlets via the Jhelum valley route blocked." The UN Security Council on 20 January 1948 passed Resolution 39, establishing a special commission to investigate the conflict. Subsequent to the commission's recommendation, the Security Council ordered in its Resolution 47, passed on 21 April 1948, that the invading Pakistani army retreat from Jammu & Kashmir and that the accession of Kashmir to either India or Pakistan be determined in accordance with a plebiscite to be supervised by the UN. In a string of subsequent resolutions, the Security Council took notice of the continuing failure to hold the plebiscite. The Government of India holds that the Maharaja signed a document of accession to India October 26, 1947. Pakistan has disputed whether the Maharaja actually signed the accession treaty before Indian troops entered Kashmir. Furthermore, Pakistan claims the Indian government has never produced an original copy of this accession treaty and thus its validity and legality is disputed. However, India has produced the instrument of accession with an original copy image on its website. Alan Campbell-Johnson, the press attache to the Viceroy of India states that "The legality of the accession is beyond doubt." Rediff: Legality of Accession Unquestionable The eastern region of the erstwhile princely state of Kashmir has also been beset with a boundary dispute. In the late 19th- and early 20th centuries, although some boundary agreements were signed between Great Britain, Afghanistan and Russia over the northern borders of Kashmir, China never accepted these agreements, and the official Chinese position did not change with the communist takeover in 1949. By the mid-1950s the Chinese army had entered the north-east portion of Ladakh.Kashmir. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 27, 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online . : "By 1956–57 they had completed a military road through the Aksai Chin area to provide better communication between Xinjiang and western Tibet . India's belated discovery of this road led to border clashes between the two countries that culminated in the Sino-Indian war of October 1962." China has occupied Aksai Chin since 1962 and, in addition, an adjoining region, the Trans-Karakoram Tract was ceded by Pakistan to China in 1965. Meanwhile, elections were held in Indian Jammu & Kashmir, which brought up the popular Muslim leader (sic) in a tiny Western chunk that it had occupied. The much larger chunk of Pakistani Kashmir in the North-West, which was a province named ''Northern Areas'' in the erstwhile state, by and large bore no mention in Pakistani laws and Constitution as being of any status, till in 1982 the Pakistani President General Zia Ul Haq proclaimed that the people of the Northern Areas were Pakistanis (sic) and had ''nothing'' to do with the State of Jammu and Kashmir. {Link without Title} CURRENT STATUS AND POLITICAL DIVISIONS and Azad Kashmir , under Pakistani administration. The Buff -coloured region is Jammu And Kashmir (including Ladakh ) under Indian administration, while the Beige -and- Khaki striped region is Aksai Chin , under Chinese administration.]] The region is divided among three countries in a controls the northwest portion ( Northern Areas and Azad Kashmir ), India controls the central and southern portion ( Jammu And Kashmir ) and Ladakh , and China controls the northeastern portion ( Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract ). India controls the majority of the Siachen Glacier (higher peaks), whereas Pakistan controls the lower peaks. India controls 101,387 Km&2 of the disputed territory, Pakistan 85,846 km&2 and China, the remaining 37,555 km&2. Though these regions are in practice administered by their respective claimants, India has never formally recognised the accession of the areas claimed by Pakistan and China. India claims those areas, including the area "ceded" to China by Pakistan in the Trans-Karakoram Tract in 1963 , are a part of its territory, while Pakistan claims the region, excluding Aksai Chin and Trans-Karakoram Tract. Pakistan argues that Kashmir is culturally and religiously aligned with Pakistan (Kashmir is a Muslim region), while India bases its claim to Kashmir off Maharaja Hari Singh 's decision to give Kashmir to India during the India-Pakistan split. Kashmir is considered one of the world's most dangerous territorial disputes due to the Nuclear capabilities of India and Pakistan. The two countries have fought several declared wars over the territory. The Indo-Pakistani War Of 1947 established the rough boundaries of today, with Pakistan holding roughly one-third of Kashmir, and India two-thirds. The Indo-Pakistani War Of 1965 began with a Pakistani attempt to seize the rest of Kashmir, erroneously banking on support from then-ally the United States. Both resulted in stalemates and UN-negotiated ceasefires. More recent conflicts have resulted in success for India; it gained control of the Siachen glacier after a low-intensity Conflict that began in 1984, and Indian forces repulsed a Pakistani/Kashimir guerrilla attempt to seize positions during the Kargil War of 1999. This led to the '' Coup D'etat '' of Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan. DEMOGRAPHICS In the 1901 Census of the British Indian Empire, the population of the princely state of ''Kashmir and Jammu'' was 2,905,578. Of these 2,154,695 were Muslims (74.16%), 689,073 Hindus (23.72%), 25,828 Sikhs, and 35,047 Buddhists. Among the Muslims of the princely state, four divisions were recorded: "Shaikhs, Saiyids, Mughals, and Pathans. The Shaikhs, who are by far the most numerous, are the descendants of Hindus, but have retained none of the caste rules of their forefathers. They have clan names known as ''krams'' ..." It was recorded that these ''kram'' names included "Tantre," "Shaikh,", "Batt", "Mantu," "Ganai," "Dar," "Damar," "Lon" etc. The Saiyids , it was recorded "could be divided into those who follow the profession of religion and those who have taken to agriculture and other pursuits. Their ''kram'' name is "Mir." While a Saiyid retains his saintly profession Mir is a prefix; if he has taken to agriculture, Mir is an affix to his name." The ''Mughals'' who were not numerous were recorded to have ''kram'' names like "Mir" (a corruption of "Mirza"), "Beg," "Bandi," "Bach," and "Ashaye." Finally, it was recorded that the Pathans "who are more numerous than the Mughals, ... are found chiefly in the south-west of the valley, where Pathan colonies have from time to time been founded. The most interesting of these colonies is that of Kuki-Khel Afridis at Dranghaihama, who retain all the old customs and speak Pashtu ." The Hindus were found mainly in Jammu, where they constituted a little less than 50% of the population. ''Imperial Gazetteer of India, volume 15''. 1908. Oxford University Press, Oxford and London. pages 99-102. In the ''Kashmir Valley'', the Hindus represented "524 in every 10,000 of the population (''i.e.'' 5.24%), and in the frontier ''wazarats'' of Ladhakh and Gilgit only 94 out of every 10,000 persons (0.94%)." In the same Census of 1901, in the Kashmir Valley, the total population was recorded to be 1,157,394, of which the Muslim population was 1,083,766, or 93.6% and the Hindu population 60,641. Among the Hindus of ''Jammu'' province, who numbered 626,177 (or 90.87% of the Hindu population of the princely state), the most important castes recorded in the census were " Brahmans (186,000), the Rajputs (167,000), the Khattris (48,000) and the Thakkars (93,000)." |
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