Tag: dogra rule in kashmir

Kashmir’s English Press

[ad_1]
Successive rulers before and after 1947 have remained reluctant in encouraging English journalism in Jammu and Kashmir. Fighting odds, restrictions and outright denial of permissions, the English media always existed in the erstwhile state but never became the mainstay. It only started getting visible, popular and vibrant by the turn of the century, writes Nayeem Showkat
Kashmir newspapers from the 1930s and fifties. Images: Nayeem Showkat, Collage: Malik Qaisar
Unlike the evolution of the Urdu press in the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, little effort has been made to assess the English press in the region.
The beginning of the English press in Jammu and Kashmir was marked with the publication of Kashmir Times, a weekly newspaper from Srinagar. Baldev Prasad Sharma and Pandit Gawsha Lal Koul are credited to have pioneered the establishment of English press in the region with the launch of Kashmir Times on November 26, 1934. Baldev Prasad Sharma co-edited the publication along with Janakinath Zutshi.
For lack of substantial evidence, it is unclear if the Kashmir Times was started by Sardar Abdul Rehman Mitha after purchasing it from BP Sharma, or was started afresh. However, what came to the fore, later on, was that a declaration in this regard was filled by Mitha. Filing a declaration is mandatory for a fresh newspaper and every time anything changes in the main declaration, owner, publisher, printer, cost, pages, language, and place of publication.
A December 18, 1937 clipping from a Srinagar newspaper decrying the classification of newspapers. KL Image: Nayeem Showkat
Pre-Partition Kashmir Times
Settled in Kashmir with his chaperone private secretary GK Reddy in 1944, Mitha – a Bombay Congressman – started Kashmir Times after he purchased his own press. Reddy was also operating as a Kashmir-based correspondent for the Associated Press of India. The newspaper ceased its publication during partition, as Reddy was served a notice by the District Magistrate Kashmir to leave the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Mitha and Reddy left the State on October 15, 1947, when they were halted near Domail Post, and their pockets were searched.
The government claimed they recovered some objectionable papers about a conspiracy from Reddy’s pocket and suitcase. The two men were arrested, brought back to the State and handed over to the military.
Not only Mitha, previously, Prem Nath Bazaz and Prem Nath Kana were also alleged to be involved in the conspiracy. Arrested by the police on the intervening night of October 21 and 22, 1947, both the journalists were suspected of hatching a conspiracy on the directions of the Kak administration. It was also pondered that Bazaz and Kana would be deported from the State.

Prior to this, an unknown gunman also shot at and injured Bazaz near Maisuma Police Station in April 1947. Inculpating National Conference for concocting the attack, police arrested as many as 60 people including Ghulam Nabi, a reporter of Khidmat.
In response to the attack, a meeting of members of the All–Jammu and Kashmir Press Conference was held in the office of Kashmir Times in April under the supervision of Mitha, in which the National Conference was accused of the attack.
Mitha was very critical of National Conference. Prior to this incident, Mitha and Mir Abdul Aziz of Millat and Jauhar were attacked and the blame was put on the National Conference.
In that era, the media operated in factions. In fact, a camp of newspapers was up in arms against Mitha and Reddy. When the Editor-in-Chief of Khidmat, Allama Kashfi, was arrested, the staff of Khidmat sent a memorandum to the prime minister blaming Mitha, Reddy and Aziz Kashmiri for the arrest. The issue was also discussed in the meeting of the Journalists Association.
The deportation of Mitha and Reddy could also be understood better in the backdrop of a news article published in The Khalid Kashmir on May 17, 1947, detailing that a law was passed by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Jammu and Kashmir allowing the outsiders residing in the State for 20 years to be eligible to file a declaration for starting a newspaper.
In light of this regulation, the case of the owner of the Kashmir Times newspaper and Kashmir Times Press, Abdul Rehman Mitha’s declaration being accepted by the District Magistrate Srinagar created much furore. When the declaration papers of Mitha, a resident of Bombay who had been living in Kashmir for some time, were forwarded to the Publicity Office, they were received with scepticism and the case was forwarded to the Prime Minister’s office. The papers took many years to return to the Publicity Office, following which the issue was brought to the notice of the High Court.
The court asked the District Magistrate Srinagar to state the reason behind the acceptance of Mitha’s declaration as Mitha had been residing in Kashmir for not more than five years. When the press came to know about the issue, the Kashmir newspapers started a trial against Mitha and demanded his deportation along with Reddy, his secretary, from Kashmir.
The Post-Partition Kashmir Times
Within less than a decade of the cessation of the Kashmir Times, a different one with the same title was instituted by Ved Bhasin from Delhi in the years ensuing the partition, for which, he solicited one of his friends to file a declaration. Initially, a few issues of the Kashmir Times reached Kashmir, but soon its entry was barred into the State invoking the then Customs Act and copies of the newspaper were detained at Lakhanpur.
On this, Bhasin was left with no option but to return to Kashmir to file a fresh declaration from Srinagar for the Kashmir Times. The district magistrate ordered him to furnish a security deposit of Rs 2000, an amount which was considered too much in 1954. Unable to pay the money himself, Bhasin persuaded his contractor friend in Jammu to file a declaration on his behalf.
This is how the Kashmir Times was revived as a weekly from Jammu in 1954 at the behest of Bhasin. The newspaper that turned into a tabloid for quite some time was afterwards relocated to Srinagar and then once more to Jammu.
The newspaper was converted into a daily in 1964, with Bhasin remaining to be the longest-serving editor of the newspaper for a period spanning around five decades between 1954 and 2000. JN Wali was also associated with the newspaper as an editor.
Sher-e-Kashmir, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah
The Kashmir Chronicle
As early as 1939, an English weekly Kashmir Chronicle started publishing from First Bridge (Amira Kadal), Srinagar. It was managed by ML Koul. The newspaper belonged to Pt Gawsha Lal Koul who assumed the charge of an information officer in the government.
Koul who edited Kashmir Chronicle was alleged by the government for misusing his official position to clear the pending bills of his newspaper and using government stationery and stamps for his lengthy correspondence for the same. The newspaper was converted into a daily, but couldn’t sustain for long. The newspaper became defunct before October 1949.
According to three different articles published in the Khidmat (November 2, 1943), the Khalid Kashmir (November 19) and the Khidmat (November 11) , the editor of Kashmir Chronicle was arrested under Defence Rules in October 1943 for publishing certain allegations against an officer of Petrol Rationing. The case was brought in the court of City Munsif. He was handcuffed and paraded through the main thoroughfare.
The English Khidmat
Towards the end of 1944, the conductors of Khidmat also started an English edition of Khidmat, which couldn’t survive for long owing to certain factors. It was done in the same year when the Khidmat got converted into a daily on January 5, 1944.
A March 27, 1946 clipping of Khidmat (English) newspaper that Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah founded. KL Image: Nayeem Showkat
Initially associated with Khidmat, ON Dhar became Assistant Editor in Khidmat (English). He later joined the state government as an information assistant and further rose to the post of secretary.
For some time, Dhar also worked as an editor in Kashmir Post, a newspaper from Jammu. It was started by Janki Nath Zutshi, an English language journalist of the erstwhile State.
Zutshi later rose to become the first Director of General Information and Broadcasting of post-1947 Jammu and Kashmir. Zutshi also edited the English weekly Kashmir Sentinel which he launched in 1941 but could survive for only two years.
As per an article published in the Khidmat on September 2, 1943, Zutshi was thrashed by a police constable near Numaish in August 1943. The editor was scheduled to meet the secretary, but the police constable refused. When Zutshi told him to inform the secretary about his arrival for a meeting, the cop lost his cool and started lashing out at him, to which Zutshi reacted, triggering a scuffle. Later, All J&K Editors’ Conference also embroiled themselves in the issue.
The Kashmir Sentinel, which was published in English till the end of 1943, changed its language to Urdu. Evading every logic, the newspaper was blacklisted in November 1943 for not registering any progress in the English language. It is in this context that the newspaper had to change its language to Urdu.
Besides, Shambhoo Nath Kaul of the Vakil also intended to make his newspaper a bilingual publication. It was on January 31, 1945, that Kaul impetrated the consent of authorities to add a few English pages to the contemporaneous volume of the Urdu weekly. The editor was granted permission as he also beseeched that he won’t demand extra newsprint for the same.
Retorting to the editor’s letter, the authorities specified that as far as the price of a single issue of the newspaper was Re 1, and the number of pages not exceeding 26 in a week, no permission was required for such a case. In addition to this conditional permission, it was also communicated to the editor that the consumption of newsprint should not exceed the allocated quota of the newspaper.
Further, the weekly Vitasta was re-launched by Bazaz in English in 1945 but it is said to have ceased its publication within a year or two. However, the name of the Vitasta is found to have been listed in the regularity statement of the local newspapers published from Srinagar for the month of August 1969.
In addition to this, another English newspaper germane to mention New Kashmir was also in circulation. The English weekly New Kashmir edited by Pt SN Tikku and owned by Pt NN Raina was published from Srinagar. It was the same time when the English newspapers emerged to flourish.
Limitations For English Newspaper
Initially, Urdu journalism flourished exponentially, though the English press was quite slow to pick up. Palpably, there were several factors behind the minimal presence of the English press in the State at that time, among which few are more conspicuous than others. The key impetuses were; the absence of a lingua franca, the literacy rate which was almost negligible, inter alia.
A clipping of October 19, 1951, from Srinagar-based Khalsa Gazette about the government’s changed policy on media. KL Image: Nayeem Showkat
By then, Jammu and Kashmir was the most backward state of British India. With as less as 65,000 literates across the state, the Jammu district was comparatively better than other parts of the state, according to the Census Report of India, 1911. The literacy rate of males was 38 per mille as against one female, it is further delineated that there were only four English literate males per mille with no female.
As the Second World War ushered in, a prevalent problem of hyperinflation ensued, sparing none. The journalistic fraternity was in a state of anxiety, vis-à-vis the government’s impassive stance on their plight.
Needless to say, the prices of newsprint were skyrocketing, recording a fivefold increase within 19 months of the war. A newsprint ream selling at Rs 2 before the war cost Rs 12 during the war. So massive was the inexorable increase in the cost of newsprint that soon, the prices escalated to Rs 36 per ream, further marking an increase in the price of almost five hundred per cent and even more than that at a specific time. The enormous increase in the prices of newsprint not only resulted in its shortage, but soon the circumstances befell so worse that newsprint became utterly non-existent in the State. It had a direct bearing on the newspapers hence making the situation difficult for small newspapers.
Besides, the Jammu and Kashmir administration started classifying the newspapers of the state in 1937 during Ayyangar’s period into two categories – ‘Whitelist’ and ‘Blacklist’ – which were further classified into three groups – A-list, B-list and C-list. The advertisements and government press notes were distributed among newspapers accordingly.
Despite all these factors, according to a news article published in The Khidmat on December 18, 1937, it is estimated that there were three dozen newspapers in Jammu and Kashmir till the month of December 1937. The number, according to the Census of India 1941 increased to 44 in the spring of 1941.
The Handbook of Jammu and Kashmir State 1947 complied by the Publicity Department has recorded that Jammu and Kashmir had over 60 newspapers in 1947. However, owing to events in the backdrop of partition, all the existing English and Hindi newspapers in the erstwhile state ceased to survive. Only a dozen or so Urdu newspapers could pull through this afresh irrepressible era of un-freedom of the press.
Around 1947
Unfortunately, the pre-1947 upswing of the English press lost its vigour. By January 1, 1951, only 24 newspapers were published in the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir. In its flabbergasting feature, all 23 newspapers, except Jyoti, which was bilingual, were published in Urdu which included; four dailies, 16 weeklies and others. There was no English daily newspaper in Kashmir by this time. The English newspapers established earlier had left off owing to varied inexorable factors.
It was the same time when the amendment in section 5 (A) of the Press Act, Samvat 2008 in October 1951 was brought with an aim to curb the growth of “dummy” and “mushroom” material passing out as a newspaper. Further, the amendment was made to bring the newspapers published in the state to a minimum regularity, volume, size and standard. Notwithstanding its good intention, this amendment hit hard the sundry newspapers which were economically weak but impeccable, to the degree that most of them ceased publication for these ineluctable exigencies.
The newspapers were left with no alternative but to discontinue in the backdrop of the amendment. It was implemented by Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s government without seeking any suggestion from the journalist fraternity. Calling it a Black Bill, journalists across the state strongly opposed the legislation when it was still under consideration.
The Act was amended by the government at a time when only a few newspapers were able to publish, and the majority succumbed to the emergency. The amendments stated that a newspaper would be considered to have ceased printing and publishing if it printed and published less than 24 separate issues (each with a minimum of four pages and 896 square inches of printed space) for daily newspapers, and less than four issues per calendar month (each with a minimum of ten pages and 1344 square inches of printed space) for weekly newspapers.
Moreover, with the amendments to 5 (A) and the rules listed in the background, the absence of electricity during winters became a tool of censorship, leaving newspapers with no choice but to submit a new declaration as required by the prevailing press law.
A November 17, 1951 clipping from Noor newspaper about the amendemnts in the press act. KL Image: Nayeem Showkat
The government believed that certain weekly newspapers were unable to meet their publication deadlines, particularly during the winter months. This was due to the fact that these newspapers did not own printing presses and the supply of electricity during winter was often unreliable.
As a result, newspapers sometimes remained unprinted for several days due to the lack of electricity in the press. This lack of electricity, which was often caused by the challenging geography of Kashmir, became a crucial tool for authorities to force newspapers to cease publication for not publishing enough issues in particular time frames. Primarily, it was the reason for the conversion of four to five daily newspapers into weekly newspapers.
Tragically, the Act had no saving clause which was a major issue. Later on, the government realized that section 5(A) doesn’t provide any saving clause as the newspaper has to cease publication directly and file a fresh declaration in case it wants to re-appear. There might be some other unavoidable reasons beyond the control of the printer and publisher of the newspaper for not abiding by the rules.
As a delayed follow-up, it was decided that newspapers that do not comply with the provisions of Section 5(A) will not be considered to have ceased to be printed or published, and no legal action will be taken against them until the law is amended. However, these “irregular” newspapers were barred from receiving government advertisements, court notices, and other facilities enjoyed by regular newspapers. Interestingly, the officials would “convey” to tens of thousands of tourists, mostly foreigners, that Kashmir lacks an English newspaper!
The Kashmir News
This sorry state of affairs eventually led the administration to jump in and fill the gulf. It conceived an idea to publish Kashmir News, a 4-page English daily morning newspaper from March 15, 1952. The newspaper was supposed to print the government’s publicity material, which then was perdurable in the form of pamphlets, and special and annual numbers.
This newspaper was to be issued from a hand press as no linotype machine was yet available in the erstwhile State – as per the government record – and was expected to initially follow the pattern of evening news published in Delhi. Accordingly, a proposal was moved to Prime Minister’s Office for consent.
The idea, however, could not follow the script. On November 14, 1951, the cabinet suggested information department start a four-page or less government news sheet without editorials from March 1952 for a period of nine months as an experimental measure.
The approval was entirely different from what had been proposed. With this, the idea of commencing an English daily, which would bridge the communication gap between English speakers, through the agency of the government in the State couldn’t take shape.
A Survival Issue
In 1954, newspapers like Kashmir Times, and Kashmir Post, were hitting the stands. Despite that, what makes the region quite a peculiar case in this regard is that it lacked periodicals in lingua franca for quite a long time.
The report of the Enquiry Committee on Small Newspapers, 1965 saw that the number of newspapers in the State remained almost steady during the last 10 to 20 years. The report revealed that it was only recently that owing to the easiness in filing and acceptance of declarations, new publications have emerged.
The Committee further noted that by virtue of the existing Press Law, a non-resident of Jammu and Kashmir was not permitted to file a declaration to initiate a newspaper in the State. However, it asserted that the state government at that time was ready to provide all the reasonable facilities to a bona fide non-resident Indian who wished to institute a newspaper in English or in Urdu from Srinagar or Jammu.
The Committee estimated that there were 76 periodicals being published mostly from Srinagar and Jammu in the category of small newspapers and periodicals. Barring one Hindi and one English, all the remaining newspapers of different periodicities in circulation at that time in the state were Urdu. The daily newspapers were mostly 20x3e0 cms four-sheets. The prices of the dailies varied between 10 paise and 15 paise.
The First Verification
Data available with the Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI) reveals that the first-ever verification of a title from Jammu and Kashmir was made on December 19, 1957. As per the record, there were some 15 verifications made on the same day.
Ved Bhasin in his last days. KL Image: Masood Hussain
It was eight years after the establishment of RNI when noted Kashmiri historian Rasheed Taseer became the first to register a newspaper from Jammu and Kashmir. Taseer registered Muhafiz, an Urdu weekly from Srinagar in 1964. The next year, 1965, witnessed the registration of 21 new publications. Thereupon, English newspapers started hitting the stands frequently.
The following decade saw an upswing in the registration of English press in the region. The number of English newspapers and periodicals increased to 19 in 1977, according to the report of Press in India, 1977. With a total of 143 periodicals, 13 were bilingual and multilingual, five were Hindi two each were Kashmiri, Dogri and Punjabi and 100 were Urdu.
The English periodicals included; Economic Post, Srinagar; the fortnightly Education News and Views, Srinagar; Excelsior, Jammu; Jammu and Kashmir Agriculture Newsletter; Jammu and Kashmir Legislature; Jammu Express; Jammu Times; the weekly Kashmir Herald, Srinagar; the weekly Kashmir Post, Jammu; the daily Kashmir Times, Jammu; Sports Columns, Jammu; the weekly Student Express, Jammu; the weekly Student Times, Jammu; the weekly Voice of the Day, Jammu; the weekly BT-LITZ KRIEG, the weekly Young Era, Jammu, etc.
Post-1990s could be considered the golden period for the development of English journalism in Kashmir. The beginning of the twenty-first century saw English journalism become as popular in Kashmir as Urdu was.
As per the data retrieved from the official website of the RNI on March 8, 2017, 1,326 titles have been verified from Jammu and Kashmir since 1957 till the aforementioned date. The data analysis shows that out of a total of 1,326 verified titles, 1,176 periodicals have been registered so far from the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, including Ladakh.
The RNI
The RNI was established on July 1, 1956, based on the recommendation of the First Press Commission of India. Dividing the time into six decades until 2016, the data reveals that 34 periodicals were registered in the first decade between 1957 and 1966, 169 in the second decade – 1967 to 1976, 105 in the third decade, between 1977 and 1986, 117 in the fourth decade – 1987 and 1996, 200 in the fifth decade, between 1997 and 2006, and 551 in the last decade – 2007 to 2016.
Nayeem Showkat (Media Scholar)
Among these 1,176 titles, 485 have been registered in English, while 447 in Urdu and 10 in Kashmiri. Out of 485 registered English newspapers, 302 were located in Jammu, 180 in Kashmir, and the remaining three in Ladakh.
The Press in India report of 2013-14 puts the cumulative circulation of the periodicals in Jammu and Kashmir at around 10 million – 9627424. Out of this, the cumulative circulation of English newspapers was more than five million – 5393275, while Urdu newspapers had a circulation of more than two and a half million – 2682839.
(The writer is a Post-doctoral Fellow in Media Studies at the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi.)

[ad_2]
#Kashmirs #English #Press
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

May 3, 2023
Khawaja Saududdin Shawl (1873-1955)

[ad_1]
In Kashmir tehreek against the despotic Dogra rule, one of the major characters was businessman, Khawaja Sauddin Shawl, whose contribution is least known and hardly acknowledged. MJ Aslam offers the text and context to Shawl’s rise, contributions and eventual silence
Saududin Shawl in a group photograph with his family members
Khawaja Sanaullah Shawl was the most prominent merchant of nineteenth-century Kashmir. He had three sons, Ghulam Hassan, Noor ud Din and Saududdin. Among the three, Khawaja Saududdin Shawl, born at Mohalla Mir e Masjid (Khanyar) in 1873 AD, rose to prominence during the second quarter of the twentieth century. His contributions to the politics of Kashmir are least known and hardly acknowledged. He was the pioneer of Kashmir’s movement against despotic Dogra rule.
Shawl had a dream of seeing his people living with dignity and honour, free of intimation and fear, in a decolonised democratic world that the subcontinent was gradually shaping to be after a few decades. He was the leading political figure during the initial political awakenings among Kashmiri Muslims.
Shawls were an influential family. Living at Mir Masjid, they had a huge garden that locals called Shawl-e-Bagh. It was a miniature Badamwari.
They had a beautiful Dewankhana, where guests, local and non-local, would come, sit and discuss matters of general interest for hours together. It was open to State officers, leaders, clergy, foreign tourists and traders also. It played host to several political meetings of “budding” Muslim leaders as well.
Businessman Sanaullah was a generous giver, according to Mohammad Yousuf Shawl, grandson of Saududdin Shawl, who inherited this quality. “My grandfather Khawja Saududdin Shawl with his domestic help, Qadir Kak, would remain busy round the year in distributing ration items like rice, salt, sugar, tea, charcoal, and clothes among the needy visitors to Shawl Family,” he said. A leading philanthropist, he is credited for the renovations and refurbishment of some of Kashmir’s major shrines and some masjids.
One historical masjid, known as Thong e Masjid at Thong e Mohalla, Victory Crossing near Hotel Burj, Khanyar, Srinagar was built under the benefaction of Aqil Mir, a God-fearing Muslim and Commandant of ration supplies, Darogha i Rasd, of Kashmir during Shah Jahan’s reign (1628-1658). The masjid fell in ruins in the nineteenth century pushing Shawl to rebuild it. By 1869, he had added a grand Hammam and a Khanqah to it. “My grandfather donated 14 kanals of ancestral vegetable-growing land to Thong e Masjid for its maintenance,” Mohammad Yousuf said. “The land is to date used by the masjid for its maintenance.”
Worth mentioning here, Aqil Mir built another mosque that retained his name. It is still known as Masjid e Aqilmir and the Mohalla is also Aqilmir.

Saududdin was born at a time when modern education barely existed in Kashmir. He received his initial education in traditional Maktab schools. To enable him to learn Urdu, Persian and Arabic, the family sources said they had hired a teacher, Behram Ji, who was a resident of Bombay. He gave him private tuition in the English language also.
The Year of Turmoil
For the first time in his life, Shawl rose to prominence during the consequential developments of 1924. The Muslim “labourers” of Silk Factory Solina Srinagar had long pending grievances against the Dogra administration. On March 20, 1920, they formally demanded the removal of some communal and corrupt Pandit officers from the factory. Besides, they demanded an increase in their wages. As the administration avoided looking into the labourer’s petition, the workers suspended their work in the factory in July 1924.
The British Resident also threw his weight behind the worker’s demand that some Muslim employees be elevated to the posts of responsibility but it did not help. Instead, the District Magistrate misrepresented the facts to the higher authorities at Gupkar, which worsened the situation. Some of the protesting labourers were arrested and put behind bars at Shergadi Police Station, Srinagar. When people assembled outside the police station on July 20, 1924, demanding the release of the arrested employees, the Dogra cavalry, that was deployed there at the gates, opened fire killing ten civilians and labourers on spot, leaving many injured as many others were rounded up. In a quick follow-up, the entire city was handed over to the military.
It was a year of turmoil. The same year, Tazia procession was denied in the city by the administration which caused deep anger among the Muslims. Lahore newspaper Akhbar i Aam published an article that angered Kashmiri Pandits. They took out a procession at Khanqahi Moula Srinagar and entered the shrine sanctorium without removing their shoes. It was bitterly resented by Muslims.
a vast stretch of land valuing crores of rupees was donated by Saududdin Shawl to the local masjid.
Viceroy’s Visit
In the aftermath of these developments and the subsequent strong-arm tactics of the administration, various Muslim organisations sent a number of telegrams to Lord Reading, the Viceroy of India. On July 22, 1924, a fact-based letter was sent drawing his attention towards the pitiable plight of the Muslim subjects. There was a response. Lord Reading visited Kashmir between October 14 and October 28.
The Viceroy was taken in a river boat procession by the Dogra administration but the “Muslim crowds exhibited black flags bearing inscriptions such as “our mosques desecrated” and “how long will Muslims be trodden down by Hindus in this country”. A memorandum was drafted and signed at the residence of Khanyar’s Abdul Aziz Zaildar by prominent Muslim leaders.
Agha Haidar, an advocate from Lucknow who later became a judge of the Lahore High Court, who was staying in a houseboat at Nigeen, was helpful in shaping the final draft of the memorandum. It was how Khawja Saududdin Shawl came in contact with Agha Haidar.
History has recorded that Shawl was the main person behind bringing together all prominent Muslims, including Khawaja Hassan Shah Naqashbandi, Mirwaizi Kashmir Molvi Ahmedullah of Jamia Masjid, Molvi Hamdani, Agha Syed Hussain Shah Jalali, Mufti Sharief ud Din, Molvi Attiqullah and Haji Jaffar Khan, for a common cause of Muslims. The unanimous decision was to highlight and submit a formal memorandum to the Viceroy of India, the Paramount Guest. As the government disallowed Muslim leaders from meeting with Viceroy, Shawl took the memorandum and presented it to him when he visited a local handicraft shop. This was the act that made Shawl the “father of the modern political movement of Kashmir”.
The memorandum flagged demands including a due share in jobs to be given to Muslims and proprietary rights of the peasants in the land to be recognised. The memorandum did not get fetch anything to the majority but it gave a fillip to their demands and grievances first time “in an organised manner”. Some of the prominent originators of the memorandum met with punishment by the Dogra monarch. A Muslim Tehsildar, Noor Shah Naqshbandi, was dismissed from service; Khawaja Hassan Shah Naqashbandi’s Jagir which fetched him Rs 4000 annually was confiscated; Syed Hussain Shah Jalali was dismissed from the office of Zaildar and Mirwaizi Kashmir Molvi Ahmedullah of Jamia Masjid and Molvi Hamdani of Khaqah i Moula Srinagar were let off with a stern warning. Many demonstrators were summarily dealt with and punished.
Shawl Banished
On March 15, 1925, the house of Khawaja Saaduddin Shawl was surrounded by a contingent of 150 constables, one inspector and two sub-inspectors. He was shown an order of banishment from the State and taken in a police lorry to Kohala where he was dropped in British Punjab territory.
Khawaja’s expulsion caused considerable reaction and resentment among the Muslims. The Youngmen Muslim Association of Jammu in their meetings on March 7-9, 1925, condemned the action. These meetings were attended by Hasan Nizami of Delhi, Azmatullah of Lahore, and Molvi Mohammad Abdullah of Lahore.
On March 16, Mirwaiz e Kashmir, Molvi Ahmadullah of Jamia Masjid in a powerful and emotional speech highlighted that the people must be alive to the treatment that the State meted out to the Muslim subjects. It made the whole gathering burst into wails loudly. The atmosphere was filled with gloom of shrieks and sighs. Kashmir Muslim Conference, Akhbar i Kashmir Lahore and Anjuman i Kashmiri Musalman, Gujranwala, condemned the State action against the signatories to the memorandum.
Khawaja Saududdin Shawl (left), Ghulam Ahmad Ashai and Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah at Shawl House in Khanyar, somewhere before 1947.
In exile, Shawl stayed at the residence of Mian Nizamuddin of Lahore who was known as Rais e Azam of the walled city. Shawls had friendly and business ties with the Mian family of Lahore. The two families used to visit each other whenever time permitted. Shawl also stayed for some time with some Sethi family of Peshawar. Dr Sir Mohammad Iqbal, an eminent poet, theologian and thinker, often used to come to the house of Mian Nizamuddin where he also met Shawl.
One day, in a gathering of literary persons at Mian Nizamuddin’s residence, Iqbal was impressed with Shawl’s understanding of Shikwa and Jawab e Shikwa, two master poems of Iqbal. Shawl remained a great Iqbal follower. His banishment boomeranged as Shawl developed a close association with several prominent organisations of United Punjab and at a number of meetings the State action was condemned.
Following the Raj Tilak of Maharaja Hari Singh in February 1926, the ban on Shawl was lifted. However, Shawl did not give up his desperation to get some justice for his people.
Reading Room Party
By 1930, a group of young Muslim students after completing their academic courses at Aligarh and Punjab Universities floated a Muslim Reading Room Party at Fateh Kadal, Srinagar to discuss the issues pertaining to Muslims. These young men included Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah also. This Party held public meetings. It coincided with Unjuman-e-Nusratul Islam Rajouri Kadal Srinagar, Khanqashis of Khanqah-e-Moala, Srinagar and even Ahmadiyas organising themselves for pressing forth the demands of the majority community before the Maharaja who had asked them for nominating their representatives.
On June 21, 1931, Ghulam Ahmad Ashai announced the names of seven Muslim representatives who were tasked to bring the grievances of the Muslim community before the Maharaja. They included Molvi Mohammad Yousuf Shah, Molvi Mohammad Hamdani, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, Ghulam Ahmad Ashai, Syed Hassan Shah Jalali, Munshi Shahabuddin and Khawja Sauduuddin Shawl.
Historian Bazaz terms the meeting “the most important meeting in the history of the movement” which had brought two Mirwaizs together and all Muslims across sectarian barriers, “had joined hands and the whole community was unanimous in its demands”. Shias and Sunni Muslims had after four hundred years of bloody sectarian feuds first time mended the fences with each other for a common cause.
New Leadership
The senior Muslim representatives did their best to build the community’s young leaders. “Mirwaiz had introduced me to the audience at Jamia Masjid as “my leader”. He asked them to deem anything I said as his own utterance,” Sheikh Abdullah later wrote of these days.
This “opportunity” was “grabbed” by Sheikh “with both hands”, as Saraf and Gulzar wrote. Such a broad declaration and opportunity given by Mirwaiz, to “a simple man” (according to Taffazul Hussain, Sheikh’s biographer) and “an honest man of simple thinking” (as Saraf wrote) evinces the trust Mirwaiz and other leaders had reposed in young Sheikh, the leader of the new generation.
In his memoir, Choudhary Ghulam Abbas writes that the Mirwaiz family of Rajouri Kadal Srinagar was the most influential family of religious preachers of Kashmir and that Molvi Mohammad Yousuf Shah’s introduction of Sheikh Abdullah to the public helped him build his stature considerably. Saraf writes that some elders, Saaduddin Shawl, Molvi Mohammad Abdullah and Munshi Shabuddin, during the 1931 political awakening of Kashmiri Muslims, helped Sheikh build his image among the masses.
Key Hub
Shawl’s residence became the hub of political activities before and after July 13, 1931, the Martyrs Day, when 22 Muslim civilians were massacred outside Central Jail, Srinagar. Personally, Shawl remained actively involved with political developments and was part of the deputations that called on the Maharaja after July 1931 seeking his intervention and redressal to the long pending grievances of Muslim subjects.
In September 1934, Shawl joined the Azad Muslim Conference of Mirwaiz Molvi Mohammad Yousuf Shah, which is clearly borne out by the fact that he was fielded as a candidate for Amira Kadal Constituency by the party in the first electoral process of the State, for Praja Sabha, against G M Sadiq. He lost to Sadiq of the Muslim Conference. A staunch communist, Sadiq had based himself on the popular political movement.
Mirwaiz Ally?
A question arises – why Shawl separated himself from the mainstream Muslim Conference? No exact answer is known. “It seems from circumstantial evidence that the gradual independent working of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was not to his liking,” writes Saraf. “It also seems that he was psychologically more inclined towards Mir Waiz.”
During his brief Pakistan tour in 1964, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah is seen (from L to R) with Mirwaiz Mohammad Yousuf Shah, Choudhary M Afzal Cheema (the then Deputy Speaker of Pakistan assembly), Choudhary Ghulam Abas and Pakistan President General Ayub Khan.
Subsequent developments might have vindicated Shawl in making a decision early.
On the flip side of it, it needs a mention that Shawl was closely related to the Mirwaizs. A prominent religious preacher and political activist of the 1930s, Molvi Nooruddin of the Mirwaiz Party was the son-in-law (damad) of Shawl. Interestingly Mirwaiz Molvi Mohammad Yousuf Shah was the brother-in-law (Behnoyi) of Nooruddin.
Besides, Shawls have close familial relations with Mirwaiz Molvi Mohammad Farooq too.
For most of his life, Shawl remained away from the so-called “nationalists”, “neo-merchants” and “educated-elite” of that era.
The Demise
Khawaja Saaduddin Shawl passed away on October 25, 1955 (10 Rabi-ul-Awal, 1375 AH) at the age of 82. He was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard adjoining Thong e Masjid. He was the first among the dead of the Shawl family who was buried in the ancestral graveyard that was carved out of a large land property by Sanaullah Shawl personally.
On the gravestone of Saududdin Shawl, the words “Bani Tahreeki Azadi Kashmir” were inscribed. These four words have interesting detail.
It was Ghulam Jeelani Shawl, son of Khawaja Saaduddin Shawl, who, in a condolence gathering at their Khanyar residence publicly announced that he had received a message from Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah from jail suggesting that on the tombstone of the deceased the words “Bani Tahreeki Azadi Kashmir” should be inscribed.
Shawl was survived by two sons, Ghulam Jeelani Shawl (died in 1982] and Innayatullah Shawl [1988] and five daughters.
[ad_2]
#Khawaja #Saududdin #Shawl
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

April 23, 2023
‘We Must Look at Our Past with All Its Dissensions, Pain-learn and Understand the Perils of Sectarianism’

[ad_1]
With PhD from the Delhi School of Planning and Architecture (1999) and a post-doctorate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2022), Dr Hakeem Sameer Hamdni’s The Syncretic Traditions of Islamic Religious Architecture of Kashmir (Early 14th –18th Century) filled a huge void that in Kashmir’s architectural history. Design Director at the INTACH Kashmir, his latest book Shi’ism in Kashmir: A History of Sunni-Shia Rivalry and Reconciliation is a daring attempt to probe an issue that no scholar has touched ever. A week after the book release, in a freewheeling interview, Sameer details why he choose the subject and what are the net outcomes for Kashmir
TheNewsCaravan (KL): You are a trained architect with a specialisation in Islamic architecture. You did an excellent book on Kashmir’s medieval architecture that filled a wide gulf after a very long time. What prompted you to get into a very sensitive topic involving Kashmir’s sectarian tensions, an issue that attracted almost no scholar, so far?
HAKIM SAMEER HAMDANI (HSH): That is a question that is asked of me a lot, now that the book has been released. So how do I answer it? Well, let me start by saying that as you rightly pointed out my last book was on the Muslim Religious Architecture of Kashmir. And, it was during that very process of researching, I got interested or maybe intrigued by how our historiography has been used as a conscious tool in framing narratives which project the past as a milieu of religious and sectarian conflict.
This is especially true when we speak about a Shia or a Sunni society during the medieval or even early modern period but then this binary broadly covers how we also perceive Hindu-Muslim relations in the region. But then how historical is this narrative of an antagonistic past?
I do accept that our past is not one which upholds liberal representation, but then the material culture linked with it is replete with examples of what we could call negotiated pragmatism and co-existence. Unfortunately a great deal of our textual history, particularly in the genre of tazkiras (hagiographies) coming as it does from competing centres of power and patronage, often conflates symbols of belonging to a privileged class with religious or sectarian discrimination.
Also, the idea that the book breaches a sort of taboo in our society – a topic which can create divisions is something that I don’t personally agree with. In a way, this ‘let’s not talk about these problematic issues’ assumes that either as a society we are incapable of dealing with sensitive subjects or that as researchers we are so grounded in our own biases and prejudices that the task is virtually unachievable.
I disagree. I am of the view that we have the individual (if not institutional) capacities to as I said in another interview, “historicize or rather contextualize our past in a way that does not seek not-to-hide from differences- but also search, explore for shared similarities- similarities that made us Kashmiris”. That was the origin of a book which engages with a layered past and complex moments of our history with competing interests.

I may be repeating myself here, but to survive as a people, as a civilisation, we need to look at our past with all its dissensions, pain-learn and ensure that we and our future generations will understand and realise the perils of sectarianism, just like communalism are too real and too near to be ignored. We also need to understand that differences will exist and where they exist, they need to be celebrated, not hidden behind a veil of assumed unity and uniformity.
KL: Kashmir’s transition to Islam is well-researched and documented. Would you shed some light on the history and evolution of Shia Islam, or what you call, Shia’ism in Kashmir?
HSH: If I may, I would rather contest this understanding. Yes, we have texts which account for the beginning of Muslim rule in Kashmir. But, this beginning of Muslim presence in Kashmir is still a rather grey area. We have narratives enshrined in texts which came in existence in the sixteenth, seventeenth or even eighteenth century as is the case with Khwaja Azam Dedhmari’s Vaqiati Kashmir, and these texts serve as our only basis of understanding the formative period of Muslim society in Kashmir. So a text like Baharistani Shahi or Tarikh i Kashmir of Malik Haider coming as they do from a Shia space would make us understand that the first Muslim saintly figure of the region Bulbul Shah was a Shia. But then, let us say from the genre of tazkirah, an early account such as Tazkira-i-Airifin of Baba Ali Raina would contest this, and locate early Muslim presence in Kashmir firmly in a Sunni space.
So we have these contesting latter-day texts, some written more than four centuries after the actual event, which forms the basis from which we seek to contextualise the beginning and the nature of Muslim beginning in Kashmir. Academically this has all the making of a grey zone.
Hakim Sameer Hamdani’s book on Kashmir’s sectarian reconcilation being launched in Srinagar in March 2023. KL Image Fayaz Ahmad Najar
Additionally, these texts also seek to firmly locate the beginning of Muslim society in their respective sects. The same is the case of the Nurbaksiyya Sufi order, which emerged in Kashmir during the closure of the fifteenth century. The founder of this order in Kashmir, Mir Shamsuddin Iraqi is seen in most Sunni accounts as the progenitor of Shi’ism in Kashmir, but it is difficult to establish the nature of his Shi’iness. That is why I do write in the introduction that the contours of Shiism during the Sultanate period are not sufficiently explained.
But then my book is not about the medieval period, it explores the nineteenth century instead. So hopefully someone in near future explores these early days of Muslim society in Kashmir beyond modern narratives, which have become frankly repetitive in their narratives.
KL: You briefly talk about revered Shia and Sunni figures. How do you approach how they are represented in histories with miracles directed against the other community?
HSH: Well, I believe that we judge or rather contextualise these events – these miracles in the mizaj of their occurrence not in their objective reality, nor considering our personal beliefs or biases. That has been my approach.
KL: Most of the biased or neutral histories source Kashmir’s sectarian tensions to the 32 years of Chak Rule. There are contested narratives on this. But what is your scholarship revealing because you are a scholar who does not go by hearsay or unsubstantiated events of history?
HSH: Not Chak rule, rather if we were to make an argument for a certain contestation based on the confessional identity of communities it would start during the fag end of the Shahmiri rule. The first recorded case we have of someone seeking to make Kashmir into a single denominational community is that of the Mughal conqueror, Mirza Haider Dughlat. In fact, he proudly states this in his own history, Tarikh-i Rashidi.
But then some of these sectarian contestations that originate in Dughlat’s court make themselves a part of the court politics in the Chak rule also. We have the execution of Qazi Musa during Yaqoob Shah Chak’s brief rule but then even Shia sources; Baharistan as well as Haidar Malik condemn his execution.
Conversely, you have two famous qasidah’s of Baba Dawood Khaki, the principal khalifah of the Suhrawardi saint, Shaykh Hamza Makhdoom, which celebrates Chak rulers, including Yosuf Shah as well as his uncle Husain Shah Chak. Also, we have intermarriage between ruling elites happening all through this period across any perceived sectarian fault line.
Sameer Hamdani book on Kashmir Shia Sunni relations (2023)
A Sunni-centric text, such as the tazkira of Baba Haider Tulmulli writes about two wives of Hussain Shah Chak who were not only Sunnis but also linked in a spiritual line of discipleship to Shaykh Hamza Makhdum. Then again we have the famous case of Habba Khatoon – who is a Sunni, though, like other women poetesses of Kashmir, you cannot locate her in contemporary texts.
So what I am trying to say is yes there are tensions, but then that is not the only history of that period. But, again let me clarify this book is not about medieval Kashmir, I only briefly touch on the period in trying to locate projections of a contested past.
KL: How did the power-play exhibit in the Mughal era of Kashmir after Chak’s were ousted from power? How correct is the notion that the Mughals persecuted Shia Muslims?
HSH: The renowned historian, Irfan Habib does link Akbar and the religious elite at his court with a sectarian, restrictive attitude towards the Shi’a till say around the early 1570s. The execution of Mirza Muqim Isfahani and Mir Yaqub, the envoys sent from Husain Shah Chak to the Mughal court by Akbar can be seen as a part of that attitude. But Kashmir was conquered in 1586 and the emperor proclaimed Din-i-Illahi in 1582. So it was a different Akbar. The conquest of Kashmir does have a certain sectarian undertone but the affair should be seen as part of the gradual process of expansion of centralised authority with vastly superior resources and a borderland region.
The relation between Delhi and Kashmir marks this tension between an expanding centre and a periphery in which, the result occurred on expected lines. Were the Mughals sectarian? No. Despite the bad press that they are getting these days, the Mughals were only interested in one profession ‘rulership’. Their notions of royalty almost overlap with the western notion of the divine right to rule. Jehangir in his comparison between court politics in Istanbul, Isfahan and Agra clearly speaks how unlike in Ottoman Turkey or Safavid Iran, Mughal India was open to both Sunnis and Shias. And, we find presence of Shia subedars or naib-subedars in Kashmir- Iteqad Khan, Abu Nasr Khan, Muzaffar Khan, Zafar Khan Ahsan, Ali Mardan Khan, Ibrahim Khan, Fazil Khan, Hussain Beg Khan, Qawam-ud Din Khan, Abu Mansur Safdar Jung, Afrisiyab Khan.
One should also realise that when the Mughals sought to conquer Kashmir, they were engaged in repeated battles with Kashmiri soldiers – a majority of whom were Shia. We have Jehangir writing about the traders of Kashmir hailing from the Sunni community and the soldiers belonging to the Shia and Nurbakshiyya communities. So in these circumstances, an event like the massacre of the Kashmiri soldier by the Mughals at Macchbawan can be seen as a massacre of Shias because they figured prominently in the Kashmiri army. But that would be a wrong reading. This was a massacre of Kashmiri soldiers seen as a threat to the Mughal Empire who were also Shia.
Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in prayers somewhere in Kashmir periphery and apparently during a visit
Again in the reign of Shah Jehan, we have the case of Khawja Khawand Mahmud Naqshbandi who was a Sufi shaykh, connected with the imperial family but was nevertheless banished from Srinagar because of his involvement in a Shia-Sunni riot. Also, a major Shia polemical work against the Sunnis, Al Biyaz-i-Ibrhami was authored in Kashmir under the direct patronage of the subedar, Ibrahim Khan. Yes sometimes the Shia would find themselves under restrictive circumstances but this was mostly a result of individual predilections of the subedar or even the emperor. It is only when we come to close to Mughal rule, with its collapse of central authority that the Shia get targeted because of their faith and also face riots.
KL: What was the state of sectarian tensions in the Afghan rule that is usually seen as oppressive across all sects?
HSH: As you said it was oppressive for all, but at certain moments it could and was more oppressive towards the Shia – also the Hindus. But then we also find the presence of a Shia subedar, Amir Khan Jawan Sher and Kifayat Khan. The Qizilbash component in the Afghan is also indicative of Shia presence though non-native.
The only instance of a prominent Kashmiri figure rising in the Afghan court is Mulla Hakim Jawad, whose son Mulla Hakim Azim would then serve as the chief physician at the court of the Sikh subedar, Shaykh Ghulam-ud Din and consequently Dogra ruler, Maharaja Gulab Singh. Also, under Afghans, we find the presence of a substantial contingent of Iranian Shia traders in the city who also patronised the native Shia community. But, like everything else, the Afghan period is a mixed bag for Kashmir and for the Shia, it is more on the oppressive side.
KL: Your book is focussed on nineteenth-century Kashmir. The era was an extension of Sikh rule in a way. What were the factors that led to the reconciliation between the different Muslim sects? How did it happen?
HSH: In the end, it is a gradual realisation that whether we see ourselves as Shia or Sunni, we are equally discriminated against, and seen as outsider Muslims by the court. The Shia-Sunni faultline is detrimental to our Muslim existence. It is a gradual process but once it commences – gradually from the community elite on either side, it does capture the imagination of the religious classes and more importantly the new class of educated Muslim youth. There are tensions on the way, but the Muslim fight against, what is perceived, as Hindu rule forms the basis of an ecumenical movement within the Kashmiri Muslim community.
KL: Who were the major players in the reconciliation process and what were the key events that exhibited the reconciliation?
HSH: There are many players – you could say the initial interaction between Mirwiaz Rasul Shah and Moulvi Haider Ansari did help in toning down the sectarian faultiness within the city to a level where they could be managed. Also individuals from the dynasty of Mufti Qawamuddin, also Aga Sayyid Musavi who is said to have visited revered Sunni shrines of Kashmir, at Char-I Sharif and Dastgir Sahab.
Hakim Sameer Hamdani (author)
But, the figure who, in a way, formalises this process is Khawja Saaduddin Shawl. He does emerge as a visionary, who is working towards the formulation of Muslim political consciousness in Kashmir. In 1873, we had the last major Shia-Sunni riot in the city, and within a decade we saw Shawl working to tone down sectarian tensions in the city while also voicing Muslim grievances, hopes-aspirations. This outreach is positively welcomed by the Shia and the main figurehead who emerges in this engagement on the Shia side is Aga Sayyid Hussain Shah Jalali.
As we move towards the first decade of the twentieth century, we see that Shia elders, Aga Sayyid Husain Jalali and Hajji Jaffar Khan sign the memorandum of grievances authored on behalf of the Kashmiri Muslim community in 1907. Similarly, when after the disturbances in the Sericulture department, the durbar bans the daytime Ashura procession in 1924, Shawl helps Jalali in taking out a daytime procession in defiance of the order. This is the first Shia-Sunni march highlighting Muslim unity and was accompanied by two alams (standards) from the revered shrine of Asar-i-Sharif Kalashpora. The move is reciprocated by the Shia who also participate under Jalali’s leadership in the procession from Khanqah-i-Mualla to Char-i-Sharief.
This coming together of the two communities is also witnessed during the BJ Glency Commission of Inquiry in 1931, when the Shia representative, Mulla Hakim Muhammad Ali completely aligns with the demands of the Muslim Conference. In fact, he argues that the Muslim Conference is the sole representative of Kashmiri Muslims, Shia and Sunni alike.
You also see the involvement of Shia Youth in the formulation leading up to, and then in the Reading Room. We have three brothers, Hakim Ali, Hakim Safadr and Hakim Murtaza who are deeply involved with this process. The three are also involved with the organization of Ali Day at Zadibal, which also saw the representation of Kashmiri Sunnis.
I mean a decade earlier Zadibal would be an area avoided by most Sunnis from the city and now you have this public participation in commemorative events taking place in the heart of a Shia space. And, we have individuals such as Justice Sir Abdul Qadir of Lahore from Anjuman-i-Himayt-ul Islam, Raja Ghazanfar Ali of All India Muslim League.
And, then as we move into the 40s, individuals like Munshi Muhammad Ishaq or Aga Shaukat who become associated with this Muslim voice. And then those countless people who unfortunately are never named in histories, but whose contribution is so essential to any social or political movement.
KL: How did the reconciliation display itself post-1931, even though your scholarly work stops in that era, history, as you know, is continuity and sometimes flat.
HSH: Well as you rightly said the period from 1931 onwards is not a subject of my research but yes if you look at some pivotal moments in Kashmiri history post-47, like the Moi-Muqqadas Tahreek you would find active participation of major Shia figures such as Moulvi Abbas Ansari from Srinagar and Aga Sayyid Yusuf of Budgam. Also, the engagement of various scholars and academicians on various societal or religious issues is very visible.
You also find Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah playing a pivotal role in organising a single Ashura procession in the city – an event which was otherwise marked by rival processions between competing religious families within the Shia community. And, then the 1990s threw altogether new challenges and a new set of responses.
KL: For more than half of the millennium, Persian remained the lingua franca of Kashmir to the extent that the rise of Persian led to Kashmir being called the Iran-e-Sageer. Kashmir produced countless Persian intellectuals and poets. How did this Kashmir-Iran relationship impact the sectarian peace or conflict in history?
HSH: There is a Persian poet, who was Shah Jahan’s poet laureate who is also incidentally buried in Mazzar-i-Shura, Drugjan. A Shia, Qudsi is remembered for his naat in praise of the Prophet, Marhaba Sayyid-Ii-Makki Madaniul Arabi– a naat which was regularly recited on mehfil-i-malud amongst Kashmiri Sunnis. I have been told that occasionally it is still recited.
Similarly, we find that the majalis and lessons of masters such as Muhsin Fani, Ghani Kashmir, Mulla Sateh, Lala Malik Shaheed and countless others were attended by people and aspirants across sectarian identities. Ali Mardan Khan and Zaffar Khan Ahsan, both of Iranian origin are celebrated for the promotion of literature. Their sessions were attended by people across any sectarian or communal faultline and then helped in permeating the Persian language amongst sections of the Kashmiri population. Works on ethics, poetics, grammar and a host of other subjects compiled in Persian were studied and circulated without any bias of sect or sectarian identity. I have seen numerous Shia libraries which include codices of tafsir work in Persian that originate in the Sunni circles. Similar is the case in the field of calligraphy, which emerged as a major art form in the early modern period in Kashmir.

[ad_2]
#Dissensions #Painlearn #Understand #Perils #Sectarianism
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

March 16, 2023
Chakdar, Kardar Returned On Stage To Revive Kashmir’s Pre-47 Memories

[ad_1]
by Maleeha Sofi
SRINAGAR: It was the return of the last two centuries on stage when a group of artists staged Chakdar Pather in Tagore Hall. Pather is basically a fold theatre that usually as satire and comedy as part of the process.
The play opened with a band of four people welcoming the guests to Shehnai, Surnayi, Nagar, and Dhol beats. The music was energetic to light up the stage. A group of dancers join in and entertain the audience more through the funny movements than the ‘dance’ itself.
In the next scene, two men Boud Maskhar (senior joker) and Loukut Maskhar (junior joker) started attacking technology, the digital world, and the zee generation. They hint at doing the play Chakdar Pather, which starts in the next scene.
The play was based in Kashmir’s nineteenth and twentieth centuries when most of the land was the ruler’s property and distributed to his family, friends and the bourgeoisie.
The stage was set up in a paddy field with the peasants working. The hard work of peasants was beautifully expressed in a song sung live by Sajad Maqbool Mir. The play exhibited the struggle of peasants to cultivate crops and the meagre income it generated for them.
Kashmiri artists staged a Chakdar Pather, a theatre play based on Kashmir’s feudal days, at Tagore Hall on March 4, 2023. KL Image: Bilal Bahadur
It showed how some peasants were on the verge of suicide because of paying taxes to Chakdars (land contractors). They had to toil throughout the season, but it did not generate enough money to run a family. Their families would often sleep without meals and some of them lost their lives to hunger.

The play shows a Kardar – Ram Chandar and his accountant – Somnath calculating the land given to Kaashtkars and the taxes they paid in the past year. If someone did not pay, they would take back the land and give it to someone else who would pay better. They would visit the village once in a while to check on the peasants and collect taxes. They were shown beating those who failed to pay the whole amount and praising those who paid them. Kardar was so affectionate towards Chakdari that he considered it over God and his own life.
Then, Kardar’s used to be the bridge between the peasants and the land contractors appointed by the despotic rulers.
The whole play presented a serious issue with a tinge of comedy through dialogues and actions, which kept the audience hooked. There was not any gap left to feel the other way about it. Sajad Maqbool Mir played the rabab in the background, which also helped the audience to stay hooked to the stage.
As the peasants suffer, the play goes on to show, they plan to complain to their leader about it and they do so. The leader gives them all the support needed and encourages them to speak against it. They plan a strike. Soon, all of them visit the Kardar. The leader demands a one-fourth share of the income generated through the crops as the peasants work hard. Kardar, who seems to be afraid of the leader, agrees to their demand.
The play was written by Reshi Rasheed, and its design and direction were done by Ramzan. The character of Boud Maskhar is played by Mehraj ud Din Bhat, Loukut Maskhar by Aashiq Hussain Sheikh, Jamal by Mushtaq Ahmad Dar, Ramzan by Nisar Ahmad Bhat, Rajab Ganaie by Javed Ahmad Shah, Leader by Ishfaq Ahmad Bhat, Ram Chandar by Ghulam Rasool Lone (Founding Member of the theatre group), Somnath by Master Abdul Samad Mir and other Actors (peasants) by Mohammad Maqbool Bhat, Mohammad Ramzan Lone, Abdul Majeed Dar. The singer in the play is Sajad Maqbool Mir.
Dhol is played by Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, Shehnai was played by Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, Surnayi is played by Abdul Khaliq Bhat, and Nagaar was played by Ghulam Mohammad Bhat. The dancer is Bilal Ahmad Bhat. Costumes were provided by Abdul Samad Mir, Light Direction by Aashiq Hussain Najar, Lights Operations by Tariq Ahmad Hajini, and Sound by Aijaz Ahmad. The stage was set up by Trilok Singh Bali, Mohammad Amin, and Suhail.

[ad_2]
#Chakdar #Kardar #Returned #Stage #Revive #Kashmirs #Pre47 #Memories
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

March 7, 2023
Sher Bagh, Anantnag

[ad_1]
Once upon a time, the garden was an address for peak summer bathing, swimming and prayers. Now, Sher Bagh is a place for a brief halt for patients visiting the women’s hospital, reports Aasiya Nazir
Once the town’s coolest place for prayers, fresh air, and rest, Anantnag’s Sher Bagh is a sort of ruin now. Its glory is lost, and so is its quality of water and the freshwater fish ponds that would help kids pick up swimming and understand the aquatic life.
It is a historic garden. Residents attribute it to the Mughal era insisting that the pleasure-seeking occupiers laid most of the gardens in Kashmir including the south. However, history lacks a clear idea to vindicate the claim.
“Till 1951, the discharge from the Andar Nag spring had created a marsh on the spot,” M Salim Baig, the INTACH convenor in Jammu and Kashmir said. “One day when Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah visited the town, the residents talked about the marsh and he suggested it be converted into the garden for the locality and since then it is named Sher Bagh.”
Baigh said he has checked with the historians and they have revealed that the residents went to neighbouring Mattan wherefrom they got fish and were introduced to the newly refurbished garden. Andar Bagh has a spring called Nagbal and the discharge made a small waterfall. Given the fact that there are a few references to the garden prior to 1947, there is a possibility that there might have been some kind of garden which was in duse and mismanaged and resulted in a marsh. “Mughals avoided laying gardens in the towns. All the Mughal gardens are far away from the population. They avoided laying a major garden in Srinagar.”
The neighbouring Rani Bagh, part of which houses an educational institution, is attributed to the Dogra period.
Sher Bagh is located on the foot of a hill that is home to a Sulphur spring, the Andar Nag. In fact, the discharge from this spring lands in Sher Bagh and moves through the neighbouring localities and eventually gets into the Jhelum. The water channel, however, is in ruins as the discharge has gone down.

Even though the water discharge has gone down, fish are hardly seen in the ponds, the garden still holds its majestic looks. It has enormous Chinars and during summers it is lush green.
A view of Sher Bagh in Anantnag garden in February 2023. KL Image: Shah Hilal
What makes the Andar Nag and Sher Bagh premises interesting is that it has the stakeholding of all the faiths. The Nag premises have a temple and a Gurudwara. The Sher Bagh has an open mosque, where, till recently prayers were offered five times a day. It is an impressive platform that has a freshwater pond and various water channels surrounding it. The main pond has been a public swimming pool for generations. However, it was never called a mosque and was always referred to as Nimazgah.
“We used to swim in smaller channels and once we would get trained, we will finally swim in the main pond,” Abdul Rashid, a resident, now a doctor said. Originating from the sulphur spring, the water would normally be cold in spring and slightly warmer in winter. “It was a place for recreation and picking the real-life skill, the swimming and in between, there would be prayers.”
= Now, the garden is the casualty of the times. Officially it is managed by the fisheries department but there is no any fish in the ponds and the channels. The space that would be crowded by the residents during afternoons till late in the evening is now the resting place for the attendants of women admitted to the Maternity and Child Care Hospital.
The park space has been relocated. Realigned, it is craving for upkeep and proper maintenance.
Residents allege that the park has received little to no attention in the last many years. They claimed that visitors have ceased to get in. The fish have disappeared. They attribute it to the pollution over the hill.
“When I was a kid the number of fishes in the ponds was such that the surface was never visible,” resident, Mohammad Yousuf, said. “The water was so clean that we used to drink it. Now the water is polluted.”
Even though it lost its beauty, the garden retains its utility. Located near one of the busiest markets in the town, people still get in, take a rest and leave.
Society has equally contributed to the unmaking of this space. Though enough and adequate parking space is available near Rani Park, most of the people park their vehicles outside Sher Bagh, polluting its atmosphere. The parking at the main gate of the Bagh is impacting business and sometimes hinders the emergency cases in the hospital in their movement.
Another telling mess of the park is that the people who have lunch in the park, throw away a lot of waste. The park managers have failed to offer any kind of system that will enable the space to stay clean. Dustbins are there but nobody uses them.
Those visiting the park have their own issues. Zaina Begum is a frequent visitor. “The single biggest issue that the people face is the closure of the washrooms,” Begum said. “The public toilets were so dirty that they were locked, once and for all.”
Residents said the park is facing a crisis because there is multiple stakeholdings. While the property belongs to the Waqf Board, fish are supposed to be the Fisheries Department’s responsibility and the park is to be maintained by the Floriculture department. Residents said it would be ideal if the Bagh is given to a private party that will maintain it and manage it at a cost. “There is no harm in people paying some coins for spending a few hours in the park,” one resident suggested.

[ad_2]
#Sher #Bagh #Anantnag
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

February 25, 2023
Kashmir: First Land Settlement

[ad_1]
Two years after the British “took over” the governance of Jammu and Kashmir and appointed Sir Oliver St John, the first British Resident on September 25, 1885, Andrew Wingate was appointed the land Settlement Officer on January 15, 1887. Of the state’s 28 tehsils he did land settlement in Lal and Phak Parangna’s leaving the gigantic exercise to Walter R Lawrence. In his preliminary report, however, he detailed how the land, crops, markets and people were consumed by the middlemen unleashed on the peasantry
This photograph taken by an astronaut on December 1, 2021, using a Nikon D5 digital camera with having 70-mm focal length, was released by NASA on December 31, 2022. It shows the Kashmir valley in a haze.
“The general result of the last 70 years appears to be that the population is now little more than half of what it used to be. That it is a considerable loss, there can be little doubt. Traces of disused irrigation and of former cultivation, ruins of villages or parts of villages, of bridges, &c, local tradition, all point to a greater prosperity, which by the end of the Sikh rule in AD 1846 had well-nigh disappeared.
Feeding People
To maintain the population, two devices have been resorted to, both I believe of old date. The first, prohibiting export of rice is still in existence. The second, prohibiting any Kashmiri crossing the passes was removed during the last famine. The door of hope was, however, opened too late for of the numerous refugees few succeeded in reaching the open country and consequently few came back. Since then, numbers of Kashmiris visit the Punjab every winter where they find employment and save on their wages, returning in the early spring to cultivate their fields, generally bringing with them some cloth or other trifle for their wives, but getting frequently roughly handled by the customs’ clerks for their pains.
Kashmiri requires more and more frequent nourishment and warmer clothing than his brother of the plains. Not only does the climate necessitate more but the Kashmiri has the body and strength of an elephant. The collectors of shali often pay insufficient attention to this point, and as the aim is to collect for the use of the city all that can be safely taken, they are apt, acting on their experience of what a family consume in the plain, to leave too little to properly support and multiply the agricultural population. (page 16)
I saw mobs struggling and fighting to secure a chance of getting a few seers of the government shali, in a way that I have not witnessed since the great famine of southern India.
Stagnant Prices
I have found it impossible to obtain any record of bazar prices, but I believed I am correct in saying that before AD 1846 the normal price of shali was about eight annas per kharwar, and that it varied with the harvests. For example, during the famine of AD 1861-33, the price rose greatly, and oven after AD 1833, it remained for some time as high as Rs 1.5 per kharwar. Whether the kharwar was reduced to 15 traks instead of 16 traks then I have not ascertained. Shortly after Maharaja Golab Singh assumed control, the present system of collecting shali in large granaries in the city and selling it by retail through government officials appears to have been introduced, and the price of shali, with a brief interval about AD 1879 when it was raised to Rs 1.5 has remained stationary at Rs 1.25 per kharwar of 15 traks = two maunds and one seer of standard weight at 80 tolas per seer.

For over 40 years the system has been sufficiently profitable to support a large body of the pandit population of the city in idleness, and the government has gradually become on the one side a farmer working with coolies under a management closely approximating forced labour, and on the other side, a gigantic bannia’s shop doling out food to the poor in exchange for their coppers, and keeping with every cultivator an account showing what is taken from him whether in the way of grain, oil, wool, ponies, cows, &c, and what is given to him in the shape of seed, plough-cattle, cotton or wool to spin and weave, and a hundred other petty details. (page 17)
When I told your Highness in Darbar the price of shall must rise with the state of the harvest, and must probably be often higher than rupees two chillki, a shiver went round the officials, and your Highness said you would not dare to raise the price so great would be the outcry. I can only say that a country cannot go on feeding a semi-idle host at less than cost price and somebody must be a loser. The cultivators have lost much, even the interest to cultivate, and now the loss is falling on the State. (page 26)
The Booty
Under the Sikhs, the State took a half-share of the kharif crop and in addition four traks per kharwar and on account of the rice straw and the vegetable produce of’ the Sagazar” plots, the whole of which were kept by the Asami and were supposed to be free of assessment, Rs 1-9-0 per cent, was added to the total. The patwari and kanungo got 4 a trak per kharwar between them.
Inferior village servants got something. Nazarana was levied four times a year, and tambol (about two per cent) was taken on occasions of marriages in the ruler’s family. The villagers had also to feed the state watchers of the grain, called Shakdar. Non-resident cultivators paid a little less and Pandits and Pirzadas only paid two extra traks instead of four.
For the rabi and kimiti crops, all classes of cultivators were taxed alike, and in addition to the half-share, three traks per kharwar were taken under the names of extra cesses. The kimiti crops appear to be those that have always had a money value and are tilgogal, sarson, tobacco, cotton, linseed, saffron and the like.
For other crops, whether kharif or rabi, the collection might be in kind, or the villages might be farmed out. But I can find no trace so far of any crop rates. Walnut oil, fruit-trees, and honey have also always been taxed. Under the above, the State share was not less than three-fifth of the gross produce and what the cultivator actually retained was certainly less than two-fifths and probably only about one-third. The abundance of fruits, berries, and nuts, the extensive grazing area, and forest produce, enabled the cultivators to live, but an assessment so heavy as this would extinguish all rights in land, would render land valueless and would reduce a population forcibly confined within the valley to the condition of tenants-at-will. (page 18)
Panchan Pather is a fascinating meadow in Kulgam that was opened for tourists by officials recently. Photo: special arrangement
Since the times of the Sikhs, the pressure has been undoubtedly relaxed but it must still be pretty severe when cultivators, are found ready to sell whole villages for no other equivalent than the protection of a powerful name. Many of the Mukaddams, or heads of the villages, are very intelligent, but when it comes to seeing their children stinted of food, with hearts sickened by deferred hope, they sign away fatuitously day by day such rights as they possess. During Maharaja Golub Singh’s rule (AD 1846 to 1857) the Sikh procedure was followed, but some slight relaxations were made in favour of land newly cultivated, for large areas were lying waste.
His Highness was fond of horses and a number of grass-rakhs were reserved from cultivation.
Under Maharaja Ranbhir Singh, circles of villages were annually farmed out to contractors, called kardars. About 1865 the extra traks per kharwar were reduced for all Pandits and Pirzadas for a time to only one trak.
From about 1869 the practice of contracting with the Mukaddams or with the Zamindars gradually established itself in place of the farming system, and only two extra traks came to be levied instead of four.
In 1873-74, the village contracts seem to have been divided up into asamiwar khewats” or cultivators’ accounts, and either produce or cash was taken from each man.
In 1875 the harvest was a bad one, and the state took two shares of the produce and left one only to the cultivators. Next year fresh contracts were entered into either with Mukaddams, Kardars or cultivators and two traks per kharwar were again added to the assessment, besides an aggregate tax of Rs 9-12-0 per cent, if paid in cash or nine kharwars 12 traks per hundred kharvvars if paid in kind. This tax included a number of items, such as support of the Palace-temple, the abolished kanungo’s share, and so on.
In 1877 the scarcity began and the new contracts broke down and so the State collected in kind only, and this practically continued till 1880 when a new asamiwar khewat was made based upon previous years’ collections as estimated in cash but payable either in produce or cash as the cultivator was able. This khewat or cash settlement is supposed still to be valid, but after the good harvests of Samvat 1937 and 1938 the settlement was thought to have been too easy, and so it was raised by Rs 8-9-0 per cent, the chief item of the increment being Rs 6-13-0 for a pony tax, which might be paid in ponies instead of money, and in place of the Rs 1-9-0 per cent, formerly levied for fodder, the cultivators were required to give five kurus of rice-straw per 100 threshed.
This settlement includes all cesses except the tambol and nazrana. In 1885 the Rs 8-9-0 per cent, tax was remitted, and so now the khewat of S 1937 is supposed to have been reverted to, with the exception of the five kurus of rice-straw which are still taken.
In 1886, one seer per kharwar, formerly payable to the zillalidars, was made payable to the State, who appointed paid chowkidars. If this revenue history is not very correct, it must be remembered that access to the revenue records has been denied me. (page 19-20)
A pre-partition photograph showing the men and women busy in rice-field harrowing.
Grain Free Market
There are neither grain shops in the bazar nor bannias nor bankers. I do not know whether it is an offence to sell shali but cultivators are afraid to do so, and in tehsils nominally under a cash settlement and with an abundant harvest my establishment have once and again been literally starving and the only way they can get food is by having it sent out, rice, atta, dall from the government storehouses in Srinagar to the tehsildars who thereupon sell to my men for cash. My men still find difficulty in procuring the necessaries of life, and only very urgent representations at headquarters have secured the supplies necessary to stop the angry and to me humiliating clamour of my subordinates to be allowed to buy food for ready money. (page 17)
Coolies, Not Cultivators
I have been told by the highest and most trusted officials in Srinagar that the Kashmiri cannot be trusted with shali because he would eat the whole of it, that he will not plough unless the tehsildar gives him the seed and makes him, and that without this fostering care of government he would become extinct. The truth being, that he has been pressed down to the condition of a coolie cultivating at subsistence allowances the State property.
The Kashmiris are called cowardly because they have lost the rights belonging to the peasantry elsewhere and tamely submit to be driven like sheep before a sepoy. But it is useless to expect that a small population forming an isolated state that looked only to its hills for protection could withstand powerful neighbours, like Afghans or Sikhs, or that so distant and inaccessible a province would not be ruthlessly ground down under the endless succession of Governors that have enriched themselves in this valley. The Kashmiri is strong and hardworking, but his spirit is dormant, and he is grudged the quantity of food the climate makes necessary but which a short-sighted policy considers gluttonous, and consequently, he is being closer pressed every harvest. (page 19)
Last year I found in the cash-settled tehsil the standing crops, reaping, and threshing, as strictly guarded as if there was batai assessment with this serious difference that the cultivator did not know what share of his shali would be left to him. (page 25)
Peasant Loot
It may be easier now to understand why the Kashmiri cares naught for rights in land, why his fields are fallow or full of weeds, and manure and water neglected, why he has, as I can well believe, even to be forced to cultivate? The revenue system is such that whether he works much or little, he is left with barely enough to get along on till next harvest. He is a machine to produce shali for a very large and mostly idle city population. The secret of the cheap shali is because if the price were allowed to rise to its proper level, the whole body of pundits would compel the palace to yield to their demands. (page 26)
An early twentieth-century photograph showing a group of extremely beautiful Kashmiri women, disempowered and in poverty. The photograph has been taken in the Kashmir periphery.
The ignorant Mohammadan cultivator has not only no one he can call friend, but everyone, whether Hindu or Mohammadan, of any influence, is against him, for cheap bread by the sweat of the cultivator’s brow is a benefit widely appreciated. The Mohammadan cultivator is compelled to grow shali, and in many years to part with it below the proper market rate, that the city may be content. If the harvest is too little for both, the city must be supplied and is supplied by any force that may be necessary and the cultivator and his children must go without. That is the explanation of the angry discontent that filled the valley during the famine. The cultivator is considered to have rights neither to his land nor to his crops. The pundits and the city population have a right to be well fed, whether there is famine or not, at rupees two chillki per kharwar. I said everybody of influence was against the cultivator. (page 26)
Enforced Weave
The anti-climax is reached when cotton is served out to the villagers to be made into army clothing, and when the villagers can make nothing of the rotten commodity, they are charged for the cotton supplied at Rs 14 chilki per kharwar, with interest at over 14 per cent. (Page 27)
Internal Displacement
It has been described how the revenue system leaves the cultivator, without protection. His one concern is to get enough to eat and when he fails in one tehsil he betakes himself to another. Consequently, hereditary occupants are few and if any proof were wanting of the unsatisfactory condition of agriculture it is the fact that large numbers have only cultivated their present lands for a few years. In a highly fertile valley to find the peasantry roving from village to village is a clear sign that the administration is faulty.
This constant search for a rest never found, leads to two things; first, that much valuable land is annually thrown out of cultivation, and secondly that the people endeavour to shelter themselves behind any influential name. Consequently, since the death of Maharaja Golab Sing, from which date central authority appears to have been weaker, there has been a steady and latterly rapidly increasing transference of land from the cultivating to the non-cultivating classes and a landlord element is intruding itself between the cultivator and the State. (Page 27)
The Modus Operandi
As soon as a man has got any land he proceeds first to oust all the old cultivators so as to destroy any proof of the land having been cultivated when he entered upon it, and second to extend his ownership over every bit of land in the neighbourhood he can lay hands on. An instance will speak for itself. A tehsildar cast his eye upon a fine village within his charge, close to Srinagar. There, were six or seven kharwars fallow and waste, which supplied a pretext for developing the country and improving the revenue by applying for a chak. He had good influence at headquarters and his friend the Diwan, about five years ago, gave him a mukarrari patta for 20 kharwars at the usual rates of Rs 12 for wet and Rs 6 for dry land, but the tehsildar took care to get it inserted that all the land was dry… For some such trifling sum he is in possession of 29 kharwars of fine land of which 20 kharwars are irrigated and chiefly shali, so that even at the nominal rates of the patta, he should be paying about Rs 300. Some of the villagers objected to their land being thus appropriated and specially to the water supply being controlled for the benefit of the land seized, but the tehsildar speedily reduced them to reason by getting their revenue demand raised by between 30 and 40 per cent, and the village is now labouring under heavy outstanding balances. This leads to cultivators disappearing and as they disappear their fields are quickly added to the chak. He is now trying to turn the villagers out of their abadi and to house his own cultivators there instead.
One of the major jobs of a Kashmir home was to grind the paddy for rice, the main staple food. In this photograph taken somewhere in the twentieth century, an entire village family is recorded in the process of grinding paddy. The process involved using stone mortar (Kanz) and pestle (Mohul) to pound the dried rice. Both men and women would do it.
Another cultivator dies, his children are young. The neighbouring chakdar immediately takes possession under an agreement to be answerable for the revenue and to restore the land when the children grow up. Another chakdar makes a quarrel about his boundary and works in a few kharwars of land that way. One cannot ride in any direction without hearing complaints of these annual accretions to chaks. (page 30-31)
When I saw the village its fine lands were mostly lying unsown and its houses empty. If it is inquired why the old cultivators do not now return it is because the outstanding balance against the village is enormous, and last year I found the tehsildar trying to secure the entire crops of the miserable few who were left in a vain attempt to reach a sum equal to about one-third of the demand, but with the more likely result of ensuring the complete desertion of the place. As I pointed out villages do not tumble down in this fashion without a cause and the cause is bad administration, and that I fear sometimes with a definite purpose. (page 32)
The son of an influential official took a contract in the old days for two villages. Next year he petitioned the Vazir Wazarat that he was being hindered paying the revenue of the villages which are his property. The Vazir Wazarat submits the case for orders and an endorsement is written across a corner that petitioner is to be allowed to pay the revenue of the villages, and here the writer takes care to repeat the words of the petition, which are his, in milkiyat and zumindari. Now whatever rights cultivators may have it is certain that ownership of villages, unless conferred by the Darbar by sanad, does not exist in Kashmir. Having got so far, the next step was to take an ikcrarnama or agreement from the villagers that he is the proprietor. Armed with these documents, he requests me to record him as proprietor of both villages. On inquiry, of course, it is ascertained he is a mere contractor of revenue and that one-half the villagers deny his claims, and the other half were bought over by a promise that they should be protected from seizure for forced labour. (page 32)
A 1900 photograph showing Sir Walter Lawrence in Kashmir. Agha Sayed Hussain as the young Tehsildar is standing behind him (third from right)
It is to be clearly understood that the interests of the Darbar and the interests of the cultivators are identical and that the interests of all middlemen whatsoever, whether revenue farmers, telisildars, or quasi-proprietors, are inimical to both. The cultivators desire more food and the Darbar, more revenue, and the whole pundit class live by stinting both. (page 37)
The Commission Crisis
I cannot conclude without representing that the conditions which environ my department are most unfavourable to good work. Your Highness’s back is no sooner turned than the measurers again suffer from obstruction. Coolies arc seized, not only from villages under survey, contrary to your Highness’s positive command, but even the parties are interrupted, and chain drawers and flag bearers are dragged away. Recently the judge has begun to receive complaints against my subordinates for assault and the like and to issue process against them. Considering they are Punjabis working for your Highness in a country where they cannot even understand the language, and that a dozen Kashmiris can be made to give any evidence an offended chakdar or official instigates, my subordinates are not likely to consent to work absolutely alone in isolated villages with the prospect of appearing in Criminal Courts. My subordinates have a most difficult task and are exposed to every temptation. (page 45)

[ad_2]
#Kashmir #Land #Settlement
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

February 24, 2023
Kashmir’s Hikmat and Hakeem

[ad_1]
Till the early twentieth century, the entire healthcare system was run by the Unani system of medicine with Hakeem’s at the apex of the unique pyramid. Kashmir excelled in making some of the best healthcare givers from the medieval Sultanate era, MJ Aslam writes
Family Tree of Hakeems
Centuries before the arrival of the European allopathic healthcare system, there was a well-established medieval regime of Unani medicine prevalent in Kashmir. Shiv Bhatta [not Shri Bhatta] was Shah i Tabib (chief physician) of Sultan Zainulabidin, the Budshah. He lived in Sultan’s Rajdhani at Nawshehra, Srinagar.
The Sultan was immensely impressed by Bhatta’s curing skills and honoured him with the title of Afsar ul Tib. Bhatta died without writing anything on Tib for posterity. On record, however, it was during the Mughal era when Ilmi Tib and Unani (Yunani) system of medicine appeared in Kashmir and touched the summit of excellence in successive reigns of Mughal Emperors and their Subedars.
In Successive Regimes
The first Kashmiri Hakeem who rose to prominence was Hakeem Abdullah Gazi in the reign of Emperor Akbar (1586-1606). Gazi was educated and trained in Ilmi Tib in Delhi. His pupil Rashid Baba Majnoon Narwadi was also an efficient Hakeem of his time. In Shah Jahan’s reign, Majnoon’s three disciples, Mohammad Sharief Ganayi, Abdul Rashid Ashai and Abdul Qadir Ganayi were Kashmir’s famous Hakeem’s. The son of Hakeem Abdul Qadir Ganayi was Hakeem Inyatullah who had such an ability, it is said, that he diagnosed the disease from a mere glance at the patient’s face. He lived during Emperor Aurangzeb’s reign.
Hakeem Mohammad Azam Kashmiri was a well-known physician in Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s court in Lahore. In Sikh Period, Hakeem Dindar Shah, Hakeem Maqbool Shah and Hakeem Mustaffa Shah were well-known Unani doctors living in Kashmir. Hakeem Ali Naqvi, Hakeem Noorudddin, Hakeem Ghulam Rasool, Hakeem Baqaullah and Hakeem Yousuf were famous Unani physicians in the eighteenth century. Hakeem Ghulam Rasool died in Delhi. He was a prodigious scholar and an eloquent orator. He spent his life in luxury due to his companionship with Nawab Ghazi al-Din Ferozjang III (1736-1800).
An undated photograph shows Christain missionaries treating people in an open dispensary in Baramulla. The people were injured in an earthquake.
Hakeem Mohammad Jawad was an eminent doctor in the Afghan period. Hakeem Naqi, Hakeem Noor ud Din, Hakeem Namdar Khan and Hakeem Kandar Khan were other well-known Hakeems in the Durani era of Kashmir. The last two migrated to Delhi for treatment of the sick. Hakeem Deendar Shah was the personal physician of Nazim Sheikh Ghulam Mohiuddin (1842-1846), the last of the Sikh rule governor’s in Kashmir.
Hakeem Mohammad Baqir was another famous Hakeem. In Maharaja Ranbir Singh’s reign (1857-1885), Baqir was conferred the title of Afsar ul Tib by the Maharaja. Towards the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, there were many Hakeems all over Kashmir. Most prominent were: Hakeem Ahmad Ullah alias Ame Hakeem of Zaina Kadal; Hakeem Ghulam Mohi Ud Din of Naidyar Rainawari; Hakeem Daidar of Baghwanpora Lal Bazar; Maqbool Shah of Rainawari; Hakeem Salam ud Din of Hazratbal (all from Srinagar); Hakeem Habibullah of Baramulla; Hakeem Ahsan Sheikh of Nowgam; and Hakeem Abdul Aziz Kozgar of Budgam.

One Hakeem of the early twentieth century needs a special mention – Hakeem Aziz Ullah of Muslim Pir Sopore. He had earned the name of the most reputed Unani physician and treated patients at his residence from north Kashmir, Muzaffarabad and Srinagar. Once he was called specially to Srinagar by the family members of a rich man, Qazi Ghulam Mustaffa of Maharajgunj, for treatment. A God-fearing man, Aziz Ullah built Sopore’s Muslim Pir Masjid. After his death in 1926, his son, Hakeem Sanaullah (b1902), started treating patients for free.
Hakeem Families
There were three famous families of Hakeems in Srinagar in the last century. Hakeem Ali Mohammad alias Ali Hakeem (1906-1988) of Zaina Kadal. Later, he shifted to Gojwara where he treated patients at a new clinic cum residence. He was President of the Jammu and Kashmir Tibiyya Conference, a chapter of All India Tibbiya Conference. He died in 1988.
Another family hailed from Naidyar Rainawari. Their house is still famous as Hakeem Manzil. Hakeem Shyam Lal alias Shyam e Bhatte (1900-1984), a Kashmiri Pandit, was an Unani physician of great fame who belonged to a family of Kashmir’s hereditary Hakeems. His residence cum clinic at Shalyar Habba Kadal Srinagar was always thronged by patients. Despite the fact that he changed his residence to Karan Nagar, Srinagar, he continued to see and treat patients at Shalyar. He was also President of the Jammu and Kashmir Tibiyya Conference in 1966-67. He was considered an expert in the treatment of kidney stones. The patients were prescribed special sheera by him on daily basis for a few months till kidney stones would pass out with urine.
During the first half of the twentieth century, it is said that fifteen Hakeems of Srinagar were on the payrolls of Maharaja. In Srinagar, there is Unani Sageer, a Mohalla near Nigeen, which is known as Hakeem Mohalla as most of the famous Hakeems since Emperor Akbar’s time lived in this locality. Their ancestor, it is claimed, was Hakeem Ali Humayun who had attended and treated Emperor Akbar when he fell ill during one of his Kashmir visits. Hakeem Mehdi, Hakeem Masood and Hakeem Altaf are said to be the descendants of Hakeem Ali Humayun. They all belong to this locality. There are some other city localities or villages with the prefix Hakeem to their names indicating the areas might have had some connection with this class of physicians of yore.
Unani Medicine
Unani medicine or Hikmat is an Arabic-Persian term that was introduced by the Mughals in the Indian subcontinent in the thirteenth century. The families of eminent Hakeems of Persia and Arabia came to India and introduced the Unani system during the Mughal rule, considered as the golden age of Greco-Arabic medicine in India.
Hakeems were mostly Muslims who were learned men, also called tabibs. Many Hindus too were Hakeems of eminence. Hakeems followed the Unani (Greek, Grecian school of medicine) or the Misri (Egyptian school of medicine). While Muslim Hakeems followed the Unani School, generally most of the Hindu physicians, called Vaids, followed the Misri School.
Fascimile of a manuscript showing some anatomy-related writtings and drawings for Kashmir Maharaja from early twentieth century, drwan by a Hakim. Pic Hakim SameerHamadani
The most reputed Hakeems in India were in Emperor Akbar’s time. Hakeem Alavi Khan, Hakeem Muhammad Ashraf Kashmiri and Abdul Karim Kashmiri were well-known Kashmiri Hakeems in the Mughal Court. Many Kashmiri families of Hakeem’s moved to Delhi, Deccan, and other places of Mughal India to practice medicine. In history, Kashmiri Hakeems contributed immensely to the development of Unani medicine in the Mughal Era and thereafter in India. Many of the eminent Hakeems of Mughal India had Kashmiri ancestry.
One of the most important physicians of Jahangir’s Era was Hakeem Sadra Zaman whose father was Akbar’s royal physician. In the early Mughal Era, the famous Hakeems came to Kashmir to treat people. Zaman accompanied Emperor Jahangir in 1620. He treated Emperor Shah Jahan and his daughter, princess Jahan Ara successfully. After resigning from duty, he performed Hajj and died in Kashmir in 1650 and is buried in Srinagar. He was greatly respected by Mughal Emperors. His pupils were among Kashmir’s pioneer Hakeems.
Then, Hakeem was considered a doctor of philosophy, a doctor of medicine, and a learned man. Though Muslims were associated with Unani Tib, the Brahman Vaid was usually “a physician purist”. Unani system of medical care is based on the established knowledge of thousands of years. Hakeem uses herbal, mineral and animal-based drugs for curing the sick.
The Eco System
In Kashmir, Hakeem’s used to treat the sick in Hakeemwan or Hakeemkhana, which were the earlier avatar of clinics and dispensaries. The shops selling herbal medicine were called Bohir-wan. A Bohur (pharmacist of today) is the “vendor of drugs, spices, herbs, groceries; a druggist, spicer, grocer”. There were and are certain well-known localities of Srinagar like Nowhatta, Jamia Masjid, Saraf Kadal, and Maharaji Bazaar, where one would still see flourishing Bohir-wans. Now, they are called Unani or Hamdard medicine shops.
Hakeem’s were also “compounding medicines” themselves for selling to the patients. The practice or profession of a Hakeem which was as a rule hereditary in character was called Hakeemi in common parlance. The Hakeem’s are and were addressed with an added honorific to their name as Hakeem Saib. This was a practice followed throughout India as today we have Doctor Sahab or had Vaid Ji of the past. Hakeems used only natural herbal plants, their leaves and roots as medicine for the treatment of the sick. It is said that the shepherds during summers collected herbs from mountains and jungles for the Hakeems of Kashmir. The medicinal herbs were made available for patients either at the clinic of the Hakeem or at the Bohir-wans. Some herbs of medicinal value were imported from outside.
Bone Setters
Apart from Hakeems, there were non-invasive surgical practitioners such as bone-setters (watan-gir) and leech-appliers (dirki-gir) in Kashmir. Watan-gur was one who was setting broken, dislocated limbs or bones or strained muscles by massaging with oil or turmeric powder and by straightening dislocation by pulls or pushes. Some watan-girs set up their shops for the treatment of orthopaedic trauma at famous shrines of Srinagar and Budgam Kashmir on Thursdays and Fridays.
Some famous bone-setters practised the profession at their homes like Sid e Baing, Wali Baing and their disciples of Teilbal, and Ghulam Mohammad Qalinbaf and Ali Mohammad of Fateh Kadal Srinagar. Bone-setters also practised at Bandipora. It is said that bone-setters were reciting kilmaat (verses) while treating a patient. Dirki (leeches) were much used by Dirkigur of old Kashmir. Leech appliers were prescribed by Hakeems for a patient. They generally believed that the cause of skin diseases including persistent shuh (frostbites) of feet, hands, ear-helix and phephir [boils with abscess] was the blood infection. Thus, the infected or impure blood was drained away through the services of a Dirkigur who applied leeches on a body part to suck the impure blood from the patient’s body.
Till the twentieth century, leech appliers worked in Kashmir. There were also female leech appliers, Dirkigirin, as well. Generally, it was the Naid or barbers’ families that were associated with the leech-appliers’ profession in Kashmir. The leeches would swell up after draining the blood of the patient and automatically fall down on the floor. The leech-applier squeezed all blood from his leeches before putting them back in his container, Dirki’weir.
The barbers were also called in by Hakeems to cut and bleed the patient from the vein “marked” by Hakeem for draining out impure blood. As this was the “only knowledge of surgery” Hakeem’s possessed, Maharaja in the epidemic of 1872 had to issue orders that “the Hakeems were not to bleed for cholera as they had been in the habit of doing”. The native Hakeems regard a pedilavium of the leaves as very efficacious in cholera.
In 1895, Sir Lawrence recorded there were “300 Hakeems or doctors in Kashmir and as a rule, the profession” was “hereditary. …… and I have known cases in which some of my subordinates have derived great benefit from the skill of the Kashmiri Hakeem…….. Hakeem never attends midwifery cases”. The skilled elderly women midwives, locally known as Warin, were called to assist the delivery cases and perform the gynaecological operation at the patient’s home.
Parhaiz Culture
Hakeem’s were very strict about the diet of their patients. They prescribed strict dietary restrictions (Parhaiz) with herbal medicine for the patient. To date, Parhaiz Si’un, which meant the strictly prescribed diet by Hakeems in the past, is a very much relevant phrase being used in Kashmir society to convey that someone is following a doctor’s dietary advice. Hakeem’s sometimes allowed only simple rice water and dandelion leaves (hund in Kashmiri) to a patient suffering fever over weeks.
Such a strict dietary disciplinarian attitude of Hakeem’s gave birth to certain idioms in the spoken Kashmiri language. For example, Hukm i Hakeem o Hakeem, Chuh Margi Mufajaat (the ruler’s and doctor’s orders are like sudden death as they are to be followed); Hakeemas Te Hakeemas, Nishi Bachavtam Khudayo (O, God, protect me against orders of Ruler and Doctor) and Yi Hakeemas Dizhi Ti Koneh Dizhi Bemaras (why can’t that be given to the sick what is given to the doctor), and Neem Hakeem, Khatri Jan (a half-baked hakeem can be life-threatening).
Treatment Regime
The whole diagnosis of Hakeem centres around the equilibrium of Akhlat (humours, Mizaj) of the body, classified into four kinds: hot, cold, dry and wet. Hakeems used medicines to undo imbalance in any of these situations within the body. Some herbs are thought to be cold and good for hot humour; some are hot and good for cold humour; some are damp and beneficial for a dry state of humour, while some dry herbs are said to be beneficial for a damp and wet state of humour.
The most common herbal prescriptions included Sheera, Sharbat, liquorice root (shangir in Kashmiri), lasora/lasoda (sebestan), and arnebia benthamii (Kahzaban). One imported herb used as the ultimate drug or medicine for serious cases including protracted fever was Chob-Cheeni, Smilax China. It grows abundantly in China in wild from where it was exported to Punjab, Calcutta, Bombay and Kashmir via Leh. A mere prescription of this would indicate the patient was seriously unwell. Kashmiri saying, Zan Chus Chob-Cheeni Logmut conveys a feeling of seeing a person in a robust state of health after having taken any kind of diet or special food.
In case of recurring pains, and stomach ailments, Hakeems prescribed the use of powder or malish (massage) of Zahar-Mohr on the troubled part of the body. It is a bezoar and is used as an antidote to poison and a pain reliever for the sick.
Though fundamentally using herbs, they also used certain stones, gems and specific things taken from animals. Zahar-Mohr was obtained from Ladakh and Tibet and imported to Punjab and Kashmir via Leh. In Punjab, it was applied in snake-bite cases. This costly bezoar was also cut into the making cups, bowls, plates, and so on of a tea set and it was generally believed that cups, bowls, etc, would split if poison was put in them. Genuine Zahr Mohr tea sets fetch good prices. They are still considered items of luxurious choice in household crockery items.
Hakeem’s believes Zahr Mohr was formed by the spittle of the Markhor goat (Capra megaceros) falling on stones. Markhor is the wild goat of Hazara and the NW Himalaya and exists in Kashmir also. It is called Markhor, owing to the fable that the animal killed snakes by looking at them. Yet another fable was that when Markhor’s foam falls on certain stones it turns them to Zahar-Mohr, precious stones of serpentine. Unlike Bohr-wans, Zahr Mohr would be sold by Moharkans who dealt with precious stones.
Kashmiris had great confidence in their Hakeems and they mostly consulted them for ordinary ailments. With the emergence of allopathic medical care towards the end of the nineteenth century in Kashmir, the local Hakeems lost much of their influence. Unani medicine lacks a remedy for emergency cases like cardiac arrest, accidental trauma and so on. Despite the progress of modern medical science, Hakeem’s, bone-setters, and leech appliers still exist and they still have a small clientele.
[ad_2]
#Kashmirs #Hikmat #Hakeem
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

January 25, 2023