Guest post by Atul Ravi. First photograph taken in his family.
Raghu Nath Zadoo seated on left wearing a cap
This pic was taken in some studio probably Mahatta but not sure . It was first day of my grandfather’s college. He had worn shoes for the first time in his life. The boys all dressed up and decided to get themselves clicked and barely managed to pool in money. It was the first pic in the family and was kept like that in our house. May be that’s how it survived .
My grandfathers name was Sh Raghu Nath Zadoo ( called as Rugh Nath in local lingo ). He was born in Gund Ahalmar Srinagar in 1920 to Smt Yemberzal and my Great Grandfather ( i don’t recall his name ). He was second in three siblings. He was first graduate in the family and completed BA , BT and BEd. He was politically active and was secretary of teachers association in Srinagar. He was also a recipient of Presidents Medal ( Bronze ) for his contribution to Census in Srinagar. He retired in 70s as Tehsil Education Officer. Post retirement he was an administrator in Hindu High School, Gankhan. He was also attached to Ganpatyar Mandir Committee . One particular incident I recall once we left Srinagar, he managed to get the salaries of few months of all teachers from the school and I could see the them thanking him in gratitude.
Post migration, he kept going to Srinagar and stayed in the house with all caution thrown to the wind. He only stopped when he became too old to travel. He lost his senses and was bedridden but in that state too he recalled Srinagar as his only refuge. He used to make gestures to my grandmother to pack and leave for Srinagar. When my uncle after few years went to our home, he saw that Grandfather had made arrangements like coals, wood, his walking stick, some clothes and dry vegetables for his next visit to Kashmir which never happened .
Drabu’s piece rests on careful omission of facts and deliberate inclusion of usual bile. The only legible thing in the write-up is the use of word “pariah” in the title, a “persona non grata”…an outcaste…a person who the society eats up and then vomits outside the boundaries…then walls are built to keep them out. Often these walls are perfectly sounding arguments built on solid gleaming bricks of history. And to keep the people inside the wall happy, unquestioning, the tale of “Pandit” monster who has been hounding poor mazloom Kashmiri Muslims from five hundred years ago, is graphically remembered.
Drabu’s excuse for writing all this: a patronizing “concern” for the wily Kashmiri Pandits, that he now assumes is somehow is not smart enough. That the “smart” community was celebrating a law that was unfair to them. He is not bewildered by it. Because, the reader gets it, if it is bad for them and they are still celebrating, either they are dumb or pure evil. Gist of what already the masses in Kashmir have been sold in the valley till now. Drabu, is making it all the more clear for them.
But, is it true?
All these years, in all discussions on KP exodus matters, the population of KPs impacted by the secessionist movement, “the migrants” has been measured only by numbers of registered migrant families (there was no individual count). The rule change means nothing to them. They are all accounted. They are the bulk. As for those not registered as migrants…something as election cards, rev. records etc. can be considered. Already something like this is done by Relief Commissioner for former government employees who never registered. As for others, KPs who left in 40s/50s/60s….they didn’t even have a chance in previous Kashmir fiefdom setup …now if they wish they can take the normal root in new law. And they don’t need to worry who is married where and to whom. All they need is peace, which of course is another matter and subject to guns of Pakistan.
The concern for KPs shown by Drabu is just a ruse to show to show how KPs are somehow in intellectual pits now.
He should remember that Kashmiri Pandits raised the slogan of “Kashmir for Kashmiris”…not “Kashmir for Kashmiri Pandits”…the present violent mess in the state if because of “Kashmir Banega Pakistan”, but you can’t talk about it, you be deemed “occupier”/”collaborator” and once you are deemed that, all you can do to redeem yourself is remind the people of Pandit monster. You can compare the present generation to Pandit Shankar Lal Kaul, Jia lal Kilam and J.L. Jalali, but it should be remembered that these leaders also walked away from Shiekh Abdullah’s brand of Kashmiriyat Kashmiri Nationalism as formulated by Sheikh is based on what Orwell called “Negative Nationalism”…it didn’t know what it was…until it starts defining what it was against. It is nothing without the “Other”. Thus we see it defining itself in beginning as “against landlords”…and eventually morphing into “against pandits” or rather they now proudly say in Kashmir against “certain kind of” pandits, “rest are welcome”. Of course, overtime and scenarios the “kind” they are against keeps changing and “they” get to define who they are against whenever they take shelter under nationalism. Not surprisingly no Kashmiri Muslim public intellectual is ready to be “anti-national” to The Cause, great Cause, which is like a shifting goal post based on the political position, physically, the intellectual takes in the power.
When an Kashmiri intellectual is shifting post, one of the clear sign of it is that he will start talking about the history of Dhars, Kouls etc in the valley. It is a tradition coming down from Shiekh himself. It was under him that KPs were shaped as the perfect enemy. It is under his that narratives were created.
The whole idea that KPs as a community were somehow educated elites is itself coloured reading of history. Fact is, according to 1921 census of Kashmir:
73.21 % of KPs were illiterate. That should puncture the myth (that even KPs like to boast): KPs were highly educated class. The edge of education was only with the 9.36% English literate KPs among a total KP population of 55055. That’s just 5,154 individuals. To compare: There were 5231 educated KMs in the state with their population of 796392. Of them about 340 knew English.
The root of this state subject agitation was simple, if one wants to get to the root. British changed the educational setup of whole India. It was designed for creating clerical class. In Punjab, these steps were taken about a decade early. So, there were people who needed jobs. Meanwhile, in Kashmir also, similar steps were taken. So a fresh batch of mass graduates was ready. Kashmiri Pandits, the educated among them, ever depended on state jobs, were first to adopt to the new education system, it was easier for them to break religious barriers to pick up foreign languages in duress for survival, they had done it before. Meanwhile, bulk of KM population remained agriculture driven, men in crafts, shawl trade, craft trade, etc…their religious head put in additional the road blocks. While it is easy to be shock the readers with “There was not a single Muslim student among the 300 odd boys in the C.M.S. School.”…someone should shoulder the responsibility of telling the people that this is because the Pandits had lesser issue going to a missionary school while Muslims community even now looks at it with suspicion (why was the school bombed?) Who will tell them that even in the first CMS school in Lahore, in 1849, the first students were KPs? Who will tell them that Samuel Bakkal, a KM convert to christianity, a product of CMS, in 1917 went on to be founder of Mysore Boy Scouts? Who will tell them that in 1912 more Muslims girls from upper cream of the society were reading in the missionary school than Pandit girls because Pandit girls were married off at the age of 13.
Mirwaiz Rasool Shah’s school was reaction to Missionary school just as much of Hindu school of Annie Besant was (which opened later), difference being that those religious trust run schools still teach religious doctrines, while Hindu school does not, and is now in “secular” domain. While Rasool Shah’s school is lauded (right so), the fact that by 30s Maharaja was giving scholarships to Kashmiri Muslims for higher study, is buried away as it is inconvenient in nationalist narrative as devised in the valley.
In 1930 when primary education was made compulsory ( order probably signed incidentally by a KP or a non-Kashmiri, the masses cried about zulum of “Zabri school”/forced school ). In 1911, the first batch of Kashmiri graduates was ready (thanks to efforts of a non-Kashmiri Dr. Mitra introducing English and Punjab syllabus in 1890s) but jobs were going to people from outside (Punjab itself was overflowing with graduates). Thus the agitation of 1912. Without the agitation, decades spent in school as an investment would have been wasted for Kashmiri Pandits. They would have been forced to move out of the state…like it happened post 1947…when they were positively discriminated against. Even in 1970s, Pandits were going to supreme courts and proving how the state was passing discriminatory orders in jobs under the freedom granted by article 370. Poet Dina Nath Nadim, too was impacted by these things when he resigned his teacher post in protest in 60s.
The other communities like Dogras were not nominal in this state subject movement, it was not as if scheming Pandits back then thought “okay let’s include the Dogras too in the agitation so that it all looks good in post-partition era when Dogras would be out of power.” Much against the popular opinion Pandits are not clairvoyant tantric babas who can see future and decide things based on that. At same time the slogan in Jammu was “Jammu for Dogras”. The agitation was about community interests, Pandits identified as Kashmiris.
Drabu causally tells us the shawl-trader princely class, the “cerebral pioneer of the freedom struggle of Kashmir”, opposed the state subject law.
What Drabu does not mention (but does mention without saying) here is that religio/political leadership of Kashmiri Muslims asked (and were granted also in part) that rather the non-Kashmiri Muslims (of Punjab) should be given jobs in the state as the state was Muslim majority. They had no interest in “Kashmir for Kashmiris”, yet (as KPs, Sikhs, etc were still a sizeable part of what was called “Kashmiri” back then. Today, “Kashmiri” the word is used just to imply Muslims by the progenies of these pioneers of Tahreek. And who do they “other” among them? The Muslims from plains that they asked for.
It should be remembered that by this time, Kashmiri Muslims politics was already directed from the Punjab plains. It was the same for Pandit politics, yet Pandits didn’t ask that Pandits from other parts of India be given jobs (just like right now Pandits didn’t ask for special citizenship rules under UT). For, Pandits of valley, it was a matter of survival in valley, and not some vain agitation over bruised ego. “370” for decades has been sold as an issue about “yazzath”/honor and vague claims of “disenfranchisement”. Drabu’s claim’s “It is tragic because the new domicile law disenfranchises them [Pandits] even more than the Kashmiri Muslims.” This would mean Kashmiri Muslims are also getting disenfranchised. Disenfranchised, how? Can’t they vote? Real question is will they only vote when they are constantly reminded by two-faced communal politicians, “Vote or pandits will vote and put in their men and then you will be ruled by Hindus, again!”?
What is the charge on Pandit monster? That in 1917, ever selfish Kashmiri Pandits raised the slogan when it suited them. If so, didn’t the KM leadership also make their choice based on what was convenient to them at the time? If Ashai’s word of “non-mulki” Muslims might be more sympathetic to their plight seems fair, then by same logic if Pandits today claim “non-mulkis” from the plains might be more sympathetic to their plight than the “mulki” KM bureaucracy, why the hue and cry?
Factually speaking: State Council in 1891 first recognised inhabitants of state as “State Subject” and their right to jobs. Maharaja would talk about it in court. But, nothing was formalised. This triggered the pandit agitation. It was voiced first in writing in 1894 by Saligram Kaul, in Sialkot.
Saligram was brother of Hargogal Kaul, the man who started Sanatan Dharam Sabha. Hargogal Kaul was a man born and brought up in Punjab in a KP family that had settled there in earlier times of persecution. A “non-mulki” as much as a Nehru. Hargogal arrived in state around 1876. He was quickly branded a British agent and rumor started that he had drowned some KMs in a boat. He was a fierce critic of the Maharaja and was even banished from the state for some years. He was charged by Wahabi leader Yahya Shah of hurting religious sentiments of muslims in around 1898. Bazaz’s clearly mentions “Kashmir for Kashmiris” started in 1920s. Slogan was coined by Shankerlal Koul. If Drabu has based him opinion based on “Emergence of political awakening in Kashmir” (1986) by Upendra Kishen Zutshi (incidentally a KP ), he already knows all this.
In 1907, KM representatives while asking for education funds for Islamia school were writing to Maharaja thanking him for protecting them from Arya Samajis , the evil brains behind Congress whose main agenda is Hindustan for Hindus. Sounds familiar?
It must be remembered here that in Glancy Commission, KPs were represented by rationalist, Premnath Bazaz…while the KMs were represented by religious heads and businessmen. Bazaz sided with the KMs. For that Pandits never forgave him. That much is much recounted in Kashmir, but is not remembers that in late 1960s, while in exile in Delhi, Bazaz accepted he was wring, that he gave-in into the obvious communal demands of KM leaders in the commission just because he thought it will create “goodwill” for pandits in the valley. That is all there is to it. Pandits have been trying to gather the currency of “goodwill” for a century now, all while actually losing ground, physically in Kashmir. It was this “goodwill” currency system in which a KP is seen as a good harmless government teacher but an evil bureaucrat ever ready to backstab “Mother Kashmir”.
Drabu claims till KMs were no competition to KPs, the KPs took then along. When muslims became competition for jobs KPs went against them. This claim flies in the face of well known facts.
Fact that KP-KM political unity only came about in late 30s after KMs started having their demands met. After there were communal riots, after “Roti-agitation” (1932). A riot for which Kilam was conveniently blamed, triggering it by a speech. Yet, Kilam (along with Kashyap Bandhu and Prem Nath Bazaz) became one of the building block of what later NC sold as “Kashmiriyat”. That’s how Muslim Conference became National Conference. Bazaz calls it golden era of unity.
But it was Sheikhs’ recourse to communalism post 47 that put an end to it. One can rather claim that KPs were taken for a ride. Their support sought when it was needed, when it was needed to be in good books of Congress and progressives. In the “Naya Kashmir” manifesto a seat was reserved for a KP representative in the assembly. What happened of it? Post independence, KPs, a dispersed minority were actually disenfranchised. Even in areas where they were in majority, delimitation was carefully done to keep them out. Drabu is taking names of KPs, long dead KPs, without knowing much about them. In 1950, J. L. K. Jalali (a man who in 1920s waged lone campaign against grain hoarder and black marketers ) wrote about the brutal realities of “Naya Kashmir” and the dangerous form of Nationalism sold by NC to masses, at the core of which was the theory of “evil KP”:
“I am a Kashmiri to whom Kashmir has always been the dearest of treasures, and suffered for it. To me the nationalism of today is nothing a garbled version of majority communalism directed towards a definite end.”
Telling tales of evil pandits used to a hobby in Kashmir, now it seems to be a profession, particularly of former bureaucrats, courted by center from time to time. There is no other reason why someone, who lives in a community where crackers are burst after terror attacks, would rather than writing about it, would tell those crackers how fanatic Pandits were distributing sweets on abrogation of a law. All these are nothing but attempts to save their own skin but blaming the eternal pandit for all the invisible webs they themselves have woven.
For this class Bazaaz was to write:
“Was the special status and autonomy conferred on the State under Article 370 to pave way for integration of Kashmir with the rest of India by assuring State people of their political, social and cultural freedom or was it meant to allow the State politicians, especially Kashmir Muslim leaders, untrammelled opportunity for exploitation of the ignorant, gullible and backward massed? It was a moot point which probably never occurred to stalwarts of the Congress party in early days of independence when they evinced fullest confidence in the honesty, sincerity and love for teeming millions of National Conference leadership. Capture and enjoyment of power brought an awareness to the favorite leaders that the integration of the State with India, however desirable, was antagonistic to their private interest; no sooner than the objective was achieved, their own importance would cease and opinion of State people would grow in importance and weight.
Therefore, to keep people in darkness and not to make them politically conscious and socially awakened became a vested interest of Kashmir politicians. A policy was evolved to make Kashmir Muslims feel perpetually in terror of the hostile Hindu majority and depend upon the local coreligionist leaders for protection against it. Article 370 was frequently maligned and abused, and conditions were created not to allow it to outgrow its utility as originally intended but to make it a permanent feature of the Indian Constitution. In this atmosphere while the leaders thrived, the position of average Kashmiri worsened. The Central leadership of the Congress was caught in a web woven by the National Conference leaders before they could realize what was happening.”
It was again Bazaaz who wrote what the actual cost of KM secessionism would be, or rather the cost of communal majoritarian KM politics, which community will first bear the actual cost of it and how KPs will and must respond.
“There can be no manner of doubt that a majority of Muslims is obsessed with the desire that Kashmir should accede to Pakistan. If that aim is achieved it is obvious Pandits will have to leave their hearth and home and become refugees in India. If there was any doubt about it the Azad Kashmir Radio and, inspired by it, a by-no-means mute section of Muslims has been constantly warning Pandits that the Valley is bound to join Pakistan so they should take time by forelock and be ready to depart. What alternative do these threatenings leave to Pandits but to determinedly oppose the demand and tenaciously fight back with all resources available to them. It becomes the foremost duty of even the liberal minded Pandit democrat to defeat the Muslim purpose ; for self-effacement is no part of the philosophy of liberalism or democracy. Muslim politicians shall have to propose a solution which should be acceptable to the non-Muslims. It is well to remember that the Indian subcontinent was partitioned because the minority wanted it so. Had the issue been left to the vote of the majority (right of self-determination) the unity of the subcontinent would have been maintained. As long as the Muslims insist upon the right of secession Pandits will be morally right and politically justified in opposing the demand. This may appear unreasonable to the Muslim politicians but they will ignore it at their own cost.”
A reminder: 98% of Pandits today live in places (all over the world) where there are “immigrant” yet equal citizens. It comes from present. The world as it is. Not as it was. The progenies of Kaul, Kilam, Jalali, Bazaz are all outside Kashmir. Probably as divergent in their individual political stands at their ancestors were. But, they are all outside. There was there becomes of decades and decades of “othering”.
While Sanatan Sabha, Aryan Sabha hold no sway over Pandits today, the KMs still rally under new Ashais (who cozy upto Imran Khan now) and Mirwaizs…while politicians like Drabu try to stay relevant in that same eco system (as some sort of rational voice) by deploying three hundred year old terms like “Karkun Bhatte” and “Bhasha Bhatte” in front of a young muslim audience in valley who hasn’t lived next to a Bhatta in three decades, their minds getting used to the shape of Pandit Mushran, which they now know comes in these two medieval flavors.
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In Kashmiri folktables “mushran” was an evil spirit that came in the shape of a dirty old man and will a parental hug, suck your soul, cause slow death.
“Your photographs with captions are very interesting. I really enjoy these. I even now visit kashmir frequently and can contribute some photographs to search Kashmir. If acceptable please let me know”
This simple small email from Man Mohan Munshi in November 2009 went on to lay foundation of our decade long association. Back then I was manually going through all the old books on Kashmir getting uploaded to archive.org by various libraries around the would. I would go track down each book and manually visually scan each page and download any image of Kashmir, and then upload images with caption to this blog. It was the beginning. And an email like that was good enough motivator. I told him he was more than welcome to share. I didn’t know what to expect. Over the decades, Man Mohan Munshi Ji shared pages from rare books in Kashmiri and Urdu, his personal family photographs going back to 1910s, articles on historical sites and pilgrimages and his encyclopaedic notes on geography of Kashmir, after all he retired as a director of Geological Survey of India. He told me things that few would know. He corrected me. I learnt. Some of his photographs (like of Nehru) went on to be part of Wikipedia, some (like an old family photo) went on to be part of a short art film that I accidentally came across in an festival, some (like a simple land purchase deal from late 1800s in Persian) went on to be misused by propagandists as sale deed of Kashmir (an image still circulated like fools). Sometime I would upload an old photograph from a book and he would email me a detail that only he would know. I would append it to the post. He would send me images of rare Kashmiri household items, arts and crafts from older times. He would photograph them on a film camera, go to a cyber cafe guy, have it scanned, have it cleaned up and have it emailed to me. Sometime accidentally wrong photograph would get attached to email, instead of Ramchakor, an image of a relative would get sent. I would have some fun with him. He would remind me that he is an old man. He was in his 70s at the time, and we were friends. He still had child like enthusiasm for history, arts and culture of Kashmir. A few years back he asked me to visit his place in Jammu. I never got the chance. My visits to Jammu were getting fewer and shorter. I regret it.
For last few months I was writing emails to him. No response. I looked up his FB. No update. Only year old photograph of him hitting the gym. But, I needed to get in touch. Someone had come across an old family photograph uploaded by him and managed to identify a common ancestor. This was a 14 year old kid who wanted to know. I was sure Man Mohan Ji would have been thrilled to hear it. No response.
For past many years I had a pending FB friend request from Man Mohan Munshi. It was an alternate account. I assumed it must have been an older lost account of him, his other account. The account I was Friends with was very much his latest. Somehow, this morning, I don’t know what came over me, I accepted that pending friend request. In evening, someone, a friend of his tagged that profile to inform that Man Mohan Ji passed away this morning after a brief illness.
Man Mohan Ji made this blog richer, helped me understand a lot of things, most of all, his emails often kept me going. It was always rewarding to know that someone more knowledgable was caring for the work you were doing, someone was reading. That someone was trusting you with his memories and treasures of his past.
It was a pleasure knowing him and an honor to be a conduit of all that he had to share.
Man Mohan Munshi, May 1954. At 13000 ft near a Mollen pot hole in a snow covered valley in Pir Panjal Range. for his post graduate thesis paper submitted in 1955
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You can spend hours browsing through the garden of memories he has left:
A mixture of herbs, shrubs, leaves, wild fruits and roots together known in Kashmir as loussi ghass. The mix includes brie (red berries), shangar (herbs), ladrigand (haldi/turmeric root), shontgand (Ginger root) and many more of such. It used to be sold by Buhur…the grocer guys…named liked Shabu Buhur or among muslims by Khazir Woan. The bath ritual is still among Kashmiri Muslims, so the herb mix is still sold in Kashmir by certain old traditional grocers. My father brought it all the way from Srinagar.
boiling
Cooling
Post Bath:
Rice balls are mixed with hend (supposed to be dried dandelion leaves, father misplaced the leaves, so we used paalak). Fish is cooked and kept with it in a plate. Fish is essential for the ritual. Beside it we can put yellow meat and some vegetable dish.
A kaajwot (pestle stone) is kept on the ground. The child is placed on it and then brought into the house. Burza is burnt [Burzu myat kadun], and waved around the head of mother and child. My father had brought the bark from a Birch tree in Pahalgam around 10 years ago. A name is given to the child (if a girl, 2 generations ago, name was changed at the time of girl’s marriage in another ritual]. And the oldest lady in the house sings a line “sokh-ti-pun-syun“.
Burza/Birch bark
welcome
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In Kerala, we found the practice of Ayurvedic bath post child birth quite a common culture. The are women who are employed for it. There are herb mix that are sold. Goes on for about 40 days. The new born is given special massage using oils although doctors recommend caution with the newborn and ask to rely only on good expert hands.
It is a lake so tiny that in it a mustard seed finds no room.
Yet from that lake everyone drinks water.
And into it do gazelles, jackals, rhinoceroses, and sea-elephants
Keep falling, falling, almost before they have time to be born
The lines evoke a mystery, conjures up exotic images like rhinoceroses and sea-elephants, something that no Kashmiri would have possibly known. The lines conceal a deeper meaning and invites a reader to get to the root of it all.
The answer to the riddle is: teats. Mother’s teats, the seed of life. The point being that something complex as life actually some out of something that looks very simple. And that just being born is not the beginning, it is also the end. Creatures born and then returning to the source, the seed.
I have been fascinated by these lines for few years now. So I tried to find if there is a seed to the thought, the idea.
The simile of egg or seed occurs in grammarian Bhartrihari’s Vakya-padiya.
This willing desire, called the word,
has a nature similar to that of an egg;
Its evolving starts gradually,
when one part follows another,
just as it happens
when[one foot follows another during ordinary]
walking
[~From Early Vedanta to Kashmir Shaivism: Gaudapada, Bhartrhari, and Abhinavagupta By N. V. Isaeva]
It is meant to explain how some words conceal and hold higher meaning. A riddle is also essentially words, in sequence, that together hold a deeper meaning.
Harivrsabha, disciple of Bhartrihari mentions the egg being mentioned in those lines is a peacock’s egg (mayura-anda).
In Paratrimshika-karika, Abhinavagupt talks about seed of universe using banyan seed.
Just as the great banyan tree
is present in its seed
only in the form of potency,
So the whole of the universe,
with its moving and immovable things,
is present in the heart [of the higher Lord].
The form the words take here are in thought similar to what Lal Ded is saying.
In Chandogya Upanishad we find origin of the thought, the seed of faith (something akin to mustard seed of Christianity):
You are That
Uddälaka asked his son to fetch a banyan fruit.
‘Here it is, Lord!’ said Svetaketu.
‘Break it,’ said Uddalaka.
‘I have broken it, Lord!’
‘What do you see there?’
‘Little seeds, Lord!’
‘Break one of them, my son!’
‘It is broken, Lord!’
‘What do you see there?’
‘Nothing Lord!’ said Svetaketu.
Uddālaka said: My son! This great banyan tree
has sprung up from seed so small
that you cannot see it.
Believe in what I say, my son!
That being is the seed; all else but His expression.
He is truth. He is Self.
Svetaketu! You are that.’
[~ Shree Purohit Swami and W.B. Yeats]
Lal Ded also talks about an impossibly small seed of life, a small lake, out of which all life is born. That she mentions as the source. And then in death, life returns to the source.
The real beauty of Lal Vakhs and the deeper meaning and vast social within them…a sample
Doeb yaeli chaev’nas doeb kani pae’they Saz tai saaban metsh’nam ye’tsey Sae’ts yeli fir’nam hani hani kae’tsey, Ade Lalli mae prae’vem par’me gath
I came across these lines of Lal Ded recently and within these lines I noticed something odd that shone out like a buried piece of gold nugget.
First a translation:
when the washer man pounded me on his stone
when he applied soda ash and soap
every part the weaver cut, pricked and probed
then I Lala found final salvation
What stands out in the vakh at first is the word “Sabun”/Soap. Lal Ded is 14th century, so what is Sabun doing in 14th century Kashmir? The word Sabun itself is of Arabic origin. “Saz” is the naturally occurring salt of Natron, that humans know as the earliest form of natural soap.
It must be here remembered that what we know as Lal Vakh and attribute to Lal Ded, much of it actually is in fact of later origin. This Vakh also points out to that. However, there is something more happening in these lines. What exactly is being described? Commentators and writers have nothing to say. It is vaguely assumed the vakh refers to production of cotton cloth from cotton. Which of course can’t be right. The sequence of events is the vakh is not right. What is the washerman pounding?
Even Sir Richard Carnac Temple in the first monumental work on Lal Ded in western world. “The Word of Lalla the Prophetess” (1924) mentions that his local informants (which would mean his actual source of translations) were not satisfactorily able to explain the lines.
So what is happening?
Here’s my simple take based on the assumption that a lot of Lal Vakh is not just a glimpse of inner journey but description of the outer world. In these lines, Lal Ded, or the writer is employing the process of Felt (or Namda) making as metaphor for making of something beautiful, a violet transformational process.
The process of making Felt, a central Asia phenomena originally, and one of the oldest known method to man for making clothing involves pounding the fur and then use of soaps and detergents for fusion of fiber, needles and scissors arrive later for the patters and designs.
It is the vast social distance between the commentators of vakh and the working class that has made something so obvious depicted in these lines oblivious to most.
An account of destruction brought by Spanish Flu in Jammu and Kashmir in 1918. Based on State 1921 Census report. This was the pandemic that killed 25–39 million people around the world and decimated about 5% of Indian population back then with about 17 million people dead. Do keep in mind in World War 1 men from Jammu, Poonch went to take part. It was travel necessitated by a far off war that make this flu a fast moving pandemic.
The heaviest toll of human lives was, however, exacted by the fell epidemic of Influenza, which wrought havoc among the population regardless of climate, . locality, profession, sex or age. The losses reported by the Chief Medical Officers give a. total of 44,514, but some of the reported figures are not quite reliable. The pest started from the city of Jammu, where there were, properly speaking, two attacks: The first which occurred in Au!ruSt 1918, was in a mild form and did not result in much loss of life. The severe and fatal form of the epidemic commenced from the middle of October and the first death in the Jammu city were recorded on 17th October. The transmission of infection by human agency from the city to the villages was, only a matter of days, and the disease soon penetrated into the remotest tracts and even the most isolated and outlying hamlets were unable, to escape the infection. It was a hard task to ascertain the exact number of deaths from Influenza in the city or to discriminate between deaths from War fever- as Influenza was popularly called-and malarial fever which was prevailing simultaneously but yielded to treatment with quinine. The total number of deaths attributed to influenza in the city with a population of over 31,000, in about two months times was 519, against a total death roll of 686. The number of deaths during the corresponding period in 1917 was 164. The highest daily rate of 38 was recorded with a fortnight of the outbreak.
The total mortality from Influenza in the Jammu Province (excluding the city) during the period of four months is reported to be 7,988, but these figures are undoubtedly unreliable, considering that the number of deaths in Kashmir where the epidemic was believed to be less virulent and fatal, amounted according to a rough calculation made by the Chief Medical Officer, to 15,000. This assumption receives further support from the fact that the total mortality from all causes in the Province (including the city) in 1918 stood at 49,800 against 25,817 and 2I,844 respectively in the two years immediately preceding and succeeding the year of Influenza. It is, therefore, obvious that the unprecedentedly heavy mortality of that year is attributable in a very large measure to the ravages of Influenza and the Police report of only 7,988 deaths is a very considerable underestimate of the actual mortality.
In Kashmir the epidemic first appeared in a mild form in August, but this
visit only proved to be the forerunner of the disastrous visitation later on in October. Rapidly travelling as far as Kargil and Ladakh it was raging with full force in the
Ladakh District by the end of November. Fortunately the mortality in Kashmir
does not seem to have been very heavy. The total number of deaths according
to the Chief Medical Officer’s estimate comes to I5,000 against 7,007 reported by
the Police. The unreliable nature of the Police reports has already been discussed,
and as an illustration of the value of these reports it may mentioned that in
Srinagar Municipality only 76 deaths from Influenza were registered by Police against the President’s estimate of at least l,000.
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In the decade the population growth was below normal but still positive at 5.1% (compared to pan India where it was down to just 1.2 percent). However the impact of Spanish flu on the population can be gauged from the fact that the population growth for the previous decade had been 8.69 percent. The decade overall saw more deaths than births across divisions. The reports goes on to say:
The main factor contributing to this result is the prevalence of Influenza epidemic in 1918, which carried away at least 44,514 souls according to the most cautious estimates drawn up by the Chief .Medical Officers. It is a pity that authentic figures of deaths from Influenza are not obtainable, as the reporting agency could not distinguish Influenza from common fever, and as the column for recording the cause of death in the Death register, is not usually filled in. At the same time, the reporting agency both in cities. and the mufassil was thoroughly paralysed by the sudden and widespead nature of the epidemic, and could not be expected to properly discharge their dutees. In these circumstances the Chief Medical Officers had to base their estimates of mortality from Influenza on their general enquiries, assisted by a comparison of the total mortality during the year with the average death rate. Unfortunately the vital statistic of the present decade are as worthless and unreliable as those of the previous decennium.
Bulk of increase in population is explained as “immigration”
In addition, in Mirpur it was estimated 1.6% population of 1911 was dead due to influenza. In Skardu 6.8 %. The population of Punch town which is the capital of Punch Ilaqa decreased from 7,564 in 1911 to 7,026 in 1921. Pattan town (back then freshly coming along Jhelum cart road) lost 10% of population. In the valley it was also noticed that the population of darweshes or fakirs increased by 40% and the report links it to destitution cause by Flu.
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Scale of Spanish flu deaths in rest of India. The Indian census report notes:
The influenza epidemic of 1918 invaded the continent of India in two distinct waves. The first infection apparently radiated from Bombay and progressed eastward from their, but its origin and foci are uncertain. It may have been introduced from shipping in Bombay district, Delhi, and Meerut in the spring; but the existence of the diseases in epidemic form cannot be established without doubt before June. The diseases became general in India in both the military and civil population during August and infection spread rapidly from place to place by rail, road and water.
A brief look at the history of people who made the water bodies of Kashmir alive. Some unknown facts and lesser known stories. Take a dive.
Haji Family inside a Doonga
1918
In Nilamata purana, the origin of Kashmir valley is told using the Matsya Avatar story. A great deluge, a divine boat of feminine power ferrying all life on the eternal waters of deathless eternal Shiva and this boat being rowed by Narayan in the form of a fish. The story conforms to the strain of Kashmir Shaivism in which female power Shakti brings about the experienced world to life through her interaction with Shiva. In this story half-human, half-fish Narayan is the rower. The doer. The action. The story is told in context of Naubandhana tirath, a mountain site near Kramasaras which we now know as Kausar nag located in the Pir Panjal Range in the Kulgam District’s Noorabad. The site where the divine boat was moored. The story is eerily similar to Abrahamic tale of Noah’s Arc and Jonah. Kashmir was born out of water. Myths as well geology tells us that much. The higher reaches of Kashmir mountains in fact have many sites where boulders have been carved by glacial action over millenniums to arrive at a shape in which a hole appears, a hole as if to tie a boat.
Where there are humans, where there is water, there exist boats, there exist stories.
Matsya Avatar of Vishnu, ca 1870. Uttar Pradesh, India.
I heard the story of Kausarnag’s Naubandana many years ago from a Haenz, the tribe of people in Kashmir often called the descendants of Noah. While the ancient texts from Kashmir take pride in water origins of Kashmir, the people who actually made life possible in water filled land were not evoked much.
In Kalhana’s 12th century chronicle of Kashmir, Rajatarangini, we read about Nishadas, read about old trees along ancient canals, their aging trunks worn smooth by ropes meant for mooring boats. This is the only written testament to Boatmen’s existence in this ancient Kashmir. While history may have forgotten to mention Hanjis. The Hanjis didn’t forget History. For centuries they have been carrying with them oral history of changing geography of Kashmir, stories of cities being born and withering away, routes appearing and dissolving, water rising and falling, they have witnessed all that happened near and far from water bodies. It is thus not an accident that one of the of Rajatarangini’s authenticity as a historical work was provided by a boatman. In the 8th century, King Jayapida, grandson of Lalitaditya, called upon the engineers from Sri Lanka (in Rajatarangini, in typical Kashmiri manner, called “Rakshasas”) to build water reservoirs in Kashmir. Jayapida’s planned to build a water fort called Dvaravati (named after Krishna’s Dwarika). Alexander Cunningham, the 19th century British archaeologist identified Andarkut near Sumbal as Dvaravati. He was wrong and had only discovered half-a-city as the city was supposed to be built in two rings. A few years later George Buhler while looking for Sanskrit Manuscripts in Kashmir was rightly lead by a boatman to a nearby place called Bahirkut which he was able to identify due to its geography as Dvaravati. In this case it appears Brahmins had no immediate recollection of the place, but boatmen did. Sumbal was for centuries the major junction in water highway of Kashmir, it is natural boatmen knew the place more intimately. Interestingly, it is in an 8th century sculpture found in Devsar that we see the earliest model of a Kashmiri boat. The sculpture depicts five Matrikas, the protective mother goddesses being carried on a boat along with musicians. It is a boat procession, probably a representation of idol immersion scene, something still done in Bengal. Historical texts are bit descriptive about the type of boats in Kashmir and how they came into existence. Pravarasena II, late 6th century, can be considered the builder of Srinagar as the place of canals, bridges and water bodies, the way it is even seen now. He is also the builder of first boat-bridge in Srinagar, somewhere near the present Zaina Kadal. If the bridge was of boats, we can assume it was work of boatmen. Kalhana mentions many a boat journeys, however in his text not much is written about the people who made these journeys possible. There is a modern divisive theory popular in Kashmir that Hanjis were “imported” from Sri Lanka in Kashmir by an ancient King. Multiple books and experts mention it, often mentioning the name of the king as Parbat Sen and place named as Sangaldip. Writer G.M. Rabbani mentions that the King as Pravarasena II and the place as Singapore! Here lies the story of how colonial era writings shaped our modern understanding of Kashmir and how lack of further quality research and societal bias often made weapons out of them. The origin of this theory is a casual mention by Walter Roper Lawrence’s encyclopaedic work for future administrators of Kashmir, The Valley of Kashmir (1895). This work is still used as the primary source for what we now commonly know about Hanji. Lawrence’s primary (uncredited) source was ‘Tarikh-i- Hasan’ of Moulvi Ghulam Hasan Shah (1832-1898) written based on a lost work in Persian (complied out of older Sanskrit works) by Mula Ahmed, court poet of Zain-ul-abdin (1422-1474). The work (original ironically lost in a boating accident) is highly prone to mistakes as it seems a lot of meaning of original texts is lost in translation. The work even provides an alternate history of Dal Lake. King Pravarasena built a dam on Vitasta river at a place called Nawahpurah and made the river flow into his newly built city around Hari Parbat area. Then many decades later during the era of a King named Duralab Darun, there was a huge flood that lead to the creation of a lake which just kept getting bigger over the centuries. If we treat this work to be a source, we have to accept, Dal Lake is a man-made Lake and boatmen were again part of the endeavour. Still around Dal there are spots under water where you can see submerged temples, remnants of an older city, a place probably an experienced boatman of Dal can still take you to.
Many historical works point to the role played by Hanjis in shaping the ecology of the water-bodies, giving them the recognizable face we see today. In Srivara’s Zaina Rajatarangini, we find mention of “Dhivara“, the sanskrit term for fishermen used in Kathāsaritsāgara and Mahābhārata [“dhi” being iron…probably allusion to the iron harpoon used for fishing.] A few century later in Tarikh-i- Sayid Ali (1569) they are mentioned as “Koorjian” (?). The deep big lakes of Kashmir were unsafe for navigation for a very long time. Winds could build deadly waves in the lake. In ancient Kashmir, to make the lakes navigable, to break big waves from forming, islands were built in the lake, often these islands would also mark a temple. Sona Lank and Rop Lank of Dal Lake were for navigation of Dal. Most fascinating is the story of creation of Zaina Lank in Wular Lake, once the most feared lake of Kashmir. To build the Island, boatmen were employed by Zain-ul-abdin and they chose a site where there was a submerged temple, they knew this to be the perfect site. Baharistan-i-Shahi (1614) mentions Zaina got an architect named Duroodgiri from Gujarat to build him a boat shaped like ship with sails. The boat was used to build the Island that made Wular lake accessible to humans. It was boatmen who were hired to do it. This was also the boat that the famous King used for sailing on Kausar Nag listening to ancient works while visiting Naubandhana site. Knowing how deft the boatmen of Kashmir are in the art of storytelling, one can imagine boatmen regaling the King with miraculous tales about Naubandhana during the ride. Any tourist who has visited Kashmir would know this experience. Boatmen are surely the first guides of Kashmir. In this story we also see the appearance of a new technology in Kashmir, the sail boat. The makers of boat were over the centuries going to be an intimate part of this industrious tribe. In “Ain-e-Akbari” (16th-century) we read about the emperor wanting to build a houseboat: a boat modeled on the design of Zamindar house of Bengal, a two storied structure with many beautifully carved windows. For this he had many boats destroyed and then got an architect from Bengal to design his dream boat. It is said that thousands of such boats were made. These are the boats we see floating in lake bodies of Kashmir in Mughal paintings. Abu’l Fazl writes about Akbar’s visit, “this country there were more than 30,000 boats but none fit for the world’s lord, able artificers soon prepared river-palaces (Takht-i-Rawans), and made flower gardens on the surface of water.”
Hanjis were living in the simple doonga boats for centuries, calling it home. Yet, the term “Houseboat”, as we now understand in relation to tourism, can be assigned to this boat built on order of Akbar. We are still centuries away from the story of “Houseboats” as we see them today. In between we read about Aurangzeb’s attempt in around 1655 to build ships to compete with Europeans. Italians were sent to build the ship in waters of Kashmir. Two such ships were made but the experiment failed because the boatmen in Kashmir failed to get the hang of these foreign warships. Kashmiri boatmen in fact were essential part of Mughal Imperial Nawara Fleet or River Boat fleet. They were said to have played an important part in Akbar’s conquest of Bengal. In the last days of Mughal empire we read that Mughal river fleet comprised of mostly Kashmiri boatmen who would use their own language for calling out to each other and for navigating. Perhaps not so surprisingly boatmen also figure in King Lalitaditya’s conquest of Bengal in the 8th century.
Ruler on a boat with attendants 17th century, reign of Jahangir British Museum
In the background the island of Zain-ul-abdin (1422-1474) in Wular
Meanwhile, boats in Kashmir were not for war, boatman was a trade involving life. Abu’l Fazl in his “Ain-e-Akbari” observes that life in Kashmir revolves around boats, they are everywhere. This was true even a few decades back. Food rations arrived in big “bahat” boats, material needed to build houses arrived in still bigger “War” boat. Fuel needed for cooking: “lobur” dung cakes were delivered by “Lobur Haenz” in “Khachu” boats. Utensils, vegetables, mats, milk and other essentials were delivered in a “Dembnav”. Water chestnuts (once a staple of Kashmiris, and an essential for Kashmiri Hindus on certain festive days) were provided by “Gari Haenz”. “Gaade Haenz” would get you the fish. Fishermen would catch fish in “Gadavari” boats, their families living on them under straw-mat canopy, keeping themselves warm using “manan”, a bare clay brazier, no Kangri. People and news travelled on fast moving Shikara, for longer journeys and pilgrimages there were Doongas. For crossing demonic waves of Wular, you could rely on “Tsatawar”, a small roofless small boats and your life would be in the hands of the most courageous and expert Hanjis. This was life in Kashmir animated by the boats and their engines – the boat people ever whizzing across the rivers, canals and lakes, like blood running through the veins, shedding sweat, pumping life.
A family of Hanjis, 1904
One wonders who are these people?
Kashmiri Boatmen. Photograph by Francis Frith
1877
The origin of Haenz the boatmen of Kashmir is shrouded in many tales. The term Haenz (Hanjis is Hindustani) itself is of uncertain origins. It today sounds similar to Manjhi of Hindustani. Certain experts now link Haenz to Sanskrit word “Navaj” for boatman. However, I propose a new theory: closest perhaps is the Sanskrit word “maṅginī”, used for boat and as well used for women. The wit of sanskrit word play in Matsya story thus comes to light. The word comes from “manga” for head of the boat. This word may well be the origin of ancient Kashmiri work “Henze” for women.
Why do we know so little about the people who were so essential to Kashmiri way of life?
Rajatarangini perhaps offers us a clue, or rather how this work approached history. Rajatarangini essentially dealt with the royal life, it was meant to be read by those besieged by the complexities of running a state. Thus, more often than not, only those people and tribes find way into it who in some manner, through their mobilization, at one time or another posed a challenge to the power balance of the state, or were thus essential to running the state machinery. Thus we find mention of tribes like Tantray, Margray, Dhars, Bhats, Kauls, Syeds etc. That not much is mentioned about Nishadas only means at no time did they pose a threat to the ruler, they were outside the scope of power. They had little time in their tough life for politics.
“The boats and boatmen of Kashmir” (1979) by Dr. Shanta Sanyal was first socio-economic study of Hanjis. In it the author makes a not so surprising observation about Hanjis and their approach to politics:
“As has been observed above, Hanjis or the boatmen, are a business community and their economic interests are the upper-most in their minds. The National Conference will also become a target of their criticism and open enmity if its leaders happen to place obstacles in the pursuit of their trade during the peak months of tourist season. The Hanjis expect every political party to behave during these months so that the tourists are not scared away from the valley. This means an economic disaster to the community and any party who helps this unfortunate situation is the nearest and the most Criminal Party in the eyes of Hanjis.”
Hanjis as a tribe is categorized as semi-nomadic, the people worked in various trades based on seasons (like growing vegetables, tourism, fishing etc.) and during other times, they worked as manual labor, often outside the state. The nature of this nomadic life meant education levels were low, they were unprepared for drastic changes sweeping across Kashmir. As some old ways of life changed, some associated professions started disappearing, thus today you will be hard pressed to find Lobur Haenz, cooking is now done by gas, Maer Haez gone with the death of Maer Canal in 70s, “War” and “Bahar” boat gone as trucks now perform the function, Shikaras are now mostly a tourist prop and Sumo taxis ply on roads like “Doongas” of yore. The people of Doongas meanwhile are stranded, relocated to land, minus boat, their economic well being fossilized, tied hastily to the question of aesthetics and environment. A community that has been undergoing massive disruptive changes to their way of life for centuries, is again, unseen, unheard being thrust under the wheel of history. There are some names buried even deeper in history. “Ayer Haenz” used to hunt and live in the forests. “Ayer” was the tribe in Kashmiri Ramayana to which the boatman King of Ganges who helped Rama cross the river. Colonial writers were to associate the tribe of the Ramayana hunter with Bhils, the largest tribal community of Kashmir.
Among the various tribal communities of India, Hanjis stand out in a unique way. Something happened in this community that seldom happens among other marginalized tribal communities of the county. A section of people in this community were able to take control of their economy, the capital and climb up the economic ladder on its own, purely based on grit, fortitude and some luck.
Two Kashmiri Women with their Dog on a houseboat
[late 19th century, probably by Bourne]
How was houseboat born?
About 200 years ago, when the tickle of European tourists in Kashmir started arriving, some Doongas started transforming into Houseboats. It is widely believed that Houseboats were born simply because these tourists could not purchase land in Kashmir. However, facts tell us other more important story. The tourists could have always taken up houses on rent. What made Houseboats a basic necessity of these early tourists was the need for lodging near various camp sites that they were discovering across Kashmir. Early houseboats were a floating camp for tourists going on long journeys. Natives were already using Doongas for this purpose. For western tourists additional amenities were placed inside the boat along with some changes in the basic design. A room wall was removed to create an additional lounge area at the front, straw matted windows were replaced by wooden panels. Colonial era writer Sir Francis Younghusband, who was the British Resident in 1906 was to claim that a ‘floating house’ was first built in Kashmir by a sport loving Englishman named M.T. Kennard in some year between 1883-1888. The boat was named “Pamila”. This may or may not be the origin of Houseboats in Kashmir as there are multiple stories about them, but this certainly is the beginning of the phenomena in which houseboats came to have fanciful names. Kennard in around 1918 went on to build a marvel: a two storied houseboat named “Victory”, which even in the 1980s used to stand at Raj Bagh. The houseboat design was modified and improved over the years by people name Colonel R. Sartorins, Sir R. Harrey Bart. Hanjis meanwhile in their oral histories remember one visiting Army man named Dunlop with modifying the Darpad Doonga to come up with basic elementary design of a houseboat. Identity and exact date of Dunlop is not known as none of the later writers moved beyond the writings of early western writers, no original research was carried out based on interaction with the Hanjis. Interestingly, in an English painting depicting Lord Canning’s visit to Kashmir in 1860 we can see a Darpad Doonga being used as a houseboat, as a moving floating camp. Fifty years later Younghusband mentions lack of Dak Bungalows in Kashmir. We read about Nedou’s Hotel in Gulmarg, started by a Croatian origin family, existed in Kashmir since 1880s. Then there were some westerners who had set up huts for themselves in the higher reaches of hills. Around the same time some British citizens like Miss O’Connor were running a successful lodging business for western visitors while agencies like Cockburn’s could provide the tourists huts in Gulmarg. Some shops catering to the needs of the tourists started on Houseboats around Bund area of Srinagar 1890s. Among them some famous names like Mahatta Studio started about 1918. This was the golden era of tourism in Kashmir. Among the many western tourists heading to Kashmir, a famous Hindu monk’s boat experience stands out. In 1897-98, Swami Vivekananda wanted to set up an ashram in Srinagar, but the request for land was refused by the British Regent Adelbert Talbot. Like most other visitors, he stayed on houseboats, traveled by boats going to various campsites and religious sites. During one of the pilgrimage ride on a Doonga boat, Vivekananda worshiped four-year-old daughter of his Muslim boatman as goddess Uma. The act was inline with his beliefs about reforming the caste views of his own community. This is one of the few native accounts of boat travel in Kashmir of that era.
Darpad Doonga
George Landseer (1834–78) painted it in 1881 but depicts scene from 1860 when he accompanied Lord Canning, Governor-General of India from 1856-62, to Kashmir.
Over the next few decades, there were spate of western travelogues and each of them singled out the houseboat experience as something unique. Boatmen became the wheels of tourism and with them moved many other industries that were dying. The great love of Kashmiri Shawls in West was over by the time Germany and France went to war in 1870, exports and sales were down. There was economic upheaval in shawl industry which lead to human upheaval. Ironically, only more wars in Europe helped Shawl industry survive. A surge in tourists was seen in Kashmir during the world wars. Western soldiers post in India, in Summers, for a moment of relief headed to Kashmir. They stayed in houseboats, purchased shawls and handicrafts as souvenirs. Earlier these specimens were sent to the west, now the west came to Kashmir. Kashmiri crafts were introduced afresh to the new world. A more direct case of houseboats leading to the economic growth of other crafts can be seen in case of Khatamband woodwork for ceilings. Lawrence notes, “A great impetus has been given to this industry by the builders of houseboats, and the darker colours of the walnut-wood have been mixed with the lighter shades of the pine.” The carpenters in this era picked up new skills even as old designs and motifs were used to embellish the Houseboat. The actual work of building the houseboat was pure native engineering applied to Deodar wood. Incidentally, Deodar wood was also essential to another great innovation of that era – Railways. The Railway sleepers in India were usually made of this tree wood. Tourism had a ripple effect on other crafts of the state too, for example: the tailors of Kashmir came to be known as some of the best weavers of English dresses. The birth of modern houseboat is one of the few genuine innovations driven by an entrepreneurial zeal. In modern lingo, we can say it was Kashmir’s “Silicon Valley” moment. And like in any true Capitalist system, the State had little to do with it in terms of capital investment or skill development, they were more involved in price regulations. It was people who drove the whole movement. It was driven by family of Hanjis who lived in Doongas towed at the back to Houseboats, people who served the customers, picked up new skills. Their service gave birth to the fabled concept of Kashmiri “mehmaanawazi” – noble service of the guest.
How did Kashmir come to have hundreds of Houseboats? Where was the Capital fund coming from?
The story of houseboats in Kashmir is tied to a figure who one would assume had little to do with boats because of his caste. While Hanjis were learning a spatter of English language from tourists, picking up skills like making pancakes and Jams through corporal punishment at the hand of masters, Pandit Narain Das, a Kashmiri Pandit, was one of the first five Native Kashmiri to learn English (possibly again though use of corporal punishment) in a Christian Missionary School. In around 1885, Narain Das opened a shop for tourists which was destroyed in a fire incident. Narain Das moved his goods to a Doonga and thus started operating his shop from a boat. As business grew, he changed its straw matted walls and roof with wood planks and roofing shingles. The story among the Kashmiri pandit goes that Naraindas was soon approached by European tourists to purchase the boat. Naraindas sold his boat at a profit and soon realized that making and selling boats was a better business. He commissioned great many houseboats, an act for which he caught the moniker “Nav Narain”. P. N Madan, Director of Tourism for the State in early 60s however gives an alternative story to this beginning. According to him there was documented evidence to prove that a Gondola styled Houseboat was in fact commissioned in around 1880 by one General Thatcher. Since Thatcher did not know the local language, in order to pass orders to the builders, he used the English language services of a fourteen year old Pandit Nariandas. Thatcher stayed in the houseboat for the summer and at the end of the tour sold the houseboat to Narain Das for Rs. 200. That is how Narain Das got into the business of boat making. In oral history of boatmen, Narain Das is acknowledged as the man who put in money to get a houseboat constructed, then boats would be handed over to the Doonga Hanjis, in return the Hanjis would pay him a “cess” on services rendered to a tourist. In modern terms he would be called the “venture capitalist” of the industry. Thus in 1906, the number of houseboats in the valley was already in hundreds.Till the year 1948, Narain Das’s family alone had built and managed some 300 houseboats. This golden era of tourism came to an end with the India-Pakistan war of 1947-48. The main benefactors and regular clients of the industry, the British were gone from the sub-continent, new tourists were afraid to travel to a conflict region.
View around Shah Hamadan by William Carpenter Junior, 1854-55
In 1948, only about 5000 tourists stayed in houseboats. In 1950, the total number of tourists was 7000. Hanjis remember the 50s as the terrible decade when houseboats were dismantled by the owners to sell prized deodar wood as a means of sustenance. To relive Kashmir’s economy, it was obvious that tourism had to be revived. In 1948, not many tourists may have arrived, but certain interesting people from artist community arrived to revive the magic of Kashmir on people’s mind. S.H. Raza the world famous painter arrived and stayed on a houseboat in Jhelum near Bund. The houseboat became a hub for budding artists of Kashmir who would watch him paint and out of these artists came the artists who started the Progressive art movement of Kashmir. Early art exhibitions were held on houseboats, so the houseboats became an art studio. Central government commissioned documentaries on Kashmir prominently featuring the boat life. Anthropologists, sociologists, photographers and journalists arrived to document the life of water people. Houseboat owners, dug into their carefully maintained guestbooks going back a century and reached out to old patrons and invited them back. There were ads in international magazines selling the royal dream of a houseboat. “Jash” cultural boat rides were organized in Kashmir. Slowly the tide was turning, the image of Kashmir as the “venice of east” was re-established. Improvements in film photography technology meant Cinema repainted the old monotone descriptive images of earthly paradise in vivid and lush technicolor. Few mortals could ignore the lure. Tourists rediscovered Kashmir. Some Raj era tourists agencies also survived, meanwhile agencies like Razdan, Mercury, Sita etc arrived on scene. As we shall see, while tourism revived, the lot of Hanjis did not change much even as tourists were drawn to Kashmir because of them. For fishermen Hanjis, new varieties of fish were introduced which marginally improved their lot, rest were on their own, working as seasonal manual labor. Till 1979, 87% of Hanjis still lived on boats, only 2% had “pucca” house, 55% lived below the poverty line, only 40% could be called literate with only 2% having finished intermediate standard and still more alarmingly about 60% of Hanjis were under one or another form of debt. We are here talking about a population of two Lakh sixty thousand Hanjis. There were 403 houseboats in the valley at the time and just about 500 Shikara taxis for tourists.
In around 1978, Clarion advertising agency of Calcutta gave the tourism department of Jammu & Kashmir State its symbol – a Shikara on a lake against the background of a mountain. This was the beginning of the second golden era of Kashmiri tourism again driven by boat. By 1981, this number of tourists was to become 6 lakh, while the total houseboats were about 740. Post 1947, number of houseboats in Kashmir reached its zenith in 1985-86 with 825 houseboats. Old houseboats were restored and new ones built in anticipation of even greater numbers. As tourism grew, government policy changed and curtailment was done on number of houseboats. This despite the fact that if Kashmir tourism reaches its full potential, even these number houseboats are not enough as quality tourists do prefer the houseboats. Concerns about the impact of pollution, encroachment of water bodies were being raised, all ignoring the rapid urbanization on land, the blame was squarely put on the boatmen. All these issues came to a stand still along with tourism when the violence of 90s broke out. It was a shock from which boatmen community is still reeling under. Only a trickle of tourists arrived in Kashmir, that too post-1993 when Hanji community on its own stepped out to personally get the tourists. Besides big Indian cities, the went to cities in Europe and far-east countries like Taiwan, Hongkong, Malayasia and Thailand. They worked hard to put the fear of violence out of the visitors, it was tough, but few did come, and all the other tourism related trades benefited from these efforts. It was during these years that the houseboats on Jhelum went into a state where the owners could not afford to repair them. People in Kashmir started to think of these icons of Kashmiri craft and culture as eyesore. Something that needs to be hidden away like a piece of old furniture.
Fall of tourism in Kashmir in the 1990s, also saw the rise of tourism in Kerala which too has a great boat culture. The place celebrates it. Kerala people take pride in their houseboats as they claim their Kettuvallam (rice barge) boats to be many millennia old. Still, such was hold of Kashmir over the minds of tourists that in Kerala, boatmen came up with motorized boats and named them “Shikara” to dazzle the visitors. It is ironic that icon of Kerala tourist is a tree, a coconut tree but boatmen community is thriving, meanwhile icon of Kashmir tourism is a boat, a shikara but boatmen are seen as some sort of foreign intruders out to destroy environment.
View around Shah Hamadan, February, 2014
“beautified” sans houseboats and boat people
Yet, in the 2000s when Kashmir again was to be revived from economic slumber, tourism was the vehicle, boatmen were again asked to row the massive ship. Again, the cycle of 50s-60s was repeated. Shikara again was brandished as the mascot of tourism, magic of cinema invoked, articles were written, advertisements published, old patrons sought back, slowly the tide again changed. One can actually map the fate of tourism in Kashmir with the number of houseboats on water. In the year 2000, there were 850 houseboats in Kashmir, which in 2007 grew to 1000. Number of tourists about 5 lakh, bulk of them domestic. Once tourism showed signs of revival, again new measures were put in place to curtail the number of houseboats in one way or another. It is almost a pattern. Use boatmen to kickstart the engine of tourism, when efforts start paying dividends, try to side-step the Hanjis by invoking environmental concerns. Here one needs to ask who is better posed to take care of water bodies, a community that have lived in them for generations or people who can’t tell a lake from a pond? World over, for success in saving the environment, local native tribes are made a party to the effort, a synergy is developed, a collaborative effort is taken in which the first step is recognizing their right to the resource and environment, an ownership is established. There is no other way as 80% of the world’s biodiversity is in tribal territories. There are environmental movements that seek to decolonize the approach to conservation. However, in Kashmir Hanjis are being denied the claim that they actually have a territory.
In all this, it must be remembered that post 1947, Hanjis as people were directly or indirectly under the control of Tourism department. That must be unique example for a tribal community anywhere in the world. Their fate was all the more tied to tourism. If tomorrow it was deemed that Hanjis are not essential for tourism, or if it is deemed they are detrimental to the environment in which they have lived for centuries and are better equipped to care about, then truly the future of this tribe is bleak. Dispersed all across the valley, dislocated from their centuries old trades, low education levels, with no ability to put an elected representative in the state assembly, they are disenfranchised people living on whims and fancies of seasonal environmentalists, bureaucrats, judiciary and the government. Thus is ignored the simple fact that Dal probably is shrinking because of effluents coming in from modern townships like Hyderpora, urbanization around Nishat, the development happening on land all around the water body, increasing sedimentation around the edges and also increasing aquatic weeds in the Lake, thereby destroying the endemic biodiversity. Why isn’t this obvious reason first dealt with?
Without prioritizing needs of the people directly impacted by drastic change in government policies, without gauging the reason of failure of previous government schemes supposedly for the benefit of Hanjis and environments, without factoring in the rampant bureaucratic corruption and power lobbies at work, putting boat people on land is like putting a fish out of water (in the name of fish and water) and expecting it to learn to walk.
Hakh/Vegetable seller.
Postcard from circa 1930s
We need to acknowledge that we are talking about the lives of an almost invisible marginalized aboriginal tribe. “Haenz” the word is as old as the Kashmiri language. In sayings of Lal Ded (14th century) we find reference to Haenz lady of Anchar lake, selling lotus stem, calling out to potential buyers. Lal Ded hears her calls and has a moment of epiphany as she engages in a dialogue with the lady. Lad Ded, the grandmother of Kashmiri language and culture, manages to find divine message in business call of a Haenz woman. Lal Ded heard the voice of people whose “coarse” language has been derided by civilized society for centuries. Lal Ded’s ears were open to her calls, her eyes registered their presence. Only then could she sing:
Aanchaari Hanzeni hund gom kanan Nadur chu te hyayu maa
Ti booz trukyav tim rude wanan,
tsainnun chu te tsinev maa
Call of Haenz lady of Anchaar fell in my ears
“This Nadru, who would buy?”
Hear this the wise exclaimed:
“Dwell deeper, would you dwell a bit deeper?”
It was only post 1947 that someone heard this call. Dinanath Nadim, the progressive poet in 1950s wrote a song on this exact Vakh of Lal Ded using the refrain of Haenz women’s “hyayu maa”. Yet, the real call remains unheard, the tribe still struggles against a tide.
Guest post by Nitin Dhar on how the “camp life” was brought to screen in Shikara (2020). How the sets were not just movie sets but more than that.
I was born in 1993, three years after my family like all other Kashmiri Pandit (Hindu) families were forced out of our homeland, Kashmir by the radical Islamist terror outfits and separatist groups for their aim of ‘Aazaad Kashmir’ to cut Kashmir off India and make it an Islamic state. Selective targeting of renowned Hindus in Kashmir began from mid 1989, followed by gang rapes of Hindu women, abductions, loots, burning of our houses and desecration of temples. It was a massacre and an ethnic cleansing on religious basis on the soil of independent democratic India.
My family lived in the refugee camps in tents where my parents got married. Like Shiv and Shanti in ‘Shikara’, the only thing they had was love and hope through all these years of exile. I was born in Jammu and lived in refugee camp called Purkhoo Camp till the age of 14. The only thing that all parents in the camp focussed on was educating their children and not letting their religious persecution sow seeds of hate or revenge. It truly was our resilience and belief in education, love and peace that made us stand on our own feet. We did not pick up stones or guns. We chose pens, peace and hope. And here we are prospering, even in exile.
Almost three decades after the the Kashmiri Pandits’ ethnic cleansing, I got the opportunity to work on ‘Shikara’. It was an extraordinary learning for me, like thousands of those young Kashmiri Pandits who participated in the film and portrayed themselves in it, to witness the tragedies our families went through before our birth.
Ever since I started pursuing photography and filmmaking as my career, I used to think many times that I would definitely have photographed our life in the camps had I been a photographer then, to record images of our tragedy for the world to know.
My grandfather passed away in 1997 due to PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). During the early years of us living in the Purkhoo Refugee Camp in the isolated outskirts of Jammu, he would wear his pheran (long woolen coat) in the scorching heat and run away from the quarter thinking he going back to Kashmir. In less than a kilometre he would faint and fall on the road. People who recognised him would bring him home on their shoulders. He would then take a while to recover. This repeated several times. I will never forget him bringing pieces of bricks and wood to build a small house model and tell me that’s how we would make our house again, a house that we could call home in Kashmir. He was not alone, there were thousands of old men and women who went through PTSD and succumbed to it. Such PTSD is also visible in obsession about news on Kashmir and watching DD Kashir no matter where we live in exile. Besides that, hundreds died because of snake bites, scorpion bites, sun strokes, brain tumour, cardiac arrests etc. For me, every death in exile is martyrdom. It was not just the Kalashnikovs in the hands of Islamic Jehadists in Kashmir that made the Jhelum weep of the Hindu blood, but also the deaths in exile due to the direct consequences of the forced displacement, lest we forget.
On the sets of Shikara, I met many such fellow Kashmiri Pandit refugees who suffer from PTSD. Who wept looking at the recreated camps and who’s chins shivered during scenes that haunt them in their dreams even today.
People who lived in the extreme cold climate of Kashmir, had to suddenly suffer temperature above 48°C, face scarcity of drinking water, electricity and no sanitation or health care. It takes unimaginable courage to look forward and build prosperous lives despite being brutalised and persecuted by one’s own neighbours, and being failed by one’s own state and fellow citizens.
Nevertheless, we stand united in our belief in unity, education, justice and non-violence, come what may.
The refugee masses in ‘Shikara’ are not actors. They are real Kashmiri Pandit refugees who still live in Jagti Refugee Camp in the outskirts of Jammu. This film is the first of its kind.
When the tent camps were being recreated, I remember, Vinod Sir asking me to walk with him during our multiple recces to make sure of authenticity. He even asked me if I had things that the govt. might have provided when my family was in tents, and coincidentally I remembered that we still had an Usha table fan and a couple of blankets that were provided by NGOs and govt. I got them the next day and we put them in Shiv and Shanti’s tent. Another short incident that I will never forget is when we got the refugees from Jagti Camp to the tent camp set, I overhead a little girl sitting in the lap of her mother inside one of the tents. As her mother was emotional and nostalgic, the little girl asked her, “Mumma, aap itne saare log itne chote se tent mein kaise rehte the”? There was silence. I bit my lower lip and walked away to hide tears swelling in my eyes as the mother gave her child a teary smile and a big hug. There are many such examples and stories from the sets of Shikara of how the realism of the sets reflected in the moist eyes and wistful smiles.
Sonal ma’am [Sonal Sawant], who was our production designer made everything look so real. I was myself always surprised as to how she would make the texture of the mud, aging of the tents and the tiles in the narrow lanes of pucca quarters resembles the ones I had in my memory.
Ranga Sir [Rangarajan Rambadran], who was our cinematographer and my HOD did a magician’s job with his imagery, giving us first set of pictures that represent our painful past with so much authenticity.
I can never forget my chats with Rahul Pandita about our exodus and the great event of this film finally being shot. He and his extraordinary book Our Moon Has Blood Clots, have been the source of inspiration for this film and for me in many many ways. He’s our hero. Our real life Shiv.
Here are some more pictures that I present from the sets of Shikara. Hope these images will reach hearts and pull out some kindness. It’s never too late for solidarity and support.
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You can catch the full set of pics and stories at instagram of Nitin Dhar [@wordslivelonger] where the whole series is available there.
