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Eminent Visits Kashmir: The Political Tourist

Like some supremely beautiful woman, whose beauty is almost impersonal and above human desire, such was Kashmir in all its feminine beauty of river and valley and lake and graceful trees. And then another aspect of this magic beauty would come into view, a masculine one, of hard mountains and precipices, and snow-capped peaks and glaciers, and cruel and fierce torrents rushing to the valleys below. It had a hundred faces and innumerable aspects, ever- changing, sometime smiling, sometime sad and full of sorrow…I watched this spectacle and sometimes the sheer loveliness of it was overpowering and I felt faint…it seemed to me dreamlike and unreal, like the hopes and desires that fill us and so seldom find fulfillment. It was like the face of the beloved that one sees in a dream and that fades away on waking.

Words of a man smitten, words falling head over heels, these are words of Jawaharlal Nehru. Tariq Ali quotes these lines in his book The Clash of Fundamentalism: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity. In a chapter dedicated to Kashmir titled, The Story of Kashmir, Tariq Ali tells us:

Sheikh Abdullah promised liberation from Dogra rule and pledges land reform; Nehru perched the virtues of unremitting struggle against the empire and insisted that social reform could come only after the departure of the british; Ghaffar Khan spoke of the need for mass struggle and urged Kashmiris to throw fear to the wind: ‘You who live in the valley must learn to scale the highest peaks.’

Pandit Nehru in KashmirIn the last week of May 1940, Nehru along with Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan paid a visit to Kashmir on an invitation of Sheikh Abdullah. This was when Nehru talked of Kashmir as a beloved. While Nehru was talking about Kashmir as a “beloved”, there were certain developments in the political scene of Kashmir that were to sow the seeds of a lasting turmoil.

In Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir, on May 30, 1940 Nehru made an appeal to Kashmiri pandits advising them to support Sheikh Abdullah’s party National Conference (NC) in its struggle to assume power. Only recently, some pandit leaders had resigned from National Conference alleging an “oppressive communal atmosphere”. In April 1940, on Id Miladun Nabi day, Sheikh Abdullah made a very religious speech that made the pandit members of the party suspicious of the party’s secular nature. Prominent Kashmir pandit leaders of the party made strong protests, these inculed Pt. Jia Lal Kilam, Pt. Tarachand Bulbul who was popularly known as Kashyap Bandhu and Prernnath Bazaz, one of Sheikh’s closest allies, and a man whose standing is still very dicey even among the preset generation of Kashmiri pandits. The affair took a dramatic turn when Kashyap Bandhu and Jai Lal Kilam resigned from National Conference. But, Rushid Taseer writing in Twarikh-e-Hurriyat Kashmir (pages 90-99 vol II) gives an another reason for their resignation. According to the author, Pt. Nehru’s “beloved” trip was the real reason of discord. On 29th May 1940, Kashyap Bandhu objected to Nehru’s visit and asked Sheikh Sahib with whose permission he had invited Pt. Nehru. This little tiff led Kilam and Bandhu to resign from National Conference. They were to later rejoin the party’s working committee on June 1943.

This “beloved trip”, an enthusiastic crowd welcomed, these were Sheikh Abdullah’s followers; as also there were hostile demonstrations by certain people opposed to this alliance between Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah, their numbers yet minuscule.

Who were these protesters?

In 1931, Muslim Conference was formed in Srinagar, Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah, who had recently returned to Srinagar after doing his Masters in Chemistry, left his Government job as a teacher and became its first President. The party formed in response to Maharaja’s oppressive rule, among other things was having agendas like land reforms and removal of heavy taxation. This party, a representative of majority Muslim community of Kashmir, also had Hindu members like Pt. Prem Nath Bazaz and Kashap Bandhu and the lone Sikh leader, Sardar Budh Singh*, as its member. The national demands of self-rule were passed unanimously on 27th Aug. 1938. These minority leaders were among the signatories to the demand of self-government. Most of the Pandit community remained indifferent to these developments if not yet opening dismissive. It is pertinent to note here that initially the Pandits were even hostile to the social and cultural changes suggested by Kashyap Bandhu within the Pandit community. +

The party jumped into a more culturally inclusive politics in early 1938 after Sheikh Abdullah’s chance meeting with Pandit Nehru at Lahore railway station when the latter was on his way to North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Nehru was on his way to meet the Punjab President of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) Mina Iftikharuddin and incidentally, Sheikh Abdullah and Bakhshi Ghulam Muhammad were the personal guests of Mina Iftikharuddin at that time. They accompanied Mina to meet Nehru at the railway station. The two Kashmiri’s, Abdullah and Nehru, formed an instant bond andNehru asked Abdullah to accompany him to the NWFP. The Sheikh agreed while G. M. Bakhshi got off at Shahadra station. In NWFP, they met Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan where Abdullah invited both Nehru and Ghaffar Khan for a visit to Kashmir.

The outcome of this chance meeting was: In March 11, 1939, Sheikh in his address to the standing committee of the state’s Peoples Conference, declared his support of the Indian National Congress. On the 26th March, the Kashmiri delegation lead by the Sheikh met Gandhi in Delhi. On his return to Srinagar, for the first time the flag of Indian National Congress was hoisted at the roof of the headquarters of Muslim Conference at Mujahid Manzil Srinagar. Many of the Muslim Conference members were mystified by the decision that was ratified by the party’s General Council on April 26, 1939. Some Muslim Conference leaders including Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas, a man with considerable clout over the party, opposed this move. Later, these very people and their supporters were to voice their dissent during Nehru’s visit. They were the protesters who couldn’t understand why religion was being kept out of the agenda.

This decision also widened the rift between Jinnah and Abdullah; the rift that was etched out during Jinnah’s visit to the Valley in May 1944. There was war of words between Mr. Jinnah who called the leaders of NC as ‘a gang of goondas‘ and Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah who retorted by saying “If Mr. Jinnah does not give up his habit of interfering in our politics, it will be difficult for him to go back in an honourable manner.” The long visit that lasted two months and a week was quite eventful, in one incident at a public meeting in Baramulla’s Masjid Lawns, the crowd almost heckled Jinnah when he got up on dais to speak. People rose up, unfolding banners with slogans: ‘Hindu Muslim Sikh Itihad – Zindabad‘ and ‘Qaid-e-Azam Sheri Kashmir, Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah – Zindabad‘. The event further rattled wary Jinnah. It is interesting to note that Alastair Lamb in his book Kashmir Disputed Legacy (Page 97) sums up this long visit of Jinnah writing:

” M.A. Jinnah, unlike Jawaharlal Nehru was extremely reluctant at this period of time to involve himself directly (or the Muslim League which he headed) in the internal affairs of the Princely State; such action would in his eyes have been constitutionally improper.

Instead it seems more likely that Jinnah found himself struggling against the Kashmiri leadership of the time, its private resolve and Congress influence on it. His talk about “Muslims have one platform, one Kalima and one God… All Muslims must come under one flag” found no appreciation.

Lines were going to be drawn and the process had started.

Earlier in April 1, 1939, Jinnah, in his reply to an address presented by Kashmiri students at the Aligarh Muslim University, declaimed:

“I can say with certainty that he [Sheikh Abdullah] is in the wrong. Having got himself ensnared by the Congress, which is thoroughly a Hindu organisation, he has put the ship of his community in a whirlpool. I understand that he is doing this out of ignorance and some misunderstanding. But I am fully satisfied that he will soon realise his mistake and will return to the right path, and will come to know that those whom he is considering his friends and at whose beck and call he is acting, are not his true friends but his enemies.”

Yet, in his 1936 private visit to Kashmir, Jinnah in his liberal avatar, had almost ceremoniously advised harmony between Hindus and Muslims.

Another significant visitor to Kashmir in the year 1944 was V.D.Savarkar, the man behind Hindutva ideology. It is equally interesting to note that Pandit S.N.Fotedar, the President of Yuvak Sabha told Savarkar that Hindu Fundamentalism was as alien a culture to Kashmir as Muslim Fundamentalism was. Much later in 1953, a point man of Hindutva, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, was to loose his life in Kashmir.

In the changed political scenario post Quit India Movement of 1945, Nehru along with Azad and Gaffar Khan, all recently released from prison, paid a visit to Kashmir and was given a rousing reception by NC, the reception included a splendid river procession. There were threats of disruption issued by the MC, and disruptions there were. This time the voice of dissent was stronger than ever, and on his arrival in Srinagar, the people took to streets in large numbers shouting slogans like “Go back Nehru”. The Kashmiri society started to segregate along religious lines.

On 7th August 1945, Nehru advised Kashmiri Pandits (reported in the Hindu of 10 August) “[…] to join it (NC) in much larger numbers and thereby influence its decisions.” Nehru was counting on Sheikh and he expected a broad support for him and did all he could to make it possible.

In May 1946, “Quit Kashmir” movement started against the Dogra rule. The movement had the support of the Indian Congress leadership. On May 15, 1946, the Dogra rulers arrested Sheikh Abdullah and other Kashmiri leaders. Nehru came to Kashmir as defense counsel for the Sheikh. The race to win over Kashmir was about to start.

M.K. Gandhi paid a short visit to Kashmir in early August of 1947 at the insistence of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed, the same man who in 1964 was to become party to another dramatic episode in the history of Kashmir conflict: His arrest and detainment under the Defence of India Rules despite the support of the majority of MLA’s in the State Assembly, another Indian blunder in Kashmir. During this visit that lasted from 1st to 4th August, Gandhi tried unsuccessfully to influence the Maharaja and set up a credible constitutional government and to free Sheikh, who was in the prison at that time. Stanley Wolpert , the man who started his career with the imaginative book Nine hours to Rama, writes in Gandhi’s Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi that Gandhi was persuaded to visit Kashmir by Lord Mountbatten. Before leaving for Kashmir, Gandhi announced: “I am not going to suggest to Maharaja to accede to India and not to Pakistan, the real sovereign of the State are the people of the State. If the ruler is not a servant of the people then he is not the ruler.” True to his nature and principles, Gandhi’s stated position on the subject of Kashmir was “ The people of Kashmir should be asked whether they want to join Pakistan or India. let them do as they want. The ruler is nothing. The people are everything.” Stanley Wolpert quotes these lines in his book, suspicious minds would notice the omission of third option, the word “independence” in Gandhi’s speech.
Jag Mohan Malhotra, the man who was the governor of Kashmir at the start of the present Kashmir turmoil, in his mammoth book My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir writes:

Gandhi’s visit to Kashmir in July-August 1947, his meeting with the Maharajha on August 1, dismissal of R.C. Kak from the office of Prime Minister on August 10, release of Sheikh Abdullah on September 29, after tendering an ‘unqualified apology’ in his letter of September 26, strengthening of the road link between Pathankot and Jammu, and the scheme to construct a boat bridge over the river, all would seem to suggest that the ground was being prepared for accession of the State to India; at leasr, the possibility was not being ruled out.

Gandhi’s brief Kashmir visit is clouded in unverifiable accounts, not much literature is available on the subject. One of these different account states:

Mahatma Gandhi was humiliated publicly and the secular mission frustrated by the gang of three–the Maharaja, RC Kak and Swami Sant Dev–the dirty Troika. The gang of three harmed the whole of India, particularly the KPs.

According to another unverifiable account:

The windows of his car were shattered in Baramullah, where an angry crowd protested his visit.

One thing is clear, the Kashmir situation was starting spiraling out of control. The lines of alliance got blurry and the cold waters of Jhelum got muddier.

Much later, the fabled friendship between Nehru and Sheikh was to turn sour over the issue of autonomy of Kashmir and the things came to a head in 1953 when he was dismissed as Prime Minister by the Nehru government and jailed for eleven years, accused of corruption and separatism. This was the nadir.

In February 1948, in a private conversation with the retiring Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan, General Sir Frank Messervy, Nehru was to utter the ironic words:

“As Calais was written on Queen Mary’s heart, so Kashmir is written on mine.”

Kashmir turned out to be Calais of more than just him, and many of them didn’t even have a heart.

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Footnote:

*Credit goes to Sardar Budh Singh, unfurled banner of revolt against the then moribund system perpetuating forced labour (begaar), unscientific land revenue and land relations and set a new agenda for wholesale reforms. In fact, it was he only who conveyed his radical views regarding the politico-economic set-up prevalent in the state to Sheikh Abdullah who till then was wallowing in the quagmire of communal politics shaped by the shawl-barons, Jagirdars and beard-flaunting Molvis
Source

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+Among other things, Kashayap Bandhu advised women folk to get rid of their pheren, the long woolen robe that is still synonymous with kashmiri way of life, as it was making them lethargic and according to him it was a stumbling block in the progress of Kashmiri women.

His attempts at change found favor among some progressive poets and they coined slogans and songs to support this movement of Kashyap Bandhu. One among these poets, Dina Nath, a Government School teacher writing under his pen name ‘Dilgir’ (not be confused with the more famous kashmiri Poet Dina Nath Nadim who in 1971, was awarded the Nehru prize by the Russian government.) wrote the famous line:

Travee Pheran lo lo
Zooj, Pooch tye Narivaar
Yim chhi shikasaek sardaar
mali baerthaey gardan
Travee Pheran lo lo

Oh! Give up the Pheran, dear
Give up Zooj, Pooch and Narivaar
for there are the harbinger of squalor
Now is your neck covered with muck
Give up the Pheran, O dear!

Kashyap Bandhu’s attempt at reform was met with responses like:

taaraachand bulbulo trawoo israar
aes na baa traawoy z’ahtih naerwaar

TaraChand, O! Stop chattering like a Bulbul,
leave the doggedness, for we will never leave,
our gown precious worn around the collar, narivaar

Pheran is here referred with the name narivaar. In Kashmiri language narivaar is a clothing that covers the arms and shoulders. Besides Narivaar, a pheran comprises of two more sets of clothing, a Zooj and a Pooch. This clothing does have a tendency to attract dust. Bandhu and his bunch of close associates started a door-to-door movement and community meets. Disdainful, some pandits critical of his thoughts began to call him Kash Bandooq, a rifle filled with sawdust.

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Watch video of Nehru visit to Kashmir in 1948 here

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About the image:
Nehru at Dachigam Sanctuary

Nehru getting out of a car for a rally in Kashmir

“Kashmir Hamara Hai” historical speech of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in presence of Pandit Nehru in Lal Chowk.

The first important speech of Pandit Nehru in Lal Chowk. “India will never let down kashmir” and the Indian army will fight on till the last raiden is driven out.
Source of last two images

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The Last Winter

Snow at Gulmarg, Kashmir. - April, 2006.Photograph: Gulmarg, April 2006

Last rain of winter, tonight it will snow.
Morning, my piss will drill holes yellow in pristine snow.
Put kangri out of bed, many houses it has burnt.
Don’t put your feet on it, weak eyes you get.

No bath in morning, no bath for weeks.
Pray the pipe bursts, like it always does.
Get your head out of pheran!
Want to choke on coal fumes or on your own fart!
Better than choking on your fish – smelly, dried!

Hmm…Two weeks, still no light, no TV.
Son go to sleep, don’t you know it’s snowing in Kashir.

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Winter, 2017

last winter II

you been collecting snow for centuries
we believe
you can carve wood, you can carve stone
you can carve meat, you can carve bread
on a good day you can even carve a dream
with eyes wide shut
yet, this art of carving snow
on a good winter’s day
eludes
you and your sheen mohniv
its grubby charcoal nose and
two squinty eyes

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Sven Hedin in Kashmir

Sven Hedin in Tibetean dress
Sven Hedin in Tibetean dress

From Pole to Pole:
A book for young people
By
Sven Hedin
Sven Anders Hedin (February 19, 1865 – November 26, 1952) was a Swedish explorer, geographer and geopolitician. His achievements include the production of the first detailed maps of vast parts of Pamir, the Taklamakan Desert, Tibet, the ancient Silk Road, and the Himalayas. He seems to have been the first discoverer to realise that the Himalayas are a single mountain range. The book From Pole to Pole has Seven’s account of his travels all around the world.
This extract from the book is about his visit to Kashmir and Ladak in around 1906

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Kashmir and Ladak

When I arrived at Rawalpindi the first thing I did was to order a tonga for the drive of 180 miles to Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir. A tonga is a two-wheeled tilted cart drawn by two horses, which are changed every half hour, for as long as the pair are on the way they go at full speed. The road was excellent, and we left the hot suffocating steam of India below us as we ascended along the bank of the Jhelum River. Sometimes we dashed at headlong speed over stretches of open road bathed in sunlight; sometimes through dark cool tunnels where the driver blew a sonorous signal with his brass horn; and then again through rustling woods of pine-trees.

Old Photograph of bridge on Jehlum river, Srinagar, Kashmir

PLATE VIII. SRINAGAR AND THE JHELUM RIVER.

Srinagar is a beautiful city, intersected as it is by the rippling Jhelum River and winding canals (Plate VIII.). The houses on their banks rise up directly from the water, and long, narrow, graceful boats pass to and fro, propelled at a swift pace by broad-bladed oars in the hands of active and muscular white-clad Kashmiris.
Kashmir is one of the native states of our Indian Empire, and its inhabitants number about three millions. Many of them are artistic and dexterous craftsmen, who make fine boxes and caskets inlaid with ivory, mother-of-pearl, and ebony; beautifully chased weapons; tankards, bowls, and vases of beaten silver with panthers and elephants on the sides, chasing one another through the jungle. The saddlery and leather work of all kinds cannot be surpassed, but most famous of all the manufactures are the soft, dainty Kashmir shawls, so fine that they can be drawn through a finger ring.
Round about the Kashmir valley stand the ridges and snow-clad heights of the Himalayas, and among them lie innumerable valleys. Up one of these valleys toiled our caravan of thirty-six mules and a hundred horses, and after a journey of some 250 miles to the eastward we arrived again[Pg 88] at the banks of the Indus and crossed it by a swaying bridge of wood. Two days later the poplars of Leh stood in front of us.
This little town is nearly 11,500 feet above sea-level. It contains an open bazaar street, and a mound above the town is crowned by the old royal castle. Leh, as well as the whole of the district of Ladak, is subject to the Maharaja of Kashmir, but the people are mostly of Tibetan race and their religion is Lamaism.[Pg 89]

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Ghazal by Agha Shahid Ali

Pale hands I loved beside the Shalimar
– Laurence Hope

Where are you now? Who lies beneath your spell tonight
before you agonize him in farewell tonight?

Pale hands that once loved me beside the Shalimar:
Whom else from rapture’s road will you expel tonight?

Those “Fabrics of Cashmere -” “to make Me beautiful -“
“Trinket” – to gem – “Me to adorn – How – tell” – tonight?

I beg for haven: Prisons, let open your gates –
A refugee from Belief seeks a cell tonight.

Executioners near the woman at the window.
Damn you, Elijah, I’ll bless Jezebel tonight.

Lord, cried out the idols, Don’t let us be broken,
Only we can convert the infidel tonight.

Has God’s vintage loneliness turned to vinegar?
He’s poured rust into the Sacred Well tonight.

In the heart’s veined temple all statues have been smashed.
No priest in saffron’s left to toll its knell tonight.

He’s freed some fire from ice, in pity for Heaven;
he’s left open – for God – the doors of Hell tonight.

And I, Shahid, only am escaped to tell thee –
God sobs in my arms. Call me Ishmael tonight.

A Ghazal by Agha Shahid Ali(1949 – 2001), “The Country Without a Post-Office: Poems 1991-1995”,

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More about Agha Shahid Ali:

Amardeep Singh, Assistant Professor of English at Lehigh University, writing about Agha Shahid Ali

Calligraphy of coils, An article by Agha Shahid Ali

More about The Country Without a Post-Office

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Aazaadee by Mahjoor: The Freedom Song of Kashmir

Aazaadee
O bulbul, let the freedom urge possess your soul !
Bid good bye to your cage, step out,
Gather your flowers and enjoy their bloom !

Speak out bold and clear. Your voice
Need not falter with fear
As when you sang within your cage.

In bondage, they served you ample food.
Now gather in the fields what grain you can,
And see how sweet is food in freedom !

Though unfreedom made you stammer,
Your call enchanted the birds of the air,
For it was born of love.

You can’t remain with folded wings !
Plume them, fly and see the world.
See flowers now with eyes of freedom.

You don’t know the latest about the garden !
Forget about the past; sing new songs now

Mabjoor, throw away this belt of bondage !
From now, you are free as a bird.
Your heart commands, your voice obeys !

Photograph of Kashmiri Poet Mahjoor
Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor (d. 1952) the most beloved poet of Kashmir was born in 1888 ( but some give the date as 1885 ) at village Metragam, Pulawama. Born Ghulam Ahmad, he took the pen name of ‘Mahjoor’ and became popular in Kashmir by this very name. At the height of his renown, he was called “the Wordsworth of Kashmiri poetry” by great Rabindranath Tagore.

After passing the middle school examination from Nusrat-ul-Islam School, Srinagar, he went to Punjab where he came in contact with urdu poets like Bismil Amritsari and Moulana Shibi Nomani. He returned to Srinagar in 1908 and started writing in Persian and then in Urdu. However, it was in Kashmiri language that his poetry truly excelled. He is widely revered in Kashmir for being the person who solely revived the Kashmiri languages from the regress of lost literary circles and brought it to the seeking common masses. It was largely due to the success of Mahjoor with Kashmiri language that his contemporaries also gave up writing in Urdu and Persian, and started writing in Kashmiri.

Mahjoor worked as a Patwari (Pathva:r’) in Kashmir. A Patwari is the offical responsible for keeping record of land, maps and land dealings. The post of Patwari was held in high esteem as in those days in far-flung areas, Patwari was the sole representative of the administration. This job required him to work closely with poor landless peasants and was to condition his sensibilities and help him understand the cause of the sufferings of the poor and destitute folks of his land.

Mahjoor had his first Kashmiri poem ‘Vanta hay vesy‘ published in 1918. In his earlier days, Mahjoor used to write only love poems (mastering at this, as his love songs or lyrics are still sung and remain very popular) but these songs were not the love songs of the rich or of tavern, songs like ‘Vanta hay vesy‘ were love songs of simple folk like – in this particular case – a country
lass. These love songs had the melody of the earlier lol lyrics of sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but their rhythm and singing quality seems inspired by the popular Hindustani geet and song of early decades that came to Kashmir through the Punjab.

The turbulent Kashmir of 1931 did not leave him untouched and the poet in him was now stirring with patriotic fervor.

Omakar N Koul, writes in Kashmiri Language Linguistics and Culture (pdf file)

Mahjoor is also treated as a revolutionary poet. His entire poetry is divided into three parts: kala:m-i-Mahjoor, paya:m-i-Mahjoor, and sala:m-i-Mahjoor. He was a patriotic poet and was moved by the suffering of the people under the alien rule. He awakened the common masses towards the need of protecting their homeland from invaders and alien rulers. He sang about beauty and charm of the valley. Mahjoor has made a significant contribution to genres of gazal and nazm. He retrieved the language itself from the old Personalized styles of poetry and brought it close to the speech of its native speakers.

Mahjoor was a nationalist at heart, and this can be fathomed from some of his poems. Because of his vocation as a Patwari, Mahjoor understood the feudal system well enough to know how rich landlords were exploiting the poor landless people. He wanted a new identity for them, an identity that he combined with Kashmiri nationalism. It was for these people that Mahjoor became a voice in turbulent times, a voice clear and loud. It was for the Freedom of these dejected people that Mahjoor wrote poems, poems that became songs etched in the Kashmiri minds.

An another Freedom Song

Aazaadee
Let us all offer thanksgiving,
For Freedom has come to us;
It’s after ages that she has beamed
Her radiance on us.

In western climes Freedom comes
With a shower of light and grace,
But dry, sterile thunder is all
She has for our own soil.

Poverty and starvation,
Repression and lawlessness, –
It’s with these happy blessings
That she has come to us.

Freedom, being of heavenly birth,
Can’t move from door to door;
You’ll find her camping in the homes
Of a chosen few alone.

She says she will not tolerate
Any wealth in private hands;
That’s why they are wringing capital
Out of the hands of everyone.

There’s mourning in every house
But in sequestered bowers
Our rulers, like bridegrooms,
Are in Alliance win Freedom.

Nabir Sheikh knows what Freedom means,
For his wife was whisked away.
He went on complaining until
She bore Freedom in a new home !

They searched her armpits seven times
To see if she was hiding rice;
In a basket covered with a shawl
The peasant’s wife brought Freedom home.

There’s restlessness in every heart,
But no one dare speak out –
Afraid that with their free expression
Freedom may be annoyed.

Unlike many other famous poets of Kashmir, Mahjoor was not a mystic and yet his words now sound prophetic:

If thou wouldst rouse this habitat of roses,
Leave toying with kettle-drums.
Let there be thunder-storm and tempest, aye an earthquake.

These lines are from his famous poem Arise O Gardener. In this particular poem, the poet urges his countrymen, whom he compares to Gardeners looking after the beautiful garden Kashmir, to attain freedom through thunderstorm, tempest and earthquake. The state force arrested Mahjoor for writing these lines, but was soon releases. These lines became so popular that the National Conference adopted it as a national anthem. It is ironic to note here that to a Garden all of the three – thunderstorm, tempest and earthquake, are actually quite damning.

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The translation to the poems is from the book:
The Best of Mahjoor
(Selections from Mahjoor’s Kashmiri Poems)
J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Language, Srinagar, 1989
Translated by: Triloki Nath Raina

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Found the translation to the poems at a Kashmiri Pandit web-page about Mahjoor maintained by Mr. Uteesh Dhar.

History of Srinagar, 1846-1947: A Study in Socio-cultural Change (1975) written by Mohammad Ishaq Khan, provided some great information about the poet.

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Much later, under the government of Sheikh Abdullah, poet Mahjoor was arrested.

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In 1972 a bilingual film named Shayar-e-Kashmir Mahjoor was released with the Hindi version starring Balraj Sahani. The famous “left leaning” Hindi film actor Balraj Sahani, one of the pioneers of IPTA (Indian People’s Theatre Association), already knew Mahjoor and held him in great esteem. Bhisham Sahni, the younger brother of Balraj Sahani, most famous for his novel and television screenplay Tamas, writes in Balraj, My Brother (1981) that many years before the making of the movie, Balraj Sahani having heard the renown of Mahjoor, went to him in a remote village in the interior of Kashmir. Mahjoor at that time was still working as a revenue official.

History of Srinagar, 1846-1947: A Study in Socio-cultural Change (1975) by Mohammad Ishaq Khan , quotes Balraj Sahani on Mahjoor:
“ His songs and his poems are the cherished property of very man, woman and child, living between Baramulla and Pir Panchal. If Mahjoor writes a poem today it will be on the lips of the populace within a fortnight. Children on their way to school, girls thrashing rice, boatman plying the paddle, laborers bending in their ceaseless toil, all will be singing it.”

The author gives the source as The Vishwa-Bharati Quarterly, November, 1938, vol iv, part III, new series, pp. 213-221)

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Vale (Valley) of Kashmir (shot in 1930s) by Bray Studio Inc.

Oldest Video of Kashmir

(Update: this one doesn’t work! check the video given below)
According to IMDB, the movie Vale of Kashmir was shot in the year 1936, under the direction of John Randolph Bray. The movie obviously made for the cinema going western audience, offers wonderful sights of Srinagar valley and the adjacent areas. It also gives us a peek into the life of a common Kashmiri, perhaps capturing it for the first time on the moving camera . Because of the kind of audience that the film was made for, the short movie is peppered with intentional and (maybe) unintentional humor. In one of the scene, a man is shown using the famous luxury that a common Kashmir enjoys the most, a Kangri (‘a warm radiator to sit by’, says the narrator), the narrators says that the holes in the coat (pheran) give the necessary ventilation. The hole in the coat were not for ventilation (as the narrator claims) but rather the effect of burning coal at times shooting off an ember to the coat, invariably burning a hole in the coat. Any Kashmiri with a burnt and hole ridden pheran would testify to this.

Uploaded on Youtube by
TVNETWORKS

(Update the above video has been removed by the above uploader )

It can now be viewed here:

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Kashmiri Singing Girl and The Goldsmith

Image of Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King ShahryarThe Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 6
A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments
Translated and Annotated by Richard F. Burton

Section
135. The Craft and Malice of Woman
m. The Goldsmith and the Cashmere Singing-Girl

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When it was the Five Hundred and Eighty-sixth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
fourth Wazir had told his tale, the King turned from his purpose
to slay his son; but, on the fifth day, the damsel came in to him
hending a bowl of poison in hand, calling on Heaven for help and
buffeting her cheeks and face, and said to him, “O King, either
thou shalt do me justice and avenge me on thy son, or I will
drink up this poison-cup and die, and the sin of my blood shall
be on thy head at the Day of Doom. These thy Ministers accuse me
of malice and perfidy, but there be none in the world more
perfidious than men. Hast thou not heard the story of the
Goldsmith and the Cashmere[FN#190] singing-girl?” “What befel the
twain, O damsel?” asked the King; and she answered, saying,
“There hath come to my knowledge, O august King, a tale of the

Goldsmith and the Cashmere Singing-Girl.

There lived once, in a city of Persia a goldsmith who delighted
in women and in drinking wine. One day, being in the house of one
of his intimates, he saw painted on the wall the figure of a
lutanist, a beautiful damsel, beholder never beheld a fairer or a
more pleasant. He looked at the picture again and again,
marvelling at its beauty, and fell so desperately in love with
it, that he sickened for passion and came near to die. It chanced
that one of his friends came to visit him and sitting down by his
side, asked how he did and what ailed him, whereto the goldsmith
answered, “O my brother, that which ails me is love, and it befel
on this wise. I saw a figure of a woman painted on the house-
wall of my brother such an one and became enamoured of it.”
Hereupon the other fell to blaming him and said, “This was of thy
lack of wit; how couldst thou fall in love with a painted figure
on a wall, that can neither harm nor profit, that seeth not
neither heareth, that neither taketh nor withholdeth.” Said the
sick man, “He who painted yonder picture never could have limned
it save after the likeness of some beautiful woman.” “Haply,”
rejoined his friend, “he painted it from imagination.” “In any
case,” replied the goldsmith, “here am I dying for love of the
picture, and if there live the original thereof in the world, I
pray Allah Most High to protect my life till I see her.” When
those who were present went out, they asked for the painter of
the picture and, finding that he had travelled to another town,
wrote him a letter, complaining of their comrade’s case and
enquiring whether he had drawn the figure of his own inventive
talents or copied it from a living model; to which he replied, “I
painted it after a certain singing-girl belonging to one of the
Wazirs in the city of Cashmere in the land of Hind.” When the
goldsmith heard this, he left Persia for Cashmere-city, where he
arrived after much travail. He tarried awhile there till one day
he went and clapped up an acquaintance with a certain of the
citizens who was a druggist, a fellow of a sharp wit, keen,
crafty; and, being one even-tide in company with him, asked him
of their King and his polity; to which the other answered,
saying, “Well, our King is just and righteous in his governance,
equitable to his lieges and beneficent to his commons and
abhorreth nothing in the world save sorcerers; but, whenever a
sorcerer or sorceress falls into his hands, he casteth them into
a pit without the city and there leaveth them in hunger to die.”
Then he questioned him of the King’s Wazirs, and the druggist
told him of each Minister, his fashion and condition, till the
talk came round to the singing-girl and he told him, “She
belongeth to such a Wazir.” The goldsmith took note of the
Minister’s abiding place and waited some days, till he had
devised a device to his desire; and one night of rain and thunder
and stormy winds, he provided himself with thieves’ tackle and
repaired to the house of the Wazir who owned the damsel. Here he
hanged a rope-ladder with grappling-irons to the battlements and
climbed up to the terrace-roof of the palace. Thence he descended
to the inner court and, making his way into the Harim, found all
the slave-girls lying asleep, each on her own couch; and amongst
them reclining on a couch of alabaster and covered with a
coverlet of cloth of gold a damsel, as she were the moon rising
on a fourteenth night. At her head stood a candle of ambergris,
and at her feet another, each in a candlestick of glittering
gold, her brilliancy dimming them both; and under her pillow lay
a casket of silver, wherein were her Jewels. He raised the
coverlet and drawing near her, considered her straitly, and
behold, it was the lutanist whom he desired and of whom he was
come in quest. So he took out a knife and wounded her in the back
parts, a palpable outer wound, whereupon she awoke in terror;
but, when she saw him, she was afraid to cry out, thinking he
came to steal her goods. So she said to him, “Take the box and
what is therein, but slay me not, for I am in thy protection and
under thy safe-guard[FN#191] and my death will profit thee
nothing.” Accordingly, he took the box and went away.–And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.

When is was the Five Hundred and Eighty-seventh Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
goldsmith had entered the Wazir’s palace he wounded the damsel
slightly in the back parts and, taking the box which contained
her jewels, wended his way. And when morning morrowed he donned
clothes after the fashion of men of learning and doctors of the
law and, taking the jewel-case went in therewith to the King of
the city, before whom he kissed the ground and said to him, “O
King, I am a devout man; withal a loyal well-wisher to thee and
come hither a pilgrim to thy court from the land of Khorasan,
attracted by the report of thy just governance and righteous
dealing with thy subjects and minded to be under thy standard. I
reached this city at the last of the day and finding the gate
locked and barred, threw me down to sleep without the walls; but,
as I lay betwixt sleep and wake, behold, I saw four women come
up; one riding on a broom-stick, another on a wine-jar, a third
on an oven-peel and a fourth on a black bitch,[FN#192] and I knew
that they were witches making for thy city. One of them came up
to me and kicked me with her foot and beat me with a fox’s tail
she had in her hand, hurting me grievously, whereat I was wroth
and smote her with a knife I had with me, wounding her in the
back parts, as she turned to flee from me. When she felt the
wound, she fled before me and in her flight let drop this casket,
which I picked up and opening, found these costly jewels therein.
So do thou take it, for I have no need thereof, being a wanderer
in the mountains[FN#193] who hath rejected the world from my
heart and renounced it and all that is in it, seeking only the
face of Allah the Most High.” Then he set the casket before the
King and fared forth. The King opened the box and emptying out
all the trinkets it contained, fell to turning them over with his
hand, till he chanced upon a necklace whereof he had made gift to
the Wazir to whom the girl belonged. Seeing this, he called the
Minister in question and said to him, “This is the necklace I
gave thee?” He knew it at first sight and answered, “It is; and I
gave it to a singing girl of mine.” Quoth the King, “Fetch that
girl to me forthwith.” So he fetched her to him, and he said,
“Uncover her back parts and see if there be a wound therein or
no.” The Wazir accordingly bared her backside and finding a
knife-wound there, said, “Yes, O my lord, there is a wound.” Then
said the King, “This is the witch of whom the devotee told me,
and there can be no doubt of it,” and bade cast her into the
witches’ well. So they carried her thither at once. As soon as it
was night and the goldsmith knew that his plot had succeeded, he
repaired to the pit, taking with him a purse of a thousand
dinars, and, entering into converse with the warder, sat talking
with him till a third part of the night was passed, when he
broached the matter to him, saying, “Know, O my brother, that
this girl is innocent of that they lay to her charge and that it
was I brought this calamity upon her.” Then he told him the whole
story, first and last, adding, “Take, O my brother, this purse of
a thousand dinars and give me the damsel, that I may carry her to
my own land, for these gold pieces will profit thee more than
keeping her in prison; moreover Allah will requite thee for us,
and we too will both offer up prayers for thy prosperity and
safety.” When the warder heard this story, he marvelled with
exceeding marvel at that device and its success; then taking the
money, he delivered the girl to the goldsmith, conditioning that
he should not abide one hour with her in the city. Thereupon the
goldsmith took the girl and fared on with her, without ceasing,
till he reached his own country and so he won his wish. “See,
then, O King” (said the damsel), “the malice of men and their
wiles. Now thy Wazirs hinder thee from doing me justice on thy
son; but to-morrow we shall stand, both thou and I, before the
Just Judge, and He shall do me justice on thee, O King.” When the
King heard this, he commanded to put his son to death; but the
fifth Wazir came in to him and kissing the ground before him,
said, “O mighty King, delay and hasten not to slay thy son: speed
will oftentimes repentance breed; and I fear for thee lest thou
repent, even as did the man who never laughed for the rest of his
days.” “And how was that, O Wazir?” asked the King. Quoth he, “I
have heard tell, O King, this tale concerning

The Man who never Laughed during the Rest of his Days.

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Author’s Footnote:
[FN#190] The Kashmir people, men and women, have a very bad name
in Eastern tales, the former for treachery and the latter for
unchastity. A Persian distich says:

If folk be scarce as food in dearth ne’er let three lots come
near ye:
First Sindi, second Jat, and third a rascally Kashmeeree.

The women have fair skins and handsome features but, like all
living in that zone, Persians, Sindis, Afghans, etc., their
bosoms fall after the first child and become like udders. This is
not the case with Hindú women, Rajpúts, Maráthís, etc.

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Sipping Kahwa in Kashmir

Samovar
Kashmiri Kahwa is probably of Turkish origins.

“The word ‘coffee’ is a modified form of the Turkish word ‘kahveh’ which is derived from the Arabic word Kahwa (meaning: ‘exiting the spirit’).”

Did you know that Almonds are not always the main ingredient in a Kahwa?
Here’s some more related brew from an old article that appeared in The Hindu.

Okay, so what’s the relation between Turkey and Kashmir?

We must remember that Kashmir one of the important trading centre along the Silk Route. A lot more than just goods were exchanged there. Kahwa is probably the outcome of one of these exchanges.
Why do we Pandits drink this Muslim poison of choice and apparently, we enjoy it immensely ?
What type of a socio-religious mixture was brewing in Kashmir?
Found this in an old Edition of an online Kp magazine.

“ Tea:
Kashmiris must have been one of the earliest addicts to this brew in the subcontinent. Tea, as we know today was introduced by the British tea companies in India. But Kashmiris used to get their stuff long before that from China through Tibet. Later, it used to be imported from Shungla via Bombay. That is why, in Kashmir it is still called Bombay Chai. But this tea is the green untreated variety of tea. Its brew is called Kahwa. No milk is added to it. It is sweetened with sugar. Often, Dalchini (cinnamon), Elaichi (cardamom), Badam (almonds) and sometimes a little Kesar (saffron) are added to it to give taste and flavour.
The tea taken with salt and milk, is called Sheeri Chai (perhaps adaptation from Ladakh and Tibet). It is very popular among Muslims and to an extent among Hindus. Hindus however prefer Kahwa to Sheer Chai
Tea is prepared in a special vessel called Samawar. It is a pot in which tea is made by burning charcoal in the small chimney at its centre, having a seive at the bottom. The ash is collected in the space below the seive. There is a nozzled outlet for pouring the tea, hot into the cup. Russians also have a Samowar, but it slightly differs in looks. Hindus used to take tea in a bronze cup called Khos, while Muslims prefer Chinpyala, the cup made of china clay. The Samawar used by Muslims is made of copper while that used by Hindus is made of brass.
Hindus eat their food in a Thal, which earlier used to be of bronze. Muslims prefer copper bowl (with tin lining). At feasts, Muslims ( eat from a single plate and ) are served four persons in one big copper plate called Traami.”

We adapted and personalized the culture of other civilizations that crisscrossed Kashmir. Yet, we Pandits maintained an identity of our own by our unique habits and customs. As we observed, we distinguished ourselves from the Kashmiri Muslims through slight changes in our habits and age-old customs. That’s how we survived through constant adaptation.

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Ways to enjoy Kahwa:

dalcheen kahwa (cinnamon tea): Most common flavor of this brew.

noon chai (salt tea): this is same as
Sheer chai. Gets its pinkish color from baking soda ( called phul in kashmir. pherni is usually added while drinking.

zaffarn kahwa (Saffon tea): Usually gets served in tourist guest houses 🙂

damm tueth: Kahwa with lemon squashed in.

Besides these, black pepper Kahwa is thought to be good for sour throat.

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Kashmiri Pandits and Karnataka: Moving Back and Forth

In her latest post, titled A Saraswat Legacy, Jyotsna Kamat a researcher from Karnataka, writes about the entwined history of Saraswat Brahmins from Kashmir and the ones from Karnataka.
The interesting thing about the write up is that she not only writes about the religious ties between the two, but also writes about the cultural exchanges that took place ages ago in terms of dressing, ornaments etc.
She writes that it was the Kashmiri King Harsha, who introduced certain dresses and ornaments of Karnataka to Kashmir. In one of her earlier work, she credits king Harsha with introducing the Kashmiri people to the practice of darkening Eyelids and lashes with collyrium (kadige or anjana).
She also mentions Bilhana, the great Kashmiri poet-historian, who made Karnataka his home.

Later she moves from writing about the medieval times to relatively more recent times. She writes about Kulhana Rahuta, a Kashmiri who under Hoysalas built the first Saraswat temple in Doddagadda Valli in Hasan district in 1113 CE, a temple that still stands and receives daily puju .

Towards the end of the article, she writes

Perhaps during troubled times of early Muslim invasions in 12th and 13th centuries, several Kashmiri families must have come to the south and merged with those who had already settled in Karnataka.

The name of an immigrant Kashmiri Pandit, Sarangadeva (Sarngadeve) needs mentioning here.

“ A monumental work came to be written in 13th century AD. This was the Sangeeta Ratnakara(The Ocean of Music) penned by Sarangadeva, an emigrant from Kashmir, who became the Chief Accountant of Raja Sodhala, a Yadava king of Devgiri in South India. A work so stupendous in depth and extent is it that it is difficult to believe that it could have been scribed by the one man. The Ratnakara gives in great detail description of scales, raga, talas, musical forms, instruments, and many other subjects. Of greater significance is the fact that it is, perhaps, the first major work dealing with Northern and Southern musical systems. It is opined by many scholars…that it was during this period Indian music got bifurcated into the two systems of North [Hindustani] and South [Karnatak.]”

– Deva, An Introduction to Indian Music, p.74.


Today, a different Pandit is moving back and forth between the two lands. He journeys from Jammu to Karnataka, a Pandit working in some software firm of mighty Bengaluru. A merger of different kind is taking shape. A merger that is conspicuously oblivious of Sarangadeva.


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And Kashmir Left The Pandits

Voices

“Kashmir movements have had secular forces. The JKLF in Kashmir abjured any reference to Islam to begin with. But religious rhetoric overtook Kashmiriyat after a while, and the JKLF itself was overtaken by groups who wore religion on their sleeves.”

“What are you talking about here? Which secular forces have been involved with the ‘Kashmir Movement’? What Kashmiriyat are you talking about? It’s really disheartening to read these strange theories about Kashmir. Yasin Malik and Kashmiriyat! To me he is a bloody terrorist
I am a kashmiri pandit and I don’t know what that term Kashmiriyat is supposed to mean.
I would have thought that Kashmiriyat means common bond of culture, language etc between Kashmiri Pandits and Kashmiri Muslims. Where is the bond?”

Religion is and was, always the story of Kashmir. Pandits believe that because they were a Hindu minority in a Muslim land, which is why they are out.
It is all about being a minority. And maybe that’s why people want to be in majority- always. That majority becomes the identity and the security. That’s where religion comes in, it becomes the identity and a guarantee to security.

Kashmiri Pandits used to live like minorities in Kashmir. It’s as simple as that.
I blame Hindus of Gujarat for the mess in Gujarat and I blame Muslims for the mess in Kashmir. I blame inaction of the majority, when they refuse to speak up against the wrongs; that is when the fabric of society is torn, a society that is formed on nothing but trust. If onus of secularism in India is on Hindus, then in Kashmir it should be on Muslims. They have to take the blame. Can one imagine talking to a Muslim victim of Gujarat and telling him that it all had nothing to do with religion? In case of my family, the Army told us that, “We can’t guarantee your Safety”. Our Muslim neighbors told us that, “You are on the HITLIST for next week, and so you better leave.” Later these very people came looking to buy our property. They always knew about the coming wedding in the family and started to dangle the carrot. Am I supposed to feel grateful for that?

However, those were really strange times.
There was construction going on in our house just before we left Kashmir. A lot of steel construction sheets were lying piled up in the house yard. When we left, the locals stole those sheets. But, the funny thing is that an announcement was made from the local mosque that those steel sheets belongs to Pandits and have to be returned. And the people did return it. Later those sheets were used to build CRPF bunker outside/almost inside our house. The same mosques were giving calls to arm up for “Freedom Azadi”. We needed the money, so we did sell the house finally. That house was about hundred years old. We had an old stone sculpture that surfaced during the construction of that house. My folks used to worship it. It didn’t make it to the truck that made way to Jammu one early morning.Today, that place houses a big business complex. So, what’s my claim on Kashmir. I have to lay claim on those stone sculptures…ancient stone heads. Nothing else is left. I say I am from Kashmir, a Kashmir thats long gone. I don’t belong anywhere anymore. I am cynical, when I see lines like, “religious divide was never between common kashmiri people.” Then why am I out of Kashmir?
Okay, Life for Pandits in Kashmir was a lot easier as compared to the life of Muslim in Gujarat, Mumbai or in any Hindu Majority city. Relation between Pandits and Muslims in general was (and for some people still is) great. I mean we lived a good life together. Yet, here we are now, Kashmiri Pandits living a seemingly (as some would like to say) comfortable life out of Kashmir.The first step to bridge a gap would be to acknowledge the presence of gap; the things in Kashmir did not change overnight.By failing to acknowledge the gap, we too are likely to add to the mythical stories about Kashmir that one keeps reading.

It wasn’t only the Pandits who left Kashmir, Kashmir also left the Pandits.

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