A song from the oldest story here. The original muse.
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Kashmiri Woman’s costume, 19th century
“Kashmir. Woman’s costume, nineteenth century, worn by upper classes. Hat is usually covered by a white silk scarf. Silk brocaded with metallic gold, floral and medallion pattern. Hat is made of gold-colorer paste with red paste “jewels,” seed pearls, and metal tear-shaped pendants. “
From ‘Costumes of the East’ by Walter Ashlin Fairservis, Jr. 1971
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Interesting read: Kashmir issue of Design magazine Pool (Nov, 2013)
Kashmir State Forces Uniform, 1938
Cigarette Cards published by John Player & Sons, 1938
From the reverse:
“Indian State Forces:
Kashmir State Forces
The Maharaja of Kashmir maintains a larger number of State Forces than any other Ruler of any Indian State. These forces are organized into the Jammu and Kashmir Brigades, the latter of which is commanded by the officer in our picture, in Full Dress. They comprise one Bodyguard Cavalry regiment, two Mountain Batteries, seven active and one training Battalions of Infantry and a Transport unit consisting of both pack and mechanized transport. Several of these units served with distinction on the North-West Frontier of India and overseas during the Great War. Jammu and Kashmir lie to the north of the Punjab and cover nearly 85,000 square miles. The population exceeds 3,500,000. The background shows a view of Srinagar.”
“
a memory that doesn’t exist, but does
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View from The Window, 1916
A postcard from 1920s based on a photograph from 1916.
View from the famous workshop of Habib Joo (State jeweller and wood carver), Subhana (jeweller and silversmith), Ahmed Joo (coppersmith and wood carver) and Jubbar Khan (papier maché maker and wood carver).
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and in 1849 the first students at Mission School Lahore were of course…
“The Punjab was annexed April 2nd, 1849. The boy King, Rajah Dhulip Singh, was deposed and given an annual al- lowance of 50,000 pounds. He retired as a gentleman to Norfolk, England.
During these months of turmoil and anxiety, the missionary work continued as usual. Soon after the annexation of the Punjab, a letter was received by the missionaries at Lodiana, sent by Dr. Baddely, a Christian surgeon at Lahore, urging them to move on to the capital without delay, assuring them that every encouragement might be expected from the Lawrences and Mr. Montgomery and others. Accordingly the Rev. John Newton and the Rev. Charles W. Forman were appointed by the mission to take up the work of establishing the mission in Lahore. Accompanied by Mrs. Newton, they arrived in Lahore on the 21st of November, 1849.
As the Christian community had urged the establishment of the mission, an appeal was made for financial aid, with the approval of the Board of Administration and the Governor General. In response thereto, the sum of Rs. 4,238 were contributed. A suitable house was secured in the city as a temporary residence. In this house an English school was begun on the 19th of December. It began with three pupils, all being Hindu Kashmiris, two of them having been formerly students in the mission school at Lodiana. The number gradually increased until it became necessary to find more capacious quarters. Happily a soldiers’ chapel built by an English gentleman at his own expense had been placed at the disposal of the mission, and being well adapted to the uses of a school the classes were transferred to it. The number of pupils rapidly increased until, at the end of the year, the attendance amounted to eighty. Of these fifty-five were Hindus and twenty-two Muslims, and three Sikhs. Racially the eighty ranked as Punjabis thirty-eight, Kashmiris three, Bengalis seven, Hindustanis twenty-eight, Afghans three and one Baluch.”
~ ‘Our Missions In India: 1834-1824’ (1926) by E. M. Wherry.
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Govind Joo went Karr’e
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| Govind Joo’s house. 2008. The family moved away in 1970s. |
You don’t know the story. Khabr’e Chaey Ne. He didn’t convert.’
‘Umm….Khabr’e Chaey Ne. You don’t know the story. He did convert.’
I was supposed to take my Brahminical rites the next morning, and here I was, late at night, in a Pandit Community Hall in Jammu, listening to my Father and Uncles having an amusing discussion about an odd bit of family history. Did their Grand-Uncle Govind Joo Razdan or Goo’ndh Joo, as they called him, turn Christian or not?
An aunt who was married into the family in late 1970s chipped in. ‘Well, it might be true. When the Razdan’s of Chattabal sent marriage proposal for me, one of my old relatives did ask if it’s not the same Karr’e family.’ Karr’e being the pejorative term in Kashmiri for converts to Christianity.
The complete story I came across recently in ‘Tyndale-Biscoe of Kashmir: An Autobiography’ (1951):
“We were at our holiday hut at Nil Nag, in the month of August 1939, when two of our teachers, Govind Joo Razdan, a widower, Sham Lal and his wife, an old boy, Kashi Nath and his wife, asked me to baptize them. They had for years been vey keen on all kinds of social service, so I knew by their lives, as well by their words, that they were truly fit persons to be received into the Christain Church. On Sunday morning I took them to the lake and baptized them.
We, and they, of course were well aware that when they returned to Srinagar, they would have to suffer persecution from the Brahmins, and they did.
[…]
Not many days passed before we heard that the teachers whom I had baptize, were in danger from their fellow Brahmans.
Govind Razdan was the first to be attacked by hooligans while crossing one of the city bridges. Fortunately for him, one of the policemen near by was an old boy of our school and he rescued him from the angry crowd. A few days later Sham Lal was going from my house to his home in the city, after dark, when he was attacked and so badly hurt that he had to be taken to hospital. The man who was the cause of this attack was a Brahmin policeman. Then came Kashi Nath’s turn. He was employed by a motor omnibus company and was taking a bus full of Brahmans to one of the most holy places in Kashmir named Tula Mula, where goddess is supposed to live in a tank. After landing his party at the holy spot, he was attacked by the worshippers, but fortunately there were Mohammedans at hand who came to his rescue and saved him.”
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Women Militia, 1948
Kashmiri Militia Women.
Henri Cartier-Bresson. 1948.
via: magnumphotos.
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Previously:
Kashmir by Koechlin, 1858
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Une Vue intericure de Srinagor, capital du Kachmyr – Dessin de M. Alfred Koechlin Schwartz
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From French illustrated magazine ‘Le Magasin Pittoresque’, October, 1858.
Mr. Koechlin here is an ancestor of actress Kalki Koechlin.
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Mr. Kennard’s Houseboat, 1918
Besides Younghusband’s writing in 1906 mentioning Mr. Kennard’s role in development of Kashmiri Houseboats, following is the only description available of actual Mr. Kennard’s houseboat.
“No European is allowed to build or own a house in Kashmir and the result is that the numerous visitors to the happy valley live for a great portion of their time in house boats. These boats are very large and comfortable. They are hired for the season with furniture, a staff of servants and a kitchen boat attached, and the occupants move about from place to place along the numerous waterways of Kashmir and lead an idyllic river life amid beautiful scenery, anchoring where they please and spending their time in fishing, shooting and reading and other amusements. We visited one house boat at Srinagar belonging yo a Mr. Kennard, which was a regular villa built in two stories. The interior was panelled with carved wood and the furnishing and upholstering were all the most perfect taste. Mr. Kennard was at home and very kindly showed us over his beautiful floating residence.”
~ ‘A narrative of His Highness the Maharaja’s trip to Kashmir in 1918’ by R. H. Campbell (1919) about the visit of Maharaja of Mysore to Kashmir. (The direct impact of this visit was that Mysore got Mysore Boy Scouts, and a copy of Shalimar Garden in the form of Brindavan Gardens. Also, in Srinagar, the temple on Shankaracharya got an electric bulb, a gift from the Maharaja of Mysore, forever changing the night view of the hill.
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