Jammu and Kashmir

“ Instructs the United Nations Representative to proceed to the subcontinent and, after consultation with the Governments of India and Pakistan, to effect the demilitarization of the State of Jammu and Kashmir on the basis of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan resolutions of 13 August 1948 and 5 January 1949 ”

“ The effect of this provision is that the State of Jammu and Kashmir, continues to be a part of India. It is a unit of the Indian Union and the Union Parliament will have jurisdiction to make laws for this State on matters specified either in the Instrument of Accession or by later additions with the concurrence of the Government of the State. ”

“ All Central laws in Table -1 of the Fifth Schedule to this Act, on and from the appointed day, shall apply in the manner as provided therein, to the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union territory of Ladakh.
(2) All other laws in Fifth Schedule, applicable to existing State of Jammu and Kashmir immediately before the appointed day, shall apply in the manner as provided therein, to the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union territory of Ladakh. Power to adapt laws. ”

“ The executive power of the Union territory extends to borrowing upon the security of the Consolidated Fund of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir within such limits, if any, as may, from time to time, be fixed by Legislative assembly by law and to the giving of guarantees within such limits, if any, as may be so fixed. ”

“ Indian and Pakistani forces shall be withdrawn to their side of the international border. (ii) In Jammu and Kashmir, the line of control resulting from the cease-fire of December 17, 1971 shall be respected by both sides without prejudice to the recognized position of either side. ”

“ The Hindus are mostly found in Jammu, and the Buddhists are confined to Ladakh. In Kashmir proper the few Hindus (60,682) are almost all Brahmans, known as Pundits. Superstition has made the Kashmiri timid; tyranny has made him a liar; while physical disasters have made him selfish and pessimistic. Up to recent times the cultivator lived under a system of begar, which entitled an official to take either labour or commodities free of payment from the villages. ”

“ I do not hesitate to admit that the existing state of affairs in Kashmir and Jammu urgently requires immediate introduction of substantial reforms into the administration of the country, and now that I have power commensurate with my responsibilities, 1 beg to assure your Excellency that nothing shall be spared on my part, and no time will be lost to prove beyond any possibility of doubt that it is my ambition to succeed in making nay country a model of a well-governed State in alliance with the Government of India. ”

“ Lord Dufferin may imagine or plead, as we found him to do in regard to upper Burma, that he is justified by grave political reasons but such repeated acts of high-handdness will, we are afraid, lead to serious and unexpected disasters in the end. The Russian progress towards India may be put forward as an excuse for the present policy in connection with Cashmere, and, in trying to avert or remove danger, immediate peril is courted.
Report on the affairs of the State of Jammu & Kashmir by the Resident of Kashmir. ”

“ On Wednesday, the 8th, news arrived of the death of Hās͟him, s. Qāsim K. On Thursday, the 9th, Irādat K. was promoted to the governorship of Kashmir. Mīr Jumla in his place was chosen for the duty of K͟hānsāmān, and Muʿtamid138 K. to that of ʿArẓ-muqarrir. The mansab of 2,000 personal and 500 horse was ordered for Mīr Jumla. On the night of Saturday, the 11th, I entered the city. Āṣaf K. was appointed to the duty of Diwan of Gujarat. Sangrām, Raja of Jammu, was promoted to the mansab of 1,500 personal and 1,000 horse. ”

“ The place of the Kashmir shawl has to some extent been taken by the Kashmir carpet, but the most thriving industry now is that of silk-weaving. Srinagar is also celebrated for its silver-work, papier mâché and wood-carving. The minerals and metals of the Jammu district are promising, and a company has been formed to work them. Coal of fair quality has been found, but the difficulties of transport interfere with its working. ”

“ Extensive pleasure grounds and ruins of great size attest the former prosperity of the city when it was the seat of a Rajput dynasty whose dominions extended into the plains and included the modern district of Sialkot. It was afterwards conquered by the Sikhs, and formed part of Ranjit Singh’s dominions. After his death it was acquired by Gulab Singh as the nucleus of his dominions, to which the British added Kashmir in 1846. It is connected with Sialkot in the Punjab by a railway 16 m. ”

“ Some terrorist violence also marred the national parliamentary polls in April/May 2004. Terrorists focused in spring and summer of 2006 on buses carrying tourists and pilgrims, killing dozens in several grenade attacks in areas throughout the Kashmir Valley.
India-Pakistan Border: The State Department recommends that U.S. citizens avoid travel to areas within approximately five to ten kilometers of the border between India and Pakistan in the states of Gujarat, Punjab (other than the Atari/Wagah border crossing near Amritsar) , Rajasthan and Jammu & Kashmir. ”

“ A poor Kashmiri can call nothing his own. But, in reality, it is not only half a man loses, for at least another quarter is taken by the rapacious government officials who have to collect the nominal half. Shakdars, Kárdárs, Ziladárs, soldiers, and others, all come in for their share. The wonder is, how the people exist at all. Of course I am a credulous missionary, and believed every story I heard, but I should like to find the man in Kashmir who could deny these facts. But it is not only the poor peasants who suffer; perhaps the condition of the shawl weavers is worse still. ”

“ Yet numbers of Kashmiris do prefer India to their own lovely land, simply because in India every man can live and be his own master, whatever else he has to put up with. But few are the happy men who can get away. A few are allowed to go into India, if they leave their wives and families behind as a guarantee for their speedy return, but only a few. As I was leaving Kashmir, two or three of these shawl weavers smuggled themselves out of the country as my coolies. ”

“ The climate of this Asiatic paradise seems to be well adapted to Europeans, the few English children who have been born and brought up there being as strong and rosy-cheeked as if they had been bred at home. The great drawback to an Indian career, the necessary separation between parents and children, is thus quite avoidable in Kashmir; and Mr. Knight regretfully observes, "Had we not sold this magnificent country, a great military cantonment would no doubt have been long since established here." ”

“ Their share of the population is infinitely greater in proportion. Out of a total, in 1873, of 1,534,972 souls, the province of Jummoo contained 861,075—44,000 of them in the city of that name, the political metropolis. The government of Kashmir had 491,846, including 136,000 in the city of Srinagar. [Pg 282] The district of Punch, which boasts a rajah of its own, tributary to the maharajah, had 77,566, and the outlying governments, as they are termed, of Gilgit in the extreme north-east, Baltistán in the north, and Ladákh, or Little Tibet, in the east, 104,485 together. ”

“ The little Kashmiri boys, with their great eyes and long lashes, were charming creatures, fine products of an old race and an old civilization, purest Aryans of all these people; but the bearded Sikhs despise the Kashmiri only a little less than they despise the Bengali. The gentle, esthetic Kashmiri is not a fighting man, and there are thousands of pure and mixed Kashmir weavers and embroiderers long resident in Amritsar who still quail before the giant Sikhs. ”

“ We have been subjected to attack by a militarily powerful neighbour. Who says that the new reality arose out of free will? Had there been the exercise of free will, India would not have attacked Pakistan. If India talks about the will of the people of East Pakistan and claims that it had to attack Pakistan in order to impose the will of the people of East Pakistan, then what has it done about Kashmir? East Pakistan is an integral part of Pakistan. ”

“ The town of Kashmir is apparently of great extent, and seems very densely populated. Its length is much greater than its width, as it is hemmed in between the Jelam on the south and a lake on the north. The principal part of the town is on the north side of the Jelam, but a large suburb occupies the opposite bank, surrounding the Sher-Garhi, or fortified palace of the ruler of the country. The streets are in general so narrow, that there are but few through which an elephant can pass ”

“ When the harvest is ripe the peasant reaps it at his own good time, and not a soldier ever enters the villages.” In consequence of this improvement in their conditions of life and of the influx of wealth into the country brought by visitors, the Kashmiri grows every year in material prosperity and independence of character. The Kashmir women have a reputation for beauty which is not altogether deserved, but the children are always pretty.
The language spoken in Kashmir is akin to that of the Punjab, though marked by many peculiarities. ”

“ Indeed, I have given strict orders that whatever we of the medical mission may either see or hear with respect to the government of this country, we are not to speak about the matter in our dealings with the natives. Of all things in Kashmir, truth is the scarcest, so that one has to be continually on his guard as to what he believes. In Kashmir, I only believe what I see, and sometimes hardly that. The Diwan's messenger, having heard my version of the affair, took his departure.
"29th May.–The Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Yeates of Moultan, and Captain Lewin of Amritsar, came to see our operations. ”

“ Several Kashmiris were, as far as man could see, in a hopeful religious state; but the character of the people, and the government of the valley being what it is, great caution must be exercised in forming a judgment from appearances for a short time. However, two male adults, of those who had been in the habit of frequenting the mission during the season, declared themselves Christians, and quitted the valley in the month of November to go to the Punjaub, as it is impossible, under present circumstances, for a native Christian to remain in Kashmir during the winter months. ”

“ I commit myself to God's keeping; may He graciously spare me to be a help and comfort to that dear mother who has done so much on my account, and who now loves me as no earthly being can. May I be spared to labour for Christ in poor unhappy Kashmir! May God's rich blessing rest on my work. May He hear our prayers for the political and spiritual emancipation of that unhappy country. Oh that the spiritual darkness and tyranny and oppression which prevail in Kashmir were dispersed,–that God would raise Him up a people to praise Him there,–a people made free by the truth! ”

“ It is most devoutly to be wished that the policy of our country towards {96} such states as Kashmir were more becoming a great and Christian nation like Great Britain. How contemptible and inconsistent as a nation we must appear to such a people as the Kashmiris.
"9th May.–To-day is memorable in the history of the Kashmir Medical Mission, from the fact that I opened my dispensary this morning. I had given notice that I intended receiving patients from this date. The verandah on the southern aspect of the house was prepared for the sick people to meet in. ”

“ Of our Indian forces the most likeable and attractive were the Kashmiris, whom the patriot Rajah of Kashmir has given to the India Government. Recruited from the mountains of Nepal—for the native of Kashmir is no soldier—they meet one everywhere with their eager smiling faces. In hospital they are always professing to a recovery from fever that their pallid faces and enlarged spleens belie, and they take not kindly to any suggestion of invaliding.
These battalions of Kashmir Rifles, the Baluchis and the King's African Rifles have done more dirty bush fighting than any troops in this campaign. ”

“ Nothing that has happened in the Empire during the past thirty years has so vitally stirred Indians of all races, in every grade of society-this, too, in feudatory States and British districts alike. For the sake of peace and good-will in India and for better government and the increased security of our rule, it is earnestly to be hoped That a return to the status quo in Kashmir is contemplated by Lord Lansdowne and will shortly be arranged. ”

“ On all sides bands will be formed, who, the less they find within the boundaries of Kashmir, so much the more will they carry fire and sword among my people to repay themselves for what they have lost at home. And now I say, without circumlocution, and once for all, that I will not tolerate it. My kingdom and my people shall be respected; and if force is required, whatever trouble or treasure it may cost, I will again assemble my armies and march to the north to re-establish the peace that is necessary to the prosperity of my subjects. ”

“ Those who have once entered the paradise of Kashmir do not soon forget the gateway.
Edith laughed with the joy of it, seeing gray clouds twining among the mountain slopes behind them. The edges of the cloud bank were touched with a fiery purple from the concealed sun, when—as if an invisible hand passed across the face of the sky—the sunlight was blotted from their path.
The horses quickened their pace as the Afghan driver cracked his whip and Rawul Singh spoke sharply in Turki:
"Drive, son of a pig! Would you discomfort the guests of your master?" ”