Selected State >> JAMMU & KASHMIR
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Jammu
and Kashmir is a state in the far north of the republic of India.
The state is made up of three territories--Jammu, Kashmir, and
Ladakh. The state is a mountainous area in the northwest Himalaya. |
| People & Government | Economy |
| Transportation & Communication | Land |
| Climate | History |
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People:
The state of Jammu and Kashmir is the largest of India's
Himalayan states. It has
three distinct regions: the Vale of Kashmir, which lies south of the
Great Himalayan Axis; Jammu to the south of Kashmir; and Ladakh to the
north of Kashmir. The
three regions differ in climate, geography, ethnic makeup, and
culture. Jammu has a
largely Hindu population. Kashmir
is predominantly Muslim. The
people of Ladakh have Tibetan ancestors, and the region is known as
Little Tibet. The
majority of Ladakhis are Buddhists, and their language, Ladakhi, is
derived from Tibetan. Other languages spoken in the state include Kashmiri,
Punjabi, and Urdu. Government:
The state of Jammu and Kashmir has a special position within
India. Since 1956, the
state has had its own constitution.
The central government has direct control over defence,
external affairs, and communications.
It also influences matters of citizenship, supreme court
jurisdiction, and emergency powers.
The president of India appoints the governor of the state.
Executive power rests with the chief minister and his council
of ministers. The
legislative assembly consists of 76 elected members from the
constituencies. There is
also a legislative council of 36 members. The state has six elected representatives in the Lok Sabha (lower house) and four nominated members in the Rajya Sabha (upper house) of the Indian national parliament. There are 14 districts in Jammu and Kashmir. |
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Agriculture:
The vast majority of the population of Jammu and Kashmir
depend on agriculture, but only 20 per cent of the state is
cultivated. There is
irrigation wherever possible, especially in Ladakh, where farmers
build channels called yura to carry stream water to fields up to 8
kilometres away. Ladakh
farmers can only cultivate areas close to streams and rivers. Maize,
rice, and wheat are the major crops.
Barley, bajra (millet), and jowar (sorghum) are grown in some
parts. Pulses such as
beans, lentils, and peas are also important in market gardens and
well-watered areas. Farmers
grow a wide range of vegetables.
Fruits grown includes mangoes, bananas, and oranges in Jammu,
almonds, apples, cherries, peaches, and pears in Kashmir, and
apricots and mulberries in Ladakh.
The vale is also the only South Asian producer of saffron, a
delicate food-colouring and flavouring agent extracted from the
autumn crocus. Because
of the harshness of the climate and the inadequate rainfall, there
is only one cropping season, from March to November.
Many farmers raise livestock to supplement their income from
crops. They drive
goats, sheep, and yaks to alpine pastures at altitudes of more than
4,000 metres over the summer months.
The high-quality goat's wool produced in the region is known
as pashmina or cashmere wool. Manufacturing:
Small-scale businesses dominate manufacturing in Kashmir.
Handicraft products include blankets, brassware, carpets, papier-mâché
objects, and woolen shawls. Mining: There are no commercially important mines. Some tin is mined. Local lapis lazuli (a turquoise semi-precious stone) is a traditional decoration for Ladakhi headdresses. Tourism: The Vale of Kashmir has been popular with travellers since Mughal times. Gulmarg and Pahalgam attract large numbers of visitors. Skiing is popular in Kashmir, and trekking is an important source of income in both Kashmir and Ladakh. |
Transportation and Communication
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Kashmir
and Ladakh have air connections with other cities in India.
There are airports at Jammu, Srinagar, and Leh.
Bad winter weather often closes Srinagar and Leh.
The railhead for Kashmir is Jammu which connects with other
north Indian cities. The Indian government has invested heavily in communications in the state. The Jawahar Tunnel, which links Jammu with the Vale of Kashmir, is one of the longest in Asia. Kashmir has over 11,000 kilometres of road. The journey from Srinagar to Leh takes two days and includes an overnight halt at Kargil. |
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Location
and Description: A
30-kilometre-long boundary with Punjab and a 300-kilometre boundary
with Himachal Pradesh join the state of Jammu and Kashmir to the
rest of India. The
state has international boundaries with Pakistan to the west, and
with Tibet and China to the north and northeast. Land
Features: Jammu in
the south is the borderland with the Punjab and the transitional
zone between the plains and the mountains.
The Siwalik Hills, a band of low uplands running northwest to
southeast, have thin parched soils that are liable to erosion.
Irrigation is limited, and the water table is often too deep
for wells. The Siwaliks
give onto the Pir Panjal, a mountain range with peaks that rise to
about 5,000 metres. These
mountains form the southern wall to the Vale of Kashmir.
The Pir Panjal is a double range.
The northern part stretches from Kishtwar to Kulu (in
Himachal Pradesh) and divides the Chenab and Ravi rivers.
The southern part (Dhaula Dhar) divides the Ravi and Beas
rivers and continues north to Dalhousie. The
Vale of Kashmir lies between the Pir Panjal range and the High
Himalaya at an average altitude of 1,600 metres.
It contains a number of lakes fed by the Jhelum and other
rivers. Rising behind
the Vale of Kashmir is the Great Himalaya, which rises in the west
to Nanga Parbat (Naked Mountain, 8,125 metres). To
the north of the Great Himalaya lie the Zanskar and Ladakh ranges.
The Indus River runs through Ladakh and between the Zanskar
range to the south and the Ladakh range to the north.
Both of these ranges have an average altitude of 5,000
metres. The Zanskar
range forms the backbone of southern Ladakh.
The Doda and Tsarap rivers breach it and flow north to the
Indus River. Rivers
and Lakes: The
Indus, one of the great rivers of Asia, rises in Tibet.
It has carved very deep gorges in Jammu and Kashmir.
The gorge at Gilgit is about 6,000 metres deep.
Other rivers include the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, and Beas, all
of which go on to flow across the Punjab.
The Doda, Shyok, Tsarap, and Zanskar are important rivers in
Ladakh. |
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The
monsoon system affects Kashmir, but not where the Himalaya blocks
out the rain-bearing clouds from the Arabian Sea.
Even in the Vale of Kashmir, the rainfall is lower because of
the influence of the Pir Panjal. Srinagar receives nearly 70 centimetres of rain a year, but
Leh has less than 10 centimetres.
In Srinagar, 30 per cent of the annual rainfall comes during
the monsoon (June to September) and 50 per cent comes between
January and April. In
Srinagar, the average maximum temperature is 31 °C in July and 4 °C
in January. The minimum
is 18 °C in July and 2 °C in January.
Temperatures can reach as high as 37 °C in summer and as low
as -11 °C in winter. In
Ladakh, daily and seasonal temperature variations are even wider.
In the thin atmosphere, the air heats and cools rapidly.
In summer, many streams only flow for a few hours each day
when the ice in their beds melts. Vegetation
is thin and, apart from thorny bushes able to cope with low water
supplies, is confined to the watercourses.
Unlike Kashmir, where about a third of the land area is still
under forest, Ladakh has few trees.
In Kashmir, the forests provide the government with a source
of income. Plants
and Animals: Jammu
and Kashmir has habitats ranging from the plains and forested
Siwalik Hills to some of the highest peaks of the Himalayan ranges.
At low altitudes, the state shares the fauna of the other
foothill states such as Himachal Pradesh.
Kashmir is particularly famous for its sheep and goats.
Ibex and urial (a wild sheep with a reddish coat) are common.
Black and brown bears are still common in remote places, but
the destruction of the forest limits their habitat.
Kashmir has its own variety of stag, and a large range of
game birds and other birds. Wild
duck are particularly common on the lakes. At
high altitudes there are some rare species of animals, including red
foxes, wolves, mouse hares, and marmots.
Some of the state's mammals are only found in Ladakh.
They include the brong or drong (wild yak), kyang (wild
horse), and nyan (large-horned sheep).
The snow leopard is the rarest wild animal.
Musk deer, the Tibetan gazelle, and the Tibetan antelope are
also rarely seen. The
Ladakhi goat produces pashmina wool. The state also has more than 100 species of birds. They include black-necked cranes, Turkoman rock pigeons, desert wheatears, kites, kestrels, and many kinds of ducks, finches, and geese. |
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The
region of northern India now occupied by Jammu and Kashmir has been
inhabited for thousands of years. Rock carvings found in Ladakh indicate that nomadic tribes
(tribes that wandered about from place to place) were present in the
area over a very long period. Such
tribes included the Mons of northern India, who introduced Buddhism
to Ladakh and established settlements in the valleys, and the Dards
of Dardistan, now in Pakistan, who introduced irrigation.
Other tribes included the Mongols and Champa shepherds of
Tibet. Kashmir and
Ladakh lay on a branch of the great silk road that ran from China to
the Mediterranean at the time of the Roman Empire. The
Vale of Kashmir formed a part of several Indian empires, including
that of Asoka in the 200's B.C. An independent kingdom of Kashmir
arose in the A.D. 600's. It
was founded by Durlabhavardhana, the first king of the Karkota
dynasty, a royal family of local origin.
The Karkota kings raised the political status of Kashmir and
extended its territorial control.
In 855, the Utpala dynasty replaced the rule of the Karkotas.
The Utpala kings undertook large-scale irrigation works in
the Vale of Kashmir, enabling them to take large areas of land into
cultivation. During
the 900's, several small kingdoms and hill states emerged in the
foothills of the Himalaya. Among
them was Durgara, the future Jammu. By the end of the 900's, the Thi dynasty ruled Ladakh.
This dynasty founded a capital at Shey and built many forts
throughout their domain. Tibetan
Buddhism became established in Ladakh during the 900's.
More than 100 gompas (Buddhist monasteries) were built in the
region. From
the 900's to the 1300's, the rule of the Utpala dynasty in the Vale
of Kashmir was dominated by the rivalry of two military factions,
the Tantrins and the Ekangas. Feudal
landowners called damaras finally put an end to the power struggle.
Two Utpala queens conducted the affairs of state with
distinction--Queen Sugandhra and Queen Didda.
The period was also famous for a history of Kashmir entitled
Rajatarangini, which was composed in the 1100's by a writer named
Kalhana. It is hailed
as the first major historical text of ancient India. Arab
invaders had first been drawn to Kashmir in the 700's and had
afterward made repeated unsuccessful invasions.
However, in the 1200's and 1300's, Afghan and Turkic people
whose religion was Islam moved into the Vale of Kashmir.
In 1339, one of their leaders, Shah Mirza, finally seized the
throne and ruled Kashmir under the name Shams-ud-Din.
His dynasty, which retained power until the 1500's, spread
Islam throughout the region. One
monarch, however, Sultan Zain-ud-Abidin (1420-1470), sought good
relations with the Hindus and fostered education, scholarship, and
the arts. About
1553, Bhagan Namgyal founded a dynasty in Ladakh with Leh as its
capital. Among the
dynasty's most outstanding rulers was Sengge Namgyal (reigned
1616-1642), who enlarged the kingdom to its greatest extent and
repaired many of the monasteries which had by that time fallen into
decay. He also built
new monasteries and the great palace that can still be seen at Leh. In
Kashmir, the Mughal emperor Akbar established his rule by 1588 and
built a fort in Srinagar. His
son and successor Jahangir, who ruled from 1605 to 1627, increased
the beauty of the Vale of Kashmir by planting chenar trees and
constructing pleasure gardens. In
the 1600's, Ladakh repulsed invading Baltis from the south and west
but was overrun by Tibetan Mongols. The Mughal governor of Kashmir helped the king of Leh regain
his throne. But in
return the king had to send regular tribute (payment) to the Mughal
emperor and also had to build a mosque.
Mughal power in Kashmir was, however, beginning to decline.
The region went through a period of unstable government in
the 1700's. After
1780, the small state of Jammu, controlled by a Rajput clan (a clan
whose members belonged to the warrior caste of ancient India),
became an ally of the Sikhs and paid them tribute.
Gulab Singh, a member of the princely house of Jammu, won
favour with the Sikhs. In
Kashmir, meanwhile, Afghan chiefs controlled the state and oppressed
its people. In 1819,
the Sikh leader Maharajah Ranjit Singh annexed Kashmir to his
kingdom and put an end to the oppression.
In 1820, Gulab Singh was made maharajah of Jammu.
The dynasty that Gulab Singh founded was called the Dogra
Dynasty. In
1834, Dogra forces invaded Ladakh and placed it under various
governors appointed by Gulab Singh.
In 1845-1846, the British defeated the Sikhs in the First
Anglo-Sikh War. Gulab
Singh, who had kept out of the war, acted as a mediator between the
two sides. The British, who now had control of Kashmir, ceded it to
Gulab Singh. Gulab
Singh and his successors, a Hindu dynasty, ruled the new state of
Jammu and Kashmir, subject to British supervision, until 1947.
The state included Kashmir, Baltistan, and Gilgit, which were
largely Muslim, and Ladakh, which had many Buddhists. In
the period before independence, the Muslim League Party in Kashmir
favoured joining the proposed new Muslim nation of Pakistan.
But the Congress Party wished the area to remain within the
country of India. Meanwhile,
Gilgit and Baltistan rebelled. In southwest Kashmir, Muslim rebels allied themselves with
the Pakistani states. Following
independence and the partition of India in 1947, Kashmir suffered a
brief invasion from Pakistan, and its ruler Hari Singh chose to
enter union with India. Indian
troops opposed the Pakistani invading forces, and hostilities
between India and Pakistan continued until December 30, 1948.
On that date, both sides agreed a ceasefire. The ceasefire line became the frontier separating the Indian
state of Jammu and Kashmir from the Pakistani-held Azad Kashmir.
Neither country recognizes the jurisdiction of the other.
The Kashmir Assembly declared the state to be part of India
in 1957. In the late 1980's, Muslims in the Indian section of Kashmir staged protests against Indian rule. Some demanded independence and some wanted Kashmir to unite with Pakistan. In the early 1990's, Indian military forces clashed with protesters. Many protesters and some troops were killed. Communal tensions and terrorist activities led to large scale migration of Hindus from the valley. Democratic institutions were suspended in 1992, and the state came under direct rule from Delhi. |