Sameer-ul- Haq
“Their fields, their crops, their streams,
Even the peasant in the vale,
They sold, they sold all alas,
How cheap was the sale.” (Allama Iqbal)
The 16th of March signifies a ghostlike day for the entire population of the valley of Kashmir. It was on this day in 1846 when an infamous bargain was materialised and subsequently a nation was sold for seventy five lakh (nanak shahi rupees) to Raja Gulab Singh. In this so-called ‘treaty’ (of Amritsar) the sale deed was not only made of some area of 84,471 sq. miles but this was more a wholesale bargain of around two million Kashmiris with their hopes and dreams altogether. This was not an ordinary event in the history of Kashmir and to this date a mention of the treaty evokes emotional response from the people as it reminds them of the violation of their dignity. The treaty was formalised by the British colonial Empire.
What paved a way for this awful event is wrapped in mysteries, facts and dilemmas. Before formalising this treaty with the British, Gulab Singh was employed in the services of Maharaja Ranjit Singh since the first decade of 19th century. He was given Jammu in jagir by the ruler of Punjab in 1820 for his ‘loyal’ services to Sikh kingdom. And when Ranjit Singh died in 1839, Gulab Singh began to side-line the Lahore Darbar’s administration to the extent that he seemingly became the collaborator of British East India Company which accordingly got exposed when he played a dubious role in the first Anglo-Sikh war of 1845. What followed is that the British held Sikhs responsible for the war and demanded a war indemnity to the tune of one and half crore. The Lahore Durbar whom the British perceived as a constant threat and wanted to weaken it at all costs was not in a position to pay the amount agreed through Treaty Of Lahore (9th of March 1846)to transfer to the company. Since the Sikh Lahore Darbar was unable to pay all this amount, a separate treaty in consonance was signed a week later on March 16, 1846 between Raja Gualab Singh and the British to which some political commentators and historians call a ‘black sale deed’.
Gulab Singh on his frequent visits to Kashmir valley seems to have taken note not only of Kashmir’s beauty and splendour but more importantly of its natural wealth to which the avaricious Dogra ruler saw an opportunity to get richer at any cost. He, therefore had switched his greedy eyes on the territory long before the treaty of Amritsar, suggests M. Y. Saraf. Thus hindsight proves that Gulab Singh’s chief objective was to further his covetous designs upon Kashmir which he along with his brothers had been constantly endeavouring to obtain.This is a matter of huge debate whether Gulab Singh was already in touch with the British officials at a time when Ranjit Singh died or for that matter when Lahore Darbar was trembling for sustenance in the early 1840’s. But it wouldn’t be improper to claim that Gulab Singh obviously tried to overtake and side-line Lahore Darbar by materialising several confidential meetings with British for his selfish gains. Whatever may be the case but Kashmiris became the first hand victims of the foul play of Dogra-British regimes.
The treaty of Amritsar indeed gave Gulab Singh the title of Maharaja of Kashmir, yet he failed to take possession of valley from the Sikh governor Sheikh Imam-ud-din who refused to admit Dogra forces into the valley and offered a stiff resistance to them. The resistance on the part of Kashmiris against this infamous sale deed was such that the army of Gulab Singh was not allowed to enter into valley until November 1846 and it was only possible when British intervened in favour of their Dogra puppet.
Ramifications of the treaty
The repercussions of this treaty were negatively far and wide because Gulab Singh along with his rapacious ministry from the day one started exercising absolute power on hapless Muslim majority of Kashmir.His administration let loose reign of terror, repression, exploitation, persecution, discrimination and religious intolerance throughout the valley. In order to recover the so called expenditure incurred on account of this treaty, Gulab Singh was primarily concerned about reaping more and more commercial benefits from Kashmir which he always presumed as a purchased property.The settlement officer, Walter Lawrence argues that Kashmir state was bankrupt to the extent that everything except air and water was under taxation. Lord canning’s private secretary L.Bowring explains the irony further by mentioning that ‘a part from land revenue, customs, heavy fines, profit from state monopoly of food grains, minerals, fruit gardens, manufacture of wine and scores of other cesses, marriages,buffaloes, sheep and singhars (chestnuts) were also taxed.
Prem Nath Bazaz terms dogra rule as ‘communal’ and in an unpleasant note demonstrates that the polity of the Dogra rulers had a strong bias against the Muslims of both lower and middle classes. Dogras openly demonstrated their communal stance when they signalled their rule by wholesale revoking of ‘Jagirs' and “Inam” grants enjoyed by Muslims and transferred the same to their co-religionists. He calls their recruitment policy highly discriminatory towards Muslim subjects.
The height of Dogra regime’s greed was such that circumcision and the office of grave digger was taxed. Charles Gridlestone points out that in 1871 it brought in 600 rupees as revenue for the Dogra state. How ironical is this that the slaughter of cows was declared an unlawful act by the state in a Muslim majority valley. In 1877 autumn the Muslims of valley had to face one of the worst calamities that had ever known in the form of continuous rains which resulted in the destruction of crops. The flood as always was followed by a severe famine. The Muslims of Kashmir began to die of starvation in thousands. Entire villages got depopulated. People could not slaughter their cattle because of ban from the Dogra authorities. And dearth of fodder killed animals too. People ate bark of trees and grass which also added to mortality. The persons found guilty of killing cow were boiled in oil and then hung from a hook which was fixed on to pole in a public place and Fateh Kadal presented a ghastly picture of this inhuman administrative act. Mridu Rai in her book Hindu Rulers Muslim Subjects reveals shocking act of Ranbir Singh who slit a woman’s tongue for beating a cow which had torn some clothes which were hung out to dry.
Begar (Kar-i-Sarkar) or the system of forced labour was another terror for Kashmiri Muslims which remained one of the worst features of the Kashmir administration under Dogra rule. Tyndale Biscoe, who spent almost half a century in Kashmir, has given the following account of begar. He narrates a chilling account regarding this indentured labour. He writes that the men were collected from the villages with the help of press gangs. During Chilas campaign in 1851 Dewan Jowala Sahai ordered that one man from each peasant family should be collected for carrying ration, army equipment and other necessaries of life for soldier deputed to the campaign. Thus an army of around 30 thousand begars collected which included peasants, non-agriculturalists, boatmen and common people. At Bandipora they were collected and loaded up. The only ration allowed to them was a seer of rice per day, plus the straw for making their shoes (grass-shoes), plus their load of food for the garrison. No provision was made for them as they crossed the snow passes, so that many died on the road, and often it happened that when they did reach Gilgit, they were sold as slaves to the wild inhabitants of that inhospitable region. Gilgit is thus the name of terror through the state. Biscoe mentions further that the grandfather of one of my servants, who was sent there, was exchanged for a Chinese dog.Even the bride-groom was not spared. He too was seized at the same time and not even allowed to accompanying his bride to her new home.
The ghost of this treaty haunted the womenfolk similarly. Prostitution was encouraged endlessly and the Dogra ministers collected taxes from prostitutes and pimps ceaselessly. The revenue collected from these sources was recorded officially. Pimps were free to search for beautiful girls and introduce them into official harems.In 1880, in Srinagar alone, there were about 20,000 prostitutes, says Biscoe. Prof. Ishaq Khan endorses the fact by scripting that Dogras established the prostitution system in Kashmir and two notorious centres of prostitution in Srinagar were existing namely Tashwan and Maisuma. The revenue generated by this business was around 15 to 25 percent in 1880. Though it was Subhan Hajam of Maisuma Srinagar who gave the clarion call against these prostitution centres and he was relatively successful in placing ban on it.
But the irony is that Kashmiris have given up on various methods of resistance to occupation in a way seen in past. We were sold in 1846 by the so called civilized nation and resold again in 1947 by the same nation by gloating over democratic credentials so erroneously. The need of the hour is not to compromise with sacrifices of those who have suffered all along through Dogra and Indian occupation. Both are the two sides of the same coin but the only difference lies is that the former vanished before seventy years ago and the latter is making us suffer from last seventy years.
The author did his Masters Degree in History from University of Kashmir. He can be reached at sameerdar825@gmail.com
