Long before KASHMIR was immortalized in the eponymous Led Zeppelin song it had already achieved legendary status with western travellers, from officers of the British Raj to the first hippy overlanders in the 1960s. No stint in the Subcontinent was complete without an idyllic sojourn on the famous houseboats of the capital Srinagar, which is at the heart of the idyllic Kashmir Valley. The state capital of Jammu is a bustling city with an imposing fort and liberal sprinkling of temples.
By the end of the 1980s, the tourist business was booming alongside agriculture, and had in fact overtaken it as the region’s main source of income. This all came to an almost overnight halt with the onset of the conflict in 1989. Only in recent years has the situation stabilized enough to see the number of visitors swell to more than a trickle, though it’s still well below the 1980s zenith and domestic tourists continue to greatly outnumber foreigners. Most people content themselves with a visit to Srinagar, although the towns of Gulmarg and Pahalgam, both in prime trekking territory, are regarded as being safe these days, as is the lovely town of Sonamarg on the Kargil road. Nevertheless, before setting off for Kashmir, it is wise to check on the current security situation.
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Jammu
Jammu
Known as “the city of temples” because of the many shrines that dot the town, JAMMU is more attractive than its reputation suggests and worthy of at least a full day en route to Kashmir, for which it is the railhead (at least until the line to Srinagar is complete). The main place of worship in town is the revered Ragunath temple, although it is surpassed in importance by Vaishno Devi, near Katra, some 60km north. The city also boasts the impressive Bahu Fort, which crowns a hill overlooking the River Tawi and the splendid Baja-u-Bahu gardens. The town’s principal museum is the mildly absorbing Amar Mahal, which showcases period art.
If you only have time to visit one of Jammu’s many temples, it should be the buzzing Ragunath, about ten minutes’ walk through the commercial lanes east of the bus stand. Once you’ve got through the tight security, you enter a large courtyard surrounded by multiple shikharas and two gardens. Within lies an inner courtyard, housing the main shrine of Lord Ragunath, an incarnation of Vishnu, and his two consorts, watched over by an orange-robed statue of Hanuman nearby.
The other main attraction is Bahu Fort, which stands proudly on a high bluff above the south bank of the River Tawi, around 3km southeast of the centre. The solid, squat battlements of the fort enclose some beautifully manicured lawns, although the principal draw for Hindus is the small Mata Kali temple within the complex. Next to the fort, the odd fish-shaped metal Aquarium Awareness Centre contains a mildly diverting assortment of fish. Descending in attractive tiers below the fort, the impressive Baja-u-Bahu Gardens contain a series of well-tended flower gardens and decorative pools, which act as swimming baths for the local monkeys.
A couple of kilometres northeast of the bus stand on the Srinagar Road, the Amar Mahal Museum, housed in a converted palace, is basically an art gallery with some regal memorabilia. The portraits and miniatures date mostly from the early twentieth century.
- The Kashmir Valley
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The Kashmir conflict
The Kashmir conflict
The Himalayan state of Kashmir is the main reason why India and Pakistan have remained bitter enemies for most of the sixty-plus years since Independence. The region’s troubles date from Partition, when the ruling Hindu maharaja Hari Singh opted to join India rather than Pakistan, and the geopolitical tug-of-war over the state has soured relations between the two countries ever since, at least until the last few years.
The conflict in Kashmir has taken two forms: firstly, a military confrontation between the Pakistani and Indian armies along the de facto border – on three occasions leading to fully fledged war (in 1947, 1965 and 1999); and, secondly, a violent insurgency-cum-civil war since 1989, during which both Kashmiri and foreign Muslim fighters have launched various attacks against Indian military and civilian targets inside Kashmir itself, leading to equally bloody reprisals by Indian security forces – a conflict which has now cost an estimated seventy thousand lives.
The roots of the problem
Following the cessation of hostilities in 1948, a UN resolution demanded a plebiscite should take place whereby the Kashmiri people would decide their own future. This India has resolutely refused to hold. The Ceasefire Line, or so-called Line of Control, became the effective border between India and Pakistan; the third of Kashmir held by Pakistan is referred to by those who support independence from India as Azad (Free) Kashmir. India lost a further slice of Kashmiri territory to the Chinese during the 1962 conflict before a resumption of hostilities with Pakistan during the Second Indo-Pakistan War of 1965. Again, Kashmir was the focus of attention, though at the end of the war both sides returned to their original positions. The Simla Agreement of 1972 committed both sides to renounce force in their dealings with one another, and to respect the Line of Control and the de facto border between their two states.
Insurgency and civil war
Simmering Kashmiri discontent with Indian rule and Delhi’s political interference in the region, which had been due to gain virtual autonomy in return for joining India, began to transform into armed resistance around 1989 – the arrival of mujahideen in the Kashmir Valley after the end of the war with Russia in Afghanistan is often blamed for the sudden surge of militancy. The key incident, however, was the unprovoked massacre, in 1990, of around one hundred unarmed protesters, by Indian security forces on Gawakadal Bridge in the capital, Srinagar. By the following year, violence and human-rights abuses had become endemic, both in the Kashmir Valley itself and further south around Jammu. Curfews became routine, and thousands of suspected militants were detained without trial amid innumerable accusations of torture, the systematic rape of Kashmiri women by Indian troops, disappearances of countless boys and men, and summary executions. The conflict continued to ebb and flow throughout the 1990s, with regular atrocities on both sides, while the region’s once-thriving tourist industry was dealt a fatal blow when the extremist Al-Faran Muslim group kidnapped five tourists trekking near Pahalgam in 1995; one was beheaded, and the others were never found. At the end of the decade, the crisis brought India and Pakistan to the verge of yet another all-out war. With both countries now fully fledged nuclear states, Kashmir has become one of the world’s most dangerous geopolitical flashpoints.
In May 1999, at least eight hundred Pakistani-backed mujahideen crept across the Line of Control overlooking the Srinagar–Leh road near Kargil and began to occupy Indian territory. India moved thousands of troops and heavy artillery into the area, and swiftly followed up with an aerial bombardment. In the event the conflict was contained, and by July 1999 the Indian army had retaken all the ground previously lost to the militants. All-out war was only narrowly averted again in early 2003 after intense diplomatic pressure was brought to bear on both sides by US emissary Colin Powell. Within Kashmir, long-established organizations like the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and the All Party Hurriyat Conference, which had traditionally adopted a secular and nationalist stance, were being increasingly eclipsed by militantly Islamic and pro-Pakistani groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
The road to peace?
The first signs of genuine rapprochement came in May 2003, when Indian prime minister Vajpayee made a declaration of peace, announcing that hundreds of Pakistanis detained in Indian prisons since the Kargil war would be released. Pakistani prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali responded by announcing that Pakistan would ease trade restrictions and improve travel and sporting links. In 2004 and 2005 the Indian and Pakistani governments also held their first-ever talks with Kashmiri separatists from the Hurriyat Conference, establishing a peaceful “Road Map” for progress in the region. A further round of Indo-Pak talks following the appointment of Manmohan Singh as India’s new prime minister resulted in further small but encouraging signs of progress, symbolized by the inauguration, in April 2005, of a fortnightly bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. Further détente was signalled in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Pakistani Kashmir in October 2005, which killed around 73,000 people in Pakistan and a further 1400 in Indian Kashmir, when the Line of Control was opened to speed up relief operations.
Various long-term solutions to the whole Kashmir issue are currently being mooted. These have ranged from India suggesting that the Line of Control might be converted into a permanent border to Pakistan possibly even being prepared to give up all claims to Kashmir if India allowed it some form of self-government. Kashmir’s future looks brighter now than it has for decades, although there is the perpetual risk that a single violent incident could trigger a new phase of conflict.
