Encyclopedia of Islam

Kashmir

  

425  J

---

of folk, Hindu, and Buddhist elements. Kashmir’s 

ethnic composition is diverse, consisting mainly 

of Turks, Mongols, Afghans, and Indo-Aryans.

Kashmir was home to competing Hindu and 

Buddhist regimes prior to the arrival of the first 

Muslims. Islamization occurred gradually over a 

number of centuries. Some accounts indicate that 

it may have occurred by conquest and forced con-

version, others that it was accomplished through 

Sufi missionaries. Most likely a combination 

of different processes was involved. The first 

Muslims appear to have arrived as Turkish war-

riors imported from Afghanistan or Central Asia 

by local Hindu rulers during the 12th century. 

The European explorer Marco Polo (d. 1325) 

encountered “Saracens” (a medieval term for 

Arabs and Muslims) who worked as butchers in 

the Kashmir Valley. The Mongol conquests in the 

Middle East during the 13th and 14th centuries 

brought an influx of immigrants and refugees 

from Persia, Afghanistan, and Central Asia, many 

of whom were Sufis, 

Ulama

, and artisans. Bulbul 

Shah (also known as Sharaf al-Din), a member of 

the Suhrawardi Sufi Order, is said to have been 

responsible for the conversion of Rinchana, a 

Buddhist prince from Ladakh, to Islam early in 

the 14th century. Rinchana is recognized as being 

Kashmir’s first 

sUltan

. A number of other Sufis 

and religious scholars immigrated from Herat, 

Khorasan, Samarqand, and b

Ukhara

. The artisans 

came from the same regions and introduced the 

crafts of paper making, papier-mâché, bookbind-

ing, woodworking, and carpet weaving for which 

Kashmir is still known.

Local sultans provided support for religious 

scholars and mosques, thus laying the founda-

tions for the creation of a permanent Muslim 

presence and ongoing influence over the local 

non-Muslim communities. One of the sultans, 

Sikandar (r. 1389–1413), was reported to have 

imposed the 

sharia

 on his subjects, destroyed 

Hindu temples, and forced them to convert to 

Islam, but these reports in the chronicles may 

have been exaggerated, as they were in chronicles 

about Muslim rulers in India. On the other hand 

Sikandar’s heir, Zayn al-Abidin (r. 1420–70) was 

remembered for having abolished the 

jizya

 (a tax 

on non-Muslims) and supported temple-building 

projects. Hindu Brahmans, later known as Pan-

dits, complained about the Islamic influence that 

was spreading through Kashmir, but they learned 

Persian, the administrative language, and accepted 

appointments as scribes and administrators in 

order to retain their higher status in the Hindu 

community. The confluence of Islamic and Hindu 

religious ideas did not occur among Brahmans 

and sultans, but among lower caste Hindus and 

Sufis. This is epitomized by the Rishi movement, 

which arose during the 15th century in rural 

Kashmir. The Rishis, who took their name from a 

Sanskrit word for the ancient sages of the Hindu 

Vedas, were closely identified with two local 

saint-poets—Lalla Ded, a female ascetic devoted 

to the Hindu god Shiva, and Shaykh Nur al-Din 

Nurani (d. 1438), a Sufi who considered Lalla 

Ded his teacher and a second r

abia

 

al

-a

daWiyya

(the famed woman saint of Basra). Members of 

the movement were vegetarians, abstained from 

marriage, and often appeared as yogis. Their egali-

tarian outlook, spirituality, and charitable activi-

ties made them popular among the commoners. 

Nur al-Din’s shrine at Charar-i Sharif, near the 

Kashmiri capital of Srinagar, was an important 

regional pilgrimage center until 1995, when it was 

destroyed in a clash between Kashmiri rebels and 

Indian troops.

In modern times Kashmir has become a flash-

point for conflict between i

ndia

 and p

akistan

that has cost dearly in terms of human suffering, 

loss of life, and economic damage. The Kashmiri 

conflict is a consequence of the 1947 partition of 

India into two states—India and Pakistan. One 

hundred years previously, in 1846, the British had 

established a Hindu monarchy to rule Kashmir by 

selling the right to rule to Gulab Singh (d. 1857) 

and his heirs, making them the Maharajas of 

Kashmir. Muslims were subject to excessive taxes 

in order to pay for the sale and fund the expenses 

K  426  

Kashmir

---

of the government. At the time of partition Kash-

miris were divided about what to do with their 

country. Some wanted to be joined to India, some 

wanted to be joined to Pakistan, others wished 

to remain independent. Maharaja Hari Singh (r. 

1925–47), although inclined to remain indepen-

dent, agreed to have his state incorporated into 

India and fled. This happened after thousands 

of Kashmiri Muslims had been massacred and 

Pakistan began allowing forces into the area to 

protect them. India responded by sending in its 

troops and registering a complaint at the United 

Nations against Pakistan’s “aggression.” Pakistan 

protested and assumed control of what it called 

Azad Kashmir. Subsequent mediation efforts to 

resolve the dispute between India and Paki-

stan concerning Kashmir’s autonomy have failed. 

The Indian government under Jawaharlal Nehru’s 

leadership negotiated with Shaykh Muhammad 

Abd Allah (d. 1982) and his National Conference, 

a Kashmiri secular nationalist organization, to 

grant Kashmir special territorial status in India. 

The Indian government removed him from office 

in 1953 and imprisoned him for 11 years because 

he would not surrender the right of Kashmiri self-

determination.

Since 1987 there has been an escalation in 

violence as a result of the failure to arrive at 

an acceptable political solution to the Kash-

miri question and economic stagnation. The 

bloodshed has been exacerbated by the growing 

strength of religious radicalism among Muslims 

and Hindus. Hindu nationalist organizations 

such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, 

National Volunteers Organization) and its politi-

cal wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian 

People’s Party), consider Muslims to be a threat 

to the nation and want Kashmir to be ruled by an 

Indian Hindu government. They refuse to allow 

any real autonomy to the Kashmiri Muslims. The 

government of Pakistan supported the emergence 

of an armed Kashmiri resistance, consisting of 

the secularist Jammu and Kashmir Liberation 

Front and the Islamist Hizb al-Mujahidin (Party 

of Muslim Warriors). Another militant Islamist 

group seeking to bring an end to Indian rule in 

Kashmir is the Lashkar-i Tayyiba (Army of the 

Righteous), which was founded in Afghanistan 

in 1990, but is now based in Lahore. It has con-

ducted attacks in India and Pakistan, as well as 

Kashmir. The violence has involved extensive 

human rights violations committed by all com-

batants, including armed attacks on civilians, 

torture, rape, “disappearances,” and extrajudicial 

killings. War nearly broke out in 1999 between 

India, led by a newly elected BJP government, 

and Pakistan, led by a military dictator (Pervez 

Musharraf), when militants and Pakistani troops 

threatened to block the road connecting Srinagar 

to Ladakh at Kargil. The threat of a nuclear war 

between the two countries raised international 

concern. At the urging of the United States 

Pakistan withdrew its forces, thus diffusing the 

situation.

See also  b

Uddhism

 

and

  i

slam

;  h

indUism

 

and

i

slam

; 

hUman

 

rights

; 

Jihad

 

movements

; n

epal

.