KASHMIRI PANDIT SOCIETY OF 1930

                                   

A Kashmiri Pandit Family Photo 1930.

I don't know the family personally. I also don't know how this photo reached me . However, this photograph bears some authentic testimony to our immediate past. Clicked in 1930 somewhere in Srinagar city,  the photograph reveals many aspects of  Kashmiri Pandit society at that point in time  . I quote some aspects after a critical scrutiny of the photograph  :- 

(1)Saree  had not arrived in the Kashmir valley . Kashyap Bandhu's campaign for discarding Pheran and wearing Saree by Pandit womenfolk started after 1930. Even young and little  girls are wearing  the traditional Pheran.

(2) The practice of Child Marriage was prevalent  . One can see a little girl standing in the  last row with Pheran, Dejhur and Bindi. The  Child Marriage  Abolition Ordinance was passed by Maharaja in 1929  The little girl appears to have been married before the Ordinance.

                                     

     (A Roni Maharein/  Child Bride in 1926 from Mattan Kashmir ) 

(3)  Unhappiness, social oppression  and deprivation is visible in the body language and facial expressions  of the  womenfolk in this photo. Women lived a miserable life in Kashmiri society. A life of servitude, sacrifice and neglect. They  had no say in the family affairs.  

(4) Poverty is visible in this photo from all sides. Cow dung was also an essential fuel in the kitchen. One can see the wall used for drying cow dung cakes behind the last row of standing  family members in this photo  .

(5)   Men are wearing  tight pyjamas , long coats , a  Swadeshi dress popular in North India . If one looks for the Dogra male dress of the period , one can see similarity. The European trousers, short coats and shirts were not worn by common masses .

(6) Inspite of paucity of resources, poverty, dullness of life , there is a  liking for nature and its beautiful  creations . Men are holding either a bunch of flowers or a single flower.

(7) There was a practice of covering head amongst Kashmiris. Men, women and children are seen with their heads covered by cap or Dastar or Taranga .

(7) Every person is with folded hands  which inter alia is a  demonstration of a  strong belief in   submission to fate .

(8) In 1930, there were  4 photography shops in  Srinagar city.  Mahatta Photographers who arrived in Kashmir in 1905, had opened their shop at the Bund  and Gulmarg. For some time , they did business from a houseboat  in Dal Lake. subsequently Mehta’s spanned their business to Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Lahore and picturesque Murree hill station. They continued their business at these places until partition of 1947. The family opened a shop in Cannaught Place, New Delhi also.  And from amongst the locals,  Vishnath Kampassi had already set up his photography and printing press  shop in 1930. His employees  would  cover tourists business  and   local family functions .

(9) Since electric power was not available to Srinagar city in 1930,  there were no rice mills run by electric power. Paddy husking was done manually by women. This was the toughest job that our womenfolk performed. The stone Kunz or mortar for husking paddy  was seen in the courtyard of  every house usually in a corner .A stone  Kunz or mortar is also seen the picture .

                                         

      ( Mahattas operating from a House Boat)

I vividly remember ,about group photos during childhood. We were told this:-

" You  children ! Sit down with folded hands in the first row. Look towards this cloth covering the  camera . Don't move . Don't look in any direction. A sparrow will just fly out from this camera." 

( Avtar Mota )

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