INDIANS IN SOUTH AFRICA

                                       

INDIANS IN SOUTH AFRICA: A COMPLETE PROFILE

South Africa lies at the southern tip of the African continent, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet near Cape Agulhas. It is the twenty-fourth largest country in the world, with an area of about 1.2 million square kilometres. It has six neighbouring countries: Namibia to the northwest, Botswana and Zimbabwe to the north, and Mozambique and Eswatini to the east. It also completely surrounds the mountainous kingdom of Lesotho.

South Africa has three capitals. Pretoria is the administrative capital, Cape Town the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein the judicial capital. Johannesburg is the largest city and the country’s principal economic and financial centre.

For Indians, however, the most important city is Durban, situated on the east coast in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Durban has one of the largest concentrations of people of Indian origin outside India and has long been a major centre of Indian commercial, cultural, religious and social life in South Africa. The Indian population is particularly concentrated in and around Durban, including areas such as Chatsworth, Phoenix, Verulam, Tongaat and Isipingo, where people of Indian origin have played a prominent role in the development of local society.

CLIMATE

South Africa’s climate is as diverse as India’s, although it is generally drier and sunnier. The Durban and KwaZulu-Natal coast, where a large proportion of South Africa’s Indian population lives, has a humid subtropical climate broadly comparable to that of Chennai or Mumbai. Summer extends from November to February, with temperatures generally ranging from 28 to 33 degrees Celsius and accompanied by substantial rainfall. Winters are mild, with daytime temperatures usually between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius.

Sugarcane grows particularly well in this warm and humid region, which was one of the reasons indentured Indian labourers were brought to Natal during the nineteenth century to work on sugar plantations. The climate was suitable for cane cultivation and was familiar to many migrants from the warmer agricultural regions of India.

The Gauteng Highveld, where Johannesburg and Pretoria are situated and where a significant Indian population also lives, has a temperate high altitude climate at around 1,500 metres above sea level. It may be compared broadly with Bengaluru. Summers are pleasant, with daytime temperatures of about 26 degrees Celsius, while winters are cold and dry, with morning frost common and temperatures ranging roughly from 4 to 15 degrees Celsius.

The Western Cape, including Cape Town, has a Mediterranean climate, characterised by hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters. The interior Karoo is much drier and is largely semi-desert. South Africa as a whole enjoys abundant sunshine, receiving more than 2,500 hours of sunshine annually in many areas.

WHEN DID INDIANS ARRIVE

( Old photos of Indians in South Africa)

There were two distinct waves.

Wave one was indentured labour from eighteen sixty to nineteen eleven. After slavery was abolished in the British Empire in eighteen thirty-four, sugar planters in Natal Colony needed cheap labour. On sixteenth November eighteen sixty, the sailing ship Truro arrived in Durban harbour from Madras with three hundred forty-two Indians. Then the SS Belvedere from Calcutta. Over fifty-one years, one hundred fifty-two thousand one hundred eighty-four indentured Indians arrived in three hundred eighty-four ships. Sixty per cent came from Madras Presidency, Tamil and Telugu-speaking villages, twenty-five per cent from Bihar, United Provinces, Bengal, Bhojpuri- and Awadhi-speaking; fifteen per cent from Bombay and Gujarat. They signed a five-year contract, paid ten shillings a month, lived in barracks, and were called Coolies. About twenty-five per cent went back to India, but seventy-five per cent stayed, took a small plot of land in Inanda, Clairwood, or became market gardeners and hawkers. Indenture was stopped in nineteen eleven due to Gandhi's agitation.

Wave two was Passenger Indians from the eighteen seventies onwards. These were free Indians, not indentured labourers. First was Abubaker Amod Jhaveri, a Memon trader from Porbandar in eighteen seventy-five, who followed his indentured workers to sell them halal food and clothes. Then came Gujarati Hindu Bhatias, Patels, and Uttar Pradesh Sunni Bohras. They paid their own passenger fare, hence called Passenger Indians. They were literate and had capital. They opened shops on Grey Street, now called Dr Yusuf Dadoo Street in Durban. After nineteen ninety four, the third wave arrived: thirty thousand plus new Indian professionals, doctors, information technology specialists, professors, direct from India on work visas. They are called India Indians versus South African Indians.

ROUTES

The indenture route was Kolkata or Madras across the Indian Ocean via Mauritius to Durban. The voyage took forty-five to sixty days, with mortality of two to three per cent. Ships were Truro, Belvedere, Umtata, Congella and others. The passenger route was Porbandar or Bombay to Aden to Zanzibar to Durban by steamer. Traders would bring whole joint families, unlike indenture, which was single-male majority.

POPULATION BREAKUP

South Africa’s Indian population is strongly concentrated in a few urban regions, above all in KwaZulu-Natal. Census 2022 recorded about 1.70 million people in the official Indian or Asian category, of whom approximately 1.16 million lived in KwaZulu-Natal and about 330,000 in Gauteng. Durban and the wider eThekwini region remain the historic and cultural heart of Indian South Africa, reflecting the arrival of indentured Indian labourers in Natal from 1860 and the subsequent settlement of traders, artisans and professionals. Large Indian communities are found in Durban suburbs and surrounding areas such as Chatsworth, Phoenix, Tongaat, Verulam and Umhlanga, while Pietermaritzburg is another important centre. Gauteng has the second largest concentration, particularly in Johannesburg, Lenasia, Pretoria and adjoining urban areas, where Indian settlement expanded through commerce, professional employment and later internal migration. The Western Cape has a smaller but significant Indian and Asian population of about 84,000, concentrated principally in Cape Town, while smaller communities live in the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, the Free State, Northern Cape and North West.

Religiously, South African Indians are remarkably diverse. Census 2022 shows that within the wider Indian or Asian category, about 37.9 per cent identified with Hinduism, 33.6 per cent with Christianity, and 24.5 per cent with Islam, with much smaller numbers identifying with Buddhism, Judaism, other beliefs, or no religious affiliation. Hindu religious and cultural life is particularly visible in Durban and its surrounding Indian settlements, where numerous temples, festivals and cultural organisations preserve traditions associated with ancestors who came largely from India. Muslims of Indian origin also form an important part of the communities of Durban, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town. In contrast, a substantial section of South Africans of Indian ancestry are Christian. Thus, although Durban remains the principal centre of Indian civilisation and heritage in South Africa, Johannesburg and Lenasia have developed into major centres of Indian commercial, religious and cultural life, with smaller but established communities extending across the country.

RELIGIOUS PRACTICES

                                        

                                              ( A Hindu Temple in South Africa)

Around half of the Indian community are Hindus, divided into several traditions. The Tamil group, the largest, maintains Mariamman temples; North Indians uphold Sanatan Dharma with shrines dedicated to the Ramayana; while Telugu and Gujarati devotees sustain Swaminarayan centres. Many temples are served by Brahmin priests, and numerous institutions fall under the authority of the Sanatan Dharma Sabha.

Approximately twenty‑two per cent are Muslims, predominantly Gujarati Memon and Surti Sunni, with a smaller number of North Indian Pathans. This community is notably affluent, long associated with control of the textile trade. Their mosques on Grey Street, some dating back 140 years, remain enduring landmarks.

About fifteen per cent are Christians. Many among the indentured labourers converted during apartheid, seeking access to education through missionary schools. Smaller groups include Sikhs, Parsis, and Jains, each contributing to the plural religious fabric.

During apartheid, when Indian political activity was prohibited, temples and mosques became vital centres of organisation, blending spiritual devotion with resistance and community solidarity.

FESTIVALS

Diwali is the biggest public festival in Durban. The Durban Diwali Festival at the Old Fort and along the Golden Mile attracts over two hundred thousand people of all races. Homes in Chatsworth and Phoenix light oil lamps, share mithai and set off fireworks.

Eid is central for the Muslim Indian community. There are two major Eids. Eid ul Fitr after Ramadan is the festival of breaking fast. It is celebrated after thirty days of fasting. On this day, the Jumuah Masjid in Durban, built in eighteen eighty one, holds special prayers with over six thousand people. Families wear new clothes, give Zakat to the poor and cook biryani, haleem and seviyan. Eid ul Adha is the festival of sacrifice in memory of Prophet Ibrahim. The ritual of Qurbani is done, and meat is distributed to the poor and neighbours of all religions.

Holi or Phag is celebrated as the festival of colours, especially by North Indians from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh heritage. In Durban and Johannesburg, temples like the Sri Radha Gopinath Temple organise Holi with dry colour, water and bhajans. It falls during South Africa's autumn in March, but youth have revived it.

Maha Shivratri is the great night of Shiva and is very important for Tamil and Hindi communities. Devotees fast all day and stay awake all night chanting Om Namah Shivaya. The main centres are the Clairwood Shree Siva Soobramoniar Temple in Durban and the Melrose Sri Siva Vishnu Temple in Johannesburg. People carry milk, water and bilva leaves to pour on the lingam.

Ram Navmi is the birth of Lord Rama and is perhaps the most emotional festival for North Indian Sanatan Dharma families because the Ramayana is their bible. For nine days, Ramayana recitals happen in Hindi and in English in homes and temples. On Ram Navmi day, temples in Durban North, Pietermaritzburg and Lenasia stage flag hoisting and distribute panakam and sweet rice. The Ramayana Centre in Chatsworth was built to preserve this tradition.

Other major festivals include Pongal, Kavadi or Thaipusam, Navratri and Garba, and Krishna Janmashtami.

 ARYA SAMAJ

Arya Samaj was founded in South Africa in nineteen zero eight in Durban by Bhawani Dayal Sannyasi, who had come from India. He started the first Arya Samaj in Durban to reform Hinduism among Hindi-speaking North Indians. The core teachings are belief in one formless God, rejection of idol worship, rejection of caste by birth, support for widow remarriage, support for Vedic education and the Hindi language, and performance of hawan fire prayer instead of idol puja. In South Africa, it remained a minority, about ten to fifteen per cent of North Indian Hindus. Still, Arya Samaj's contribution is significant. They run Arya Samaj schools in Durban and Johannesburg, like Arya Samaj School in Chatsworth. They run Hindi classes, they conduct mass hawan, they conduct funerals without a Brahmin priest, they promote Vedic marriages where the bride and groom chant mantras themselves. They also run the Veda Niketan and Dayanand Home for orphans.

RAM LEELA

Ram Leela is very much alive in South Africa. Ram Leela was brought by Bihari and Uttar Pradesh indentured labourers who knew the Tulsidas Ramcharitmanas by heart. There are two forms. The first is Ramayana Satsang, which is nonstop reading. For nine days before Ram Navmi and Dussehra, groups read the entire Ramcharitmanas in temples. The second is Natak Ram Leela, which is a drama with costumes. This is performed in Durban, Chatsworth, Verulam, Phoenix, Lenasia and Cape Town. The biggest Ram Leela is in Durban. Shree Ramayana Sabha of South Africa organises Ram Leela every year at the Chatsworth Stadium and at the Durban Exhibition Centre during Navratri and Dussehra. In Verulam, Ram Leela is performed on open ground for ten nights, ending with Ravan Dahan, the burning of the effigy of Ravana. This attracts over ten thousand people. Today, the Ramayana Centre in Chatsworth, founded by Pandit Sahadeo Maharaj, is the world-famous centre for Ram Leela study.

 SIKHS IN SOUTH AFRICA

Sikhs in South Africa are a very small and very new community of about thirteen thousand people, which is less than one per cent of the Indian community. Unlike Tamil and Gujarati Indians who came in eighteen sixty as indentured labourers and traders, Sikhs were not present during apartheid because immigration from India was banned from nineteen forty eight to nineteen ninety four. The community comprises exclusively Indian expatriates who arrived after nineteen ninety four. The first full-fledged Gurdwara was built only in two thousand fifteen in Sandton, Johannesburg, after an eight-year legal battle with white neighbours who objected to its domes. It is two thousand five hundred square metres and was opened by Minister Maite Mashabane Nkoane as a symbol that God is for the rich and the poor. There are now Gurdwaras in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. They hold Sunday divan, Punjabi classes, Vaisakhi Nagar Kirtan and daily langar open to all races. Many local South Africans come to do seva. Sikhs are known for enterprise and work mainly in transport, logistics, hardware and hotels and are respected for community service like blanket and food distribution.

 CULTURAL CONTINUITY

Continuity is strong. The joint family system survives in KwaZulu-Natal business families; arranged marriages still account for sixty per cent in the Gujarati community, but love marriages are rising; vegetarianism is high, with Durban having the largest number of vegetarian restaurants in Africa. Bollywood, Indian Premier League cricket and Zee Television have a strong are maintaining links. Cricket hero Hashim Amla fasting in Ramadan was national pride. Cuisine includes bunny chow, hollowed bread filled with curry, invented by Indians to carry lunch to the fields and now a national South African dish. Samosa, Biryani, and Roti are mainstream South African foods.

 TOURISM

Two-way tourism exists. Indians visiting South Africa are one hundred thousand plus annually from India. They come for the Gandhi Trail, which includes Pietermaritzburg Station, where Gandhi was thrown off in eighteen ninety three, Phoenix Settlement in Inanda, which is Gandhi Ashram, Tolstoy Farm near Johannesburg, and Constitution Hill. They also come for Indian markets like Victoria Street Market in Durban and Oriental Plaza in Johannesburg, plus Kruger and Cape Town and the Garden Route. South Africans visiting India include many South African Indians who go for roots, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Bihar ancestral villages, Char Dham pilgrimage.

 GANDHI VISIT

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a twenty-four-year-old barrister from Porbandar, arrived in Durban in May eighteen ninety three to work for Dada Abdulla, a Gujarati trader. On seventh June eighteen ninety three, in a first-class compartment from Durban to Pretoria, he was thrown off at Pietermaritzburg for being coloured in a white compartment. He shivered the whole night in the waiting room. He later wrote my active non-violence began that night. He stayed till nineteen fourteen. In South Africa, he founded the Natal Indian Congress in eighteen ninety four, the first Indian political party outside India, now one hundred thirty years old. He started the newspaper Indian Opinion in nineteen zero three in four languages. He founded Phoenix Settlement near Durban in nineteen zero four, an experimental ashram where he first practised simple living and bread labour. He founded Tolstoy Farm in nineteen ten near Johannesburg, a satyagraha training camp. He led his first Satyagraha in nineteen zero six against the Asiatic Registration Act, called Black Act, requiring fingerprinting of Indians; he burned passes and went to jail four times. He led nineteen thirteen march of two thousand Indian women against the marriage law, his first women led march. He was jailed in Old Fort Prison, Johannesburg. South Africa was his laboratory. He left in January nineteen fifteen for India as Mahatma.

 MANDELA AND INDIANS

Nelson Mandela's relationship with Indians was brotherhood forged in prison. During apartheid from nineteen forty-eight to nineteen ninety four, Indians were classified as Asian, could not vote, could not own land in white areas, could not marry whites, forced to relocate under the Group Areas Act; Lenasia near Johannesburg and Chatsworth near Durban were Indian ghettos created by law. Indians joined the African National Congress early. Key figures include Dr Yusuf Dadoo and Monty Naicker, who led nineteen forty six Passive Resistance Campaign, the same Gandhian satyagraha. Ahmed Kathrada, Gujarati born, jailed with Mandela for twenty-six years on Robben Island after Rivonia Trial in nineteen sixty-four. Mandela's closest confidant. Fatima Meer, Tamil Indian activist, banned person. Billy Nair, Pravin Gordhan, trade unionists. Mandela, after his release in nineteen ninety, first went to Indian areas to thank. He said Indians, Coloureds and Africans were all oppressed; our struggle is one. Post nineteen ninety four democracy, Indians flourished; Pravin Gordhan became Finance Minister twice, Ebrahim Patel, Minister of Trade, Naledi Pandor, of Indian Muslim father, Foreign Minister.

 CONTRIBUTION OF INDIANS

Indians built the Natal sugar industry, which is still sixty per cent of South Africa's sugar. They built railways from Durban to Johannesburg. Created retail network; Grey Street, Durban, was one hundred per cent Indian shops. Today, Durban's small business is seventy percent Indian owned. Agriculture includes market gardening; Indians introduced mango, coriander, brinjal, and chilli to South Africa. Clairwood and Verulam were vegetable baskets. Education-wise, during apartheid, when the government refused to build Indian schools, Indians built their own: Mahatma Gandhi schools, Sastri College, the first Indian college. Literacy among Indians ninety eight percent, the highest of all groups. Healthcare-wise, built clinics, led anti-tuberculosis movement. Struggle-wise, sacrificed for democracy.

 NOTABLE INDIANS

Ahmed Kathrada, Rivonia Trialist; Yusuf Dadoo, Fatima Meer author; Pravin Gordhan, nineteen forty nine to twenty twenty four Finance Minister who stopped state capture; Ebrahim Patel, Minister; Navi Pillay, United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, Hashim Amla first Indian to captain South Africa with fifty five centuries, Keshav Maharaj spinner South Africa cricket, Ravi Naidoo founder of Design Indaba.

INDIANS IN TRADE AND COMMERCE

Trade is where Indians dominate disproportionately. Gujarati Passenger Indians were called Arab traders by whites and hated for competition. They controlled eighty per cent of retail in Natal by nineteen ten, leading to anti Indian laws. Today Grey Street in Durban, Oriental Plaza in Johannesburg, Fordsburg and Lenasia are wholesale hubs for textiles, spices, jewellery, hardware and electronics. Gujarati families like Jhaveri and Moosa own listed companies. New professionals run information technology firms, private hospitals and law firms. Shops like Lala Store menswear with a lotus logo are classic Passenger Indian businesses, suits and formal wear for weddings. The lotus is used because it stands for Lakshmi and prosperity. South African Indians were brought as labour but became builders of the nation.

( Avtar Mota ) 

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

THE MANIPULATED LIE THAT WEARS TRUTH AS A MASK: A GENERAL CRISIS OF HISTORIOGRAPHY

                                   

 

                                           

                                          

THE MANIPULATED LIE THAT WEARS TRUTH AS A MASK: A GENERAL CRISIS OF HISTORIOGRAPHY

Half-truths do not need study and depth of research. They are manipulated and managed lies made to appear as truth. This observation is not an emotional complaint. It is a precise epistemological diagnosis. It identifies exactly how historical consciousness is being corrupted and why the corruption is so effective.

THE ECONOMY OF THE HALF-TRUTH IN HISTORY WRITING

Genuine historical research is arduous. It demands what Marc Bloch called the craft of the historian: years in archives, learning of languages, weighing of contradictory evidence, scepticism towards pleasing narratives, and a willingness to conclude that the past was more complex than any present ideology would like it to be.

The half-truth requires none of this labour. It requires only selection. It needs no depth because depth would complicate it. It needs no study because study would undermine it.

To produce a half-truth, one does not need to read the whole archive. One needs only to read enough to find one fragment that supports a predetermined conclusion and then present that fragment as if it were the archive itself.

This is why I call it a manipulated and managed lie. It is manipulated because the material is deliberately cut to shape. It is managed because its dissemination is carefully controlled to appear as truth. It borrows the prestige of historical scholarship : its footnotes, its academic tone, its claim to objectivity while violating the very method that gives history its authority.

Francis Bacon warned of this when he spoke of the Idols of the Theatre, where received systems are staged as if they were reality. The half-truth historian stages a drama in which only one actor appears on stage and then declares that this actor is the whole play.

WHY KASHMIR VALLEY HISTORIOGRAPHY IS VULNERABLE TO HALF-TRUTHS

The Kashmir Valley presents a particularly acute example because its past is layered, plural, and often painful. Its history includes ancient Hindu and Buddhist polities, the advent of Islam, centuries of Mughal, Afghan, Sikh, and Dogra rule, the trauma of Partition, politics of deception and double-talk, corruption, failed political leadership, the death and destruction brought by terrorism, the exile of minorities, and the prolonged suffering of those affected by terrorism in recent decades. Any honest account must hold all these layers together without forcing them into a single comforting story.

In this particular case, the half-truth historian does not need deep research because depth would force him to encounter evidence that contradicts his preferred half.

As Voltaire said, history is a pack of tricks we play on the dead. The half-truth historian plays the trick not by inventing facts but by burying half of them.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGED LIES

Why does a managed lie appear as truth? Because it exploits a cognitive bias that psychologists now call the truthiness effect and that Plato already understood in the Gorgias. When a statement contains a verifiable fact, we tend to trust the entire statement, including its unverified implications. The half-truth gives you one verifiable fact and then smuggles in an entire worldview as implication. You check the fact, find it correct, and then unconsciously assent to the worldview.

Jean-Paul Sartre, in his analysis of bad faith, calls this the lie to oneself that makes lying to others possible. The historian who spreads half-truths must first persuade himself that he is not lying. He tells himself he is highlighting, emphasising, giving voice to the voiceless. This self-absolution is essential. Without it, he could not write with conviction. With it, he becomes dangerous because his sincerity becomes the vehicle of deception.

Hannah Arendt, reflecting on historiography, noted that the ideal subject of such manipulation is not the fanatic who believes a complete lie, but the ordinary person who believes that truth is always partial and therefore any partial story is as good as any other. Once that cynicism is established, the managed lie wins because it is simpler, more emotional, and more flattering than the complex truth.

NO STUDY NEEDED, ONLY INTENTION

Real study cultivates what John Keats called negative capability, the capacity to remain in uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts without any irritable reaching after fact and reason. Half-truth is irritable reaching. It cannot tolerate uncertainty. It must resolve the past into a slogan.

Real study also cultivates what Edmund Burke called the moral imagination, the ability to see continuity and complexity across time. Half-truth destroys moral imagination because it replaces continuity with caricature.

Thus, the half-truth historian is not a failed scholar. He is a successful propagandist. His success is measured not by how much he has understood but by how much he has persuaded. His work is not judged by the archive but by the applause.

This is why managed lies are so popular. A complete truth in Kashmir would require courage from both speaker and listener. The speaker would have to say that external interventions, like Pakistan's support, and internal failures to protect a vulnerable group have both shaped a human tragedy. Such a speaker would risk unpopularity in all camps.

The listener would have to have the courage to hear that his community has been both wronged and has wronged others, that his identity is both ancient and hybrid, that his suffering is real but not exclusive. That is a painful maturity. Many would rather have the anaesthetic of half-truth.

WHOLE TRUTH IS THE FOUNDATION STONE OF NON-PARTISAN UNDERSTANDING

A managed lie that appears as truth causes long-term damage because it corrupts the very instrument by which damage could be repaired.

If a map is half-true, you can correct it by adding the missing mountains. But if people are taught that a map with only rivers is a complete map, they lose the very concept of a mountain. They will not even look for what is missing.

When history is taught as half-truth, each generation inherits not memory but selective amnesia. It inherits pride without humility and grievance without self-reflection. Reconciliation becomes impossible because reconciliation requires a shared whole truth, not competing half-truths. True reconciliation requires a work of memory that includes mourning for what was lost on all sides. Half-truth forbids mourning for the other side because it forbids knowledge of the other side's loss.

Peace is not born of agreement, but of comprehension. And comprehension is not born of absolute truth, but of whole truth. Absolute truth is a theological ambition. It seeks to end inquiry. Whole truth is a philosophical discipline. It seeks to honour inquiry.

Reality is not made of arguments, but of contradictions held together. A whole truth does not smooth them away to make a clean thesis. It preserves the jaggedness of what actually happened.

An absolute truth seeks to close history; a whole truth seeks to open it, acknowledging that no historian can stand outside time and see everything, and therefore humility is not modesty but method. To be whole, truth must state clearly what it knows, confess plainly what it does not know and what it has been forced to omit, and summon the strongest evidence against its own thesis and place it alongside the evidence for it, trusting the reader to judge. In that act of self-limitation and self-interrogation, truth ceases to be a weapon and becomes a common space, because people can endure even a painful past if they feel it has been told without amputation, and it is only when nothing essential has been hidden that understanding can settle, and where understanding settles, peace can remain not as truce, but as condition of thought.

Such truth may be unpalatable at first. It will not trend. It will not be celebrated by partisans. But it will endure, because reality will not contradict it. And over time, it alone can provide the foundation for a shared future in which history is not a weapon but a common inheritance.

The half-truth asks, "Will this please my audience?" The whole truth asks, "Will this honour reality?" Between those two questions, the fate of historiography, and in places like the Kashmir Valley the fate of peace itself, is decided.

(Avtar Mota)

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

THE MEDIAEVAL PERIOD ROUTES FROM KASHMIR TO NAGARKOT

THE MEDIAEVAL PERIOD ROUTES FROM KASHMIR TO NAGARKOT

(AI generated map of the two medieval routes to Nagarkot )

Two medieval period roads linked Kashmir to Nagarkot, now Kangra. Both crossed the Pir Panjal and both crossed the Ravi River, ancient Iravati.

Route One - Southern Naag Road:

Kashmir - Kulgam - Kaunsarnag - Reasi - Manwal/Babbarpur (Babbapura) - Billawar (Vallapura) - Basholi (Ballapura) - crossing Ravi - Kangra.

Route Two - Eastern Naag Road:

Kashmir - Anantnag - Sinthan - Kishtwar - Bhaderwah - Sarthal - Chamba - Kangra.

ROUTE ONE - THE SOUTHERN NAAG ROAD

The sacred centre of Route One was  Kaunsarnag. The Nilamata Purana, dated 6th-7th century CE, calls the lake Kramasaras in Sanskrit. It says after Satisar was drained, the gods took seats on peaks around this lake. Later tradition calls it Vishnu Pad, created by Vishnu stamping with his foot. Modern Yatra literature preserves this as Karamasar or Veshnopad. The Vishav River originates from Kousarnag and flows towards the Kashmir Valley, forming Aharbal falls.

The Political Centre - Babbapura (Manwal)

The political centre  of this route was Babbapura, present-day Manwal in Udhampur. The first mention of Babor as Babbapura is in Kalhana's Rajatarangini, where ruler Kirti is recorded to have visited the court of King Kalasa of Kashmir in 1087-88 CE. During the 9th-10th centuries, Babbapura was a flourishing urban centre and served as the capital of Durgara State, mentioned in the Chamba copper plate inscription. It remained significant until the capital shifted to Jammu in 1380 CE. Rajatarangini also records that Rajas of Durgara country, including those of Babbapura and Vallapura, played a role in Kashmir politics, supporting Bikshachara's claim for the throne. At that time Vajradhara alias Chakradhara was Raja of Babbapura. Vallapura is Billawar, Ballapura is Basholi. Thus Rajatarangini gives a chain from Kashmir to Babbapura to Vallapura to Ballapura to the Ravi - exactly the road from Kulgam to Kangra.

The Dranga System

Kings of Kashmir maintained border posts called Dranga on all passes. Kounsar Gali was one such Dranga, its commander called Drangapati. Crossing Kounsar Gali meant leaving Kashmir and entering the kingdom of Durgara.

The Living Track

Today this old track survives only for the Kaunsarnag Yatra. Government records state the Kounsarnag Yatra starts from the traditional route of Reasi and does not pass through the Valley. There are two routes traditionally used: one through Kulgam in the Valley (used by Kashmiri Pandits, abandoned during 1990s militancy) and one via Reasi in Jammu region (continues). The Yatra starts from the ancient Lord Shiva temple in Reasi. Pilgrims trek from Mahore to Kousarnag Shiv Dham. Itinerary: 99 km road to Sungri, then 26 km to Sarsote, 11 km on foot to Sari Camp, then 17 km trek to the sacred lake.

Travellers have noted this road. Vigne in 1835 notes the road from Kashmir to Jammu via Shopian and Reasi is used by Brahmins who go to Jawala-Mukhi. Moorcroft in 1822 mentions holy lakes beyond Shopian visited by Brahmins from Jammu. Sir Aurel Stein, who walked this route in the 1890s, identified Babbapura as capital of Durgara and noted the road from Kulgam to Reasi via Kounsar Nag was still used by porters to carry salt.

For a traveller from Kulgam the natural road to Jawala Mukhi in Kangra was to take a dip in Kaunsarnag, cross Kounsar Gali to Sari to Mahore to Reasi, then to Manwal (Babbapura), Billawar (Vallapura), Basholi (Ballapura), then cross Ravi into Nurpur and then to Kangra fort. Dogra revenue records call this the Jawala Ji route. The Chamba copper plate mentioning Lord of Durgara shows Durgara controlled the Ravi crossing.

Through this route Kashmiri Pashmina weaving reached Basholi, Nurpur, Haripur and other hill states. Possibly ancestors of artist Nainsukh Raina travelled through this route. Ancestors of Kauls, Rainas and Dhars of Himachal Pradesh too must have travelled during dark periods in Kashmir. Kashmiri Muslim shawl weavers also used this route during famines and shawl taxation periods.

ROUTE TWO - THE EASTERN NAAG ROAD

Route Two is higher.

Section 1: Anantnag to Sinthan. 

The Sinthan Road connecting Kishtwar with Anantnag goes through Sinthan pass at 3,800 metres. It reduces distance for those who otherwise need to go via Jammu to reach Kishtwar. Anantnag is ancient Vijayeshwara Tirtha . From Anantnag the road goes to Kokernag and then to Sinthan Top. Kalhana calls Kishtwar as Kashtavata and Bhaderwah as Bhadrashavasa.

Section 2: Sinthan to Kishtwar to Bhaderwah.

Kishtwar sits on Chenab (Chandrabhaga) and was independent till 1821. From Kishtwar to Bhaderwah the road goes via Thathri. Bhaderwah is also known as Chhota Kashmir for its strong Kashmiri presence, moderate climate , snow covered peaks  and scenic beauty .

Section 3: Bhaderwah to Sarthal.

From Bhaderwah road climbs to Padri Gali at 10,500 feet. Padri is the watershed between Chenab and Ravi. Then it drops to Sarthal meadow which lies in Kathua district but culturally belongs to Bhaderwah. Sarthal was the summer grazing ground of Bhaderwahi Gujjars and Chamba Gaddis. From Sarthal to Saluni to Langera to Chamba town.

Section 4: Chamba to Nagarkot.

Chamba is ancient Champa. From Chamba road goes to Dalhousie to Nurpur to Kangra. Kangra was Nagarkot, also called Bhimakot and Trigarta. Al Biruni in 1030 calls Nagarkot the fort where kings keep their treasure. Kalhana says kings of Trigarta sent tribute to Lalitaditya in 8th century. That tribute came via Bhaderwah and Chamba.

Route Two was also used as a yatra road and as a wool and salt road. For a Kashmiri Pandit going to Jawala-Mukhi Route 2 was shorter than going via Jammu. British gazetteers note salt from Tibet( via Padder )  and wool from Kishtwar came to Chamba via Padri and then to Kangra. Chamba Gazetteer of 1910 notes Gaddis from Chamba used to go to Kashmir for wool via Bhaderwah and Kishtwar and that this route was called the Kashmir to Kangra road via Bhaderwah.

TRACES OF KASHMIRI CULTURE EVEN UNDER ALTERED CONDITIONS

All along both roads one encounters traces of Kashmiri culture, surnames, traditions and sacred geography.

On Route One: 

At Kulgam and Shopian language is Kashmiri. At Reasi town there is a Kashmiri Mohalla. Some families carry Kram surnames distinctively of  Kashmiri Pandit ancestry .Kashmiri Hindus are all Saraswat Brahmins, known by exonym Pandit, endonym Batta, a term first reserved for emigrant Kashmiri Brahmins in Mughal service. Surnames designate original professions or ancestor nicknames such as Hakim, Saraf, Kabu, Waza , Shonglu, Kharu, Daftari , Langoo , Teng, etc. In Reasi area one encounters  people with Raina,  Koul, Razdan and Zutshi  as their surnames . Many are now Muslim but retain same Kram. Raina families in Reasi believe they came from Anantnag via Kaunsarnag Gali as temple priests for Shiv Khori and Dera temples at Manwal. Some scholars  believe that Baba Kaliveer was from Kashmir's Raina clan . He  is  also worshipped as Kul Devta by many families  in Manwal and Reasi.as well. At Manwal's  Devi Bhagwati Temple , the ritual included offering of cooked  rice and Nadru( lotus stem) , a Kashmiri staple.

On Route Two:

Th  trace is even stronger.  At Kishtwar quarters Kuleed and Sarkoot have surnames Wani, Butt, Lone, Sheikh, Zutshi, Tikoo, Raina, Kaul. Kishtwari has heavy Kashmiri vocabulary. Food includes Monji Haakh ( Kohlrabi), dried fish and noon chai. Houses have Khatamband ceilings like in Kashmir. At Bhaderwah Vasuki Nag Temple , the wooden architecture is  identical to temples in Kashmir  It has a Sharada inscription on its beam. Naag legend says Vasuki after draining Satisar took residence in Bhaderwah.  Surnames in Bhaderwah include Saraf, Rajguru, , Kaul, Mattoo, Dhar, Zutshi,Wani, Butt, Kotwal, Razdan. You may come across some family with Kashmiri Pandit surname even in places like Padder, Gandoh and Banni . Banni and Lowang in Kathua district has a sizeable Kashmiri speaking Muslim population .At Sarthal meadow place names are Kashmiri. Sarthal itself means lake meadow from sar + thal like Gulmarg. Nearby Kailash Kund is called Dal in local speech like Dal Lake. At Chamba town there are Bhat and Raina families who came as priests for Lakshmi Narayan Temple. Many Rainas and Bhat families write Sharma as their suname now.  The Lakshmi Narayan temple has an inscription in Sharada.

Finally at Kangra which is Nagarkot, Panda registers at Jawala Ji temple still record pilgrims as Raina, Kaul, Razdan from Kashmir who came via Bhaderwah and Reasi. There are still some  families with Raina ,Kaul and Sapru surnames in Kangra area .

Thus both roads show that even when dress has changed to Dogra churidar and Chamba topi and Gaddi chola, and language has changed to Pahari, Dogri and Chambyali, the substratum of Naag worship, Kram surnames, food habits, wooden architecture and Sharada sacred geography remains distinctly Kashmiri from Kulgam and Anantnag to Kangra. 

Route Used by Fleeing Kashmiri Pandits 

Kashmiri Pandits who have been fleeing out from the valley  since  the 14th century ,  had  also discovered a hidden route via present day  Batote to escape torture and suppression during the rule of Shahmiri Sultans, Chaks, Mughals and Afghans . They would travel through  Batote  after crossing Banihaal pass on foot. The exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits was not a single event in 1990, but a recurring pattern of flight from the Valley since the fourteenth century. In community memory Batote is preserved as Batta-Vath, the path of the Battas, Batta being the Kashmiri word for Pandit, derived from the Sanskrit Bhatta meaning learned master. Official gazetteers, including Charles Bates, attribute the name instead to Rana Batu Jamwal. Both traditions reflect the same truth: for centuries this ridge was the lifeline for Pandits escaping persecution.

( Avtar Mota )

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.

Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.