THE PEOPLE
Kashmir is very generally renowned for the beauty of its women and the
deftness and taste of its shawl-weavers. And this reputation is, I
think, well deserved. Sir Walter Lawrence indeed says that he has seen
thousands of women in the villages, and cannot remember, save one or
two exceptions, ever seeing a really beautiful face. But whether it is
that Sir Walter was unfortunate, or that he is particularly hard to
please, or that villages are not the abodes of Kashmir beauties,
certain it is that the visitor, with an ordinary standard of beauty,
as he passes along the river or the roads and streets, does see a
great many more than one or two really beautiful women. He will often
see strikingly handsome women, with clear-cut features, large dark
eyes, well-marked eyebrows, and a general Jewish appearance. As to
the deftness and taste of the weavers the shawls themselves are the
best testimony.
The population of the whole Kashmir State is 2,905,578, and of the
Kashmir Province 1,157,394. Of these 93 per cent of the Kashmir
Province and 74 per cent of the whole State are Mohamedan, and the
remainder chiefly Hindu. But the rulers are Hindus, and consequently
the Mohamedans are as much in the shade as Hindus are in States ruled
by Mohamedans. The ruling family is also alien, coming not from the
valley itself, but from Jammu, on the far side of the mountain to the
south.
The inhabitants were not, however, always Mohamedans. Originally they
were Hindus. It was only in the fourteenth century that they were
converted--mostly by force--to become Mohamedans. The present
indigenous Hindus of the valley are generally known as Pundits, and
Kashmir Pundits are well known over India for their acuteness and
subtlety of mind, their intelligence and quick-wittedness. They prefer
priestly, literary, and clerical occupation, but in the severe
competition of life many have been compelled to make more use of their
hands than their brains, and have had to take up agriculture, and
become cooks, bakers, confectioners, and tailors, and, indeed, to
follow any trade except the following which, according to Lawrence,
are barred to them--cobbler, potter, corn-frier, porter, boatman,
carpenter, mason, or fruit-seller. It is hard for us occidentals to
understand why the line should have been drawn at these apparently
harmless occupations, but those of us who have lived in India know
that the Hindu does fix his lines with extraordinary sharpness and
rigidity, and a Kashmir Pundit would as much think of working as a
boatman as an English gentleman would think of wearing a black tie at
a formal dinner-party.
The Kashmir Pundits are essentially townspeople, and out of the total
number about half live in the city of Srinagar. But they are also
scattered sparsely through the villages, where the visitor will easily
distinguish them by the caste mark on the forehead. On the whole they
have a cultured look about them and a superior bearing.
* * * * *
The Mohamedans, forming the large majority of the population, strictly
speaking having no caste, are engaged in various occupations, and
found in every grade of social life. And the Mohamedan gentleman of
good position has something singularly attractive about him. He
combines dignity with deference to a noteworthy degree, and between
him and the European there is not that gulf of caste fixed which makes
such a bar to intercourse with Hindus. Not that the Mohamedans of
India have not absorbed to a certain degree the atmosphere of caste
with which they are surrounded. They are not so entirely free in their
customs and behaviour as their co-religionists in purely Mohamedan
countries. When travelling in Turkestan I lived with Mohamedans, slept
in their houses and tents, ate with them, and generally consorted with
them with a freedom that Mohamedans in India would think prejudicial
to some vague sense of caste which, theoretically, they are not
supposed to have, but which in practice they have absorbed from the
atmosphere of Hinduism which they breathe. The Mohamedan, even of
Kashmir, is not quite so unrestricted as the Mohamedan of Central
Asia. Still, he is a very attractive gentleman, and though not easily
found, for nowadays he lives in some pride of seclusion, and in the
pestering importunate merchant the visitor sees but a sorry
representative of the class, yet he is occasionally met with--grave,
sedate, polite, and full of interesting conversation, and bearing with
him a sense of former greatness when his religion was in the
ascendant in the seats of power. These old-fashioned Mohamedan
gentlemen have little or no English education, but they have a culture
of their own; and among the mullas may be found men of great learning.
[Illustration: A CORNER OF THE VILLAGE OF PAHLGAM, LIDAR VALLEY]
Other interesting types of Kashmir Mohamedans are found among the
headmen of the picturesque little hamlets along the foot-hills. Here
may be seen fine old patriarchal types, just as we picture to
ourselves the Israelitish heroes of old. Some, indeed, say, though I
must admit without much authority, that these Kashmiris are of the
lost tribes of Israel. Only this year there died in the Punjab the
founder of a curious sect, who maintained that he was both the Messiah
of the Jews and the Mahdi of the Mohamedans; that Christ had never
really died upon the Cross, but had been let down and had disappeared,
as He had foretold, to seek that which was lost, by which He meant the
lost tribes of Israel; and that He had come to Kashmir and was buried
in Srinagar. It is a curious theory, and was worked out by this
founder of the Quadiani sect in much detail. There resided in Kashmir
some 1900 years ago a saint of the name of Yus Asaf, who preached in
parables and used many of the same parables as Christ used, as, for
instance, the parable of the sower. His tomb is in Srinagar, and the
theory of this founder of the Quadiani sect is that Yus Asaf and Jesus
are one and the same person.
When the people are in appearance of such a decided Jewish cast it is
curious that such a theory should exist; and certainly, as I have
said, there are real Biblical types to be seen everywhere in Kashmir,
and especially among the upland villages. Here the Israelitish
shepherd tending his flocks and herds may any day be seen.
Yet apart from this, the ordinary Kashmiri villager is not an
attractive being. Like his house he is dirty, untidy, and slipshod,
and both men and women wear the most unbecoming clothing, without
either shape, grace, or colour. But the physique of both men and women
is excellent. They are of medium height, but compared with the people
of India of exceptional muscular strength. The men carry enormous
loads. In the days before the cart-road was constructed, they might be
seen carrying loads of apples sometimes up to and over 200 lbs. in
weight; and the labour they do in the rice-fields is excessively
severe.
[Illustration: A MOUNTAIN FARM-HOUSE]
Good as is their physique, the Kashmiris are, however, for some
quite unaccountable reason lamentably lacking in personal courage. A
Kashmiri soldier is almost a contradiction in terms. There is not such
a thing. They will patiently endure and suffer, but they will not
fight. And they are very careful of the truth. As an American once
said to me, they set such value on the truth that they very seldom use
it.
Their good points are, that they are intelligent and can turn their
hands to most things. They are, says Lawrence, excellent cultivators
when they are working for themselves. A Kashmiri can weave good
woollen cloth, make first-rate baskets, build himself a house, make
his own sandals, his own ropes, and a good bargain. He is kind to his
wife and children, and divorce scandals or immorality among villagers
are rarely heard of.
He is not a cheery individual, like many hillmen in the Himalayas, but
he seems to be fond of singing; and dirty as he, his wife, his house
and all that belongs to him is, he has one redeeming touch of the
aesthetic--all round the village he plants his graves with iris and
narcissus. The final conclusion one has, then, is that if only he
would wash, if only he would dress his wife in some brighter and
cleaner clothes, and if only he would make his house stand upright,
then with the good points he already has, and with all Nature to back
him, he would make Kashmir literally perfection.
The boatmen, who are the class with whom visitors to Kashmir come most
intimately into contact, are a separate tribe from the villagers. They
are said to claim Noah as their ancestor, and certain it is that if
they did not borrow the pattern of their boats from Noah's ark, Noah
must have borrowed the pattern from them. They are known as Hanji or
Manjis, and live permanently on their boats with their families
complete. Some of these boats will carry between six and seven
thousand pounds of grain. Others are light passenger boats. They all
have their little cooking place on board, and a gigantic wooden pestle
and mortar in which the women pound the rice. Both men and women have
extremely fluent and sharp tongues, and have not so far earned the
reputation for truthfulness. But they are quick-witted, and can turn
their hands to most things, and make themselves useful in a variety of
ways.
Besides carrying goods and passengers among the numerous waterways of
Kashmir, some gather the singhare (water nuts) on the Wular Lake,
others work market gardens on the Dal Lake, others fish, and others
dredge for driftwood in the rivers.
[Illustration: A BOATMAN AND HIS FAMILY]