Kashmir is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompasses a larger area that includes the India-administered territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, the Pakistan-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, and the Chinese-administered territories of Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract.
The history of Kashmir is the history in South Asia with influences from the surrounding regions of Central Asia, Middle Eastern and East Asia. Historically, Kashmir referred to only the Kashmir Valley of the western Himalayas. Today, it denotes a larger area that includes the Indian-administered union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, the Pakistan-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, and the Chinese-administered regions of Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract.
The Kashmiri Pandits are a group of Kashmiri Hindus and a part of the larger Saraswat Brahmin community of India. They belong to the Pancha Gauda Brahmin group from the Kashmir Valley, a mountainous region located within the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmiri Pandits are Hindu Kashmiris native to the Kashmir Valley, and the only remaining Hindu Kashmiris after the large-scale of conversion of the Valley's population to Islam during the medieval times. Prompted by the growth of Islamic militancy in the valley, large numbers left in the exodus of the 1990s. Even so, small numbers remain.
Sir William Wilson Hunter was a Scottish historian, statistician, a compiler and a member of the Indian Civil Service.
The Trans-Karakoram Tract, also known as the Shaksgam Tract, is an area of approximately 5,200 km2 (2,000 sq mi) north of the Karakoram watershed, including the Shaksgam valley. The tract is administered by China as part of its Taxkorgan and Yecheng counties in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Although the Shaksgam tract was never under the control of Pakistan since 1947, in the 1963 Sino-Pakistan Agreement, Pakistan recognized Chinese sovereignty over the Shaksgam tract, while China recognized Pakistani sovereignty over the Gilgit Agency, and a border based on actual ground positions was recognized as the international border by China and Pakistan. It, and the entire Kashmir region, is claimed by India.
Amarnath Temple is a Hindu shrine located in the Pahalgam tehsil of the Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, India. A cave situated at an altitude of 3,888 m (12,756 ft), about 168 km from Anantnag city, the district headquarters, 141 km (88 mi) from Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, reached through either Sonamarg or Pahalgam. It is an important shrine in Hinduism.
The Kashmir conflict is a territorial conflict over the Kashmir region, primarily between India and Pakistan, and also between China and India in the northeastern portion of the region. The conflict started after the partition of India in 1947 as both India and Pakistan claimed the entirety of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is a dispute over the region that escalated into three wars between India and Pakistan and several other armed skirmishes. India controls approximately 55% of the land area of the region that includes Jammu, the Kashmir Valley, most of Ladakh, the Siachen Glacier, and 70% of its population; Pakistan controls approximately 30% of the land area that includes Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan; and China controls the remaining 15% of the land area that includes the Aksai Chin region, the mostly uninhabited Trans-Karakoram Tract, and part of the Demchok sector.
Kashmiris are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group speaking the Kashmiri language, that live, have lived, or their ancestors have lived, mostly, but not exclusively, in the Kashmir Valley, which is now in the Indian-administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Charar-i-Sharief (Urdu pronunciation:[t͡ʃəraːreːʃərɪf], known as Tsrar-i-Sharif in Kashmiri is a town and a notified area committee in the Budgam district of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. Charar-i-sharief Assembly constituency is one of the 87 constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Dogra dynasty of Dogra Rajputs from the Shivalik hills created Jammu and Kashmir when all dynastic kingdoms in India were being absorbed by the East India Company. Events led the Sikh Empire to recognise Jammu as a vassal state in 1820, and later the British added Kashmir to Jammu with the Treaty of Amritsar in 1846. The founder of the dynasty, Gulab Singh, was an influential noble in the court of the Sikh emperor Maharaja Ranjit Singh, while his brother Dhian Singh served as the prime minister of the Sikh Empire. Appointed by Ranjit Singh as the hereditary Raja of the Jammu principality, Gulab Singh established his supremacy over all the hill states surrounding the Kashmir Valley. After the First Anglo-Sikh War in 1846, under the terms of the Treaty of Lahore, 1846, the British Indian government acquired Kashmir from the Sikh Empire and transferred it to Gulab Singh, recognising him as an independent maharaja. Thus, Jammu and Kashmir was established as one of the largest princely states in British India, receiving a 21-gun salute for its Maharaja in 1921. It was ruled by Gulab Singh and his descendants till 1947.
Sir George Scott Robertson, was a British soldier, author, and administrator who was best known for his arduous journey to the remote and rugged region of Kafiristan in what is now northeastern Afghanistan and for his overall command of British Empire forces during the Siege of Chitral. He chronicled his Kafiristan experience in the book The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush. Some have suggested that Robertson's year-long expedition and subsequent book provided background and inspiration for Rudyard Kipling's short story "The Man Who Would Be King". However, Kipling's work was originally published in 1888, predating Robertson's travels to the region.
Kashmiri Muslims are ethnic Kashmiris who practice Islam and are native to the Kashmir Valley in Indian-administered Kashmir. The majority of Kashmiri Muslims are Sunni. They refer to themselves as "Koshur" in their mother language.
Sapru, also spelled as Sipru or Saproo is a Kashmiri Pandit clan and surname native to the Kashmir Valley of Jammu and Kashmir, India.
Lar is a town and council district in the Ganderbal district of central Kashmir, in Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is a relatively newly established tehsil, carved out of the Ganderbal tehsil. It is situated 25 km from the heart of the summer capital, Srinagar, on National Highway between the foothills of the Himalayan mountains in the north and the picturesque Zabarwan Hills in the south. The Sind River, a major tributary to the Jehlum River flows through Lar. The famous Manasbal Lake lies a few kilometres away from the town centre.
The Sind Valley is a Himalayan sub-valley of the Kashmir Valley in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The entrance of the Sind Valley lies 33 kilometres (21 mi) northeast of Srinagar the capital of Jammu and Kashmir. It is a 65 kilometres (40 mi) long gorge valley with an average width of 1 kilometre (0.62 mi).
The Lidder Valley or Liddar Valley is a Himalayan sub-valley that forms the southeastern corner of Anantnag district in Indian-administered Kashmir. The Lidder River flows down the valley. The entrance to the valley lies 7 km northeast from Anantnag town and 62 km southeast from Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. It is a 40-km-long gorge valley with an average width of 3 km.
Sir Walter Roper Lawrence, 1st Baronet, was a member of the British Council of India and an English author who served in the Indian Civil Service in British India and wrote travelogues based on his experiences of travelling around the Indian Subcontinent. Over the course of his travels, he developed a close affinity with the Indian and Kashmiri people, who figure prominently in his work. His best-known books are The Valley of Kashmir (1895) and The India we Served (1929).
The following is a timeline of the Kashmir conflict during the period 1846–1946.
