Himalayan Frontiers of India

Historical, Geo-Political and Strategic Perspectives

K. Warikoo, K. Warikoo

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781134032938
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The Himalaya, which is a great natural frontier for India, symbolises India's spiritual and national consciousness. The Himalayan region displays wide diversity of cultural patterns, languages, ethnic identities and religious practices. Along the Himalayas converge the boundaries of South and Central Asian countries, which lend a unique geopolitical and geo-strategic importance to this region.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of historical, geo-political and strategic perspectives on the Himalayan Frontiers of India. Drawing on detailed analyses by academics and area specialists, it explains the developments in and across the Himalayas and their implications for India. Topics such as religious extremism, international and cross border terrorism, insurgency, drugs and arms trafficking are discussed by experts in their respective field. Himalayan Frontiers of India will be of interest to scholars in South and Central Asian studies, International Relations and Security Studies.

1 India’s gateway to Central Asia

Trans-Himalayan trade and cultural movements through Kashmir and Ladakh, 1846–1947

K. Warikoo

Introduction

Its contiguity with Central Asia, Xinjiang and Tibet and its proximity to the Silk Route turned Kashmir and Ladakh into a major gateway in the Indo-Central Asian exchange of men and materials through the ages. Enjoying a central position in the network of caravan trails, Leh—the capital town of Ladakh—was an important transit emporium where Indian traders met their counterparts from Tibet, Central Asia and Afghanistan. Undaunted by numerous physical obstacles and displaying a unique adventurous spirit, these traders roamed across the lofty Himalayan and Karakoram mountains and the barren deserts. Usually the traders would exchange or sell their goods at Leh thus making it the terminal point of the multilateral trade carried between India, Tibet and Central Asia. This paper seeks to analyse the extent and pattern of trans-Himalayan trade carried through Kashmir and Ladakh with adjoining territories of Chinese Turkestan (Xinjiang) and Tibet, and also to assess the impact of this trade on the society and culture of Ladakh and Kashmir.

Trade routes

Numerous caravan routes that converged near Leh acted as the channels of communication between India and Central Asia. From the Indian side the bulk of the trade passed through the Srinagar—Leh route, though traders from Skardu, Kishtwar, Kullu, Lahoul, Spiti, Nurpur and Bushahr used to carry on their business with Ladakh directly through the Khapalu—Chorbat—Nobra, Kishtwar—Zanskar and Kullu—Rohtang passes, Lahoul—Key Long—Bara Lacha pass, Rupshu—Longa Lacha pass and Thung Lung La and Leh routes respectively. To the east of Ladakh, a caravan trail passed through Gartok towards Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. In the north, Ladakh stood connected with the Silk Route at Yarkand by a caravan route running across the Karakoram pass. From Leh there existed three paths leading to Yarkand, the nearest big trading centre of Central Asia. Those traders and passersby who opted to travel to Yarkand in winter would cross Digar La and follow the narrow and winding valleys of the Shyok river. This river, which was frozen during winter, was to be crossed and re-crossed several times. After negotiating the Karakoram pass, traders would start their descent towards Yarkand passing through Kugiar and Karghalik. But it was usual for the Central Asian and Indian traders to bring their caravans to Ladakh in summer and start their return journey homewards in the autumn. The summer route from Leh to Yarkand passed through Khardung La, Nobra valley, Saser La, Karakoram pass and the Suget pass. Yet another route ran across the Changla pass, the Chang Chenmo valley and Lingzithang plains to join the Leh—Yarkand summer route at Shahidulla. The Chang Chenmo valley route to Eastern Turkestan was improved considerably after the conclusion of a treaty between Kashmir Durbar and the British Indian Government in 1870. Under the treaty, this route was also declared a free highway. Efforts were made to establish this track as the main trade route between Leh and Yarkand, as it was easier than those by the Shyok or the Saser pass. But being relatively longer in distance and fuel, grass and water not being so abundantly available on this route, it did not become so popular with the traders, excepting those who used camels to transport their goods.

Notwithstanding its physical difficulties, the Srinagar—Leh—Yarkand route was the most important and longest established thoroughfare between India and Central Asia. Even though the British authorities took numerous steps to improve the Kullu—Leh route with a view to encouraging direct trading between British India and Central Asia, traders continued to use the Srinagar—Leh route as it was ‘the easiest and best supplied as to grass, provisions, etc., and thoroughly open for two or three months longer than the Kullu route’.¹ It was through this route that the Kashmir shawl industry received its supplies of pashm wool that was imported into Ladakh from Tibet and Yarkand. Soon after his conquest of Ladakh, the Dogra General, Wazir Zorawar Singh, improved this route to make it an easy passage for mounted travellers.² The road was kept in excellent repair throughout the period of Dogra rule in Kashmir. As a sequel to the treaty concluded between Maharaja Ranbir Singh and T. D. Forsyth in April 1870, the Kashmir Government allocated a yearly sum of 1,500 rupees for maintenance of roads and sarais along the Indo-Central Asian trade route which came to be known as the Treaty Road. In the late nineteenth century an extra annual grant of 5,000 rupees was made available by the Kashmir Durbar for this purpose.³ There were two big caravan-sarais each at Leh and Srinagar for accommodating the traders and Central Asian pilgrims. In addition, godowns, stables, dak bungalows and inns were established at various stages of the route where traders received shelter and supplies of grain and forage for the ponies at subsidized rates. Similarly, the villagers living in and around a particular stage of the trade route in Ladakh were responsible for supplying pony and coolie transport to traders and travellers at reasonable rates. It became known as the Res system under which 15 to 20 ponies would always be available at each stage for use by the traders, public servants and travellers enjoying official patronage.⁴ Such was the safety of this route that in the event of unfavourable weather or death of ponies, traders would march on to the next safe stage leaving behind their goods, which were fetched after the climate became favourable or substitute transport became available. As a result, the Srinagar—Leh—Yarkand route became the most important thoroughfare between India and Central Asia during the Dogra rule in Kashmir.

The extent and pattern of trade

Ladakh’s place in the Indo-Central Asian trade was only that of a transit emporium, as it did not produce or consume much to make any indigenous trade of importance. Traders from Tibet, Central Asia and India gathered at Leh to exchange their merchandise. This commercial intercourse not only sustained the poor and backward economies of the semi-closed systems in these remote and high-altitude areas, but also provided the essential raw materials for the flourishing shawl and carpet industry of Kashmir. It also lent strong support to the local trade passing between Leh and Skardu (Baltistan) which formed a Tehsil of the Ladakh Wazarat of the state of Jammu and Kashmir during the Dogra rule.⁵

Local trade with Baltistan

The domestic trade between Leh and Skardu was similar to what was carried between Leh and adjoining areas like Nobra, Zanskar, Puring and Chang Thang. It passed through two channels—Leh-Indus Valley—Skardu and Leh—Nobra—Chorbat—Khapalu. A substantial number of Baltis would visit Leh throughout the year. Balti peasants and petty traders brought for sale to Ladakh the produce of their farms and households such as apricots, apricot oil, butter, grapes, almonds, barley, teacups, stone vessels for cooking, woollen cloth and coarse shawls. They took back in exchange Indian cotton cloth and other piece goods, tea, gold and silver thread, Yarkandi leatherware, sheep wool and also some Yarkandi and Tibetan wool which was used in the manufacture of Balti shawls. From Leh these apricots and coarse shawls were transmitted to Lhasa and Yarkand through the medium of regular trade channels as these were in great demand there. Between 400 to 500 maunds of dried apricots from Baltistan were exported to Tibet each year until the early 1870s and later on its quantity increased to about 1,500 maunds per year.⁶ Some adventurous Baltis went to Jammu and the plains of Punjab and even as far as Yarkand (in Chinese Turkestan) in search of livelihood and stayed there for a few years to work as manual labour or do small trade. On their return home these Baltis used to invest their savings in purchasing some merchandise which they carried to and sold in Baltistan. Unemployed Baltis would earn their livelihood by working as porters and pony drivers for traders. The trans-Himalayan trade that passed through Ladakh further integrated its economy with that of Baltistan which was already under its administrative jurisdiction, so much so that many Kashmiris set up shops in the Skardu bazaar and engaged themselves in weaving shawls for which pashm wool was brought to Ladakh.⁷

Trade with Tibet

Tibet’s trade with Ladakh and Kashmir was regulated by the Treaty of Tingmosgang, concluded in 1684, under which Ladakh got the monopoly over shawl-wool produced in Tibet, and the Tibetans acquired the exclusive right to the brick-tea trade with Ladakh.⁸ The treaty also provided for the despatch of periodic missions by Ladakh to Lhasa carrying presents for the Dalai Lama.⁹ Since the bearers of this religious mission were allowed to carry merchandise, it soon acquired a commercial character. The shawl-wool that was imported from Tibet and Xinjiang into Ladakh was exclusively exported to Kashmir through the agency of Kashmiri merchants. Brick-tea imported from Tibet was almost entirely consumed within Ladakh and also forwarded to Kashmir. Such trade ties between Ladakh and Tibet were reinforced by the Treaty of 1842 concluded between the Dogra and Tibetan officials. Under this treaty semi-official trade missions were exchanged at intervals between Leh and Lhasa.¹⁰ The triennial mission which left Leh for Lhasa carrying presents and merchandise was known as the Lapchak mission. The annual Tibetan caravan coming to Leh with brick-tea and other goods was called Chaba. Whereas the Ladakhi traders were entitled to free transport and accommodation during their travel and stay in Tibet, traders from Tibet enjoyed similar facilities during their sojourn in Ladakh. After the final annexation of Ladakh by the Dogras in 1842, the Lapchak mission lost its religious character. It was now being managed by the professional traders—mainly Kashmiri Muslims settled in Leh—who earned large profits in the transactions. When Sven Hedin visited the well-known Muslim merchant Haji Nazer Shah at Leh during a stopover in his journey to Tibet in 1906, he was astonished to see in his commercial house ‘chests full of silver and gold dust, turquoise and coral, materials and goods’ to be sold in Tibet.¹¹ He soon found that the source of this wealth was their monopoly over the Lapchak mission which fetched them an annual profit of about 25,000 rupees.¹² To this Muslim family of about one hundred members headed by Nazer Shah, was entrusted ‘the duty of carrying out the Lapchak mission’ by the Maharaja of Kashmir and at the time of Sven Hedin’s visit in 1906 they had retained this confidential post ‘for some fifty years’.¹³ The close involvement of Kashmiri Muslim settlers in Ladakh’s trade with Tibet can be gauged from the fact that even as late as 1959, about 129 such families having some 600 members were residing in the Lhasa-Shigatse area of Tibet.¹⁴

The Ladakhi imports from Tibet comprised fine pashm wool, coarse wool, brick-tea, salt, silver, gold, turquoise, teacups, paper and musk.¹⁵ Strachey, who visited Ladakh in 1847, estimated the value of such imports as one and a quarter lakh rupees.¹⁶ Ladakh’s exports to Tibet included silver ingots (yambus), gold, China silk and coarse cotton goods received from Eastern Turkestan, glassware, coral, silver coins, cotton cloths, chintzes, brocades, goatskins and furs imported from British India, saffron and rice from Kashmir, and apricots and barley from Ladakh and Baltistan.¹⁷ Apricots, Chinese silver, Turkestan-made cotton goods and silk cloth, Kashmir saffron and grains constituted the bulk of Ladakhi exports to Tibet. Much of this trade was generated by the heavy demand for pashm wool in Kashmir which had developed into the main centre of shawl production. The assured supplies of pashm wool from Tibet not only sustained Kashmir’s shawl-industry, but also provided new avenues of employment to skilled and unskilled workers in Ladakh and Kashmir. Tibet was dependent on Ladakh and Kashmir for supplies of essential goods like food grains, saffron, shawls, coarse cotton cloth, leather and apricots. That the cotton and silk fabrics and carpets produced in Kashgar and Khotan were also transmitted to Tibet through Ladakh, shows that there existed no direct communication between western Tibet and Eastern Turkestan during this period. The annual turnover of Ladakh’s trade with Tibet during the Dogra rule amounted to several lakh (hundred thousand) rupees. This trade suffered heavily after the incorporation of Tibet in the People’s Republic of China in 1950. It continued to operate however, though under strain, until it came to a standstill in 1959 following disturbances in Tibet.

Indo-Central Asian trade in Ladakh and Kashmir

The bulk of Indian trade with the Central Asian towns of Yarkand, Kashgar and Khotan was carried through Kashmir and Ladakh. Central Asian exports to Ladakh and Kashmir comprised gold and silver, hemp drug, shawl-wool, carpets and felts, tea, Chinese teacups, leather ware, coarse cotton cloths, raw silk and ponies. Out of these items bullion, cannabis (charas) and shawl-wool constituted the major imports. The Yarkandi and Andijani traders used to bring these goods to Ladakh where they exchanged the same with their Indian counterparts. Occasionally, the Central Asian traders would move forward to Kashmir and Punjab in the hope of realizing better profits. Similarly, Indian traders would also proceed beyond Ladakh towards Yarkand to make direct purchases at relatively lower prices. Indian traders brought to Leh, Indian and British made cotton cloths, brocades, Kashmir shawls, indigo, spices, dyed goat skins, opium, preserved fruits, coral, indigenous medicines, sugar and books. Whereas most of the Indian imports were exported to Yarkand, part of it also went to Lhasa.

In the late 1840s, merchandise valued at about seven and a half lakh rupees exchanged hands in Ladakh each year.¹⁸ Out of this figure, the imports from Yarkand and India via Kishtwar, Nurpur, Kulu and Bushahr represented the amount of one and three-quarter and four and a half lakh rupees respectively.¹⁹ Another contemporary estimate of trade passing through Ladakh has been provided by Cunningham, who visited Leh twice during the years 1846–47. According to him annual Indian imports into Ladakh averaged 2.2 lakh rupees, whereas the Central Asian exports to India via Ladakh were valued at 2.38 lakh rupees.²⁰ This meant an annual trade turnover of little more than four and a half lakh rupees. Though Cunningham’s estimate is much less than that of Strachey, we get a rough assessment of the volume of annual trade passing through Ladakh in the 1840s which can be safely put between six and seven lakh rupees.

The extent and pattern of overland Indo-Central Asian trade carried through Ladakh fluctuated from time to time due to the changing political situation in Central Asia. In the early nineteenth century, when the relations between Omar Khan, the ruler of Kokand, and the Chinese authorities in Eastern Turkestan had become strained, all the Andijani traders left Yarkand for their country and abandoned their business trips to Ladakh.²¹ This resulted in a considerable decrease in Yarkandi exports to Ladakh.²² Such disruptions in trade did occur even afterwards when Eastern Turkestan was rife with turmoil caused by the Khoja uprisings against the Chinese rulers.

Until the late 1860s, Yarkandi exports to Ladakh were mainly in the form of Bukharan and Kokandi gold coins, Khotanese gold dust and jade, Chinese silver ingots, tea, hemp drug, China-silk, Russian leather etc. Chinese silver ingots (yambus) were abundantly available in Ladakh at the rate of about 170 rupees each. These were largely exported to Kashmir where they were melted and manufactured into silverware. According to Hugel, an Austrian traveller who visited Kashmir in the 1830s, these silver ingots bearing Chinese stamp markings were made into coins in Kashmir.²³ It was during this period that large quantities of opium produced in Kishtwar and Bushahr were exported to Eastern Turkestan where it was consumed by the Chinese traders, civil and military officials. Despite the Chinese prohibition imposed in 1839 on the import of opium, this drug was exported to Eastern Turkestan by Indian traders to the extent of 210 maunds per year with the connivance of Chinese customs officials.²⁴ During Yakub Beg’s rule in Kashgharia (1867–77), little or no opium was exported there. But soon afterwards, the value of Indian opium exported to Chinese Turkestan during the years 1878–80 reached the figure of 86,000 rupees because the Chinese consumers had reappeared in Kashgharia.²⁵

The volume of trade between India and Kashgharia registered a steady increase after the Chinese were driven out by Yakub Beg in 1867. This was because of the stoppage of all Chin...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• List of contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 India’s gateway to Central Asia: trans-Himalayan trade and cultural movements through Kashmir and Ladakh, 1846–1947
• 2 ‘Great Game’ on the Kashmir frontiers
• 3 The Gilgit dimension of the Kashmir frontier
• 4 India’s Himalayan frontier: strategic challenges and opportunities in the twenty-first century
• 5 Strategic dimensions of the trans-Himalayan frontiers
• 6 The Ceasefire Line and Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir: evolution of a border
• 7 The Northern Areas of Jammu and Kashmir
• 8 Jammu and Kashmir: contours and challenges of cross-border terrorism
• 9 Tibet and the security of the Indian Himalayan belt
• 10 The India–Nepal open border: nature, issues and problems
• 11 Indo-Bhutan relations: strategic perspectives
• 12 Security of the north-east Himalayan frontiers: challenges and responses
• 13 Security of Himalayan frontiers: role of science and technology, modern air surveillance, remote sensing
• Notes
• Bibliography