Abstract
Begar is a Persian term which means employing anyone without remuneration or to force anyone to work against his will. According to Muzaffar Ahmad Khan, Begar must have been an age-old practice in Kashmir perhaps as old as the history of organized wars, in view of the logistic requirements in a country of difficult terrain and mountain defiles.[i] The origin of this institution is traced back to the reign of king Samkaravarman who levied rudhabharodhi (forced labour) for military services. The practice continued as a vital institution of feudal and monarchical system under the Loharas, the Sultans, the Mughals, the Chaks, the Afghans and the Sikhs.
References
Khan, Muzaffar Ahmed, Kashmiri Muslims: An Historical Outline, Vol. II, Humanizer Publications, Srinagar,
, p.46.
Khan, Mohammad Ishaq, “Some Aspects of Corvee (begar) in Kashmir (A. D. 833-1858)”, Jammu and Kashmir Research Biannual, Srinagar, Vol.1, No. 2, 1974, p. 61.
Saif-ud-Din, Mirza, Akhbarat-i-Darbar-i-Maharaja Gulab Singh, Vol. IV, 62ab, 64b, 66a, 67b, 70b and 74a. Other volumes of these Akhbarat are also replete with details regarding Begar. Taylor, Reynell G, Lahore Political Diaries 1847-49 (Punjab Government Records), Vol. VI, P, 71; Khan, Ghulam Hassan, Ideological Foundation of the Freedom Movement in Jammu and Kashmir (1931-1947), Bhavana Prakashan, Delhi, 2000, p. 56. The institution of Begar was the most cruel practice and forms of oppression established by the Dogra rulers to terrorize the population and keep them in submission. The misfortunate of innocent Kashmiris in the form of Begar imposed upon them did not only hurt the pride and dignity of the already crushed peasants, but also accounted for the loss of immense manpower due to cold and starvation. Under the practice, thousands of people, village after village were picked up and ordered to carry loads of grains or other essentials to the frontier areas without being paid any compensation for the labour. Any refusal amounted to death. Naqash, Nasir A and Shah G.M., Kashmir: From Crisis to Crisis, APH Publishing Corporation, New Delhi, 1997, p. 39.
Annual Administrative Report of the Jammu and Kashmir State for the Samvat 1996-97 (17th Oct. 1939-15th Oct. 1940), The Ranbir Government Press, Jammu. 1941, pp. 21-23.
Saraf writes, “In any regime, the civilians may die of hunger but the army continues to be adequately fed; so a permanent supply line had to be established between Srinagar and the northern areas to maintain the flow of supplies”. Saraf, Muhammad Yusuf, Kashmirs Fight for Freedom (1819-1946), Vol. I, Ferozoono Ltd. Lahore-Pakistan, 2005, p. 273.
Ahmad, Khalid Bashir, Kashmir: Exposing the Myth Behind the Narrative, Sage Publications India Ltd., New Delhi, 2017, p. 78.
Maharaja Gulab Singh himself employed forced labour on more than one occasion for carrying his baggage from Kashmir to Jammu. Singh, Bawa Satinder, The Jammu Fox: A Biography of Maharaja Gulab Singh of Kashmir, 1792-1857, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, 1974, p. 169.
“……since the full amount that an ordinary man can carry is given to the zamindar or he was not allowed any russad (rations) for the journey and since little or nothing can be purchased on the road, it is obvious that he must either eat part of his load or starve; for which act their wages were reduced proportionately”. Akhtar, Parveena, The History of Kashmir in Political, Economic and Socio-cultural Perspective (1846-1885 A.D.), Kashmir Info Publications, Srinagar, 2007, p. 148.
Bamzai, P. N. K., A History of Kashmir Political, Social, Cultural from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, Metropolitan Book Co., Delhi, 1962, pp. 658-59. Muzaffar Khan writes, “Villagers were dragged away from their houses by force and through fear, to carry the loads of the soldiers, food, fuel and even ammunition. The same village had to provide men, every time, not by rotation. If the labourer died on the way, his corpse was not returned to the bereaved family. On the other hand a substitute was demanded”. Khan, Muzaffar Ahmad, Kashmiri Muslims an Historical Outline, Vol. II, p. 50.
Khan, Mohammad Ishaq, “Some Aspects of Corvee (begar) in Kashmir (A. D. 833-1858)”, p. 61.
Diary of Pandit Khunyal Lal, Lahore Political Diaries, Vol. VI, p. 260.
Khan, Mohammad Ishaq, “Some Aspects of Corvee (begar) in Kashmir (A. D. 833-1858)”, p. 62.
Wilson, Andrew, The Abode of Snow: Observations on a Journey from Chinese Tibet to the Indian Caucasus, Through the Upper Valleys of the Himalaya, William Blackwook & Sons, Edinburgh & London, 1876, pp. 267-88.
Thorp, Robert, Cashmere Misgovernment, Longmans, London, 1870, p. 74; Saraf, Muhammad Yusuf, Kashmirs Fight for Freedom (1819-1946), Vol. I, p. 279; Akhtar, Parveena, The History of Kashmir in Political, Economic and Socio-cultural Perspective (1846-1885 A.D.), p. 149.
Ibid.
Thorp, Robert, Cashmere Misgovernment, pp. 98-99.
Hassan, Shah, Tarikh-i-Hassan, Vol. II, Research Library, Srinagar, pp. 869-70.
Three hundred labourers and their mules perished in a single storm on the Rajdiangan Pass between Bandipora and Guraz, in the autumn of 1890. Knight, E. F., Where Three Empires Meet, Longmans Green and Co., London, 1893, pp. 68-69.
Lawrence writes, “Once when I was going up the Sindh Valley I came across some soldiers raising carriage for Gilgit. The Havildar admitted that he had torn the whole whisker off one man’s face, and said he had done, it under instructions from a Pandit deputed from the Tehsil. He added that the people were so disinclined to go away for two months to Gilgit, that it was necessary to tear their hair out. He saw nothing to be ashamed of, and challenged my right to interfere”. Lawrence to Nisbet, Nov. 13, 1889; NAI, For. Deptt. Sec. E, Progs. Nos. 295-326, Feb. 1891.
It is difficult to say how many of the villagers died of cold and disease; how many died of starvation; how many fell into river or was beaten to death by the Dogra soldiers; or how many were sold as slaves in Dardistan or other parts of Central Asia. But their number must have been very large because there is both documentary and circumstantial evidence to support our contention. Khan, Mohammad Saleem, The History of Jammu & Kashmir 1885-1925, Gulshan Publishers, Srinagar, 2002, p. 127.
Hajini, Wahab Parray, Dewan-i-Wahab, edited by Prof. Mohi-ud-din Hajini, Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, Srinagar, 1971, p. 8.
Mrs. Hervey records that, “While entering in a village I heard nothing but weeping and on inquiry, I found that two hundred villagers were then being taken away to Gilgit. It is really distressing to hear nothing but mourning and lamentation in every village one enters”. Mrs. Hervey, The Adventures of a Lady in Tartary, Tibet, China and Kashmir, Vol. 2, Hope and Co., London, 1853, p. 229.
Biscoe, Tyndale, Kashmir in Sunlight and Shade, Seeley, Service & Co., London, 1922, p. 236.
Ganai, Muhammad Yusuf, Kashmir’s Struggle for Independence (1931-1939), Mohsin Publications, 2003, p. 53.
“……the more mention of Gilgit was sufficient to drive whole village to the hills, there to hide for days on end, until they were convinced that the danger of being pressed into service had passed”. Norris, Dermot, Kashmir-The Switzerland of India, Gulshan Publishers, Srinagar, 1989, p. 94.
Neve, Arthur, Thirty Years in Kashmir, Edward Arnold, London, 1913, p. 140; Akhtar, Parveena, The History of Kashmir in Political, Economic and Socio-cultural Perspective (1846-1885 A.D.), p. 149.
Lawrence, Walter R., The Valley of Kashmir, Chinar Publishing House, Srinagar, 1992, p. 413.
Saraf, Muhammad Yusuf, Kashmirs Fight for Freedom (1819-1946), Vol. I, Ferozoono Ltd. Lahore-Pakistan, 2005, p. 273.
Ibid., pp. 273-74; Arthur Neve writes about his passage through Rajdingan Pass where “I heard pitiful their tales of the plight of the poor coolies dragged from their homes in hundreds every year to carry supplies to the far off garrison of Gilgit. And I could realize some of the difficulties, for the unmade track were not easy for well-equipped lightly laden men, how much less for the porters, who had to carry sixty pound load in addition to their own personal rations for twenty days, clothing and grass shoes”. Neve, Arthur, Thirty Years in Kashmir, p. 60.
Arthur Neve writes that while crossing Astor in the early eighties his old servant pointed out to him the places where he had seen groups of corpses, “on the Kamri Pass one of the camps was called “murdadafan” meaning the “burial ground”, for some years previously an avalanche swept upon the party of soldiers camped there and buried them”. Neve, Arthur, Thirty Years in Kashmir, p. 140.
Thorp, Robert, Cashmere Misgovernment, pp. 76-77; Akhtar, Parveena, The History of Kashmir in Political, Economic and Socio-cultural Perspective (1846-1885 A.D.), p. 149.
Saraf, Muhammad Yusuf, Kashmirs Fight for Freedom (1819-1946), Vol. I, p. 274.
Neve, Arthur, Thirty Years in Kashmir, p. 139.
Wingate, A., Preliminary Report on Land Settlement in Kashmir and Jammu, Lahore, 1888, p. 105.
Lawrence, Walter R., The Valley of Kashmir, p. 413.
Malik, Fazal Hussain, Kashmir Aur Dogra Raj (1848-1931), Gulshan Publishers, Srinagar, 1980, p. 138.
Saif-ud-Din, Mirza, Akhbarat-i-Darbar-i-Maharaja Gulab Singh, Vol. IV, f. 51a, f. 62b; Khan, Mohammad Ishaq, “Some Aspects of Corvee (begar) in Kashmir (A. D. 833-1858)”, p. 61.
Hajini, Wahab Parray, Dewan-i-Wahab, edited by Prof. Mohi-ud-din Hajini, p. 8.
Biscoe, Tyndale, Kashmir in Sunlight and Shade, p. 236; Khan, Ghulam Hassan, Ideological Foundation of the Freedom Movement in Jammu and Kashmir (1931-1947), p. 57.
Saraf, Muhammad Yusuf, Kashmirs Fight for Freedom (1819-1946), Vol. I, p. 278.
Biscoe, Tyndale, Kashmir in Sunlight and Shade, p. 236.
Interview with Mohammad Abdullah Bhat, resident of Kangan, Ganderbal, age 85 years old, dated on May 18, 2016.
Rahi, Rahman, Novroz-o-Subah, Kashmiri Department, Kashmir University Hazratbal, Srinagar, 2009, p. 26.
Arif, Mirza Ghulam Hassan Beg, Kulyat-i- Arif, edited by Prof. Ghulam Mohammad Shad, Mirza Arif Educational Trust, Srinagar, 2016, p. 385.
Lawrence, Walter R., The Valley of Kashmir, p. 414.
Hajini, Wahab Parray, Dewan-i-Wahab, edited by Prof. Mohi-ud-din Hajini, p. 76.
Aatish, G. N., Koushir Luka Beth, Vol. VIII, Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, Srinagar, 1988, p. 268.
E.F. Knight observed: “All Hindus were exempted from Begar, the burden falling on Mohammedan villages only. Some of these escape it, for it occasionally happens that a whole village is sold by its cultivators for a nominal sum to some influential Hindus, on condition that he obtains for him exemption from Begar, while they remain on the land as his tenants. So many others, more or less, fraudulent methods for attaining the same end are practiced that the incidence of the Begar falls very oppressively on certain poor and unprotected villages which cannot afford to purchase immunity”. Knight, E. F., Where Three Empires Meet, p. 70.
Saif-ud-Din, Mirza, Akhbarat-i-Darbar-i-Maharaja Gulab Singh, Vol. III, f. 27; INA, R. Logan, Report on Financial Condition of Kashmir, 1892, p. 29; Pampori, Mohammad Sultan, Kashmir in Chains(1819-1992), Pampori Publishing House, Srinagar, 1992, p. 52. The total population of Kashmir as per the census of 1891 was 8, 14,241. Out of which, the Hindus were 52, 576, the Sikhs 4,092, the Christians 132, the Paris 08 and the rest 7, 57,433 were the Muslims. Thus out of the whole population of Muslims 414,241 persons were actually liable to Begar. Census of India, pp. 14-15; Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol. XV, pp. 120-121. About half of the population lived in lands which were, by rule, exempted from Begar. Lawrence, Walter R., The Valley of Kashmir, p. 412.
Ganai, Muhammad Yusuf, Kashmir’s Struggle for Independence (1931-1939), p. 53.
Arif, Mirza Ghulam Hassan Beg, Kulyat-i- Arif, edited by Prof. Ghulam Mohammad Shad, p. 260.
Knight, E. F., Where Three Empires Meet, p. 69; Khan, Mohammad Ishaq, “Some Aspects of Corvee (begar) in Kashmir (A. D. 833-1858)”, p. 64.
Azad, Abdul Ahad, Kulyat-i-Azad, edited by Dr. Padam Nath Ganjoo, Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, Srinagar, 1987, p. 277. These Kashmiri verses translated into English by Prof. Ganai in his book, Kashmir’s Struggle for Independence (1931-1939), p. 53.
Throp, Robert, Cashmere Misgovernment, p. 45; Khan, Ghulam Hassan, Ideological Foundations of the Freedom Movement in Jammu and Kashmir (1931-1947), p. 58.
Khan, Mohammad Ishaq, “Some Aspects of Corvee (Begar) in Kashmir, A.D. 833-1858”, p. 64.
Knight, E. F., Where Three Empires Meet, pp. 69-70.
Khan, Ghulam Hassan, Ideological Foundations of the Freedom Movement in Jammu and Kashmir (1931-1947), p. 58; Ahmad, Parvez, Economy and Society of Kashmir: A Study in Change and Continuity (1885-1925), p. 131.
Fayaz, Farooq, Kashmir Folklore: A Study in Historical Perspective, Gulshan Books, Srinagar, 2008, p. 248.
Mahjoor, Ghulam Ahmad, Kulyat-i- Mahjoor, edited by Mohammad Yusuf Tang, Jammu and Kashmir Academy for Art, Culture and Languages, Srinagar, 1983, p. 192.
Ahangar, Altaf Hussain, Customary Succession among Muslims: A Critical Appraisal of Judicial Interpretation in Kashmir, Uppal Publishing House, New Delhi, 1986, p. 178.
Lawrence, Walter R., The Valley of Kashmir, p. 267.
Ahangar, Altaf Hussain, Customary Succession among Muslims: A Critical Appraisal of Judicial Interpretation in Kashmir, pp. 179-180.
Fayaz, Farooq, Kashmir Folklore: A Study in Historical Perspective, p. 155.
Walter R. Lawrence wrote to Nisbet “…….the Kashmiri cultivator attributes all his misery and meanness to Begar”. NAI, For. and Gen. Deptt., Secret-E. Nos: 295-96 of 1891.
Khan, Mohammad Ishaq, “Some Aspects of Corvee (Begar) in Kashmir, A.D. 833-1858”, p. 65.
Knight, E. F., Where Three Empires Meet, p. 69.
Glancy Commission Report, p. 39; Khan, Mohammad Ishaq, “Some Aspects of Corvee (Begar) in Kashmir, A.D. 833-1858”, p. 65.
Lone, Suhail-ul-Rehman, “Begar (Forced Labour) in Kashmir during the Dogra period (1846-1947 A. D.)”, Indian History Congress, Proceedings 73rd Session, 2012, p. 867.
Macdonald, Kenneth Iain, “Push and Shove: Spatial History and the Construction of a Portering Economy in Northern Pakistan”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 40, No. 2, University of Toronto, Canada,1998, p. 292.
Wingate, Andrew, Preliminary Report of Settlement Operations in Kashmir and Jammu, Lahore, 1888, pp. 37-38.
Diary of Pratap Sing, p. 23; Lone, Suhail-ul-Rehman, “Begar (Forced Labour) in Kashmir during the Dogra period (1846-1947 A. D.)”, p. 866.
‘Article in ‘’Pioneer’’ (5th Nov.1890) regarding the system of “Begar”, File Nos. 152-158, Dec.1890, Foreign Deptt., Secret-E, NAI, Administrative Report, 1941, p. 25; Lone, Suhail-ul-Rehman, “Begar (Forced Labour) in Kashmir during the Dogra period (1846-1947 A. D.)”, p. 866.
Logan, R. L., Report on the Financial Conditions of the Kashmir State, NAI, For. Deptt. Secret-E, File No: 513-E, 17th Nov., 1892.
JKA, Pol. and Gen. Deptt., File No: 33 of 1920.
Ganai, Muhammad Yusuf, Kashmir’s Struggle for Independence (1931-1939), p. 50.
JKA, Pol. and Gen. Deptt., File No: 68/Misc. 73 of 1922.
Representation of the President Anjuman-i- Nusrat-ul-Islam, Srinagar, regarding the backward conditions of Muslims of Kashmir’, JKA, Pol. and Gen. Deptt., File No: 1609/G-84 of 1923. The Muslim leaders of different hues: the Mirwaiz of Jama Masjid, the Mirwaiz of Khankah-i-Mulla, Saad-ud-Din Shawl, Noor Shah, Hassan Shah and Syed Jalali submitted, in 1922 a memorandum to the Viceroy with different demands and one of the demands was abolition of Begar in the State. Ahad, Abdul, Kashmir Rediscovered, Humayun Publishing Co., Srinagar, 2006, pp. 292-293; Zutshi, Chitralekha, Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir, Hurst & Company, London, 2004, pp. 200-201; Lone, Suhail-ul-Rehman, “Begar (Forced Labour) in Kashmir during the Dogra Period (1846-1947 A. D.)”, p. 868.
Dass, Udham, “Abolition of Begar and Dogra Sadar Sabha: J & K”, Punjab History Conference, Proceedings 40th Session, 2010, pp. 457-463.
Glancy Commission Report, p. 39; Lone, Suhail-ul-Rehman, “Begar (Forced Labour) in Kashmir during the Dogra period (1846-1947 A. D.)”, p. 868.
JKA, For. and Pol. Deptt., File No: 153/PR-12 0f 1935.
JKA, For. and Pol. Deptt., File No: 113/G1-79 of 1939.
Ganai, Muhammad Yusuf, Kashmir’s Struggle for Independence (1931-1939), pp. 52-53.
Beg, Mirza M. Afzal, On the Way to Golden Harvests-Agricultural Reforms in Jammu and Kashmir, Government of Jammu and Kashmir, 1951, pp. 15-17.
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