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User:Kautilya3/Dogra rule

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Notes on Dogra rule

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Regarding Kashmiri Hindus

Zutshi, Languages of Belonging (2004):

The earliest evidence of Kashmiri Pandits as office holders is from the Afghan period, when they became proficient in Persian and entered the ranks of the revenue administration.[11: Anand Koul, The Kashmiri Pandit, 1911, p.19; and Jia Lal Kilam, A History of Kashmiri Pandits, 242–5] As a social group, they were not dissimilar to one of the key groups in other successor states to the Mughal empire elsewhere in the subcontinent in the eighteenth century: the Muslim and Hindu clerical castes who had mastered the use of the pen and provided the crucial service of revenue management to these burgeoning regimes.

Shakti Kak, The agrarian system of Jammu and Kashmir (2007):

Subsequent to the Mughal period, the Afghan, Sikh and Dogra rulers retained, with minor variations, the practice of land grants and the old system of revenue generation.

Schofield, Kashmir in Conflict (2003, p. 4):

Despite the religious oppression, to which many Hindus were subjected, they were, however, useful to the Afghans because of their administrative experience. Kashmiri Pandits were not prevented from entering into government service and there were some families whose names consistently appear in public service - the Dhars, Kauls, Tikkus and Saprus.

von Schönberg, Travels in India and Kashmir (1853, p. 100):

When the Afghans in 1752 became masters of Kashmir, they being Hindoos [sic], did not wish to employ the Pandits, and installed their own countrymen in these offices, but the new-comers were incompetent to the task assigned them, and the Pandits were recalled. When the Sikhs conquered the Afghans, the Pandits were again dismissed, and their places given to muschis brought from the Punjab; but as the financial system of the country was not changed, these strangers were unable to arrange the accounts, and the Pandits were again recalled.

Khanday, Administrative socio-economic and cultural life under the Sikhs (2015, p. 162):

The other subordinate revenue officials with a trickle of literate Muslims, were Kashmiri Pandits. The reason for this was that they had acquired proficiency in Persian and were skilled in the arithmetic calculations of the country. It is interesting to note that the attempt of Afghan governors to replace Pandit accountants by their own countrymen proved to be abortive as the new-comers failed to discharge their duties satisfactorily, so Hindus were recalled.

Pandits were continued by the Dogras

Kaur, Political Awakening in Kashmir (1996, p. 3):

Gulab Singh did not interfere with the traditional social and economic organization of the State, and almost perfected the political institution of personal rule he had inherited from his predecessors, the Sikhs.

In Ladakh and Baltistan, Gulab Singh followed the same policy that he followed in Jammu, leaving the existing economic and political organization intact. (p.4)

Gulab Singh's government was based on the same principle of personal rule that the Sikhs had adopted for government in the Punjab. (p.5)

Mridu Rai, Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects (2004):

Recognizing this, Gulab Singh continued the Pandits in their dominance of the administrative machinery of the state, most particularly in the revenue department, where an intimate knowledge of tax-gathering procedures was critical.

Gulab Singh's 'practice ... [was] to appoint a Dogra Rajpoot of his own clan to exercise authority in his name, while this official was checked in all his acting by a Cashmeri Pandit.

Shakti Kak, The agrarian system of Jammu and Kashmir (2007, p. 71):

Maharaja Gulab Singh issued a proclamation on 6 September 1847 in which ‘...’ was retained in the manner of the Sikh rulers.

The early Dogra regime under Gulab Singh (1846–53) and Ranbir Singh (1853–85) was eager to cultivate the loyalty of these classes [already in existence] to ensure Kashmir’s smooth transition to a Dogra kingdom... Kashmiri revenue administrators had to increasingly share their positions with Dogras and other Hindus imported for the purpose from British India. Until the very end of the nineteenth century, however, the old class of local officials controlled the revenue administration, much to the chagrin of the British.

Taxation and revenue

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Regarding taxation

The taxation system also did not change significantly in going from Sultanate to Mughals to Afghan to Sikh to Dogra rulers.

Hangloo, Magnitude of Land Revenue Demand in Kashmir (1984):

  • In 1586 when the valley was included in the Mughal empire, the land revenue was theoretically demanded at one third of the produce but in practice it amounted to two thirds. Emperor Akbar fixed the land revenue demand at one half.[2] Under the Afghans (1553-1819) the state demand worked out to 60 to 65 percent of the produce.[3] The Sikh rulers (1819-1846) fixed the state's share of produce generally at one half but over and above this share the state levied a number of cesses.[4]
  • The state under Maharaja Gulab Singh (1846-1851) realised the land revenue in kind, theoretically at the rate of one half of the produce.[5] But the taxes and cesses actually realised were far in excess of those that finally went into the treasury. In addition to a half of the produce as land revenue the peasant had to pay 16 per cent of the produce as trakee and abwabs.[6] The total demand amounted to two-thirds of the produce and one-third was left with the peasant.[7] But then this one-third was further subjected to a whole variety of exactions.

Even though Hangloo is not clear about how much it was under the Sikhs, other sources say that it was the same. I would agree two-thirds of the produce is exorbitant, but that is what the Kashmiris were apparently paying even to their own rulers. Akbar did reduce to half the produce, and Hangloo also says that Akbar made sure that no other exactions wee imposed by the officials, but we don't know how long that lasted. There are various sources that say that Gulab Singh did not change a thing.

Zutshi, Languages of Belonging (2004):

Maharaja Gulab Singh continued the revenue assessment of the Sikh period, under which the state took half the share of the Kharif crop and in addition four traks per kharwar

Shakti Kak, The agrarian system of Jammu and Kashmir (2007, p. 72):

Maharaja Gulab Singh retained the system ‘under which the State took half the share of the kharif crop (harvested in spring) and four traks per kharwar. The Rabi crop (harvested in autumn) was taxed at half-share of the produce, and three traks per kharwar, in addition to various other cesses’.

Land revenue summary


Bibliography

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  • Bamzai, Prithivi Nath Kaul (1994), Culture and Political History of Kashmir: Medieval Kashmir, M.D. Publications, ISBN 978-81-85880-33-4
  • Dhillon, Hardit Singh (1986), "Taxation System", in Jean Marie Lafont (ed.), Maharaja Ranjit Singh: First Death Centenary Memorial, Nirmal/Atlatic Publishers & Distributors, pp. 123–141
  • Grewal, J. S. (1998), The Sikhs of the Punjab, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-63764-0
  • Hangloo, Ratan Lal (June 1984), "The Magnitude of Land Revenue Demand in Kashmir-1846 to 1900 A.D.", Social Scientist, 12 (6): 52–59, JSTOR 3517003
  • Huttenback, Robert A. (1968), "Kashmir as an Imperial Factor during the Reign of Gulab Singh (1846—1857)", Journal of Asian History, 2 (2): 77–108, JSTOR 41929891
  • Kak, Shakti (2007), "The agrarian system of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir", in Waltraud Ernst; Biswamoy Pati (eds.), India's Princely States: People, Princes and Colonialism, Routledge, pp. 68–, ISBN 978-1-134-11988-2
  • Khan, Mohammad Saleem (2015), Kashmir Administration under Pratap Singh, 1885 to 1925, University of Kashmir/Shodhganga
  • Khanday, Abdul Rashid (2015), Some aspects of the administrative socio economic and cultural life of the people of Kashmir under the Sikhs 1819 to 1846, University of Kashmir/Shodhganga
  • Kaur, Ravinderjit (1996), Political Awakening in Kashmir, APH Publishing, ISBN 978-81-7024-709-8
  • Rai, Mridu (2004), Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir, C. Hurst & Co, ISBN 1850656614
  • Schofield, Victoria (2003) [First published in 2000], Kashmir in Conflict, London and New York: I. B. Taurus & Co, ISBN 1860648983
  • Singh, Patwant (2008), Empire of the Sikhs: The Life and Times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Peter Owen, ISBN 978-0-7206-1323-0
  • Von Hugel, Charles Baron (1984), Kashmir Under Maharaja Ranjit Singh, translated by D. C. Sharma, Atlantic Publishers & Dist, ISBN 978-81-7156-094-3
  • von Schönberg, Erich (1853), Travels in India and Kashmir, Volume 2, Hurst and Blackett, pp. 101–
  • Zutshi, Chitralekha (2004), Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, ISBN 978-1-85065-700-2
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