Download PDF | Rattan Lal Hangloo - The State in Medieval Kashmir-Routledge (2022).
203 Pages
This book provides a lucid, informative and comprehensive account of political processes and their varied foundations in medieval Kashmir. It examines some of the principal ways through which the region’s social and religious life interacted with the then, current political formations to produce peculiar structures of power and domination. The book also analyses in detail problems that the medieval state faced in Kashmir, while evolving its ideological apparatus and legitimational tools. The author has put together varied Sanskrit, Persian, and other sources on this region’s history and passed them through a theoretical lens to ensure a vivid focus and a long historical perspective. The book is a major contribution to medieval Indian history, particularly in Kashmir region.
Rattan Lal Hangloo is Honorary Chancellor, Noble International University, Toronto. Hangloo was a Professor of History at the Hyderabad Central University and Vice Chancellor of Kalyani University, West Bengal, and Vice Chancellor of University of Allahabad. He has authored several books, primarily on the medieval Indian history.
Preface to the Revised Edition
The history of medieval Kashmir is considered the most fascinating because this period sketches the evolution of all those complex social and political relationships that gave birth to medieval State in Kashmir. The rise of kings and the priestly class in this tiny valley was always overwhelmed by external forces from trans-Himalayan regions as well as from the rest of India. To characterise the nature of the medieval state in Kashmir I presented in 2000 my understanding of history through this book. I received a lot of appreciation and encouragement from various quarters including students and therefore I am presenting this revised version/edition after carefully elucidating the intricate questions pertaining to medieval state in Kashmir. It is a pleasure to acknowledge my teacher Prof. Harbans Mukhia for his affection and encouragement. I am deeply obliged to Sri Ramesh Jain and Sri Ajay Jain and their team for bringing out this reprint. I also owe my gratitude to some of my relations and friends who assisted me in some way or the other in the preparation of this book.
These include Sri Sudesh ji Bhat, Sri Ashok ji Bhat, Sri Mohan Lal Wangoo, Prof. R.K. Kaul Bhat, Prof. V. Ramakrishna, Sri P.L. Pandita, Rajesh Raina, Prof. Parvez Ahmad and Dr. Parvez Ahmad. I thank all my students who always raised very pertinent questions while this book was in progress. These include Prof. Salma Ahmad, Dr G. Nagasridhar, Dr K. Narsaraju, Dr Mamta Nanda, Dr Fayaz Ahmad, Dr Yasser Arafat, Dr H. Vanlalhruia, Dr K.A. Swamy, Dr C. Swaroopa Rani and others. My children Akankhsha Bhat Hangloo and Akhil JI Bhat also deserve my thanks. Finally I owe a debt of gratitude to my wife Sharika Kaul Hangloo, who has always been by my side. 20 October 2021 Rattan Lal Hangloo Hyderabad
Preface to the First Edition
In recent times Medieval Indian historiography has been filled with debates over the effectiveness of concepts characterizing the nature of Medieval Indian State. Viewed from a larger historical perspective, it has been made possible for historians to discern broad trends and identify stages in the evolution and the nature of state formation processes only after exploring the regional patterns. With this perspective in mind this book is devoted to the region of Medieval Kashmir. A book on so limited a scale as this cannot hope to give a full and detailed treatment of all those aspects that need to be covered while exploring the nature of state in Medieval Kashmir. However, this study sets the stage for understanding those broad features which stemmed from the specificities of the region’s institutions and facilitated the growth and dynamics of the state formation in Medieval Kashmir.
The preface of this book is a place for me to pay my deep debt of gratitude to my well wishers and my gratitude goes to my parents Sri Radha Krishan Hangloo and Mrs Rupa Hangloo who first encouraged my interest in history and developed in me the ability to recognize that there is an important place in Social Sciences for conscience and humanism. I also owe deep gratitude to my brothers Sri M.L. Hangloo, Sri P.L. Hangloo and Dr Nanajee Hangloo for willingly bearing every burden of the family and in confronting all potential problems effectively. To them I owe more than can be expressed here. I am most grateful to my teacher Prof. Harbans Mukhia for his insightful comments which helped me to develop the ideas that have eventually found their way into this book. Among others who have placed me in their debt are Prof. M.I. Khan, Prof. B.D. Chattopadhyaya, Prof. Dilbag Singh, Prof. Muzaffar Alam, Prof. Imdad Hussain, Prof. O.N. Koul, Prof. T.N. Madan, Prof. Andre Wink, Prof. G. Haragopal, Dr. G.L. Koul, Dr. Visier Sanyu, Dr. A. Murali, Sri R.K. Koul, Dr. Wolfgang Holtzworth, Mr. Basheer Ahmad Buch, Sri Rajesh Raina and Smt. Sunita Bharti Koul. Their suggestions have been very valuable. Sri Ramesh Jain and Ajay Jain of Manohar Publishers & Distributors deserve my special thanks for bringing out the book so neatly. My son Arkaprateem and daughter Arkapravah also deserve thanks for their willingness to bear the burden of arranging and rearranging my source material with minimum chaos while the writing of this book was in progress. Finally I am pleased to acknowledge the support of my wife Sharika Koul who not only endured the writing of this book with good cheer but also made the hours away from the book more enjoyable than I could have expected. She has always been a great source of inspiration and confidence for me. Rattan Lal Hangloo
Introduction
The strong and positive allegiance that was engendered by popular religious beliefs and practices for a number of rul ing dynasties, has rightly come to be seen as one of the basic issues towards understanding the nature of the state in the history of medieval Kashmir. From early times, along with other factors, religion enabled rulers in Kashmir to uphold the view that they were the sovereign rulers of the region. Initially, the social expressions of Brahmanism—the popular belief system and its carefully designed ritual appa ratus—were the dynamic, pertinent and creative means in introducing inequalities and in shaping political ideas to maintain and perpetuate the authority of the state. The political inspiration of Brahmanism extended over law, jus tice, administration, and economic organization.
Through these processes it became a privileged instrument and over a period of time increasingly allowed royal intervention. In the process of providing appropriate social conditions for gaining and maintaining the absolute power of Kashmir’s kings, the patronization of Brahmanism gradually evolved into a hierarchical landed aristocracy of both religious and secular nature. While elaborating administrative organization and governability, the state’s allocation of these religious and secular grants of land and their revenues—a practice which became essential on a wide scale—led to the growth of exploitative structures which used up a large proportion of the state’s income. The state’s efforts to contain these tendencies led to a perpetual tension between the state and the religious institutions on the one hand, and the state and other dominant social groups (which had grown without the state’s support), on the other. In these circumstances it was not the state’s authority alone which suffered with the growth of private power, but Brahmanism—the bulwark of social, cultural, economic and political order— also developed cracks and fissures of decay.
The process of state formation which had enjoyed a long life by this time, tried to cover all these developments with a veil of apparent unity and political stability in the region. This veil had been in tatters from the ninth century, but the political disorder and social discontent became clearly visible only from the beginning of the eleventh century. Parallel with this political instability or perhaps as a consequence of it, the impact of Islam from the beginning of fourteenth century strongly affected the region of Kashmir. With this the history of Kashmir entered a new phase. The penetration by Turkish and Central Asian Muslims, which was earlier limited to the occasional visits of merchants, soldiers and craftsmen, now gave way to intrusions by large groups of Turkish, Persian, Central Asian and Arab Muslim migrants with varied professional specializations, who settled in various parts of the valley. These people had not only brought with them an almost fanatic and missionary monotheism, and on the other, they slowly fused ties between themselves and the Kashmiris in the social, religious, economic, technological and cultural sectors. These developments provided a social base for the establishment of the Shahmir Sultanate in the first half of the fourteenth century.
In order to give legitimacy to their dominion and control over the entire stretch of Kashmir, each of the Shahmir Sultans depended not only on the nature of their relations with the local political elites such as the Tantrins, Lavanyas, Magres, Rainas, Dammaras but also on Islam and its preachers. In these circumstances it was natural for these Sultans to patronize and promote the interests of the Sayyids and Sufis who had created the moral universe of Islam in this region. They also established the legitimacy of the Sultan, by prescribing the limits within which the Sultan should be obeyed. The Sultan had to claim popular obedience by right as well as by power, and in this he was successful by offering positions of power and prestige to the local political elites. He had to exercise his authority within the bounds of Shariat and to rule in cooperation with the Sayyids who occupied the positions of ulama. Although the Shahmir state was strongly influenced by Islamic practices and traditions, it did not assume a theocratic character because the relationship of the ruler with his religion was primarily linked to the protection of the authority of the Sultan, rather than being the consequence of his religious zeal.
However, the Shahmir state did not succeed in maintaining its power unopposed for very long; the consequence of its management of power relations through steps which did not include the participation of the secular nobility, was acute poverty of the majority, who actually supported the entire structure with their labour and produce. In course of time the Shahmir state became an agency for antagonistic social forces, which tended to uproot the authority of the Sultans one after the other and worsen the social conditions. In these circumstances what seems to have sustained the authority of the Shahmir state at different levels was not the bureaucratically organized, militarily powerful and centralized system, but the religious belief that even if the ruler was impious and unjust, he should still be obeyed, since any kind of order was better than anarchy. The Shahmir state continued to reflect this total disorder, until it was ultimately incorporated into the Mughal state which initiated the control of class relations through patron clientelism—a secular system of exploitation. It is against this background that I undertake to recapture the major trends that have shaped the political trends, patterns of changes in power structure, and the relationship between the religious forces and the political management.
This work deals with these specific problems of state in medieval Kashmir and seeks to explore how this problem with all its ramifications would gain from being approached through affiliations to religious institutions, particularly those of Brahmanism and Islam from which it derived their legitimacy. This analysis of the political history of medieval Kashmir confines itself to the study of the region in terms of abstract concepts without establishing any linkages between underlying class forces and their dialectical development over a long period of time. Scholars while dealing with medieval Kashmir’s political history have widely neglected the significant role of rituals and belief systems in creating the political ideology of state in medieval Kashmir. While putting forth my present argument, I am aware of the complex problem created by the lack of conceptual clarity and inconsistency and of certain terminologies of the sources. The central task in this study has been to seek to develop the linkages between the critical areas of polity and religious and secular forces that have a great bearing on the economy and society of the region. This study essentially focuses on the central function of the state in medieval Kashmir in relation to surplus pro duce and perpetuation of state dominance through heavy dependence on both Brahmanism and Islam. The state in medieval Kashmir is seen to be firmly situated in the cul tural and social traditions of that region. My views in this book are organized around some main aspects. These are: 1. Historical roots of state formation in pre-Sultanate Kashmir.
2. Conversions to Islam and the consolidation of social base of power in the Sultanate. 3. The Sayyids, Sultans and the state—a search for legitimacy. 4. The incorporation of the Sultanate into the Mughal state. The degree to which the study of these aspects achieves its purpose may be open to question, but the analysis does provide an introduction to the most important problems which are encountered while reconstructing the nature of the state in medieval Kashmir.
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