Kashmir has always been the point of connection between South Asia, Central Asia and Xinjiang. Winding their way through the mighty Himalaya, Pamir and Karakoram Mountain ranges, traders, travelers and officials created a series of close historic economic, cultural and political ties that have bound the region together.
Prof Kulbhushan Warikoo’s new book The Crossroads: Kashmir-India’s bridge to Xinjiang is a new history of Kashmir, focusing on its role in linking the Indian-subcontinent to Xinjiang and Central Asia. The Kashmir Warikoo’s refers to is not that of fractured post 1947 Kashmir, but “the undivided state of Jammu and Kashmir including Ladakh, Hunza, Gilgit, Baltisan and adjoining frontier territories”. Using this historic Kashmir, in both Pakistan and India allows Warikoo to compare the contrasting fortunes of Indian Administered Kashmir to Pakistan’s Azad Kashmir.
Kashmir has long been an incredibly important frontier, part of long established two-way trading route:
Xinjiang exported gold and silver; jade; fine pashm (wool); hides and skins; Khotan silks and carpets; and charas (cannabis) to India, in exchange for Indian fabrics, books, sugar, medicines, dyes, spices and tea.
The exact trade routes used are meticulously detailed as are the impact that the trade had on society, for example how
Leh developed a cosmopolitan character during the trading season when merchants of different nationalities coming from Bukhara, Andijan, Kashgar, Yarkand, Kabul, Badakshan, Tibet, Amritsar, Hoshiapur, Kullu, Nurpur, Bushar, and Kashmir arrived in Ladakh to sell their goods.
The remote, sparsely populated town of Leh was quickly transformed into a bustling trading centre for the summer months of the trading season. A detailed analysis of import and export figures between Xinjiang and Ladakh is provided, detailing the diverse range of traded items, their origins and both economic and societal impacts.
Yet this trade, which lasted for centuries, was interrupted by internal conflicts in China in 1930, ending almost entirely with the establishment of the PRC in 1949. Today, however, while China and Pakistan continue to strengthen ties through massive infrastructural projects like the Karakoram Highway, and trade between the two countries has long since resumed, since partition India finds itself without a direct link to Xinjiang.
The book does not just provide an analysis of trade, but also the deep-rooted historic cultural and religious connections between Kashmir and Xinjiang. It wasn’t just goods that travelled along the trade routes, but Buddhism too, spreading to Central Asia, Xinjiang, Tibet, and China.There’s also a discussion of the region’s geostrategic importance. Warikoo explains how British India strategically employed Kashmir’s proximity to Central Asia to counter Russian ambitions in the region during the infamous so-called Great Game. Key players in the Great Game, such as William Moorcroft and Alexander Burnes, are brought to the forefront, illuminating how British agents used Kashmir as a base for covert missions into Central Asia. For example, Ladakh and Gilgit were used as a frontier listening post to monitor Russian movements in East Turkestan and a permanent British resident in Kashmir helped widen British spheres of activity in key regions as well as solidify British control of Kashmir.
The book isn’t limited to historical events; there is also extensive analysis of contemporary political and economic development, such as the China Pakistan Economic Corridor and other huge bilateral infrastructure agreements like Gwadar Port and the many roads, railways, energy projects and partnership agreements the two counties have signed. This highlights the importance of the region in the present and future, not just the past. Yet while Azad Kashmir remains a conduit for Pakistani and Chinese connectivity, Indian Administered Kashmir remains isolated and connected only to the rest of India, no longer to the region.
Given the vast amount of information the book provides over a diverse set of topics, from trade, culture, geopolitics, religion and contemporary politics, the narrative at times can be eclectic and lurches from one different topic to another, perhaps understandable given the book’s covers hundreds of years over a vast geographic scale and widely differing territories, while still providing detailed analysisd. It remains a highly informative, excellent primer on the region and on the impact that greater Kashmir has had on Indian, Chinese and Central Asia culture, politics and economy.