Thread by @shrikanth_krish

Whenever there is discussion of the need for "demographic diversity" in the Kashmir valley, the liberal reaction is one of consternation

As though one has mentioned something unmentionable

But free mobility of labor and cultural interchange is a pre-requisite for a nation

You cannot call yourself a nation if people cannot freely move from one region to another in search of jobs, missions, profit, among other things

The implicit assumption is - the nation has a shared bond that can withstand regional peculiarities of culture

While coercion is never advocated to drive demographic change, one should welcome free movement of peoples

This is not something unprecedented

India is a "nation" precisely because it has been a land with free movement of people and ideas for 2000+ yrs

Let's take some examples

Let's take Tamilakam (ancient Tamil country) that is associated with the greatest degree of regional pride among all Indian provinces

But Tamilakam itself has been influenced by influences from the rest of India since its inception

E.g. In the great Sangam work "Tolkappiyam", the royal dynasts called "Velirs" have a northern origin

About 18 clans of the Velirs came down South from Dwaraka (as per some readings) under the leadership of Agastya (a sage who also features interestingly in Vedic literature)

Now it's hard to place a timeframe for these migrations

But historians like Ms Romila Thapar and Champakalakshmi have tried to associate the Velirs with the Yadavas of Dwarka

Definitely in the pre-Common era

Not buying their theory. But merely stating it here

Another example of North to South migrations comes from inscriptions in the Kannada country about the legends associated with the Kadambas - a dynasty that ruled large parts of modern Karnataka between 4th and 6th centuries

As per one inscription an early Kadamba king brought in thirty-two Brahmin families from Ahicchatra and settled them in an agrahara near Shimoga in modern Karnataka

Ahicchatra is associated with modern Bareilly a couple of thousand kilometers away in Western UP!

Another example is that of Dandin - the great Sanskrit playwright in the court of Pallavas at Kanchipuram in modern Tamil Nadu

Now Dandin was not native to Tamil country. But a descendant of recent migrants from Vidarbha as per one account

Kashmir itself has seen considerable cultural interchange over the years

With many religious currents that we take for granted elsewhere having their origins in the valley, suggesting considerable migration out of Kashmir

E.g Pancharatra Agama
Shaiva Siddhanta

Both Pancharatra Agama and Shaiva Siddhanta have the greatest influence today in the Tamil country relative to other regions

Yet they did not originate in the Tamil country. But likely in Kashmir

Possible migrations from what is Kashmir today have been speculated upon in this fine post

Worth investigating further

manasataramgini.wordpress.com/2007/03/02/the…

Having said that Kashmir itself was also the destination of several migrants.

E.g. the great 9th century Kashmiri thinker Jayanta Bhatta, author of works like Agama-Adambara and Nyayamanjari, was not a native of Kashmir, but a descendant of recent migrants from Gauda (Bengal)

In fact Jayanta Bhatta's own play Agama-Adambara, is a satire on the religious scene in Kashmir, which was anything but homogeneous

But a heterogenous mix of several sects, which is lampooned by Bhatta

What this tells you is that Kashmir was not a homogenous "Hindu" bloc following a single sect (say Kashmir Shaivism), but a place teeming with ideas often antagonistic to each other

Can that be said about the religious scene in Kashmir valley today? No.

We are yet to even touch upon the numerous other internal migrations that have characterized India right up to our own times.

The great Advaitin philosopher from 16th cen, Madhusudana Sarasvati was from East Bengal. But his ancestors migrated from modern UP in 12th century

Madhusudana Sarasvati himself did not stay in Bengal for too long, but lived most of his life in Varanasi, far from his home

That brings us to the cosmopolitanism of our great cities in the past. E.g. Varanasi - which was a place teeming with scholars from v diverse roots

When James Prinsep did his path-breaking census and survey of the city of Varanasi in 1820s, he observed that out of the 32K brahmins in Varanasi, 11K were Maharashtrian!

So 1 in 3 brahmins in Varanasi was from distant Maharashtra

That tells you something about mobility

During the great Maratha ascendance of 17th / 18th cen, many brahmins from Maharashtra settled down in Western UP, while retaining their identity

Carrying surnames like Pant

Govind Vallabh Pant, the politician. Rishabh Pant, the cricketer - likely descendants of these migrants

The migrations were not limited to the priestly class ofcourse.

The near universal presence of Marwaris from Western Rajasthan, in just about every town in India from Kozhikode to Asansol, is indicative of how migration scaled new heights with the advent of railway in 19th cen

The point we are making here is -

India is a nation. Not because of the Raj or some enlightened founders in 1947

But because it has been a contiguous piece of land characterized by high labor mobility and mobility of ideas for 2K years

Kashmir has not been an exception to this

And there is no reason why it should be an exception

This doesn't mean one should change demographics with a heavy hand

But to cavil at the removal of restrictions is to cavil at the idea of India itself