The following statements regarding "Begar" (forced labour) being promoted by Dogras are biased and it's have been raised as propagandas to lengthen the gap between the Kashmiris and Dogras. Everyone should know everything is not like that which is being shown to us.
Learn to connect true wires other than propagandistic ones, only than truth can be revealed.
British had perfected divide and rule and this is the best specimen of Communal British Deception. Even today we are falling in the propagandas of new Britishers who are actually our own.
A name Robert Thorp has been impressioned on the minds of Kashmiris as first martyr who fought for Kashmiri population. But no-one ever tried to debunk this myth.
Robert Thorp was a British officer who visited Kashmir as a tourist in 1865 & whose writings were compiled into a book Cashmere Misgovernment and published in London in 1870. Although, Thorp was a British agent and had come here to pursue some ulterior motives.
His writings are being used to counter attack on Dogra Rulers and mislead kashmiri population of state. The allegations on Dogra Raj for letting Kashmiri Muslim Population into "Begari System" is totally baseless.
On the other side, Dogra ruler Maharajah Gulab Singh protected the Kashmiris from British tyranny. He paid war reparations of 75 lakh rupees to Brits, otherwise britishers would have attacked J&K as well and starved the natives to death like they did in Bengal, Karachi, Madras
and elsewhere, or just lined them up for human experimentation as it was done in Rawalpindi. Forced Labour was in vogue in Kashmir throughout the Sultanate, Mughal, Afghan & Sikh periods.
It can also be confirmed from the accounts of Russian travellers like Capt. Valikhanof and others, there kashmiri slaves were freely traded by Badakhshains in Yarkand much before the dogra Rule.
Even from accounts of Forster and Walter R. Lawrence, it can be easily concluded about the dark regimes before the Dogras in Kashmir.
Dogras were those who liberated Kashmiris from all the miseries that were prevalent in Kashmir before their rule. Maharaja Gulab Singh himself took the consideration of various issues and made numerous reforms in order to give relief from them,
soon after the day when he became Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir and it reduced to null and void till Maharajah Hari Singh's rule.
Let's dig into the claim on Dogras' tyranny against Kashmiris. Right after 1834, when Gulab Singh had annexed Ladakh, the British had looked with considerable disfavour on the extension of dogra influence in frontier region.
Gulab Singh had, by the annexation of Ladakh, assumed the monopoly of the shawl-wool trade of which Ladakh was main centre closing the prospect of British trade in Shawl trade. The British had, therefore, a vital interest in dislodging the Dogras from the frontier regions and
secure for themselves unrestricted trade opportunities across the frontier particularly with shawl-wool producing centres in Tibet and Yarkand. In pursuance of this policy a Commission consisting of Alexander Cunningham, Lt. Henry Strachey and Dr. Thomson was asked to proceed to
the Tibetan frontier ostensibly to supervise the demarcation of Kashmir-Tibetan frontier. Cunningham was to explore the prospects of Central Asian trade by traveling through ladakh and Kashmir to Gilgit and Hunza, while Strachey was to journey to western Tibet but
Gulab Singh didn't allowed this interference of Britishers in his Kingdom. Maharaja Gulab Singh had given freedom of religion to his citizens but he was against religious conversions as it was being tried by Christian missionaries in Kashmir.
The men used to being persecuted and imprisoned for professing Christianity in Kashmir under missionary mission. No missionaries' mission succeed in Kashmir due to Maharaja.
Very less of you may know that Britishers were not delighted with Dogra rulers in reality
Very less of you may know that Britishers were not delighted with Dogra rulers in reality
because Dogra rulers made numerous restrictions on brits even after resident was installed within Kashmir by them. Britishers had no independence in Kashmir in real sense. No Kashmiri was allowed to work under British officials as their servants.
You can verify it from the accounts of Arthur Brinkman, Robert Thorp and Sir William Digby. British were totally helpless in Kashmir as they failed totally as policy in Kashmir.
They believed in beginning that Dogras would work as their vassal after Treaty of Amritsar but they never accepted their supremacy.
Every claim related to oppression of Kashmiris by Dogras is because of Dogras legacy and their non-bending character to which Brits never liked.
Every claim related to oppression of Kashmiris by Dogras is because of Dogras legacy and their non-bending character to which Brits never liked.
British agents like Lt. Robert Thorp, Arthur Brinkman and Sir William Digby who claimed that the Kashmiris were treated badly under Dogra rule is because of their hate for the Dogras, their writing signifies it very efficiently.
For those who says Kashmiris were brought into the forced labour as Thorp said that it was found on the Gilgit road, over 200 miles to the Sirinagar. Supplies to this foodless region of Gilgit were to be carried on coolies.
There is nothing to be surprised of this fact that even today such coolies are found in the Jammu and Kashmir where transport access is not available. Every propaganda against Dogra Dyansty is totally fraud and baseless to divide Kashmiris and Dogras.
We should conclude it in the way that Yes, Dogras oppressed but the Britishers to whom they consider their enemies. There was no oppression for native population.
#DebunkingPropagandas #NoToBreaking #D565
#DebunkingPropagandas #NoToBreaking #D565
