The historic link between Kashmir and Central Asia

by Prof. Mushtaq A. Kaw
 

The Eurasian region was characteristic of a legendry East-West overland highway that dated around the 3rd-2nd century BC. Termed as the Shahra-i Abrasham or Shahra-i Caravan in medieval accounts, the given highway was named as the Grand Silk Route by a German geographer, Ferdinand Von Richthofen, in the 19th century. The said route was famous after the trade of a lustrous Chinese product, the silk, which, however, was supplemented by other rarities of the region and its peripheries: jade, horses, slaves, herbs, tea, felts, carpets, shawls, saffron, grains , salt, leather and the like cottage and farm products. In view of its elongated trade structure, the Silk Route had a network of sinuous routes and sub-routes that traversed the most dreaded deserts, perilous passes, inhospitable mountains and forests, fertile oases, and unaffordable rivers and glaciers. 
 Its few branches entered Greater Kashmir via some major passes: one across the Karakoram from the Chinese side (Xinjiang) reached Chishool and Nubra in Ladakh (J&K) and another traversed the Pamirs from Tajikistan side and terminated at Gilgit (under Pakistan) and moved ahead to Gurais, Bandipora and Srinagar in J&K. The third major route went across the Hindukush and the Khyber passes from Afghanistan and reached Gandhara/Peshawar, thence to Muzaffarabad and finally to Srinagar. Archaeological remains and historical material abound with information on the usefulness, nature, and the physical structure of these meandering ancient and medieval routes.  In most cases, they served as the job providers; hence, formed the life line of peoples dwelling in those countless villages, towns and cities that surfaced in the wake of the transaction of diverse commodities between India, Kashmir and Central Asia. Since these settlements were inhabited by a mixed brand of population, they were symbolic of vibrant economic dynamism on the one hand and unprecedented "multiculturalism" on the other. Similarly, the Kashmir-bound traditional land routes served as the integrative channels of the most pronounced religious concepts of Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Islam and Sufism. True these faiths cut across each other in ideological terms. But, they constituted a single "cultural matrix" embodying elements of "inclusiveness" following the historical process of inhaling and exhaling of mutual influences by the humans across the borders. Kashmir’s "pluralistic religious traditions", the natural concomitant of such a process, is amply evidenced by the virtues of co-existence in the Buddhist and Shivite symbols and images and "syncretism" in the Iranian, Greek, Scythian and Kushan deities in the art, ethnographic and numismatic representations of Neolithic Kashmir. The medieval shrine culture, the Central Asian legacy, and the reactionary thought couched in the most tantalizing social philosophy of Lal Ded, the saiva yogni and Sheikh Noor-ud Din Rishi, are also supportive of such religio-cultural togetherness to which the contribution of the Silk Route has been quite substantial. Last but not the least, these routes facilitated regular human interaction, exchanges, intermingling and intermarriages through cross-cultural and cross-ethnic management which eventually culminated in their peaceful settlement outside their native places. The Diaspora of Central Asians in Kashmir, the Yarkandis, Bukharis, Badakhshanis, Andrabis, Durranis and other ethnic and sub-ethnic groups, and that of the Kashmiri priests and businessmen in Xinjiang (Chinese Turkistan) and the former Soviet Central Asian spaces , offer poignant illustrations of uninterrupted human connections that indisputably obtained across the borders amid trials and tribulations. During their settlement, the immigrants, Kashmiris, Afghans or Central Asians, mutually shared their knowledge and expertise and assimilated and excreted mutual influences on each other in diverse fields of science, technology, thought, medicine, music, art, language, folk, painting and architecture. No doubt, the share of the Central Asians was relatively far greater than that of the Kashmiris. But that does not deny the latter’s contribution to the religious, commercial, literary and linguistic texture of Central Asian and its vast geographical space. The popularity of the very name Kashmir, beauty apart, in Xinjiang, Tajikistan, Samarqand, Bukhara, Iran and Afghanistan together with the marked affinities of Kashmiris and their Central Asian counterparts in customs, rites, rituals, beliefs, taboos, values, morals, ethos, arts, crafts, dress, food  etc., vindicate the tremendous contribution of the Silk Route to the blossoming of the Asian civilization and facilitating free mobility of traders, priests, artisans, craftsmen, scholars,  litterateurs and adventurers  for fame, fortune and missionary pursuits besides enhancing dialogue and mutual understanding for regional peace and development. However, while changing, the immigrants whosoever, did not part with their indigenous ethno-cultural formulations. 
 In fact, driven by the exigency of softening Europe-Trans-Asian and Asian-Asian trade, China, Russia and other regional, sub-regional and global powers have manouvred numerous initiatives for extensive re-linking through the construction of  massive highways, railways, pipelines, telecommunications and other physical infrastructural networks. India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran too are favourably disposed to reopening their traditional links with a view to promote composite dialogue, marginalize conflicts, boost trilateral relations in security, culture, trade including energy and exploring alternatives for guaranteeing greater peace and development in the South Asian region. The opening of one of the Silk Route legs from Srinagar to Muzaffarabad Pakistan in the first instance and Afghanistan and Central Asia in the next instances for routine trade and public traffic, the construction of the Gavdar port in Karachi and that of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan- Pakistan-India (TAPI) and Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline projects are already in the making. Barring political uncertainty in the region, these projects have been cleared, both technically and financially, by the international funding agencies, the ADB, UNESCAP, UNCTAD, UNESCO, IMF and WTO as a part of the Trans-Asian Highway, Trans-Asian Railway, North-South Corridor or the Eurasian Land Bridge projects. In all this, the revival of Kashmir-bound traditional road links is one of the options so frequently debated among the academia and policy planners for peace building, conflict resolution, direct overland energy imports and industrial exports to Central Asia and Europe. 
 Can that really happen across conflict-ridden J&K, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Xinjiang? What shall be its costs and benefits to the contending parties? Would Pakistan, India, China and Afghanistan perceive economic integration while keeping their political conflicts at bay? Would India subscribe to it under energy and economic compulsions and to find a direct overland access to Central Asia and China for energy imports from and industrial exports to or else under a "calculated game plan to eat up Kashmir in the name of economic integration"? What would be the response of the people of J&K especially Kashmir to the revival? Would they prefer economic integration to political settlement and look around for an alternate route to market their agricultural, horticultural, floricultural, craft and food products in non-Indian markets? Would that mean separating trade from politics? Would Pakistan support the idea to earn transit fee to reinforce its otherwise beleaguered economy and import energy from and export her industrial products to South and Central Asian region? Would she have any special priority for the transit of Kashmiri goods on its soil in the event of revival? Would Pakistan and Afghanistan be able to extend security to the proposed highways and pipelines on their boiling and unstable territories? Would they be able to undercut the non-state forces which are thought to be the potent threats to the process of "Silk Route Restitution"? Would China like India and Pakistan entering the "Energy Production Consumption Trade Structure" when she is herself overwhelmed with acute energy crisis? Would she strategically allow the union of "recalcitrant Kashmiris" with her "restive Uighurs" in her largest Xinjiang province?  Would she allow the Buddhist communities of Ladakh to join their Tibetan counterparts in the wake of proposed multilateral integration? Would Central Asian Republics agree to directly transport their energy resources for marketing in Asian markets? What would be the reaction of Russia who has had a great deal of monopoly on their exploration and transportation to European markets along its own territory? These and other type of issues may find a space in the deliberation of a proposed four day international conference on "Dynamics and Revival of Silk Route: Perspective, Challenges & Opportunities" scheduled to be held at the Centre of Central Asian Studies, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, from October 15-18, 2008. 

(Prof. Mushtaq A.Kaw is director Centre of Central Asian Studies, University of Kashmir Srinagar) [curtesy to Greater Kashmir]