History of Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir is a multi-lingual, multi-religious and multiracial State and each group has its own distinct and peculiar cultural ethos further deepened by geographical divisions created by formidable mountain ranges. The Jammu region is dominantly Hindu with Muslims being in the majority in certain areas. Most of the people speak Dogri.
In the mountains, there are three distinct communities with traits of their own viz. Gujjars, Bakerwals and Gaddis, who speak the Pahari Language. The Kashmir Valley presents a heterogeneous population with two broad divisions i.e. Muslims and Kashmiri Pandits, both of whom speak Kashmiri, The people of Ladakh are believed to be descendants of a blended race of the Mons of North India, the Dards of Baltistan and the Mongols of Central Asia. Majority of the population is Buddhist. The Northern area occupied by Pakistan is inhabited by different races like Mongols, Tadjik, Kirghiz, Uygur, Yagis and others. The Muslim population is almost equally divided into three sects i.e. Sunni, Shia (Jaffaria) and Shia (Ismailis). Sectarian violence is a common feature in the area because of Pakistan's official patronage of the minority Sunni community. The southern portion of POK, where the majority of people are concentrated (about 19 lakhs), the common language is Dogri or Punjabi.
Gilgit, Ladakh, Kashmir and Jammu have seen the rise and fall of several kingdoms. For much of their history these areas existed as principalities. A few Kashmiri rulers like Lalitaditya and Awamivarman had their empire extending from Bengal in the east, the Konkan in the south, Turkistan in north-west and Tibet in the north. Kashmir passed into the hands of Muslims rulers in 1324.
The most notable Muslim rulers of Kashmir were Zain-ul-Abedin and Yusuf Shah Chak. The Mogul emperor Akbar conquered Kashmir in 1587, but, Aurangzeb's successor was a weak ruler and in 1752 Kashmir was seized by the Afghan ruler Ahmed Shah Abdali. His reign is remembered as one of the most terrible in Kashmir's entire history. In 1819, the Sikh ruler of Punjab Maharaja Ranjit Singh evicted the Pathans from Kashmir with the help of the Dogra Army of Jammu. The Sikhs ruled Kashmir till their defeat by the British.
Thereafter, Maharaja Gulab Singh of Jammu paid Rs. 75 lakhs to the East India Company in 1846 in exchange for Kashmir and some other areas under the 'Treaty of Amritsar'. Jammu and Kashmir as a single entity was unified and founded by Maharaja Gulab Singh on March 16,1846. Zorawar Singh, a General in the Dogra Anny later led his dare-devil campaigns in northern areas like Ladakh, Baltistan, Gilgit, Hunza and Yagistan, consolidating smaller principalities and making the northern areas a part of the expanding the dominions of Maharaja Gulab Singh.
