Kashmiris in Punjab

Pre-independence Heavy commodifications taxation under the Sikh rule caused many Kashmiri peasants to migrate to the plains of the Punjab. These claims, made in Kashmiri histories, were corroborated by European travelers. The 1833 famine resulted in many people leaving the Kashmir Valley and migrating to the Punjab, with the majority of weavers leaving Kashmir. Weavers settled down for generations in the cities of Punjab such as Jammu and Nurpur. The 1833 famine led to a large influx of Kashmiris into Amritsar which was also under Sikh rule. Kashmir's Muslims in particular suffered and had to leave Kashmir in large numbers, while Hindus were not much affected. The emigration during the Sikh rule resulted in Kashmiris enriching the culture and cuisines of Amritsar, Lahore and Rawalpindi. A large number of Muslim Kashmiris migrated from the Kashmir Valley to the Punjab due to conditions in the princely state and harsh treatment of Kashmiri Muslims by the Dogra Hindu regime. According to the 1911 Census there were 177,549 Kashmiri Muslims in the Punjab. With the inclusion of Kashmiri settlements in NWFP this figure rose to 206,180. Writing for the Kashmir Observer, journalist Ali Malik estimates that, due to the migrations over the centuries, around half of the ethnic Kashmiri population had been living in Punjab before the 1947 partition, mostly in cities such as Lahore, Sialkot, Rawalpindi and Amritsar, in Amritsar making up to one sixth of the city's total population but virtually all moving into Pakistan following the partition. Scholar Ayesha Jalal states that Kashmiris faced discrimination in the Punjab as well. Kashmiris settled for generations in the Punjab were unable to own land, Scholar Chitralekha Zutshi states that Kashmiri Muslims settled in the Punjab retained emotional and familial links to Kashmir and felt obliged to struggle for the freedom of their brethren in the Valley. Common krams (surnames) found amongst the Kashmiri Muslims who migrated from the Valley Dar, Following the partition of India in 1947 and the subsequent communal unrest across Punjab, many Muslim Kashmiris living in East Punjab migrated en masse to West Punjab. Kashmiri migrants from Amritsar have had a big influence on Lahore's contemporary cuisine and culture. The Kashmiris of Amritsar were more steeped in their Kashmiri culture than the Kashmiris of Lahore. Ethnic Kashmiris from Amritsar also migrated in large numbers to Rawalpindi, where Kashmiris had already introduced their culinary traditions during the British Raj. An exclusive research conducted by the "Jang Group and Geo Television Network" showed that the Kashmiri community had been involved in spearheading the power politics of Lahore district since 1947. The Kashmiri diaspora in Punjab also influences politics in the Gujranwala, Gujrat and Sialkot districts. == Demographics ==