Kashmir

Kashmir here means the Kashmir Valley and the wider state of Jammu and Kashmir. Sikh history touches it at several points, from the Gurus to the Sikh kingdom to the present. Sikhs numbered 234,848 in the state at the 2011 census, up from 207,154 in 2001: 55,950 in the Kashmir division and 176,635 in the Jammu division (Kashmir Life, 2015).

Key moments

• 25 May 1675: Kashmiri pandits appealed to Guru Tegh Bahadur at Anandpur. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says he told them the earth would be redeemed only if a worthy person gave his head. He was beheaded in Delhi on 11 November 1675.
• 1819: Maharaja Ranjit Singh's army annexed Kashmir. The Encyclopaedia says the province included the whole valley with Muzaffarabad, Ladakh and Gilgit. Hari Singh Nalwa became governor in 1820, built forts at Uri and Muzaffarabad and gurdwaras at Mattan and Bramulla, and was allowed to strike a coin in his own name.
• 9 March 1846: by the Treaty of Lahore, after the First Anglo-Sikh War, the Lahore Darbar gave up its hill country between the Beas and the Indus, including Kashmir, accepted by the British as the equivalent of one crore rupees of the 1.5 crore indemnity they demanded.
• 16 March 1846: by the Treaty of Amritsar the British East India Company transferred the territory between the Ravi and the Indus, with the Kashmir Valley, to Gulab Singh of Jammu for 75 lakh Nanakshahi rupees. The Encyclopaedia records that the Governor-General defended the transfer as a reward for Gulab Singh's conduct in the war. Kashmir Life calls it the day Kashmir was sold, and says only one instalment of 25 lakh is clearly recorded.
• 27 October 1947: the day after Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession, the 1st Sikh Battalion under Lt Col Dewan Ranjit Rai was flown to Srinagar. The Tribune credits it with a decisive part in holding Srinagar until more troops arrived, and says Rai, about 34, was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra after his death.
• 20 March 2000: 35 Sikhs were killed in the village of Chattisinghpora. On 1 April 2000 Amnesty International called for a full, independent and transparent inquiry.
• November 2025: for the 350th martyrdom year of Guru Tegh Bahadur, the Punjab government planned a kirtan darbar in Srinagar on 18 November and a nagar kirtan from Srinagar to Anandpur Sahib, in which the Kashmiri Pandit community was to take part (The Tribune).

What it means to the Panth. Sikh memory of Kashmir runs from the appeal that led Guru Tegh Bahadur to Delhi, through Ranjit Singh's province from 1819 to 1846, to the 1846 settlement that took Kashmir from the Lahore Darbar. A small Sikh community still lives there. This page covers the Sikh connections only; the political dispute over Kashmir itself is outside it.