Kashmiris in Punjab

TheKashmiris in Punjab, also referred to asPunjabi Kashmiris, are a group of people in thePunjab regionwho either have partial or fullKashmiriancestry who have historically migrated from theKashmir Valleyand settled in Punjab. Most people of this category identify asPunjabiswith Kashmiri descent, either some or full. Kashmiri migration from the Kashmir Valley to Punjab continued duringSikhandDograrule.
Heavy commodifications taxation under the Sikh rule caused many Kashmiri peasants to migrate to the plains of Punjab.These claims, made in Kashmiri histories, were corroborated by European travelers.When one such European traveller, Moorcroft, left the Valley in 1823, about 500 emigrants accompanied him across the Pir Panjal Pass.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 asJammuand 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.Sikh rule in Kashmir ended in 1846 and was followed by the rule of Dogra Hindu maharajahs who ruled Kashmir as part of their princely state ofJammu and Kashmir.
A large number of Muslim Kashmiris migrated from the Kashmir Valleyto the Punjab due to conditions in the princely statesuch as famine, extreme povertyand harsh treatment of Kashmiri Muslims by the Dogra Hindu regime.According to the 1911 Census there were 177,549Kashmiri Muslimsin the Punjab. With the inclusion of Kashmiri settlements in NWFP this figure rose to 206,180.Writing for theKashmir 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.
ScholarAyesha Jalalstates that Kashmiris faced discrimination in the Punjab as well.Kashmiris settled for generations in the Punjab were unable to own land,including the family ofMuhammad Iqbal.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.
Commonkrams(surnames) found amongst the Kashmiri Muslims who migrated from the Valleyto the Punjab includeButt,Dar,Lone,Wain(Wani),Mir, Rathore.
Kashmiri Muslims constituted an important segment of several Punjabi cities such asSialkot,Lahore,AmritsarandLudhiana.Following thepartition of Indiain 1947 and the subsequent communal unrest across Punjab, Muslim Kashmiris living inEast Punjabmigrated en masse toWest Punjab. Kashmiri migrants fromAmritsarhave had a big influence onLahore'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 GroupandGeo Television Network" showed that the Kashmiri community had been involved in spearheading the power politics ofLahore districtsince 1947.The Kashmiri diaspora in Punjab also influences politics in the Gujranwala, Gujrat and Sialkot districts.
As per the2017 Pakistani census, ethnic Kashmiris made up 30% of theLahore District, which back then amounted to some 3,3 million individuals out of a total Lahore District population of around 11 million.Ethnic Kashmiris also live in the other urban centers of Pakistan's Punjab.
One of the most highly educated and prominent Punjabi-Kashmiri wasMuhammad Iqbal, whose poetry displayed a keen sense of belonging to Punjab and Kashmir Valley.Another Punjabi-Kashmiri was the famous storywriterSaadat Hasan Manto.TheSharif familyis a notable Punjabi-Kashmiri political family, the members of the family include the formerprime minister of PakistanNawaz Sharif, the incumbent prime ministerShehbaz Sharif, and thechief minister of PunjabMaryam Nawaz; other political figures also include thedeputy prime minister of PakistanIshaq Daranddefence ministerKhawaja Asif.The following is a list of notable Kashmiris of Punjab: