From being an independent princely stateunder a monarch, J&K was a legislatively empowered quasi autonomousconstituent unit of the India Union. Recently it was dismembered and downgradedto a centrally administered Union Territory.
In all these forms, the government whetheranointed or appointed, imposed or elected, administering or governing has oneconstant feature: the darbar move. While the nomenclature, a vestige of themonarchy hasn’t changed, the need for it has been constantly reinvented eversince it was started 148 years ago.
Contrary to the popular belief, the reasonfor darbar move was not climatology: to escape the harsh winters of KashmirValley or the scorching summers of Jammu. Nor was it clairvoyance; the visionof Ranbir Singh. It was a compulsion; of the British to protect their IndianEmpire.
The great game in the Pamirs and Hindukush,which put the Kashmir valley on the international map of Russians, was afoot inthe mid-19th century. By 1868 Russia had advanced in the Central Asia andextended its influence to Samarkand. These movements created panic in Britainand made them alive to the strategic importance of the Kashmir valley.
Faced with the “Russian Peril”, darbar move was symbolic relocation for a strategic reason. It was element of “forward policy” (also known as “spearhead capital policy”) of the British in the run up to their agreement of 1873 with the Russians. This was the start of the process that culminated in the Kashmir valley becoming a frontline area of the British in 1889.
It was in this year Maharaja Pratap Singhwas presented with an “irshad” to “voluntarily relinquish powers” to governeven as he continued to rule as the titular head! For the next 35 years, it waseffectively British rule in “sentry state” of J&K. It was only in 1924,when the Russian threat has fully receded, were the powers of the Pratap Singhrestored.
This circumstantial compulsion of BritishImperialism to move the darbar has been constantly reinvented since 1948.
Unlike under monarchy, when thecapital was declared wherever the Maharaja held court, in a democratic set up,the choice of Srinagar as the capital was obvious. Srinagar became the capitalof J&K in 1948 because it had been the epicenter of the politicalexpression which was shaped by a societal collectivity. The freedom struggle,conducted as an anti-monarchy political movement had been carried out heresince 1931. All the civil society institutions which powered the freedomstruggle were based in Srinagar. The de facto capital was given a de jurestatus. It was a signal — a culturally functional one – expressing the basisand nature of the strength of the public authority.
It was loaded with political meaning andsymbolic connotations. It reflected the reality of the changed power system andstructure; a peoples capital as against a monarch’s capital.
However, at a time when the state was underattack and close to disintegrating, a reference of dispute to the UnitedNations, to protect the state and its integrity, the tradition of darbar movewas continued. The other obvious reason being regard for the Duggarsensitivities, who were traumatised over the loss of power. To be sure, thedarbar move had no legislative backing. It was only in 1992, that Jammu wasformally made the winter capital.
Of course, the larger philosophy was toframe and propagate the common state origin and the expectation of a commonstate future. The August 5th, 2019 restructuring of the state has debunked theformer and jeopardised the latter. So why continue this meaningless, if notfarcical exercise?
Whether one like it or not, much likeArticle 370, the substantive basis of Srinagar as a capital has been erodedover time. It has been emaciated by the successive governments at the centre.Its administrative importance starting dwindling in the 1980s and was completedin the 1990s. All the Central Government institutions, departments, agenciesand undertakings have chosen to locate their regional offices in Jammu.
Same is the case with all the national andmulti-national private companies or organizations. They too have their officesand business operations from out of Jammu. At the state level, all developmentaldepartments have now been bifurcated on geographical lines.
The reality today is that Jammu is the salientspace of public authority and non-governmental action. In line with such a change, whatever the dejure status, the de facto capital has changed. Capitals, apart fromadministrative and material functional considerations, are the seats ofpolitical power and authority. Whenever that changes, capitals change.
As such, by continuing with the dualcapital system, essentially as a placation, an illusion of a localized presenceof political authority is being created. And a non-existent participativefeeling constructed. The seemingly important event of darbar move is nothingbut pointless political appeasement.
In any case, what has being the “summercapital” for the last 70 years done for Srinagar, its society, its localeconomy and its culture? Be in terms of provision of public services orurbanisation or the sheer aesthetics of the city.
Visually, the built environment is anaesthetic eyesore. In their publicity brochures, the tourism department oncephoto shopped images of the Dal to make it look clean! The dominant citynarratives is bandhs, destruction and death. Children grow up cooped up in sans social connections and without globalconnectivity. A city where funeral are the only social gatherings. That’s whatSrinagar has become.
The adornments in the city are an insult tothe genius of the local crafts persons. Be it the ghanta ghar, erected becauseSheikh Abdullah saw it in Poona and ordered Bajaj to build it in Srinagar! Orthe fountain outside the Radio Kashmir which despite being under an overpassnow, is left there to be shamed. These discursive elements which are evocativeof the megalomania have become a part of our built heritage.
The signifiers of Srinagar are reflectiveneither of our real and symbolic resources, nor does echo the value and ethosof the people who live there. It showcases only the behavioral disdain of theruling elite.
Obviously, the voices of Srinagar have notbe been able to make themselves heard let alone get a more relevant sensibilityto underline public authority. The result has been that these voices becameshrill and got articulated in a different sphere.
For how long then are we to live with theidea of a “half capital”? It is time to stop thinking of being a capital city(that too by calendar rote!) as a tool to achieve something; it just makesSrinagar a government city. Not a city for its inhabitants. As the philosopherof cities, Italo Calvino, wrote, “You take delight not in a city’s seven orseventy wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of yours.” Srinagarhas lost its ability to answer.
At a more practical level, given the factthat Srinagar is a nerve centre of economic production and distribution, itmight be worthwhile to have Srinagar as the commercial capital of J&K. If it is driven by business and enterpriseand not by babus and babudom, it will grow on the power of conviviality andresilience of its original vernacular. Not only will it get rid of thepervasive negativity, it will rediscover its own raison d’etre beyondgovernment.
The tragedy is that no political leader inKashmir has the moral authority to say so. The Last of the Mohicans was SheikhAbdullah who famously told Kashmiris to eat potatoes, not government subsidisedrice!
Tail piece:
It is interesting that as the state of J&K shrinks, its capitals proliferate! In the 19th century, the 84,000 square mile state extended from Chitral in the north to Kathua in the south; Aksaichan in the east to Kohala in the west. It had one capital. By 1948, the state has shrunk administratively, the capitals multiplied to 2. By 2019, the same state which has been split now has four capitals! Wondering how? Leh is the summer and Kargil the winter capital of Ladakh. Even in its dismembering J&K state has produced two Union Territory with two capitals each! A unique feat. That the area under control now is not even one third of original state is a just a factoid.