Baramulla
Baramulla, also known as Varmul in Kashmiri, is a city and municipality of the Baramulla district of the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region. It is also the administrative headquarters of the Baramulla district, located on the banks of the River Jhelum downstream from Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. The town was earlier known as gateway of Kashmir, serving as the major distribution centre for goods arriving in Kashmir valley through the Jhelum valley cart road. It is located within the Kashmir Valley on the foothills of the Pir Panjal Range.
The town was earlier known as Varāhamūla. The name is derived from two Sanskrit words, varāha and mūla. The town was a major urban settlement and trade centre, before suffering extensive damage during the First Kashmir War. Currently, Baramulla is a major centre of business and education in northern Kashmir.
Origin
The name Baramulla is derived from the Sanskrit Varāhamūla, a combination of varāha and mūla meaning "boar's molar."According to Hindu mythology, the Kashmir Valley was once a lake known as Satisaras. Ancient Hindu texts relate that the lake was occupied by the demon Jalodbhava until Lord Vishnu assumed the form of a boar and struck the mountain at Varahamula. This created an opening for the water to flow out of the lake.
The modern Baramulla was called Varahamulaksetra or Varahaksetra in the ancient days. Originally, it was a suburb of Huviskapura. Associated with the Adivaraha, the boar incarnation of Vishnu, it was considered very sacred. Consequently, many temples and monasteries were built in the ninth and tenth centuries, during the region of Lalitaditya Muktapida, Sugandha, and Ksemagupta, when the worship of Vishnu flourished there.
History
Ancient and medieval
According to some accounts the city of Baramulla was founded by Raja Bhimsina in 2306 B.C. A number of visitors have travelled to Baramulla, including Xuanzang from China and a British historian named Moorcraft. In 1508 A.D., Akbar, who entered the valley via Pakhil, spent several days at Baramulla. According to Tarikh-e-Hassan, the city was decorated during Akbar's stay. Jahangir stayed at Baramulla during his visit to Kashmir in 1620.From the beginning, Baramulla has had religious importance. Hindu Teertha and Buddhist Vihars made the city sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists. During the 15th century, it became important to Muslims as well. Syed Janbaz Wali, who visited the valley with his companions in 1421, chose Baramulla as the center of his mission and was later buried there. His shrine attracts pilgrims from throughout the valley.
In 1620, the sixth Sikh Guru, Shri Hargobind, visited the city. In Baramulla Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and Sikhs lived in harmony and contributed to its culture.
Baramulla was the oldest and most-important town in northern Kashmir and Jammu and Kashmir Valley until 27 October 1947. It was ceded to India when the Maharajah signed the instrument of accession on 26 October 1947. The city is the headquarters of the Baramulla district.
October 1947 atrocities during the First Kashmir War
tribesmen from Pakistan launched a campaign to seize the state on 22 October 1947. They moved along the Rawalpindi-Murree-Muzaffarabad-Baramulla Road; Muzaffarabad fell on 24 October 1947, and Baramulla was captured the following day. Jammu and Kashmir State Forces of Maharaja Hari Singh led by Brig. Rajendra Singh fought back at Uri from 22–23 October but could not stop the advance.In Baramulla, the advance slowed. Some tribesmen stopped to rape and kill Christian Missionary Nuns and nurses at St Joseph's Hospital in a looting spree. Thousands of Hindus and Sikhs were killed and thousands of young women, girls and children were kidnapped and taken captive.
On the morning of 27 October, India airlifted troops from Delhi to the Srinagar airfield while the tribal forces were still at Baramulla. The population of Baramulla town had been decimated from 14,000 to just 1,000 by killing of men and kidnapping of girls and women; and the prosperous and thriving town had been reduced to smouldering ruins in just five days. The Indian army took control of Baramulla on 9 November 1947.
Reports
Aastair Lamb wrote in Incomplete Partition, Roxford 1997, pp. 186–187:The leaders completely lost control over their men, an orgy of killing was the result. This was certainly the case at St Joseph's College, Convent and Hospital, the site of what was to become one of the most publicised incidents of the entire Kashmir conflict. Here nuns, priests and congregation, including patients in the hospital, were slaughtered; and at the same time a small number of Europeans, notably Lt. Colonel D.O. Dykes and his wife, an Englishwoman preparing to leave the hospital that day with her new-born baby, Mother Teresalina, a twenty-nine-year-old Spanish nun who had been in Baramulla only a few weeks, as well as Mother Aldertrude, the Assistant Mother Superior, and one Mr Jose Barretto, husband of the doctor, met their deaths at tribal hands.
Charles Chenevix Trench wrote in The Frontier Scouts :
In October 1947... tribal lashkars hastened in lorries – undoubtedly with official logistic support – into Kashmir... at least one British Officer, Harvey-Kelly took part in the campaign. It seemed that nothing could stop these hordes of tribesmen taking Srinagar with its vital airfield. Indeed nothing did, but their own greed. The Mahsuds in particular stopped to loot, rape and murder; Indian troops were flown in and the lashkars pushed out of the Vale of Kashmir into the mountains. The Mahsuds returned home in a savage mood, having muffed an easy chance, lost the loot of Srinagar and made fools of themselves.Sam Manekshaw was a colonel in the Directorate of Military Operations who went to Srinagar with V. P. Menon to assess the situation on 26 October 1947. He later told in an interview:
Fortunately for Kashmir, the tribals were busy raiding, raping all along. In Baramulla they killed Colonel D.O.T. Dykes. Dykes and I were of the same seniority. We did our first year's attachment with the Royal Scots in Lahore, way back in 1934-5. Tom went to the Sikh regiment. I went to the Frontier Force regiment. We'd lost contact with each other. He'd become a lieutenant colonel. I'd become a full colonel. Tom and his wife were holidaying in Baramulla when the tribesmen killed them.
Tom Cooper of the Air Combat Information Group wrote, "The Pathans appeared foremost interested in looting, killing, ransacking and other crimes against the inhabitants instead of a serious military action."
According to Mohammad Akbar Khan in his War for Kashmir in 1947, "The uncouth raiders delayed in Baramulla for two days."
Biju Patnaik piloted the first plane to land at Srinagar airport that morning. He brought 17 soldiers from the 1st Sikh Regiment, commanded by Lt. Col. Dewan Ranjit Rai. The pilot flew low over the airstrip twice to ensure that no raiders were around. Instructions from Jawaharlal Nehru's office were clear: If the airport was taken over by the enemy, they were not to land. Taking a full circle, the DC-3 flew at ground level. Soldiers peered from the aircraft and found the airstrip empty. The raiders were too busy distributing the war booty among themselves in Baramulla.
Lt. Col. Dewan Ranjit Rai immediately moved with his small platoon towards Baramulla hoping to stop the tribal raiders at the mouth of the funnel which opens 5 km east of Baramulla into a wide valley. He led his men from the front and died of bullet wound the same day, 27 October 1947, at Patan but delayed the raiders for a day. Satrina village in Baramulla, Ichama and Atna village in Budgam were defended by the Indian troops. As more Indian troops flew into Srinagar the next day, they started pushing the raiders back. It took two weeks for the Indian army to evict the raiders from Baramulla on 9 November 1947.
Sheikh Abdullah spoke to the UN Security Council on 5 February 1948: "The raiders came to our land, massacred thousands of people – mostly Sikhs, but Hindus and Muslims, too – abducted thousands of girls, Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims alike, looted our property and almost reached the gates of our summer capital, Srinagar."
Robert Trumbull, The New York Times, 10 November 1947; reporting from Baramulla :
The raid of the convent is narrated in even gory details by Father Shanks, one of the fortunate survivors and the anonymous 'witnesses' in the following report.
Father Shank of the Convent :
Andrew Whitehead, who was BBC correspondent in India, reported on the October 1947 atrocities in Baramulla, particularly on the Christian mission convent and hospital, in his book A Mission in Kashmir.
Geography
Baramulla is on the Jhelum River, at its highest point. Baramulla tehsil is stretched from Village Khushalpora in the east to village Boniyar in the west. The old town is on the north bank of the river, and the new town is on the south bank. They are connected by five bridges, including a suspension bridge connecting Gulnar Park and Dewan Bagh. Five more bridges are being built or are planned. A bridge will connect the Khanpora and Drangbal areas of the city.The old town is densely populated and smaller than the new town. Government offices, hospitals, the bus station and most other facilities are in the new town. The Baramulla railway station is on the eastern end of the new town, on the river. Beyond the old town, the river divides into two channels at Khadanyar, forming an island known as Eco Park.
Baramulla is located at 34.2° N 74.34° E. It has an average elevation of 1,593 meters.