Ghosts in the Girdawari

Kashmir’s age-old crop inspection system, once rooted in field visits and firsthand observation, is now mostly done from behind a desk. The consequences are reshaping land rights, livelihoods, and rural justice.

- Mohammad Amin Mir

For generations, farmers in Kashmir knew when girdawari season came around. A patwari would show up, usually with a notebook, sometimes with a helper, and walk the fields. They'd stop to ask questions, examine crops, check the irrigation source, and note who was cultivating what piece of land. It was routine, but also reassuring. It meant their work was seen, and their rights were recorded.

Today, that ritual has mostly disappeared.

Instead of walking the land, many patwaris now complete the girdawari — the official crop and land possession record — from their office desks. They rarely visit the fields. They often don't talk to the cultivators. They fill in the forms anyway.

This change may sound like a small bureaucratic tweak. But on the ground, it's turning into a crisis.

Why does this matter? Because gitdawari isn’t just paperwork. It’s the foundation for crop insurance, disaster relief, tenancy proof, and even court decisions. It defines who owns or occupies which piece of land, and what they're doing with it.

If those records are wrong, everything else built on them becomes shaky.