Kashmir’s Forgotten Liberator

And why his victory cost him everything.

- Younus Yousuf Ganie

On the right bank of the Jhe-lum, between the Nawakadal and Safakadal bridges, lies the Dhar colony, a neighbourhood that once carried the weight of power in Srinagar.

The Jhelum curves past the houses there, its waters heavy with centuries of memory. Traders once drifted down the river in boats, carrying shawls and saffron. The courtyards echoed with Persian verse, and the air was heavy with politics.

For the Dhar family, it was home.

The Dhars had come to Kashmir from Central India long before Birbal Dhar was born. They brought with them Persian learning, discipline in administration, and the art of survival.

Over generations, they rose steadily: Pandit Mahanand Dhar, who served as prime minister under Raja Sukh Jewan Mal in the mid-eighteenth century, and Pandit Kailash Dhar, who became chief tax collector under Afghan rule.

By the early nineteenth century, the Dhars had accumulated wealth and prestige.

nors but also their familiarity with power.

Yet he carried something more: a restlessness, a refusal to look away from the anguish of the people around him.

To understand Dhar's story, one must first see the Kashmir he lived in.

Under Afghan governors like Azim Khan and Jabbar Khan, the valley endured heavy taxation and cruelty. Fields lay barren, peasants fled villages, and artisans who once embroidered shawls of unmatched beauty found their work devalued by constant levies. The Jhelum itself seemed to flow with the grief of its people.

Tax collectors worked with ruthless precision. Pandits suffered dispossession, Muslims faced humiliation, and ordinary families lived in fear of both soldiers and famine.

The misery was the shared burden of a valley squeezed dry. For those who lived through it, the Afghan rule was less an administration than an ordeal.