KASHMIR'S BOTRAJAS

On the slopes of the Srinagar fort is a cluster of homes that represent the little Hunza in Kashmir. Its emergence is women in the region’s tumultuous history, reports Ibtisam Fayaz Khan

- Ibtisam Fayaz Khan

Mohalla Raja Azur Khan is located on an elevated plain near Kathi Dar waza. It is overlooked by the Hari Parbat fort where the Raja, the erstwhile crown prince of the then Gilgit Agency was imprisoned for six years somewhere in the late nineteenth century. This Mohalla largely comprises of Burusho people, locally known as Botraj (all Mongoloid faced people in Kashmir are called Bota and Raja means king). They are originally from Hunza, Nagar, and Yasin, major belts forming the Gilgit Baltistan (GB), which Pakistan is ruling independent of Pakistan administered Kashmir (PaK) region.

Despite being a very small population, this Shia Muslim cluster has managed to preserve part of its language and culture. However, over the decades they are as fluent in Kashmiri as they are in their own language, the Burushaski. Generational isolation from their place of origin has compromised the orthodoxy of their language but the advent of the internet is helping them to make quick corrections.

A WAR

In 1891, British India and their client Dogra regime in Kashmir decided to annex the Hunza, Nagar belt. This was part of the Great Games that dominated Kashmir for more than 200 years. The key factor that led to the plan was a belief that the Russians would invade or the Chinese influence will increase thus disturbing British India. They aimed at improving the buffer state, the state of Jammu and Kashmir by the entire Northern Areas to the Dogra state.

It led to the Anglo-Brusho War, preserved in the local folklore as Jangir-e-Lae because it marked the end of the region’s sovereignty