The Kashmir division is a revenue and administrative division of the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.[1] It comprises the Kashmir Valley, bordering the Jammu Division to the south and Ladakh to the east. The Line of Control forms its boundary with the Pakistani-administered territories of Gilgit−Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir to the north and west and west, respectively.
Quick Facts Administering country, Union territory ...
Kashmir division |
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 Interactive map of Kashmir division |
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| Coordinates: 34°14′N 74°40′E |
| Administering country | India |
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| Union territory | Jammu and Kashmir |
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| Districts | Anantnag, Baramulla, Budgam, Bandipore, Ganderbal, Kupwara, Kulgam, Pulwama, Shopian and Srinagar. |
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| Capital | Srinagar |
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| Historical divisions |
- Kamraz (North Kashmir)[2]
- Yamraz (Central Kashmir)[2]
- Maraz (South Kashmir)[2]
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| • Type | Division |
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| • Divisional Commissioner | Vijay Kumar Bidhuri |
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| • Total | 15,948 km2 (6,158 sq mi) |
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| • Length | 135[3] km (83.885 mi) |
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| • Width | 32[3] km (19.884 mi) |
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| Elevation | 1,620[3] m (5,314 ft) |
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| • Total | 6,888,475[4] |
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| • Density | 431.93/km2 (1,118.7/sq mi) |
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| Demonym(s) | Kashmiris, Koshur |
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| • Languages | Kashmiri, Urdu, Hindi,[5] English,[6] Pahari-Pothwari, Gojri, Shina[7] |
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| • Ethnic groups | Kashmiri, Pahari, Gujar, Shina |
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| • Religion (2011[8]) | 96.41% Islam,
2.45% Hinduism,
0.81% Sikhism,
0.17% Christianity,
0.16% Others |
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| Time zone | UTC+5:30 (IST) |
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| Vehicle registration | JK |
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| Highest peak | Machoi Peak (5458 metres) |
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| Largest lake | Wular lake(260 km2 (100 sq mi))[9] |
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| Longest river | Jhelum river(725 kilometres)[10] |
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| Website | http://kashmirdivision.nic.in/ |
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Its main city is Srinagar. Other important cities include Anantnag, Baramulla, Sopore and Kulgam.
The Indian administrative districts for the Kashmir Valley were reorganised in 1968,[11] and 2006,[12] each time subdividing existing districts. Kashmir Division currently consists of the following ten districts:
More information Name of district, HQ ...
Name of
district |
HQ |
Area |
Population[13] |
Total
(km2) |
Total
(sq mile) |
Rural
(km2) |
Urban
(km2) |
|
2001
census |
2011
census |
| Anantnag | Anantnag |
3,574 | 1,380 |
3,475.8 |
98.2 |
[14] |
778,408 |
1,078,692 |
| Kulgam | Kulgam |
410 | 158 |
360.2 |
49.8 |
[15] |
394,026 |
424,483 |
| Pulwama | Pulwama |
1,086 | 419 |
1,047.5 |
38.6 |
[16] |
441,275 |
560,440 |
| Shopian | Shopian |
312 | 120 |
306.6 |
5.4 |
[17] |
211,332 |
266,215 |
| Budgam |
Budgam |
1,361 | 525 |
1,312.0 |
49.1 |
[18] |
607,181 |
753,745 |
| Srinagar | Srinagar |
1,979 | 764 |
1,684.4 |
294.5 |
[19] |
1,027,670 |
1,236,829 |
| Ganderbal | Ganderbal |
259 | 100 |
233.6 |
25.4 |
[20] |
217,907 |
297,446 |
| Bandipore | Bandipore |
345 | 133 |
295.4 |
49.6 |
[21] |
304,886 |
392,232 |
| Baramulla | Baramulla |
4,243 | 1,638 |
4,179.4 |
63.6 |
[22] |
843,892 |
1,008,039 |
| Kupwara | Kupwara |
2,379 | 919 |
2,331.7 |
47.3 |
[23] |
650,393 |
870,354 |
| Total | |
15,948 | 6,158 |
15,226.4 |
721.5 |
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5,476,970 |
6,888,475 |
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Religion
Religions in Kashmir Division (2011)[24]
Others (0.05%)
Not Stated (0.08%)
The Kashmir division is largely Muslim (97.06%) with a very small Hindu (2.11%) and Sikh (0.58%) population.[24] Among Muslims, about are Shias and Sunnis sects.Majority of the population is made up of ethnic Kashmiris, with a significant minority of Pahari-Pothwari and Gujjar-Bakarwal people mainly living near the border area adjoining Pakistani administrated Kashmir. However, originally there was originally a very large Kashmiri Hindu population in the valley prior to being ethnically cleansed in the 1990s. It is estimated that there were over 300,000 Kashmiri Pandits who were forced to flee due to intense persecution by Kashmiri Muslim separatists, who saw them as kafirs or infidels. [25]
Language
Kashmir division: mother-tongue of population, according to the 2011 Census.[26]
Others (3.01%)
The majority of the population speaks Kashmiri (85.28%), while the remainder speaks either Gujari, Pahari-Pothwari or Hindi.[13]
Urdu is also widely understood as a literary language in Kashmir due to it being a medium of instruction in schools.[11][13]
The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the tertiary sources (a) through (d), reflecting due weight in the coverage. Although "controlled" and "held" are also applied neutrally to the names of the disputants or to the regions administered by them, as evidenced in sources (f) through (h) below, "held" is also considered politicized usage, as is the term "occupied," (see (i) below).
(a) Kashmir, region Indian subcontinent, Encyclopaedia Britannica, retrieved 15 August 2019 (subscription required) Quote: "Kashmir, region of the northwestern Indian subcontinent ... has been the subject of dispute between India and Pakistan since the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. The northern and western portions are administered by Pakistan and comprise three areas: Azad Kashmir, Gilgit, and Baltistan, the last two being part of a territory called the Northern Areas. Administered by India are the southern and southeastern portions, which constitute the state of Jammu and Kashmir but are slated to be split into two union territories.";
(b) Pletcher, Kenneth, Aksai Chin, Plateau Region, Asia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, retrieved 16 August 2019 (subscription required) Quote: "Aksai Chin, Chinese (Pinyin) Aksayqin, portion of the Kashmir region, at the northernmost extent of the Indian subcontinent in south-central Asia. It constitutes nearly all the territory of the Chinese-administered sector of Kashmir that is claimed by India to be part of the Ladakh area of Jammu and Kashmir state.";
(c) "Kashmir", Encyclopedia Americana, Scholastic Library Publishing, 2006, p. 328, ISBN 978-0-7172-0139-6 C. E Bosworth, University of Manchester Quote: "KASHMIR, kash'mer, the northernmost region of the Indian subcontinent, administered partlv by India, partly by Pakistan, and partly by China. The region has been the subject of a bitter dispute between India and Pakistan since they became independent in 1947";
(d) Osmańczyk, Edmund Jan (2003), Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements: G to M, Taylor & Francis, pp. 1191–, ISBN 978-0-415-93922-5 Quote: "Jammu and Kashmir: Territory in northwestern India, subject to a dispute betw een India and Pakistan. It has borders with Pakistan and China."
(e) Talbot, Ian (2016), A History of Modern South Asia: Politics, States, Diasporas, Yale University Press, pp. 28–29, ISBN 978-0-300-19694-8 Quote: "We move from a disputed international border to a dotted line on the map that represents a military border not recognized in international law. The line of control separates the Indian and Pakistani administered areas of the former Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir.";
(f) Kashmir, region Indian subcontinent, Encyclopaedia Britannica, retrieved 15 August 2019 (subscription required) Quote: "... China became active in the eastern area of Kashmir in the 1950s and has controlled the northeastern part of Ladakh (the easternmost portion of the region) since 1962.";
(g) Bose, Sumantra (2009), Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace, Harvard University Press, pp. 294, 291, 293, ISBN 978-0-674-02855-5 Quote: "J&K: Jammu and Kashmir. The former princely state that is the subject of the Kashmir dispute. Besides IJK (Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir. The larger and more populous part of the former princely state. It has a population of slightly over 10 million, and comprises three regions: Kashmir Valley, Jammu, and Ladakh.) and AJK ('Azad" (Free) Jammu and Kashmir. The more populous part of Pakistani-controlled J&K, with a population of approximately 2.5 million. AJK has six districts: Muzaffarabad, Mirpur, Bagh, Kodi, Rawalakot, and Poonch. Its capital is the town of Muzaffarabad. AJK has its own institutions, but its political life is heavily controlled by Pakistani authorities, especially the military), it includes the sparsely populated "Northern Areas" of Gilgit and Baltistan, remote mountainous regions which are directly administered, unlike AJK, by the Pakistani central authorities, and some high-altitude uninhabitable tracts under Chinese control."
(h) Fisher, Michael H. (2018), An Environmental History of India: From Earliest Times to the Twenty-First Century, Cambridge University Press, p. 166, ISBN 978-1-107-11162-2 Quote: "Kashmir’s identity remains hotly disputed with a UN-supervised “Line of Control” still separating Pakistani-held Azad (“Free”) Kashmir from Indian-held Kashmir.";
(i) Snedden, Christopher (2015), Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris, Oxford University Press, p. 10, ISBN 978-1-84904-621-3 Quote:"Some politicised terms also are used to describe parts of J&K. These terms include the words 'occupied' and 'held'."
"Demography of Jammu and Kashmir State". J&K; Envis Centre, Department of Ecology Environment and Remote Sensing J&K. Archived from the original on 22 February 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
This used the Digest of Statistics, 2011-12 for its data source. District Census Handbook Srinagar, Part A (PDF). Census of India 2011 (Report). July 2016. pp. 11, 48. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
Part A page 48 says the district area was 2228.0 km2 in 2001 and 1978.95 km2 in 2011. District Census Handbook Ganderbal, Part B (PDF). Census of India 2011 (Report). July 2016. pp. 11, 12 and 22. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
Part B page 11 says the district area is 393.04 km2, but pages 12 and 22 say 259.00 km2.
