Kashmir by Sir Younghusband Francis Edward (libby ebook reader txt) 📖

in which the cocoons are immersed for reeling. It will also be used for turning some of the reeling machinery, and possibly also for electrocuting the grubs in the cocoons.

Papier-mâché is a favourite artistic product of Kashmir, and some very handsome candlesticks, bowls, and vases, well adapted for English country houses, may be purchased. The old designs are especially beautiful. But nowadays very little is made from real pulp of paper, and most of what is sold as papier-mâché is made of smooth wood.

The silver work is poor, as it lacks finish, and the modern designs are not especially beautiful. But the Kashmiri workmen used to be able to produce a peculiar sheen on the silver work which gave it a striking and unusual appearance.

Some handsome copper work is also produced in Srinagar, and some pretty enamel work.

But at present the fashion rather turns to wood-carving, which has certainly much improved since I first knew it. Very handsome screens, tables, panels, boxes, etc., are made, and the Kashmiri carpenter is getting to finish his work much better. Whether the work is worth the prices asked is, I think, doubtful. Better wood-carving can be had in Europe for the same price.

Turning from art industries to more practical manufactures the first to notice is basket-work. Most villages have their artisan who makes baskets for agricultural purposes, for carrying loads and for rough village work. Willow trees are plentiful and might be much more extensively grown; and Raja Sir Amar Singh has always been keenly interested in establishing a really important basket industry in Kashmir, and supplying the needs not merely of Kashmir villagers, but of India generally.

Puttoo cloth and blankets are well-known manufactures of Kashmir. Since the Swadeshi movement has extended in India, and the demand for goods made in India has increased, there has been a regular run on the rough woollen "puttoo" of Kashmir, and the price has gone up. Formerly a sportsman could get a good shikar suit for eight rupees. Now he has to pay ten or twelve. It is excellent wearing material, but is too loosely woven and liable to get out of shape. Proposals are on foot for establishing woollen factories in Kashmir, and with suitable machinery and proper supervision, good useful cloth should be made from the excellent wool with which the country abounds.

Cotton cloth is also manufactured in the villages, of a rough, homely description. But whether this manufacture will ever increase to a great extent is doubtful. A French gentleman who has lived for many years in Bokhara, and who visited Kashmir, told me that he considered that as cotton was grown so successfully in Bokhara and Russian Turkestan, it ought to grow equally well in Kashmir. This may be so, and the State is making experiments in cotton growing to find a variety suitable to the country. But so far the future of cotton manufacture cannot be considered so assured as that of silk and wool.

Finally, among the industries of Kashmir must be mentioned boat-building, which is indeed one of the most important in the country. The Kashmiri is an intelligent and clever carpenter, though in accordance with his character he lacks accuracy and finish. His boats are of all sizes, from the great grain barges, carrying cargoes of thirty tons, to State "parindas" or fliers propelled by forty or fifty rowers, and to light skiffs for a couple of paddlers. House-boats of quite elaborate design are also made. And if properly supervised and instructed, the Kashmiri should be capable of constructing any kind of craft.

There is little iron-work in Kashmir, for iron is not plentiful. But the Kashmiri has such natural skill that he can turn out quite good guns and rifles, and will make all the ordinary surgical instruments required in the hospital.

Trade

Of these products and manufactures considerable quantities are exported to India, and will help to make the proposed railway pay, while this railway on its part will help to increase the exports, for much that cannot be taken out of the country, now that everything has to be carried 196 miles by road, would be exported if railway carriage were available. Apples and pears to the extent of 90,000 maunds, or 3210 tons, are exported annually, besides from 10,000 to 20,000 maunds of other fruit. Rice and maize exports vary greatly according to the demand in the Punjab. The present year was one of scarcity in the adjoining British province, and, consequently, the export of grain was quite unusual—amounting to 100,000 maunds, or more than three thousand tons; but ordinarily it does not exceed more than about a thousand tons. The export of ghi or clarified butter amounts to 720 tons. Potatoes are an increasingly important export, and the demand for them is certain to rise. Last year 750 tons were exported. Hides and skins to the amount of some 350 tons are annually exported. Linseed was in special demand last year owing to the failure of crops in the Punjab, and in consequence 1740 tons, to the value of Rs. 2,61,000, were exported; but the usual amount is only about one-fifth of this. Silk to the value of Rs. 18,44,205 was exported last year, and this may be taken as the normal amount. And wool and woollen goods, to the value of about two lakhs of rupees, are also exported, besides a few miscellaneous articles, and some 4000 live animals, mostly sheep and goats. In addition, from ten to twelve lakhs of rupees worth of timber are floated down the river.

Altogether the exports from the Kashmir valley, including timber, during the last two years have amounted to—

8,83,141 maunds = 31,540 tons 9,77,305 maunds = 34,957 tons

and their value has been—

Rs. 55,18,508 = £367,900 Rs. 49,64,800 = £330,986

Of this amount, deducting the timber which was floated down the river, there was exported by road—

1,78,355 maunds = 6,370 tons 3,28,027 maunds = 11,715 tons

Cotton piece-goods are the chief imports into Kashmir. Twenty-five to thirty thousand maunds of piece-goods (895 to 1070 tons) are imported annually, to the value of fifteen to nineteen lakhs of rupees (£100,000 to £126,000). Some are the coarse, but rough and well-wearing products of the Punjab peasants, but most are the products of Manchester, and are worn by the Srinagar and other townspeople.

Salt is the next most important import, and now that the Government of India has decreased the duty on it, the quantity imported into Kashmir is likely to steadily increase. In the last three years the amounts imported have been 112,710, 119,803, and 201,451 maunds respectively (4025, 4280, 7194 tons), with a value of Rs. 2,81,680, Rs. 4,83,698, and Rs. 5,01,485, or £18,778, £32,246, and £33,432. It is sadly needed by the poorer classes, both for themselves and for their animals, and as yet not half enough for their real requirements comes into the country. What is imported comes from the salt districts of the Punjab.

Tea is now being largely imported, which shows that the people are acquiring a larger purchasing power. One and a quarter million pounds of tea, with a value of seven and a half lakhs of rupees, or £50,000, are now imported annually.

Sugar is being imported in increasing quantities, the amounts for the last three years being 57,931, 62,907, and 75,817 maunds respectively, or 2070, 2246, 2709 tons, with a value of Rs. 4,58,183, Rs. 4,24,495, and Rs. 4,95,895, or £30,545, £28,305, £33,059. The Kashmiris are very fond of sugar, and as their condition improves the demand for sugar and the amount of imports is sure to increase.

Metals are another import of increasing value and importance. 20,000 maunds are annually imported, with a value of three lakhs of rupees, or £20,000. At present the Kashmiris use earthenware cooking pots, but when in time they take to metal the import of copper must increase.

Other imports of minor importance are wearing apparel, twist and yarns (of a value of nearly three lakhs, or £20,000), drugs and medicines (half a lakh of rupees), turmeric, gunny bags, leather, liquors, petroleum, provisions, seeds (half a lakh), manufactured silk, spices (three-quarters of a lakh), stationery, tobacco (three lakhs), and raw wool.

The total weight of imports during the last three years respectively has been—

3,35,889 maunds = 11,996 tons 3,99,892 maunds = 14,281 tons 4,53,202 maunds = 16,185 tons

and their value has been—

Rs. 53,88,315 = £359,221 Rs. 57,99,785 = £386,652 Rs. 66,08,422 = £440,561 CHAPTER XII

THE ELECTRICAL SCHEME

In such a country as Kashmir, with a great river flowing through it, and with numerous mountain torrents and subsidiary streams running into that river, there is obviously an immense amount of water-power at hand. The difficulty is to make it available for practical purposes. But this difficulty is now being overcome by converting the water-power into electric power, which can then be transmitted to considerable distances and applied in a variety of ways. The idea of thus converting this vast amount of water-power in Kashmir into electric power had of recent years, since the development of electrical appliances, naturally occurred to many; but it did not take definite shape till the Maharaja engaged the services of Major Alain de Lotbinière, R.E., to carry out a scheme of harnessing the waters of the Jhelum River which that officer had formulated, and which has just been completed.

Major de Lotbinière, a Canadian by birth, and endowed with a full measure of the energy, resource and hopefulness of his countrymen, had already executed a very successful scheme by which the water-power in the Cauvery Falls in Madras had been converted into electric energy, and transmitted to a distance of a hundred miles, to supply the Kolar gold-fields in Mysore with motive power, at a cost 50 per cent lower than that which they were paying for steam-power. He had also inspected many electrical projects on the Continent and in Canada and America. He therefore came to the work in Kashmir in September 1904 fully primed with the knowledge of all the latest developments of electrical science, and at once conceived the idea of harnessing, not any of the minor rivers of Kashmir, but the river Jhelum itself, and selected a spot a few miles above Rampur where he might entrap some of the water, lead it along the mountain-side at practically a uniform level, till he could drop it through pipes on to turbines—very much in the same manner as a mill-stream is led along and then dropped on to a water-wheel—and so by setting in motion various machines generate electrical energy.

The theory of the electric installation is then very simple. The valley falls rapidly. At the part selected it falls about 400 feet in 6½ miles. Some of the water is taken out and kept at about the same level so that at the end of the 6½ miles it has a fall of 401 feet. Consequently when it is dropped those 400 feet it falls with immense force and velocity. By most ingenious machinery this force is turned into electrical energy, and then transmitted by wires to wherever wanted—it is hoped even to the plains of the Punjab, to Rawal Pindi at least.

Meanwhile the water, after fulfilling its mission, returns into the river, and might, if need be, be taken out again, led along the mountain-side, and a few miles lower down dropped once more on to another electrical installation, and generate still more electrical energy. The same lot of water might, in fact, go on performing the same duty time after time till the plains of India were reached. Then when it got on to the level, and there was no further fall, it would be impossible to utilise it for generating electrical energy. But it would promptly be seized for another equally important purpose. For it would be caught in the great