Under Dogra rule, people in the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir launched several political movements. Despite ideological differences and varying goals they aimed to improve the status of Muslims in a state ruled by a Hindu dynasty.
Background
The princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was created in 1846, through the Treaty of Amritsar, between the British Empire, who had taken the Kashmir Valley, Ladakh and Gilgit Baltistan from the earlier Sikh rule, and Gulab Singh, a Dogra from Jammu who subsequently initiated the Dogra dynasty which ruled Jammu and Kashmir as a princely state of British India for the next century. The state had been constituted between 1820 and 1858 and became one of the largest princely states in British India.
The princely state combined disparate regions which were ethnically, culturally and linguistically different to each other. In the south was the Jammu region with a population ethnically related to Punjabis and comprising a mix of Hindus, (Sunni) Muslims and Sikhs. In the center of the state was the Kashmir Valley, whose population was ethnically Kashmiri and overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim with a small Hindu Brahmin minority known as Pandits, while in the east was Ladakh whose population was ethnically and culturally Tibetan and practised Buddhism. In the northeast of the state was Baltistan where the people were ethnically related to Ladakhis but practised Shia Islam while in the Gilgit Agency the population was a mixture of diverse, mostly Shia groups.
The princely rule was an overwhelming Hindu state. Under the Hindu rule, Muslims were subject to heavy taxation, institutionalized discrimination and forced labor without wages. A Hindu elite ruled over a vast, impoverished and exploited Muslim peasantry who were deprived of organised political representation until the 1930s. A significant number of Muslims from Kashmir Valley migrated to the Punjab province of British India due to such conditions in the princely state.
Pre-1931 developments
Kashmir's native Hindu Pandits dominated the revenue department which collected taxes from Muslim cultivators. Due to their dominance in the revenue department, the Pandit community came to hold large landholdings. Despite being a small percentage of the Valley's population, the Pandit community possessed 30 percent of land in the Valley. Their authority increased under Maharajah Ranbir Singh, who introduced the chakdari system in 1862 under which there were very easy conditions to grant allotments of uncultivated land.
Shawl Bauf agitation
To protest against the Dogra authorities' hefty taxation, Kashmiri shawl weavers went on strike and gathered to protest outside the residence of Raj Kak Dhar, who was the Kashmiri Pandit official in charge of the Shawl Department who misinformed Colonel Bijoy Singh that he was being attacked while weavers were protesting without arms. When the unarmed protesters refused to accept the orders, the troops charged them with spears. Scores of protesters jumped off the Haji Rather Sum Bridge at Zaldgar, in the hope they would hide in the marsh underneath, but at least 28 bodies were recovered from the river, and over 100 sustained wounds. This incident was followed by the migration of 4000 weavers from the Valley to the Punjab.
Developments in the late 19th century
In 1877-1879 the Kashmir Valley witnessed a severe famine, with some authorities estimating the death toll as 60 percent of Kashmir Valley's population. The ban on leaving the state was lifted and many Kashmiris subsequently left the Valley and migrated to the Punjab. During the famine, Pandits claimed lands left by Muslim cultivators who had migrated to the Punjab as uncultivated land and took ownership under the chakdari system.
Apprehensive of developments in Afghanistan, the British colonial authorities in 1895 called on the Dogra state to attend to the Muslim population's needs. Colonial authorities had already been thinking in 1884 if the British government had delayed in intervening on behalf of the Muslims.
1931 agitation
Prior to 1931, Muslims in the state were divided into several groups, each with its own demands. In 1920, the silk factory workers struck work to call for a pay rise. Four years later, they launched an even bigger agitation due to poor working conditions. The Reading Room Party from Srinagar endeavored to gain improved education facilities and more administrative work opportunities for Muslims. In Jammu, the Muslim Young Men's League in Jammu involved itself in covert activities geared towards obtaining independence for the state.