AGRARIAN EXPLOITATION AND INDUSTRIAL STAGNATION IN KASHMIR UNDER EARLY DOGRA RULE (1846–1885)

Abstract

The transfer of Kashmir to Maharaja Gulab Singh under the Treaty of Amritsar (1846) inaugurated an era of profound economic dislocation for the region's population. This paper examines the agrarian and industrial conditions of Kashmir during the early Dogra period (1846–1885), focusing on the structural mechanisms through which the ruling state systematically extracted resources from the predominantly Muslim peasantry and artisan class. Drawing on primary archival sources from the National Archives of India as well as contemporary travel accounts and administrative records, the study analyses the feudalisation of state machinery, exploitative land revenue systems, the oppressive begar (forced labour) institution, and the deliberate suppression of industrial enterprise. The paper further examines the catastrophic impact of the famines of 1864 and 1877–79, which exposed the structural vulnerabilities of an economy governed without regard for productive investment or social welfare. The findings demonstrate that the early Dogra administration prioritised fiscal extraction over economic development, resulting in the long-term impoverishment of Kashmir's agrarian and artisanal communities. These historical processes have left enduring socio-economic scars on the region.