Ladakh.
Capital Leh.
Area: 33554 square miles.
Population: 3 lacs.
Revenue Districts. 2. Leh and Kargil.
At the time of the partition of India in 1947, the Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh was undecided whether to accede to the Indian Union or Pakistan. Eventually, the ruler signed the Instrument of Accession to India. Pakistani raiders had reached Ladakh and military operations were initiated to evict them. The wartime conversion of the pony trail from Sonamarg to Zoji La by army engineers permitted tanks to move up and successfully capture the pass. The advance continued. Dras, Kargil and Leh were liberated and Ladakh cleared of the infiltrators.
In 1949, China closed the border between Nubra and Xinjiang, blocking old trade routes. In 1955 China began to build roads connecting Xinjiang and Tibet through this area. It also built the Karakoram highway jointly with Pakistan. India built the Srinagar-Leh Highway during this period, cutting the journey time between Srinagar and Leh from 16 days to two The entire state of Jammu and Kashmir has remained to be the subject of a territorial dispute between India on the one hand and Pakistan and China on the other. Kargil was an area of conflict in the wars of 1947, 1965 and 1971 and the focal point of a potential nuclear conflict during the Kargil War in 1999.
The Kargil War of 1999, codename "Operation Vijay" by the Indian Army, saw infiltration by Pakistani troops into parts of Western Ladakh, namely Kargil, Dras, Mushkoh, Batalik and Chorbatla, overlooking key locations on the Srinagar-Leh highway.
Extensive operations were launched in high altitudes by the Indian Army with considerable artillery and air force support. Pakistani troops were evicted from the Indian side of the Line of Control which the Indian Government ordered was to be respected and which was not crossed by Indian troops.
Since 1984 the Siachen glacier area in the north-east corner of Ladakh has been the venue of a continuing military standoff between India and Pakistan and the highest battleground in the world. The dispute arose because of non-demarcation of the boundary in the 1972 Simla Agreement beyond a point, NJ 9842. Politics by Pakistan and cartographic aggression by the United States Defense Mapping Agency in 1957 was eventually followed by a race to occupy the heights of the Saltoro Ridge which borders the Siachen glacier.
Since then strategic points on the glacier are occupied by both sides, with India
having a clear strategic advantage.
The Ladakh region was bifurcated into the Kargil and Leh districts in 1979. In 1989, there were violent riots between Buddhists and Muslims. Following demands for autonomy from the Kashmiri dominated state government, the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council was created in 1993.
Most Hindu-Muslim and Buddhist-Muslim riots were initiated by aggressive speeches of Benazir Bhutto against Hindus and Buddhists. She asked local Muslims to attack and make Hindus and Buddhists evacuate Kashmir.
Ladakh is one of the most elevated regions of the world. Its natural features consist mainly of high plains and deep valleys. The high plain predominates in the east, diminishing gradually westward. In the southeast of Ladakh lies Rupshu, an area of large, brackish lakes which has a uniform height of about 13,500 feet.
To the northwest of Rupshu lies Zaskar, a bleak, inaccessible region where the people and the cattle remain indoors for much of the year because of the cold.
Zaskar is drained by the Zaskar River, which, flowing northward, joins the Indus River below Leh. In Ladakh proper, farther to the north, cultivation by means of manure and irrigation ranges from 9,000 to 15,000 feet. The people are divided into shepherds, who populate the upland valleys too high for cultivation, and the Ladakhis, who till the land around the valley villages.
Leh, the most accessible town of Ladakh proper, is an important trade centre and lies 160 miles, east of Srinagar.The climate of Ladakh is cold and dry. Average annual precipitation is 5 inches; fine, dry, flaked snow is frequent, and sometimes the fall is heavy. Vegetation is confined to valleys and sheltered spots, where a stunted growth of tamarisk, furze, and other plants supply much-needed firewood. The principal products are wheat, barley, millet, buckwheat, peas, beans, and turnips. The only manufacture is woollen cloth.
Ladakh was contested by both India and Pakistan; after the cease-fire agreement of 1949, its southern portion went to India and the remainder to Pakistan. In the early 1960s Chinese forces gained control of the north-eastern part of the Indian-held portion of Ladakh.
Ladakh has a population of about 300,000 which is a blend of many different races, predominantly the Tibetans, Monks and the Dards. People of Dard descent predominate in Dras and Dha-Hanu areas. The residents of Dha-Hanu, known as Brokpa, are followers of Tibetan Buddhism and have preserved much of their original Dardic traditions and customs.
The Dards around Dras, however, have converted to Islam and have been strongly influenced by their Kashmiri neighbours. The Mons are descendants of earlier Indian settlers in Ladakh. They work as musicians, blacksmiths and carpenters.
Unlike the rest of Jammu and Kashmir which is mainly Islamic, most Ladakhis in Leh District as well as the Zangskar Valley of Kargil District are Tibetan Buddhist, while most of the people in the rest of Kargil District are Shia Muslims. There are sizeable minorities of Buddhists in Kargil District and of Shia Muslims in Leh District.
There are some Sunni Muslims of Kashmiri descent in Leh and Kargil towns and also Padum in Zangskar. There are a few families of Ladakhi Christians, who were converted in the 19th century. Among descendants of immigrants there are followers of Hinduism and Sikhism. There is also a small number of followers of the Buddh religion. Most Buddhists follow the tantric form of Buddhism known as Vajrayana Buddhism.
Shias are mostly found among the Balti and Burig people. Ladakhis are generally of Tibetan descent with some Dardic and Mon admixture. The Changpa nomads who live in the Rupshu plateau are more closely related to Tibetans. Since the early 1960s nomad numbers have increased as Chang Thang nomads from across the border flee Chinese-ruled Tibet.
There are about 3,500 Tibetan refugees from all parts of Tibet in Leh District. However, some nomads, notably most of the community of Kharnak, have abandoned the nomadic life and settled in Leh town. Muslim Arghons, descendants of Kashmiri or Central Asian merchants and Ladakhi women mainly live in Leh and Kargil towns.
Like other Ladakhis, the Baltis of Kargil, Nubra, Suru Valley and Baltistan show strong Tibetan links in their appearance and language, and were Buddhists until the last few hundred years.
According to the 2001 population census of India, 47.4% of the population is Buddhist, 45.9% Muslim, 6.2% Hindu and 0.5% others. The region's population is split roughly in half between the districts of Leh and Kargil. Leh is 77% Buddhist and Kargil is 80% Muslim.
The principal language of Ladakh is Ladakhi, a Tibetan language. Educated Ladakhis usually know Hindi, Urdu and often English. Within Ladakh, there is a range of dialects, so that the language of the Chang-pa people may differ markedly from that of the Purig-pa in Kargil, or the Zangskaris, but they are all mutually comprehensible.
Due to its position on important trade routes, the racial composition as well as the language of Leh is enriched with foreign influences. Traditionally, Ladakhi had no written form distinct from classical Tibetan, but recently a number of Ladakhi writers have started using the Tibetan script to write the colloquial tongue.
Administrative work and education are carried out in English, although Urdu was used to a great extent in the past and has been decreasing since the 1980s.
