Homeland or Religion? Personal Identity Building in Zangskar, Indian Himalayas 9789004544703, 9789004548244

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Homeland or Religion? Personal Identity Building in Zanskar, Indian Himalayas

Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library Edited by Henk Blezer (Leiden University) Alex McKay (University of London) Charles Ramble (École pratique des hautes études (ephe, Sorbonne), Paris)

volume 55

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/btsl

Homeland or Religion? Personal Identity Building in Zanskar, Indian Himalayas By

Salomé Deboos

LEIDEN | BOSTON

Cover illustration: Overview of Padum taken from the roof-top of Karsha Gompa. Photo by author. The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at https://catalog.loc.gov

Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. isSn 1568-6183 isbn 978-90-04-54470-3 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-54824-4 (e-book) Copyright 2023 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Hotei, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink, Brill mentis, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Böhlau, V&R unipress and Wageningen Academic. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Requests for re-use and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV via brill.com or copyright.com. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.

To my daughters, that they might find their own place in the world like flowers in an English garden …

∵



Blue Poppy, Pensi La Pass, July 2015

Contents Foreword xi Acknowledgments xii List of Figures, Tables and Maps xiii 1

Introduction 1 1 Genesis of the Book 1 2 Presentation of Zanskar 4 2.1 Geography and Administration 4 2.2 The Village of Padum in Zanskar 6 2.3 Social Organisation in Zanskar 7 2.4 Traditional Political Organisation 15 3 Overview of the Book 21

2

Sharing More than a Territory: Building Its Own History through Common Language 24 1 The Illusion of Isolation of Zanskar Valley 24 1.1 An Isolated but Not Closed Valley 25 1.1.1 Trade Routes 25 1.2 A Community Identity Transcending History 28 1.2.1 Scattered Historical Facts 28 1.2.2 A Shared Tradition as the Foundation of a Particular Local Political Organisation 32 2 Being a Community by Language 35 2.1 Matrimonial Regulation and Local Endogamy 37 2.2 The Particular Case of Marriage between Muslims and Buddhists 39 2.3 The Use of Kinship Terminology 40 2.4 Recent Changes 43 2.4.1 Schooling in Urdu, Hindi and English 44 2.4.2 The Civil Service in Urdu Language 45 2.4.3 The Transformation of Parenthood Terminology and Social Change 47

viii

Contents

3

Building Community Identity through the Exchange of Goods 51 1 Money in Zanskar: From Production to Circulation 52 1.1 The Production and Management of Vegetable and Livestock Currency Is a Woman’s Affair 53 1.1.1 The Production of ‘(S)nganphe (tsampa)’ 53 1.1.2 The Production of Butter 55 2 Currency Circulation and Social and Territorial Reconfiguration 59 2.1 A Look into Past Exchange: Type and Place 59 2.2 Exchanges in Zanskar Today: Tourism and the Normalisation of Goods 61 3 An Identity in Motion: The Impact of the Monetary Economy and Globalisation on Politics and Religion 67 3.1 A Valley Standing at the Crossing of Migratory and Tourist Traffic 67 3.1.1 Seasonal Movements in Zanskar 69 3.1.2 The Rise of Trade in Zanskar since 1980 71 3.2 Political Considerations in the Opening of Zanskar 78

4

Religious Faith and Practice Facing a Changing World 82 1 Targeting with Religious Feeling 82 1.1 Relationships between Buddhists and Muslims in Padum 85 1.2 Social, Political and Demographic Changes and the Rise of Religious Fundamentalisms 88 2 The Impact of Women on the Development of Religious Identity 92 2.1 Analysing the Discourse 95 2.2 The Impact of Seasonal Student-Migration on Community and Perspectives 97 2.3 Being a Woman First or a Good Wife/ Daughter under Religious Consideration 102

5

Reimagining a New Community Identity Process in Zanskar 107 1 The Useful Expertise of Social and Cultural Anthropology in Modern Conflict Comprehension 107 2 Back to Zanskar: When Religious Leaders Build a New Political History 112 2.1 A Narrative Remodeled by Religious Leaders 112 2.1.1 A Look Back over the Past Reconstructed with Historical Facts and Testimony 112

ix

CONTENTS

2.1.2

3

A Ritual That Has Been Reinvented to Recreate a New Narrative 113 2.1.2.1 The Breaking Point 114 2.2 The Importance of the Shared but Denied Spoken Word 114 2.3 The Return of the Open Exchange of the Spoken Word 115 2.4 Rewriting of Local History Thanks to New Ritual 119 Epilogue: Reflections on the Progress of Individualism 120

Bibliography 127 Index of Authors 133 Index of Local Terms 134

Foreword In my previous book Être Musulman au Zanskar (2010), I presented a monograph of the Muslim community in the Zanskar Valley. Thanks to extensive field research carried out subsequently, I have come to understand more deeply the way both religious groups, Buddhists and Muslims, build their personal identities. This book is therefore the result of almost twenty years of research in a valley that was remote in 2000 and is today linked to the world thanks to the internet and cell phones. All figures and pictures are mine, and I would therefore like to thank the people who allowed me to take them and use them for research purposes or with a view to publication.

Acknowledgements I would like to thank first of all Charles Ramble, for his patience, editorial guidance and suggestions. Also, without the welcome of the Zanskarpa and especially Zubida, Iq-bal, Meme Abdul Aziz, Fatima, Shamas, and Bashir as well as Sonam, Jigmet, Dorjey, Tashi, among others, I would not have been able to spend so much time in Zanskar Valley. Thanks are also due to my grandmothers, who introduced me to what it means to be and live as a upstanding woman, assuming her own life choices; to Pierre Bonte who welcomed me to Social and Cultural Anthropology, and Jean-Claude Galey who supervised my PhD first and since then has become a precious friend.

Figures, Tables and Maps Figures 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Padum, August 2012 6 Overview of Padum from the top of old Padum. July 2017 7 Stratification of Zanskari Buddhist and Muslim society 9 “Scheduled tribe” certificate of a Muslim from Padum. 2007 15 Zanskar valley from Penzi La pass. July 2017 26 Stone carvings of Stupas and Buddhas in Padum – July 2009 30 King of Padum, Puntsok L’Dawa. 2004 33 Main bazar in Padum, 2017 36 Meme Abdul Aziz and his wife Abi Fatima Bemo, a Muslim–Buddhist marriage, 2005 38 10 Mother and children from Padum. July 2015 41 11 Kinship terminology (G+1, G+2 and G+3) in Zanskar with phonetic transcription as pronounced in Zanskar 41 12 Padumpa child doing homework – Padum. August 2005 44 13 Secretary working in Urdu language in tehsildar office, 2011 46 14 Main bazar, Padum. July 2017 52 15 Woman carrying barley, August 2009 54 16 Working the fields in Karsha, July 2011 55 17 Woman making roasted barley, September 2011 56 18 Woman sifts the roasted barley, September 2011 56 19 Water mill, July 2007 57 20 Churning butter, July 2017 58 21 Butter churn, July 2015 58 22 (1–2) Lumps of fresh butter, July 2015 59 23 Circulation of agricultural currency and cash 61 24 Circulation of currencies since 1980 65 25 Police check-point in Abran-Zanskar. July 2015 68 26 Seasonal workers – main bazar, Padum. August 2009 70 27 Tourism in Zanskar between 1990 and 2019 72 28 Foreign and Indian tourists in Zanskar between 2013 and 2019 72 29 Tourist taking a selfie with young Buddhist boys. Karsha festival. July 2017 73 30 (1–2) New D Yak guest house – rooms with en-suite bathrooms. Padum. July 2015 74 31 Drawing of the first floor of Meme Abdul Aziz’s house in 2004 74

xiv

Figures, Tables and Maps

32 Drawing of the entresol of Meme Abdul Aziz’s house in 2004 75 33 Drawing of the first floor of D-Yak guesthouse in 2019 75 34 Drawing of the entresol of D-Yak guesthouse, 2019 76 35 Buddhist shop – main bazar, Padum. July 2017 80 36 Vegetable shop – main bazar, Padum. July 2017 81 37 A pir from Baltistan in the house of Iqbal and Zoubida, July 2009 83 38 Mosque in Padum, built in the 1990s. July 2015 85 39 Casual visit of Buddhist women to a Muslim household, Padum, July 2009 87 40 Making business – selling Muslim prayer carpet – in front of the Buddhist prayer-mill, August 2015 89 41 Young girls ready to celebrate Aïd Al Kebir 93 42 Iqbal and Zoubida with their three daughters and their daughter-in-law (left, in a black veil), July 2015 93 43 Buddhist women at the Karsha’s Gompa festival, July 2017 96 44 Young woman going along field path, Padum, July 2017 102 45 Girls attending Karsha monastery festival. July 2017 103 46 Girls in the main bazar. Padum. July 2017 104 47 Padum. July 2015 106 48 My daughter playing with Kapla in a Kargil tea shop with Kargili boy, Tibetan teacher, and Kashmiri girl, 2017 107 49 The Imam of Padum and Buddhist monks from the monastery in Padum conversing in Padum’s main street, August 2009 113 50 Canadian and American medical team, 16.07.2017 117 51 (1–2) New Men-Tsee-Khang of Padum, inaugural day, speech by the Councillor of Kargil, 16 July 2017 117 52 Visit of the Dalai Lama to the modern public school, Padum, 18 July 2017 118 53 Monk at the Karsha monastery festival in July 2017, Zanskar 121 54 Transmission from the elders to the younger generation, from Zanskarpa to foreigners, Padum, August 2009 126

Tables 1 2 3

Official census from the statistical handbook district Kargil 2019–20 8 Male–female population in Zanskar, July 2003 8 Statistical handbook of Kargil, giving the religious census for the whole district, including Zanskar 8

Figures, Tables and Maps 4 5

Buddhist and Muslim population census in Padum, January 2005 9 The seasonality of currency 64

Maps  1

Region of Ladakh and Zanskar, Federal State of Jammu and Kashmir, India 5

xv

Chapter 1

Introduction Juley! Su in? Chhigyalpa … Nangpa? (Hello, who’s he/she? A foreigner … from the valley? / Bonjour, qui est-ce ? Une étrangère… une personne de la vallée ?) Ka-ne in? (Where does she come from? / D’où vient [-elle] ?) Nyerang ama duk? aba? magpa? tugu? … (Do you still have your mother? your father? husband? children? … / Avez-vous [encore] votre mère ? votre père ? un mari ? des enfants ?…) Wherever we travel, we face these questions about where we come from, where we are going, what for, who we are and to which community, confessional group or group of relatives we belong. For me some of these questions were at first very difficult to answer, but I learnt from my fieldwork how each community works to identify itself as a whole from one point of view, and at the same time is still in the process of changing this previous identity step by step, year after year. 1

Genesis of the Book

This book aims to achieve a better understanding of how the Zanskapas, both men and women, have built their community identity and how this process occurs through sharing a language, sharing a representation of social organisation, and sharing a narrative of the history of the area. The Zanskar Valley is not isolated from the rest of the world and what is fascinating is how men and women perceive foreign perspectives on identity, and how they construct their own point of view with regard to belonging to a group or a community, to a particular territory or religion. My approach as an ethnologist focuses on the socio-cultural and psychosociological aspects, but does not ignore the importance of historical and bibliographical investigations concerning Zanskar despite the relative lack of historical information (Friedl, 1983). My work has focused almost exclusively on the Sunni Muslim confessional group, their rites, their relationship with religious life and how they construct social and political bonds. For the study of the Buddhist community in Zanskar and Ladakh, I have drawn on a considerable amount of previous work that has been exclusively devoted to this

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2023 | doi:10.1163/9789004548244_0

2

Chapter 1

area.1 My published work (Deboos, 2010; 2012: 86–93; 2013: 35–42; 2017a: 47–66; 2017b: 32–45) strives to discuss the ideas of reciprocity and exchange and the nature of this reciprocity (Testart, 2007: 31, 48–51). Therefore, it is only when exchange exists in the form of indirect reciprocity that each of the transfers is at the same time both the cause and the effect of the other transfer. Evidence gathered in the field enables us to understand how reconstructed local history and religious experience regulate social relationships within the community in Padum. Thanks to extensive field research on the Sunni Muslim community in Zanskar, and taking account of previous work on Buddhists in Ladakh and Zanskar, I have based my analysis on specific examples, such as the unequal role of women in decisions about who marries whom, who controls the domestic budget, carries out work in the fields and manages reserves during the winter period on the one hand, and the disjunction between fact-based history and local history and accounts on the other. In this analysis, I am particularly interested in the discourse of women, as they play a key role in this community organisation. This information enabled me to highlight how violence is subtly managed in the regulation of exchange (social and political) in this bi-confessional community, especially through speech acts and conversations: “the study of conversation has revealed a number of important aspects of sociality and behaviour, including how social actors construct particular contexts and activity types, socialize new members of society, build or resist authority, organize hierarchies, use literacy, produce multiple identities, worship, argue, imagine. Studying speech use across speakers and contexts shows how social distinctions including gender differences emerge in language use, how experience is organized through narrative” (Keating and Egbert, 2004: 170). Therefore, concerning the analysis of conversation and speech acts, a vehicle which can be perceived as conducive to either violence or peace, I undertook a comparative analysis between the institution of the palabre2 (Bidima, 1997) in West Africa (Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Mali) and my investigations in Zanskar. The palabre is instituted by mediation and follows a well-established 1 Dollfus, 1989; Riaboff, 1997; Gutschow, 2006; Crook and Osmaston, 1994; Petech, 1977; Pirie, 2009; Day, 2015; Pinault, 1997; Grist, 1998; Rivzi, 2001; van Beek, 1997; Bray, 2005. 2 « La médiation qu’institue la palabre obéit à une procédure bien établie qui varie en fonction des types de sociétés. Le premier moment de la procédure, souvent négligé par les observateurs, est très important parce qu’il met en relation la parole, les modalités de domestication de la violence, le sujet et surtout les précautions qu’il doit prendre pour exposer sa demande sur scène. Ce détour que le sujet fait en se soumettant à la procédure signe sa soumission au symbolique et permet de distinguer la palabre d’un simple débat convoqué spontanément. La palabre n’organise pas le face-à-face spéculaire entre les parties mais institue une médiation symbolique à plusieurs entrées ». (Bidima, 1997 : 13)

Introduction

3

procedure that varies according to the type of society in West Africa. The first moment of the procedure is very important because it connects the speech-acts of the participants with first, the rules of conflict avoidance, or web of order (Pirie, 2006), second, the subject of argument and above all, the precautions each part must take to present his or her request. The respect of the procedure means that each person respects the institution and makes the difference between the palabre and a simple debate convened spontaneously. Therefore, the palabre does not organize the specular face-to-face between the parties but institutes a symbolic mediation with several entries. Therefore, what is important in this institution is more the capacity it offers for speech-acts to act as actors of community identity building. I observed and then analysed how unspoken words (Deboos, 2010) can lead to suspicion, just as they can be at the origin of slander or malicious gossip: during conversation in Zanskar, as I have analysed it, speech is free and heard by everyone. Grievances are openly expressed, very often humorously. The unsaid therefore has no place here and traditional doctors and the possessed are only called upon for their wisdom or to treat physical illnesses. Women are at the centre of this exchange, while older men are only responsible for political organisation. Of course, to achieve political organisation they use speech, but these speech acts do not play the same role as those of women: Zanskarpa3 men say that “nothing can be decided or even done in the community without women’s agreement”. Therefore, even if speech is not exclusively female, female speech plays a pacifying and cohesive role for the group. This does not mean, however, that slander and malicious gossip do not exist, only that they are very sparse and controlled. The results of this research have enabled me to conceptualise how Padumpa4 and Zanskari5 community identity is constructed (Deboos, 2012; 2020). Moreover, my linguistic skills and the quality of my relationships with members of both confessional groups (Buddhists and Muslims) have enabled me to grasp the unsaid and the parts of language that are not actually verbally expressed by my contacts, and this, in turn, has made it possible for me to take my research even further. But, before getting into trends that give inhabitants of Padum cause to define themselves as a single community, I would clarify semantic uses: according to the definition in social and cultural anthropology, the term “community” is used for humans belonging to a group that defines 3 The suffix “pa” following a proper noun, for example Padum or Zanskar, serves as a radical to denote “having origin in” and thus signifies the inhabitants of a place: Padum-pa / Zanskar-pa. 4 Ibidem above. 5 I use Zanskari as adjective when it refers to identity, society, community, language, social and cultural organization and production.

4

Chapter 1

itself culturally (the psycho-sociological aspect) or historically (institutional and economic dimensions): The term of community is characterized by the variety of its uses (Hillery, 1968). However, this range of semantic definitions centres around two poles of abstract elaboration, depending on whether the proposed definitions come from a culturalist approach of community or if they reflect the choice of a historic approach made for his study. Bonte-Izard 2000: 1656

Indeed, until recently, concerning marriage and the search for a spouse who meets the family’s requirements for a daughter-in-law, a Buddhist father preferred to give his daughter to a local Muslim family rather than see her leave the valley in order to get married within a Buddhist family. Even if this phenomenon is tending to change, for the moment, most Muslim families marry Buddhist women who have been converted by the marriage and belonging to various age groups. We shall reserve the term “group” to indicate either Buddhist or Muslim, reflecting the local community of Padum. Therefore, to gain a better understanding of how Buddhists and Muslims built and are still building community identity valued together or separately, we need to know more about geography, history, social and political organisation of the valley. 2

Presentation of Zanskar

2.1 Geography and Administration The Zanskar Valley is located along the border between China and Pakistan, in the Indian Himalaya, at the heart of the Zanskar mountain chain. This region, covering around 7000km², has the same name as the river, which winds its way through it before spilling into the Indus river between Leh and Nimu. Zanskar district (State of Jammu and Kashmir, India) is administered by Kargil, capital of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Council.7 This valley, which is 6 « Le terme de communauté se caractérise par la variété de ses usages (Hillery, 1968). Cependant, cette dispersion sémantique s’organise autour de deux pôles d’élaboration conceptuelle, suivant que les définitions proposées procèdent d’une approche culturaliste du fait de communauté ou bien qu’elles traduisent le choix fait pour son étude d’une démarche historique » (Bonte-Izard 2000 : 165). 7 The district of Kargil is recognised by the state of Jammu and Kashmir as the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), which gives it a decisionary independence and autonomy from the federal state government.

Introduction

5

surrounded by passes and rises to between 4600m and 5300m, is very sparsely populated. The 13,849 inhabitants (official census of 2011) are mostly Buddhist (93%) and Sunni Muslims (7%) living in Padum, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Zanskar. The entire population of Zanskar is listed as a “scheduled tribe” by the Indian government, which means it can benefit from certain administrative advantages8 decided and managed by the constitution of the Indian Democratic Republic.

Map 1

Region of Ladakh and Zanskar, Federal State of Jammu and Kashmir, India

8 This concerns particularly the policy for jobs which are reserved in administration (currently the cover rate estimated by the administration is far from being full; these jobs are only reserved for Zanskarpa), relief from certain taxes (income tax, monthly fixed contribution for electricity; in 2007: 50Rs/month or 1€/month by household), access to certain everyday consumer goods using special tickets for rice, sugar, flour and fuel (the value of these tickets varies according to the number of people in each household).

6

FIGURE 1

Chapter 1

Padum, August 2012

Proven traces of the first settlements in this ancient glacial valley go back to the end of the second and the beginning of the first millennium BC (Francfort, Klodzinski and Mascle, 1990; Bruneau, 2010) and reveal that communication over the mountain passes was possible very early on. In addition, various historical documents (Tarikh-i-Rashidi, and Tarikh Jammun, Kashmir, Laddakh aur Baltistan) and also Both ig / Bo-yig – Tibetan script – documents (Schuh, 1983) show that in the 17th century, the kingdoms of Zanskar (House of Padum and Zangla) were taking part in trade along the Silk Road through the Indus valley. 2.2 The Village of Padum in Zanskar Situated at an altitude of between 3600m and 4000m, Zanskar is nestled between the Himalayan chain and the Indus valley bordering China, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Geographically, Zanskar constitutes one of the five regions of Ladakh; the four others are Purig, Nubra, Rupshu and Ladakh. Administratively, the Zanskar Valley is a tehsil of the district of Kargil which itself is a Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), like Leh district. Padum is the capital of Zanskar.

Introduction

FIGURE 2

7

Overview of Padum from the top of old Padum. July 2017

2.3 Social Organisation in Zanskar Before getting into trends that explain the local stratification, I will provide some information to explain the difference between the censuses made in 2003 and 2005. The first census was a publicly organised one and includes seasonal migrants born in Zanskar but who have migrated to the nearby states for educational or economic reasons. The second is the result of a personal survey carried out by visiting each house of the village of Padum. These visits were made during the winter of 2004/2005, when Padumpa are sedentary. The stratification of Zanskari society (Riaboff, 1997: 83), similar to that in Ladakh, enables us to better understand the importance of the circulation of agricultural products which are used in ritual exchange as well as economic exchange. In Ladakh and Zanskar, the term rigs (literally “level”) is used and understood as “stratum” or “according to indigenous terminology […] a Tibetan term which covers both the notion of family, species, birth and blood” (Dollfus [1989] 2005: 34), whereas in literature relating to the origin and inner hierarchy of the Tibetan people (Ramsay, 1890: 18–19; Macdonald, 1959: 419–450), several terms are used to define the different levels of society: rus (literally “bone” and more widely, “line”) or even brgyud (literally “lineage”).

8

Chapter 1

Table 1

Tehsil

Official census from the statistical handbook district Kargil 2019–20

Year

1981

2001

2011

Population Male Female Total Male Female Total Zanskar

4239 4078

Table 2

8317 6266 5903

Male Female Total

12169 7008 6785

13793

Male–female population in Zanskar, July 2003

Name of village

Population

Padum Total

Male

Female

Total

%

1 023 6 873

921 6 327

1 944 13 200*

14,7 100

* Official estimated census

108239 10341 1171 20126 604 28

4

289 140802

18 122336

Hindu

Sikh

227 17875

ST

139 105377

5142

SC

Others

22 119330

95963

Total

Jain

Not stated

Christian

29

Buddhist

1

Muslim

2011

71

District

2001

Statistical handbook of Kargil, giving the religious census for the whole district, including Zanskar

Kargil Kargil

Census year

Table 3

SOURCE: Census 2011

In Zanskar, certain signs show that the population complies even today with the four-part division of society: the blacksmith – mgar ba, or lag shes – lives in a house outside the village, whereas the king is in the heart of the village in a house which dominates all homes but not the monastery, which itself overlooks the village. I often had the chance to have tea with the King – rgyal

9

Introduction Table 4

Buddhist and Muslim population census in Padum, January 2005

Religious affiliation

Buddhist

Category

Type

Number

Family

Nuclear Single parent Extended Male Female

45 9 16 191 164

Sex

Muslim Total

70 355

Number 64 9 24 258 261

Total

97 519

Figure 3 Stratification of Zanskari Buddhist and Muslim society

po – of Padum, but I never saw him eat at the house of a Buddhist who was one of the ordinary people – phal pa – or at a Muslim’s house; if he ever had tea outside his home, he always drank from his own bowl. In addition, only Buddhists among the ordinary – phal pa – or religious people (nuns and monks) agree to eat and drink out of crockery from a Muslim household. Blacksmiths and musicians are never invited to community meals or into a local household, and similarly, no Muslim or Buddhist among the ordinary people – phal pa – will agree to enter the house of a blacksmith (mgar ba, or lag shes), even if it is only to chat. They prefer to stay outside, something that is possible insofar as the blacksmiths’ workshops are outside the village. As part of this, it is important to reiterate the way in which, since the 17th century, Buddhists and Muslims from one generation to the next have sealed

10

Chapter 1

their understanding and recognition of each other within the village unit of Padum (Deboos, 2010: 189–210). For example, the Muslim Achtar family in Padum marries a Buddhist woman in each generation (around every 25 years) and this Buddhist woman comes from the stratum of ordinary people. This marriage is qualified by both Buddhists and Muslims as a “love marriage”. This event places the Muslims in the stratum of ordinary people, implying that there are no marriages between the different strata. For as long as people can remember, it has been well known that in Zanskar, Buddhist-Muslim marriages are the only ones which are always love-marriages, while among both Buddhists and Muslims, all marriages are arranged by the parents or relatives. None of the testimonies gathered mentioned any tension or difficulty about these arranged-marriages in the past. However, one testimony mentioned that in 1990, tensions arose for the first time when Abdul Aziz  – a Muslim from Padum – wanted to marry again as his first wife had died during childbirth, this time to Fatima Bemo – a Buddhist from Karsha village. I was able to record their stories before they passed away in 2005 (Fatima Bemo) and 2013 (Abdul Aziz). Since then, two major events that occurred have upset the recognition of this stratum for Muslims. First, in July 2013 a young Buddhist girl of the lowest stratum  – mgar ba, or lag shes  – (Suba Chandran, Chari, 2015: 313–315) and from Zanskar, Padma Dolma, left for Srinagar to join a young Muslim man in Padum, Mohammad Khan, and to marry him, without letting either of their respective families in Zanskar know. When they found out, the Buddhist families in Zanskar ransacked the police station, threw stones at the Muslims and shouted anti-Muslim slogans. The second event followed the visit of the Dalai Lama to Zanskar in 2011 and concerns the request for recognition by the Buddhists mgar ba, or lag shes and their integration into the stratum of ordinary people, which the Buddhist community completely refused. After this flat refusal, 5 Buddhist families of the lowest stratum wanted to convert to Islam, which created a conflictual situation in Zanskari society and an embargo by the Buddhists towards the Muslims and vice-versa, which has continued since (Deboos, 2015). These events help to explain the deep changes that are taking place in Zanskar. What unifies Zanskari identity is no longer the unity of belonging to a territory but it is gradually moving over to the unity of belonging to a confession, therefore, perceiving oneself as Zanskarpa is becoming secondary in relation to the membership of a confessional group. If, up to the beginning of the 21st century, these Buddhist-Muslim marriages were concluded thanks to what seems to be a matter of mechanical solidarity (Durkheim, 1893: 73–105; Mauss, 1923: 107), they should have disappeared with the building of the road between Padum and Kargil and the establishment

Introduction

11

of a set of administrative offices (in particular the stores set up by the State) which allowed Zanskarpa to no longer be totally confined. Yet this is not the case. Today potential candidates for interdenominational marriage avoid the valley and go to Kashmir’s larger cities such as Srinagar or Jammu in order to find a love marriage. So mechanical solidarity cannot explain the preservation of a phenomenon such as these interdenominational marriages. Indeed, if in the past the Buddhists easily accepted the interdenominational marriage and the conversion of a Buddhist woman to Islam, today the same denominational group is starting to become more reluctant. Thus, the mechanical solidarity conceptualised by Émile Durkheim does not provide us with all the frameworks of understanding that would allow us to account for reasons why the coherence of exchanges in this community has been maintained. One must keep in mind that this community has always been cut off from the rest of the world for several months each year during winter and that their openness over the past twenty years to Western tourism has not interfered in the practice of Buddhist-Muslim marriages, or the coherence between religious groups, whereas in the surrounding valleys this coherence is undermined. In addition, as mentioned, the rewriting of historical fact to transform it into tradition, in this case the Zanskarpa’s narration of the arrival and settlement of the first Muslims in the valley, guides our analysis towards other considerations. If we consider this aspect of the construction of cross-religion understanding, we must admit that Buddhists and Muslims are acutely aware of the need for the presence of the other religious group. But the coexistence of two groups does not explain the coherence of exchanges in the Padum community. Also, we should consider the organisation by house and the great attention paid by Buddhists to the origin and the name of the house when choosing matrimonial alliances. This consideration of how Buddhists enter into a matrimonial alliance leads us to refer to structuralism (Lévi-Strauss, 1949, 1984) for the analysis. Before “accepting the change”,9 the families make sure that the matrimonial understanding takes place beneath an auspicious configuration of stars (determined by consultation with the astrologer), and that it respects the Pathpun,10 as well as status. When a Buddhist family cannot find a man from a family who suits a young woman in the valley, they prefer to marry her to a Muslim from the valley, rather than see her leave Zanskar. Moreover, the term “foreigner” (chhigyalpa/ philingpa) is used for anyone outside the valley; this 9 10

Traditional barley beer. Originally an exogamous clan, today it is related to the ritual mutual aid in a clan = la divinité tutélaire familiale according to https://sspsd.u-strasbg.fr/IMG/pdf/sommaire_et_text es.pdf.

12

Chapter 1

consideration is also reflected in their relationship to property and territory, which is defined according to the household. In the marriage covenant, endogamy is preferred and is thought of as “inside the valley”. Exogamy becomes the act of seeking a person from outside the valley, and not a person “from outside the confessional group”. This consideration is similar to that of Claude Lévi-Strauss, less in the analysis he provides in The Elementary Structures of Kinship (1949) than in his discussion of “house societies” (1984) and the organisation of society around these basic units. He sees structural analysis as legitimate in the study of “a type of institution that transcends traditional categories of ethnographic theory by integrating descent and residence, exogamy and endogamy, filiation and covenant, paternal law and maternal law” and analyses complex marriage strategies that simultaneously or successively play on “mutually exclusive elsewhere” principles. While in Ladakh Buddhists understand endogamy as “within the confessional group”, in recent years interreligious marriages, as exogamous, have increasingly tended to be strongly reprimanded and candidates banished from their respective families. Various studies have shown that the cohesion between Buddhists and Muslims is precarious today in the regions of Leh (van Beek 1997, Pinault 1997, Abbasi 1997) and Kargil (Dollfus 1995, Grist 1995, Pordié 2005). However, at the end of his analyses on kinship, Claude Lévi-Strauss (1949) adds that: We have thus found that apparently complicated and arbitrary rules could be reduced to a small number: there are only three possible kinship structures; these three structures are constructed using two forms of exchange; and these two forms of exchange themselves depend on a single differential character, namely the harmonic or disharmonic character of the system studied.11 This “harmonic” character of exchanges was studied by Louis Dumont for South India (1957). This philosophical concept has been taken up more recently for Ladakh by Fernanda Pirie (2002: 6) in her analysis of the web of order and conflict resolution in Ladakh:

11

« Nous avons ainsi constaté que des règles en apparence compliquées et arbitraires, pouvaient être ramenées à un petit nombre : il n’y a que trois structures de parenté possibles ; ces trois structures se construisent à l’aide de deux formes d’échanges ; et ces deux formes d’échange dépendent elles-mêmes d’un seul caractère différentiel, à savoir le caractère harmonique ou dysharmonique du système considéré ».

Introduction

13

Once in Photoksar, I soon realised that the villagers there had a pronounced attitude to all forms of fighting, arguing, quarrelling, abusive and insulting language. These are all considered to be unequivocally undesirable, even dangerous. If a quarrel is reported people shake their heads and they shudder at a motion of fighting. Even to express anger is considered to reflect bad personal qualities. […] Resolution means reaching an agreement between all parties and the collective authority of the village meeting and of headman, as its representative, to negotiate and put pressure on the parties to do so is unquestioned. This brings us back to what the Zanskarpa understand precisely by “peaceful relations” and in particular their relationship to the surrounding world. We can first consider children’s games as illustrating this idea of a “balanced peaceful relationship” through education. Children do not play “cops and robbers”, there are no “battles” as one might find in the rest of India, where gangs of children build themselves an imaginary world, and where war is the only way to defend their “territory”. In winter, children and young people make “skis” with inner tubes and in summer, help their parents in the fields and spend only a few hours a day at school. The younger children like to watch the older ones: during the winter days, they dance, sing, play cards and caroms (a game played on a square wooden board with ledges and holes at each corner: the players have pucks that they move by giving them a flick with the fingertip. The goal is to put the maximum number of pucks in the holes). All these occupations do not involve any brutality, unlike “war” or “cloak and dagger” games. Thus, “this balanced peaceful relationship” can be understood here as an “absence of brutality”. These children’s games are only the expression of an education where the demonstration of physical strength is likened to immaturity. Also, any adult showing brutality is written off by the other members of the community: he is rendered “not responsible” and as such is considered “non-adult”. To some extent, the whole community implicitly agrees to consider the same facts in the same way, that is to say to disavow and consider as infantile any person acting so as to endanger this “balanced pacified relation”; we can speak of social control. This phenomenon is also visible in the circulation of slander or abusive jokes since these words will always be attributed to the same person: the one who “gives too many words” (“mampo tsik tangche”), or the one who “gives too many lies” (“mampo zun tangche”). To conclude this chapter, if we consider the background of the present situation, for centuries the population of Tibeto-Burman language speakers has been composed of both Sunni Muslims and Mahayana Buddhists. They interact in the context of ritualised exchange processes within the community, whereas

14

Chapter 1

the Muslims formerly mediated the external political and economic relationships between the Tibetan-speaking Zanskar Kingdom and the Urdu-Speaking Mughal empire, ensuring both the political independence of the former from the latter and a smooth supra-regional caravan trade (Deboos, 2010). Also, after the formal dismantling of the local kingdoms under the Indian State constitution, such functional differentiations of tasks and the ritualised exchange processes continued to be relevant. As a result, the Zanskar Valley still stands out as a case of peaceful co-existence between two world religions. In spite of the fact that their respective theological orthodoxies would exclude one another, their members all contribute to the maintenance of social cohesion and a ritual system of social reproduction (ibid.). The Valley thus offers a privileged setting for a case study of the socio-cultural conditions under which such multi-religious communities function in practice. However, Zanskar Valley communities are not immune to influences emanating from the wider social, political and economic environment. On the contrary, the very conditions that facilitate multi-religious co-existence are under increasing pressure both from the Indian State and the globalising market of commodities and services. The so-called “scheduled tribe” policy of the Indian State favours the allocation of State-financed jobs to inhabitants who are able to document their ‘autochthonous’, that is, their Zanskarpa, origins whether they are Buddhist or Muslim. Such origins must also be demonstrated in order to be able to acquire landed property rights or establish a local business. At the same time the State demands that candidates speak the officially recognised Urdu language, with which – Urdu being the regional language for the translation of the Koran – only Muslims are familiar. As a result, Buddhist and Islamic identities become separately valued as political and economic assets. Zanskar Valley communities are also targeted by the advocates of religious purification from Islamic as well as Buddhist circles. Sunni Islamic orthodoxy is spreading from Kashmir and Saudi Arabia into the valley, whereas an allegedly uncontaminated Mahayana Buddhism is increasingly preached by NGO s supported by the Tibetan government in exile and expatriate Tibetans in France and Switzerland. In such contexts, Buddhist and Muslim identities are proclaimed, also by NGO s as partners in Srinagar, as being authorised by mutually exclusive theologies. The impact of economic globalisation manifests itself above all in the activities of international tourist agencies, whose activities provide the major influx of Indian currency. Organising Himalayan mountain trekking for affluent foreigners on a grand scale, these agencies exclude Muslims from serving as guides and horsemen, believing that only Buddhists act in accordance with the orientalist vision of a pure and peaceful ‘Great Tibetan’ culture that they aim to promote.

Introduction

15

2.4 Traditional Political Organisation Whereas conflictual relations between Buddhists and Muslims are widespread in the neighbouring valleys, in Padum, inter-religious marriages were still common until very recently. The last one took place in 1997. Zanskarpa usually talk about their belonging to Padum and Zanskar, and when they describe their representation of the world, they all place Padum in the centre of the picture without really being able to position Lhasa or Mecca very clearly (Deboos, 2010). Moreover, local political organisation includes a Buddhist king (Rgyal po) who, although officially stripped of his administrative functions, still has great power and high status within the community. It also includes a Muslim lambardar12 who has been democratically chosen and invested with a local administrative function. A third important dignitary, the tehsildar or Executive

Figure 4 12

“Scheduled tribe” certificate of a Muslim from Padum. 2007

An authority like a mayor, who reports to the tehsildar, the Executive Magistrate, regarding the domestic affairs of the community.

16

Chapter 1

Magistrate, holds court related to land, tax and revenue matters, a position that carries a great deal of authority, power and respect. In Zanskar, the tehsildar is also in charge of the census and the electoral register as well as of delivering the “tribe affiliation form” essential to being recognised as belonging to a “scheduled tribe” and securing official registration from Kargil and Srinagar. As I indicated above, I was unable to obtain any information about Buddhist and Muslim families’ properties before meeting the current King (Rgyal po) of Padum. He is a Buddhist, and in the past was the one who decided the date on which people could move cattle, the date of the harvest, etc. Even if today he has no administrative recognition, Padumpa still seek his advice in family quarrels and for many other reasons. His house is located in old Padum, not far from the old mosque and the former Buddhist monastery. He is at home most of the day except during the summer season when he checks the water distribution in the fields. Laypersons can just knock at his door, and the Rgyal po’s wife will welcome them with sweet tea and salt tea. He knows exactly who belongs to which family and is able to name each Muslim and Buddhist from Padum. His house is always full of people asking him for advice and solutions to their conflicts, tensions and problems. The local Muslims respect him and do not interfere in the King’s consultations. He also has some formal knowledge due to his studies required to become a government primary school English teacher. The Rgyal po is the memory of the community, and therefore he takes part in the elders’ council, where his recommendations and suggestions are taken into account in the final decision. When the Padumpa had to choose a new lambardar, most of the senior members of the community would say: “what Rgyal po said is that …”. He is considered to express knowledge through experience and status. Since the Jammu and Kashmir Lambardari Act of 1972, the lambardar is a hereditary tax collector and has wide ranging governmental powers, including the policing authority of the village, and many other governmental and administrative privileges. Therefore, the lambardar has great power in mediation between laypeople and the Magistrate’s Court. Most of the time, people ask the lambardar to represent them in land quarrels or quarrels related to inheritance. Thus, two kinds of speech acts organise the social peace in such a way that social drama is avoided: the first comes from the Rgyal po, who incarnates the voice of tradition and experience through the ages, and the second from the lambardar, who enunciates the final, official and administrative decisions. Both are expected to respect each other and not interfere in each other’s consultations. We might call it a complex web of order: this wish for a social web of order finds expression in the establishment of an equitable arbitration structure: indeed, these institutions are built around the recognition of otherness.

Introduction

17

They thus structurally respect the religious difference in Padum: Buddhists choose the lambardar from among Muslims, Muslims choose two Buddhist advisors, and Buddhists two Muslim advisors. The representation of both religious groups in interrelation is here understood as the basic condition for building a local peaceful web of order in a society that should be able to identify itself as a community. The King of Padum, as we mentioned, despite not having any official decision-making function, retains authority and prestige among the inhabitants who ask him to arbitrate before bringing a case to the lambardar. The council of elders also consults the King of Padum before choosing the lambardar among the Muslims, and the one chosen is also most often a friend of the Rgyal po. The community can therefore be considered as two-headed – prestigious authority in the person of the Rgyal po of Padum and administrative authority in the person of the lambardar (Clastres 1974, chap. 1) – institutionalising the religious differences of the community. This construction of arbitration and decision-making bodies is a perfectly conscious strategy. This takes place in recognition of otherness. Thus, Buddhists and Muslims are aware of their differences and that these differences, if they have no means of expression, can evolve into a power struggle that would endanger the community’s coherence and thus its survival in a relatively hostile environment. Therefore, here, the point is not about some kind of “collective unconscious” that would envisage individuals – the Zangskapas – being led by a transcendent idea that they could not explain and that would guide them in the construction of the relationships that bind them together. The highest expression of this transcendence would be in the construction and elaboration of the various institutions governing the community. Insofar as they themselves formalise the dangers of the non-recognition of the otherness present within the Padum community, it is difficult for us to consider that the organisation of the institutions of the Zanskarpa can be structured around such a concept. Following Louis Dumont, we can question this analysis of Lévi-Strauss, and express the following criticism: We can only admire how our author [Claude Lévi-Strauss] often knows how to draw the right conclusions from arbitrary developments, and remedy the mistakes of the approach by the safety of intuition. But this is precisely what cannot pass into common habits and our salvation recommends circumspection. Dumont, 1997: 11513

13

« On ne peut qu’admirer comment notre auteur [Claude Lévi-Strauss] sait souvent tirer des conclusions justes de développements arbitraires, et remédier aux faux pas de la

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Chapter 1

Also, to understand better the logic behind the construction of this web of order, as illustrated by the dual authority present in Padum (prestigious authority/administrative authority), we must recall the exact meaning of a “balanced peaceful relationship” for the Zangskapas. This philosophical and religious concept is very important in the relationship that indigenous people have with their environment: they are acutely aware that any action has repercussions – immediate or not – on the whole. This religious consideration is also philosophical, since it refers to what Vincent Descombes (1996, chap. 14) calls the “holism of the mind”: Here is the definition given by the Madewars: ‘Holism teaches that a whole, whatever it may be, but particularly the whole of an organism, is not merely an assembly of constituent parts, but that it possesses wholeness or integrity because of the functional interrelationships and interdependencies between these different parts.’ […] The common sense of holism can be seen in the adage: ‘There is more in a whole than the sum of its parts.’ Descombes, 1996: 9514

Vincent Descombes reports on the theoretical discussion between Marcel Mauss and Louis Dumont on the consideration of the Whole. Thus, for Louis Dumont: What one is led to, still ideally, is the application to the global social reality of partial points of view, each of which has the property of releasing a ‘whole’ in the sense of a whole or system structured by its internal oppositions. Assuming the analysis is complete, the global society would be seen as a two-step reporting system: relationships between subsystems or partial totals, and relationships within each of these partial totals.

14

démarche par la sûreté de l’intuition. Mais c’est là justement ce qui ne peut passer dans l’usage commun et notre salut nous recommande la circonspection » (Dumont, 1997 : 115). « Voici la définition donnée par les Medawars : « Le holisme enseigne qu’un tout, quel qu’il soit, mais particulièrement le tout d’un organisme, n’est pas seulement un simple assemblage de parties constitutives, mais qu’il possède une intégralité ou une totalité (integrity or wholeness) en raison des relations mutuelles fonctionnelles et des interdépendances entre ces différentes parties. » […] On peut retenir que le sens commun du holisme est bien rendu par l’adage : « Il y a plus dans un tout que la simple somme des parties » » (Descombes, 1996 : 95).

Introduction

19

In theory, therefore, according to the above, a system […] implies an intellectual construction, something like a ‘model’, in which all parts or traits can be understood in relation to the whole. Dumont, 1997: 31 & 3515

In the Buddhist conception, the present incarnation is understood as the result of the sum of the good and bad Karma of past incarnations. In this reality, the individual must therefore be careful to limit, even redeem, past bad Karma in order to improve his position in Samsara and limit his wanderings. The individual, in this conception, is understood as the part of a Whole that transcends him, and at the same time, as a Tibetan proverb says: How do you make sure that a drop of water never dries out? Throw it in the ocean. Thus, the individual contains this Whole. A Buddhist, in his quest for emptiness, seeks to live this Whole at once containing and contained, transcendent and transcended. In Islam, a Muslim is aware that he is part of a Whole that transcends all human believers and whose individuality is not the aggregation of all the individualities that compose him, but another globality. This globality is the Ummah, or as Pascal Bresi (2005: 38) puts it: “the mother community of Islam”. To extend this to the Padumpa, they first set up the structures necessary for the recognition of otherness within the community of Padum, notably in the modalities of administration of this community where, secondly, the residents of the valley give the same definition – whatever their place of residence in the valley – of what is an exogamous (external to the valley) or endogamous (internal to the valley) matrimonial alliance; and where, thirdly, the Padumpa give each other honours at religious festivals or at different moments of life events and rituals (birth, marriage, death); we can deduce from this that they

15

« Ce à quoi on est conduit, de manière encore toute idéale, c’est l’application à la réalité sociale globale de points de vue partiels dont chacun ait la propriété de dégager un « tout » au sens d’un ensemble ou système structuré par ses oppositions internes. À supposer l’analyse terminée, la société globale serait vue comme un système de rapports à deux degrés : rapports entre des sous-systèmes ou totalités partielles, et rapports à l’intérieur de chacune de ces totalités partielles ». « En théorie donc, d’après ce qui précède, un système […] implique une construction intellectuelle, quelque chose comme un « modèle », dans lequel toutes les parties ou traits peuvent être compris par rapports à l’ensemble […] ».

20

Chapter 1

understand themselves as part of the same whole, which they call the Zanskari community. Now, as the Zanskarpa, Buddhists and Muslims, transcend the cleavage of religious belonging to define themselves as part of the same whole, we can, following them, understand their definition of this whole as a sum of their individualities. Yet, through their religious conception and their testimonies, we learn that they consider that their actions have an impact on a whole. This set is an aggregation of actions and reactions. This aggregation is therefore the expression of an inclusive thought of both as a single, inseparable and undifferentiated melting-pot, and as a sum of distinct units added together. Thus, the community, this Whole, is understood as One and at the same time as a sum of distinct individualities with differentiated properties allied in a common will to merge in a common action. This transcendent will to structure themselves is what Louis Dumont called the Social Inarticulate (1975). The community then sees itself as a set of individualities, both plural and singular, without being able to verbalise a certain number of ways of being and thinking. It is not that this community is unaware of its way of acting, but it considers a certain number of its actions and reactions as “self-evident” lived as “self-evident actions”. We have here an example of complementarity that can go as far as contradiction for the observer, between the encompassing and the encompassed. While waiting to familiarize ourselves in reality with the phenomenon, let us already stress that we have taken a first step out of the dualism of ‘religious’ and ‘politico-economic’, idealism and materialism, form and content. Dumont, 2001: 10816

Thus, this community experience in terms of the regulation of speech-acts as well as religious and politico-economic organisation, allows us to observe and take for granted that this community is not only an inter-individual recognition of respective rights, but also a shared recognition of each being a necessary element for a common Whole.17 16

17

« Nous avons là un exemple de la complémentarité qui peut aller jusqu’à la contradiction pour l’observateur, entre l’englobant et l’englobé. En attendant de nous familiariser dans le fait avec le phénomène, soulignons déjà que nous avons fait un premier pas hors du dualisme du « religieux » et du « politico-économique », de l’idéalisme et du matérialisme, de la forme et du contenu » (Dumont, 2001 : 108). We can add a reflection to this remark, namely: the weight that the religious universes of Buddhism and Islam give to the individual and to acts differs fundamentally from the

Introduction

3

21

Overview of the Book

As this book is the result of social and cultural anthropology reflexion and scientific observation, the first chapter will refer to how the Zangskapas have been building day after day, century after century, winter and summer, a common community identity. Therefore, I will start by clarifying how I understand the anthropological and ethnographic approach to be different from a sociological one. The diversity of approaches in the social sciences, in spite of the current difficulties of recognition by political authorities, remains the key to enabling us to understand the social organisation and interaction of one group, community or society with another. Sociologists and anthropologists or ethnologists are today facing difficulties in understanding each other specifically in the ways in which they define concepts, especially with reference to the semantic perspective. This first chapter is not about the history of the field of anthropology, or about defining social sciences, but rather deals with the way social anthropologists and sociologists understand conflict and its regulation from very different points of view, and therefore how researchers need to work in pluri-disciplinary ways to achieve a better understanding of global as well as local issues for people in the field of research. The specificity of the anthropologist is, therefore, to achieve a deep and inclusive comprehension of the local mechanisms that the population is dealing with, and how symbols might be understood with reference to the local exegesis of meaning. The second chapter recounts the process of building the Zanskarpa’s own history through common language. This valley has been crossed from north to south and east to west for centuries by nomads grazing their pashmina goats and at the same time, used by Buddhist hermits as a destination with great spiritual merits. Linguistic influences followed this flow of people until they settled down and built villages and castles. Thus, this chapter will point out how sharing a language and the transformation of kinship terms shared by the Buddhists and the Muslims of the Zanskar Valley might give some trends to understand the inner understanding of what community identity building means locally. To what extent do inner migration (in India on a large scale or in the federal state on a smaller scale) as well as inter-religious marriage or Indian migration observed within a group composed of 13,600 inhabitants, provide indications holism manifested in caste Hinduism. Yet Zanskarpa do maintain a holistic component of the world inspired by the four strata or orders and transferred on the subject.

22

Chapter 1

for a better understanding of changes and transmutations of kinship terms? Should we consider, like Lewis Henry Morgan, that the way in which a group defines its kinship is part of social identity construction, and might it be considered as a component of religious identity? Social identity (Ochs, 1993: 288) is composite. Linguistic construction and ethnolinguistic studies (terms of address and reference for example) make it possible to refine the analysis of the various constituent elements in the identity construction of Zanskarpa. So, the transformation of terms of address and reference act as markers of denominational membership. To name one’s mother “ama” or “maā” should be understood as a way to assert one’s belonging to a particular religious group (Deboos: 2020). The third chapter analyses how economic exchange in the Zanskar Valley was a tightly integrated part of the social and political network of this Buddhist-Muslim society (Polanyi, 1977: 16). People of the lowest stratum  – mgar ba, or lag shes  – cannot take part in the exchange and circulation of money from agricultural products, and the only way for them to have a role in the circulation of goods is by using cash. Since 1970, paid civil servants and the development of tourism and other facilities have accelerated the use of cash transactions. Nowadays, being able to procure manufactured goods by integrating into the Indian monetary exchange system has become synonymous with social success. This chapter proposes to show how goods and green or printed money exchange impacts and is impacted by the religious diversity of the population of Zanskar, which is not immune to influences emanating from the wider social, political and economic environment. The chapter before focuses on how the Zanskar Valley is at a turning point in its history. After centuries of Buddhist-Muslim marriages, such alliances are now being rejected by both religious groups. This chapter addresses the impact of the rise of religious fundamentalism on social regulation and communal negotiation in Padum and Zanskari society. This is a Tibeto-Burman speaking Himalayan population made up of a majority of Mahayana Buddhists and a minority of Sunni Muslims. Based on ethnographic research conducted in the local language since 2000, the anthropological approach presented here emphasises the importance of speech acts and also uses a socio-cultural and psycho-sociological perspective. It stresses historical and bibliographical investigations as well as research on the latest local political developments. The fourth chapter will explore how fundamentalism can take root in a bi-confessional community defining itself initially with reference to the locality but nowadays more and more with reference to a religious affiliation. This chapter focuses on new developments and current changes in male and female

Introduction

23

discourses, and how these discourses impact Zanskari society. In recent years, the debate about the place of women in social dynamics has received attention, especially in socio-economic and social-political research. What we know about the empowerment of women through the ways in which they handle their lives, and in order to develop greater confidence, is to a significant extent the result of programmes shaped within the geopolitical dynamics of the 20th century. However, no research has been conducted on the impact of female migrants in the process of religious radicalisation in this area. This chapter will consider how and why the local or national migration of women influences the positions taken by younger generations within the community. What are their views and what is their involvement in the face of religious radicalisation, economic change and state politics? These questions are still open. The fifth chapter examines the current and local reinvention of the past of the valley and the role play by researchers in social and cultural anthropology to better understand the current process of reimagining community identity in Zanskar. After the curfews in 2014 and 2015, Zanskarpa are facing the need to reconstruct and reinvent local peace. These dramatic events constituted a Social Drama (Turner, 1957) in the local administration of the web of order. Before, the social local hierarchy could assume the function of guardian of local social peace thanks to the council of elders and the king as mediators. Then, the local conversion of young Buddhists to Islam was the breaking point and the paroxysmal phase of the Social Drama concept, that opened a new time set, a time of reconstruction. This reconstruction could take place thanks to the will of religious leaders, the Imams and the Dalai Lama. This chapter offers an opportunity for the social anthropologist to witness on the one hand this rewriting of the local history and at the same time the rise of a new social web of order thanks to ritual and religious values. I will end by some conclusive analytical input to better understand, in a comparative way, how the shift from a community identity process based on territory to a community and individual identity process based on religious affiliation can help us to prevent, or at least better understand, what our Old Europe is facing today with the rise of radical or at least harder religious and political claims.

Chapter 2

Sharing More than a Territory: Building Its Own History through Common Language 1

The Illusion of Isolation of Zanskar Valley

Petroglyphs discovered in Zanskar on the passes and along the trade roads testify that the earliest known human settlement was between the end of the second 2nd millennium BC and the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. Indeed, as H.P. Francfort’s research states, the nomadic pastoralists of the Mongolian steppe moved as far as the Tibetan highlands, and even beyond by going up the upper Indus Valley, which demonstrates how old population migrations in this part of Asia are. If, like Françoise Héritier, we consider the construction of identity as a “lamination, an assembly of material and immaterial components”1 (F. Héritier, [1983] 2008: 60), we can ask ourselves about the influences of these seasonal or permanent migratory flows in the construction of the Zanskari community and individual identity. When the researcher, in empathy with the Zanskarpa, first of all, and then distancing himself from them, identifies the different components of this identity, he understands that it is experienced as a “specific concretisation at a crossroads, at the intersection of surreal and real lines”2 (F. Héritier, [1983] 2008: 60) that are the representation of the Other on the one hand, and the historiographical narrative on the other. How did the Zanskarpa build and maintain cohesion and coherence in the process of building community identity? How were genealogical and testimonies from older generations, as well as local history and religious history shared? How are the recent roads connected with past trade routes in this part of the Himalayas? Which language have travellers and local people always written from past up today? What are the new implications of modernisation and the arrival of the global market economy in the Zanskar Valley?

1 « feuilletage, un assemblage de composantes matérielles et immatérielles » (Héritier, [1983] 2008 : 60). 2 « concrétisation ponctuelle à une croisée de chemins, à l’intersection de lignes surréelles et réelles » (Héritier, [1983] 2008 : 60).

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2023 | doi:10.1163/9789004548244_0

Sharing More than a Territory

25

1.1 An Isolated but Not Closed Valley 1.1.1 Trade Routes The salt caravans and the Silk Road passed through the upper Indus valley, which separates the Himalayan chain from that of Karakorum, without ever entering Zanskar. In the past, people travelled on foot, as several witnesses attest: Meme3 Abdul Aziz, at the age of twelve, first left for Kishtwar (which he located at the Pakistani border) to work on road construction sites. According to him, at that time, ten or fifteen people left, stayed there all winter and they only returned in the spring to work the fields. Another road passing through the Penzi La linking Zanskar to Kargil is largely walked in the summer season. These groups could also walk to Manali (Himachal Pradesh) through the Shingu La Pass to buy food (including salt). It was during these journeys that some Zangskapas mentioned the presence of strange drawings on stones or stelae at passes or along mountain paths. These petroglyphs studied by H.P. Francfort show “in a preliminary way […] that tribes of the ‘Andronovian’ then ‘Sako-Siberian’ steppe groups widely frequented Ladakh, Zanskar and western Tibet from the Bronze Age until at least the 4th century BC and that they were in contact with the ‘empires’ of China towards the east and Persia through the upper Indus.”4 (Francfort, Klodzinski and Mascle, 1990: 5). Zanskar therefore had a strong position in intra-regional trade. This valley appeared at first sight to be a cul-de-sac that could be penetrated by paths oriented north, east, west and south only four or five months a year. Even so, though not covered by any major through-routes, Zanskar’s position in the network of local trades was pivotal. […] But the Rupshu Chang-pa’s main source of food grains was Zanskar. The first mention of the trade between the Chang-pa and the Zanskaris in an English-language text appears to be in Frederic Drew’s The Jammu and Kashmir Territories. According to this, the going rate of exchange in Zanskar in the 1860s was two pounds of salt for three of barley. By then, it may be presumed, the trade must already have been of very old standing. J. Rizvi, 1999: 117

3 Term meaning “grand-father”. 4 « de façon préliminaire […] que des tribus des groupes des steppes « andronovien » puis « sako-sibérien » ont largement fréquenté le Ladakh, le Zanskar et le Tibet occidental depuis l’âge de bronze jusqu’au 4ème siècle avant J.-C. au moins et qu’elles étaient en contact avec les « empires » de la Chine vers l’est et de la Perse par le haut Indus. » (Francfort, Klodzinski and Mascle, 1990 : 5).

26

Chapter 2

Figure 5

Zanskar valley from Penzi La pass. July 2017

Among the commercial exchanges in Zanskar, grain was the most important, but other goods were traded with the Padar Valley via the Umasi La pass: rice, wood and cows. The importance of rice to the Zanskaris was such that they were content to get in Padar only as much rice for their salt as the amount of barley they had paid for it, or sometimes even less. […] The cultural value put on rice can be the process on converting, through the medium of salt, a given quantity of barley into – at best – exactly the same quantity of rice. When brought out across the Umasi-La from Kastwar by the Padar traders and sold in Zanskar, its price was inevitably higher –two measures of salt for one of rice. […] the single well-wooded village in Zanskar, Shila, a short way up the Lungnak river from Padum, could hardly provide timber for construction to the whole valley; and in my informant’s youth most of the wood for construction was actually carried across the Umasi-La. […] Padar was thickly forested, and there were no restrictions on cutting trees; thus the wood was plentiful and cheap, the going rate being two kilograms of salt for one long beam suitable for laying across a roof. […] The only form of artificial lighting traditionally known in Zanskar was from resinous pine branches from Himalayan forests, and these too were brought from Padar in considerable quantities. Wool and butter also

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came from Padar, especially if there had been an epidemic among the livestock in Zanskar so that the local supplies were insufficient. J. Rizvi, 1999: 126

Various interviews with locals in Zanskar, all confirmed the importance of the Zanskar Valley passes as a trading area. The road which opened in 1980 intensified these exchanges while modifying modalities and places of supply and trade. Indeed, before laying this road, Zanskar was without a shop. Today, in summer, fruits and vegetables, wood and butcher shops in Zanskar are run by Kashmiris. Trade is therefore no longer carried out at the edge of the valley, but has moved into it, and the Zangskapa men and women can now easily come to Padum for supplies during the day and be back in their village the same evening. In addition, over the last fifty years, utensils and techniques have undergone profound transformations: the black stone pots of Baltistan, shipped through the Suru Valley for trade with Zanskar on the Penzi Pass, have tended to disappear and be replaced by metal dishes from Srinagar and hammered copper and brass pots from Amritsar. Only a few small hammered brass and copper instruments are still made by Padum’s lag shes.5 Similarly, in the past, the Zanskarpa traded cattle on the Umasi La Pass with the inhabitants of the Padar Valley. Some cattle loaded with bags of rice or lentils or wool bales were then exchanged for barley or wheat, goats and sheep. One Muslim Zanskarpa from each generation is still tasked with this very difficult and dangerous trade that involves crossing the glacier. Another trade related to animals (sheep and goats) takes place in Zanskar: the wool trade is dictated by the need to increase the supply of raw material in order to make traditional Zanskari clothing. Indeed, in order to weave sufficient fabric for the quantity of gonche (traditional coat) needed, the Zanskarpa trade with the nomads (bakawal) of the Suru Valley on the Penzi La pass. The Zanskarpa offer barley flour, wheat and cheese. The Zanskarpa do not trade in wool from their own sheep, which produce no surplus. In 2001, these nomads were the subject of a judgement by the High Court of Justice of Jammu and Kashmir, because they grazed their herds on the Penzi La pass. From now on, nomads may go to the Penzi La only to trade and are forbidden to graze their flocks there. The Zanskar Valley produces two other goods for export trade: horses in spring and summer, and butter in winter via the frozen Chadar.

5 A term for blacksmiths.

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Apart from grain and butter, the only other item produced in Zanskar that could be exported in any appreciable quantities was livestock, especially horses. The Zanskari horses have long been famous for their hardiness, stamina, strength, sure-footedness and good temperament; they were much in demand all over the western Himalaya […]. One of the most extraordinary trades of Zanskar is the trade in butter with Leh. This took place in winter, since for obvious reasons it is not possible to transport large quantities of butter in summer. In winter there is only one way into and out of Zanskar – the Chadar, as the route along the frozen waters of the Zanskar River is known. This route must have been in occasional use from time immemorial. J. Rizvi, 1999: 130

Before the road opened, Zanskar families traded fruits and vegetables for butter, cheese, tsampa (roasted barley flour) and horses. According to the Zanskarpa, the trade in grain, cattle, peas and butter, which were run exclusively by and for Zanskarpa, took place in Padum, the major commercial crossroads in the valley. Zanskarpa’s testimonies from all generations still refer to these ancient trade routes to the Suru valley (by the Penzi La Pass) or Himachal Pradesh (by the Shingu La Pass) or the Padar Valley (by the Umasi La Pass). Today, even if carriageways between Padum and the rest of the world remain restricted, the road linking Padum to Kargil and the two other roads still under construction between Padum and Nimo, and the other between Padum and Keylong transform once more long-established modalities and places of trade. 1.2 A Community Identity Transcending History 1.2.1 Scattered Historical Facts The gap between the shared tradition of Zanskarpa and the documented but scattered historical accounts makes it necessary to single out the religious history of this region from historical sources and testimonies. Recent research on petroglyphs provides no certainty about population migrations from or to the Zanskar Valley. Only with the arrival of the Tibetan populations around the seventh century do we have some written evidence that Zanskar then belonged to the Indian cultural area and depended more particularly on Kashmir. Buddhism entered this valley very early as a number of carved reliefs, such as those at Mulbek, attest. In 1337, Kashmir came under the rule of the Muslim dynasties. This annexation encouraged the rapprochement of Zanskar and Ladakh. Although the history of many valleys around

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the Himalayas is fairly well known, that of the Zanskar is much less so, being composed of scattered historical elements. A strand of the history of this kingdom takes us back to the 14th century, when the first Muslims arrived in the valley. Francke, a pioneering historian in this region of the world, tried to create a historical sketch at the beginning of the 20th century. The very tightly-linked history of the kingdoms of Zanskar and Ladakh shows that the presence of Muslims in this region was imposed notably through marriage, sealing the alliance between Buddhists and Muslims: the marriage of one of the kings of Ladakh with a Mughal Muslim princess (around 1590), and a few generations later the conversion of one of the kings of Ladakh to Islam. Given the large number of religious currents deriving from Islam, it is important to specify the one to which the Muslims of Padum belong. While the Suru Valley is Shiʾite, the rest of Ladakh is mostly Sunnite: These Muslims, descendants of traditional caravan merchants and for this most part, Sunnis adhering to the Hanafi school of law. Ladakhis […] They are Muslims and moreover Sunnis! Dollfus, 1995: 35

Thus, the Muslims of Padum are Sunni unlike the majority currents of the adjacent valleys (N. Grist, 1995: 59), specifically the Suru Valley by the Penzi La pass and the upper Indus Valley by the Charcha La and Fatu La passes. In addition, written records known as the “Bo-yig documents” provide information about the exceptional place that the Zanskar Valley had in Buddhism. Historians such as Gergan (1976), Petech (1977) and Schuh (1983) confirm that for several centuries Zanskar was considered a “mystical land”: To the guardian deity, Dakinis and the Protectors, I bow. They bestow the common and the extraordinary blessings. In this Zanskar Valley which is full of health and happiness, first of all came Gesar of gLing, the prime mover in this land. Then came Padmasambhava who gained control over the non-human spirits and put down the bad features of the area. The valley is shaped like a female demon lying on its back; so he built Kanika on its head. His statue was made on its heart at Pipiting and on the feet of the demon was built a shrine (gNya.nam.gu.ru) in a garden of the future Buddha Maitryeya (Byams.gLing). Padmasambhava prophetised that Zanskar would be like the happy cemetery of Sukhavati (i.e. a place for beneficial meditation) in India. Schuh, 1983

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Moreover, as mentioned above, H.P. Francfort follows Petech and argues that from the Bronze Age until the 4th century BC, Zanskar was already occupied by populations from the Central Asian plains. He writes that the Dards were driven out around the 7th century with the Tibetanisation of the area. Monuments from the Kushan period, circa 100 BC to 500 AD, named after the great emperor who ruled northern India and central Asia in the first century AD, still exist in Padum in particular in the form of stone statues representing a standing Buddha. Similarly, John Crook (1994) has noted the traditional costume of the Zanskarpa, as well as the colour dress-codes differentiating men and women, which bear a similarity to the traditional Kushan imperial colours. Even with little data, it is possible to identify two important periods: the first, from 1000 to 1100 of the present era, marks the genesis of the royal house of Zangla and at the same time of Padum. Zangla is a village at the eastern entrance into the Zanskar Valley, while Padum is at the other end of the same valley in the west. After Naropa’s stay in Zongkul cave around the year 1000, and Milarepa’s stay between 1040 and 1123, Zanskar earned the reputation of being a land of yogis. At the same time, Sani became a holy place and thus a place of pilgrimage for Buddhists. The monasteries of Karsha and Phuktal were founded during the same period and expanded rapidly. Today, Karsha is one of the richest monasteries of Ladakh-Zanskar. Throughout the medieval period, as Francke (1926) and Petech (1977) have written, Zanskar was far from being a land of peace; four kingdoms of Zanskar clashed with each other until the Mughal invasion at the beginning of the 16th century, when Muslims arrived in Padum. The second period is more precisely dated to the invasion of Zanskar by Mirza Haidar around 1532, which is mentioned in Tarikh-I-Raschidi and TarikhI-Jammu-Wa-Kashmir. The Mughal army entered Zanskar by the Umasi La overlooking the Zanskar Valley at 5,300m altitude and separating Zanskar from the Padar Valley in Kashmir to the northwest. Despite this record, we can still question the actual dates of the first contacts with Islam in the Zanskar region.

Figure 6

Stone carvings of Stupas and Buddhas in Padum – July 2009

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If we refer only to the written traces discovered until then, according to the Tarikh-I-Rashidi, Mirza Haidar left for Tibet with the firm intention of destroying the temple of Lhasa, but the rigours of winter and the weakness of his food reserves forced him to take refuge in Ladakh in 1534, where he occupied the castle of Shey, a “gift” of the King of Ladakh. During the following summer, he conquered Zanskar. While his son refused to stay there for the winter, the Grand Mughal Abdur Rashid Khan sent one of his favourites, Haji-Lo, in 1535. The latter proposed to serve the Grand Mughal, not as a soldier, but retaining his status as a merchant. He was the guest of the king of Padum, then married and, by tacit agreement with the king, founded the first Muslim family of Padum. This fact is mentioned in the memoirs of Mahmud Mirza, who was also in the service of the Grand Mughal: From Kashmir there came a certain man named Haji, who attached himself to my service; […] Haji-Lo … reached Padum (dPal.gTum) when the snow was an arm’s length in depth. […] Leaving Balti, we set out towards a province in Tibet called Zanskar. M.M.H. Dughlat, 1973: 460

In Tarikh-I-Jammu-Wa-Kashmir it is mentioned that these conquerors did not stay in the Zanskar Valley. A merchant in the service of the Grand Mughal was dispatched to go there and stay there for the winter, according to the convenience of the Grand Mughal. The aim was to transmit a regular report on the development and movements of the population in this area. Tchenten Vengyeul is preparing to resist Wazir Zora Wasin, but his army arrives at Neark6 Bridge and Tchenten Vengyeul is defeated and transferred to Jammu to be imprisoned. Later, forgiven, he recovers his throne. The three kings return to their respective thrones and the Wazir Zora Wasin appoints a representative, Larsing, to the Zanskar. He sends this merchant with some men. H.U. Khan Laknalli, 1981: 654–666

Tarikh-I-Jammu-Wa-Kashmir also mentions the conquest of Zanskar: Thus Wazir Zora Wasin sent Rustamsha with some armed men to Zanskar. The mutineers surrender without resistance. Wazir Zora Wasin destroyed

6 Maybe Nierac.

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Padum Fort and built another fort at Upti. He appoints a representative, Ti Dinu, who remains with a few men (ten soldiers). H.U. Khan Laknalli, 1981: 654–666

Thus, this conquest of Zanskar corresponds initially to an armed movement able to subjugate the people, but during a second attempt, the harshness of the climate and the extreme conditions of life forced the military forces to withdraw beyond the passes to Ladakh. In a third stage, the Grand Mughal, in order to preserve his hold on the newly conquered territories, sent a merchant to be his intelligence agent. Only then did the Islamisation of Padum begin. 1.2.2

A Shared Tradition as the Foundation of a Particular Local Political Organisation After some time in the field and thanks to the Losar festival (Tibetan New Year) during which Muslims visit Buddhist families to wish them a happy New Year, an old Muslim introduced me to the King of Padum and elders of Padum. The Zanskarpa referred me to the King of Padum because “he knows the whole history of Padum” in order to tell me the story of the arrival of the first Muslims in Zanskar. This was done in the same way that a Padum Buddhist family had introduced me to Muslims some time earlier when Buddhists were offering ceremonial scarves (khatak) for Muslim religious holidays. Puntsok L’Dawa, the current King of Padum, began by tracing the genealogy of his family without any written documentary basis, then told the story of the arrival of the first Muslims in Padum, in Zanskar. This narrative placed emphasis on the will of the King: at that time, Padum was much smaller. The monastery located at the top of the hill on which Padum is built dominated the village; likewise, the king’s house had a high geographical position in the village. Puntsok L’Dawa continued the story by evoking the fact that Buddhists were forced to kill a cow for the winter which was counted as bad karma, something that could lead the perpetrator to wander perpetually in the circle of reincarnations, samsara. In a harsh climate such as the Zanskar Valley, meat (protein-rich food) supplements the daily nutritional intake of flour and dairy products (milk, cheese, yoghurt), enabling the body to survive the winter months. Also, in order to avoid the negative consequences of slaughtering, Buddhists should perform rituals of purification and prayers of repentance or puja. Therefore, the king of Padum decided to send an emissary across the Umasi La pass to inquire about a butcher and a secretary. He then specified in his narrative that the only writings in Padum until that time were in Tibetan (boht-ig) and not in Persian, the language of the salt caravan merchants.

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Figure 7 King of Padum, Puntsok L’Dawa. 2004

The king presents himself as a crucial medium in the mutual understanding and coherence of the Buddhist-Muslim community because he is the ‘guardian of a tradition’. He is the link between the two religious groups. The Buddhists and Muslims of Zanskar have a relatively similar way of life. These two religious groups take part in the exchange of agricultural tools as well as goods among and between themselves, and they tell almost the same narrative about the Muslim settlement of Zanskar. Despite the minor variations in the narratives that do exist, all of them show the will of the Buddhists to maintain a Muslim settlement in Zanskar, which is unarmed and does not proselytise since conversions result solely from the cross-religious marriage, which is, for most of them, guided by necessity. This shared tradition shows the will of the King of Padum. Moreover, we should note that the first conversions in the valley, according to their narratives, were accepted by the Buddhists, this will being expressed by the King of Padum who “gave each Muslim a woman”. Thus, this myth shows that the alliance between Muslims and Buddhists is sealed by marriage and that conversion is an act recognised and orchestrated by the highest authority in the valley, the King of Padum, who bestowed them with the means to build a Muslim religious group by offering them the possibility of having descendants. This royal decision has two registers of reading. The first is that the two Muslims performed tasks that Buddhists used to perform (killing an animal to eat throughout the winter) or that they are unable to perform (corresponding in Persian with the Mughal emperor and later in Urdu). This is especially important in light of a food ban regarding some lower

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strata (Riaboff, 1997), so that any food prepared or cooked by them becomes unfit for consumption by the other higher strata. For Muslims, on the contrary, killing an animal is a holy ritual conducted in the name of Allah. Thus, what is condemned by some is respectable for others. The second one is that the King, by giving women as a gift, openly shows his power and demonstrates that these Muslims are subjects: it is the King who chooses for them. While historians speak of the Mughal conquest and the establishment of an informant in the person of a merchant, the myth transforms Mughal domination at that time: therefore, what was external and Muslim becomes internal and Buddhist thanks to the local royal authority. This narrative shows the strength of the myth and the will to maintain social cohesion in Padum. Buddhists from other villages in the valley confess their ignorance concerning the settlement of the Muslims of Padum. However, all tell of “the destruction of Karsha Castle by the Mughal invaders”. The Zangskapas do not link these two narratives: the settlement of the Muslims and the destruction of a castle by the Mughals. Even more, in their narrative, these events are not dated to the same period. Their random knowledge of the history of the region and the lack of correlation between these two narratives reveal the extent to which this need to remain silent is also a way to avoid conflict. The imperative of silence in the name of the whole (the Zanskarpa) is imposed on them like the social inarticulate defined by Louis Dumont (1975). Using this concept, the researcher has made it possible to grasp a reality in motion which is not expressed by the actors because this reality is experienced as a common heritage indisputably established but never openly expressed or discussed. Therefore, this social inarticulateness is at the same time the origin and the consequence of this local experience of silence as a way to avoid conflicts. As a consequence, this narrative acts as a cement in the building process as a Zanskar community. After Partition in 1947, British India was first split into the Republic of India and Republic of Pakistan (East Pakistan was to become Bangladesh in 1971), and then the Republic of India was organised into Federal States. Following this, the Federal State of Jammu and Kashmir was created. Within each Federal State, and then in each administrative unit, such as a tehsil, a tehsildar is appointed to administer policy. The first one was appointed to Padum in 1970, which directly impacted the web of order in Zanskar. Indeed, until the mid-1970s, the King of Padum held sovereign power (ensuring external and internal security, interpreting the law to decide and render justice). Since the presence of a Sub-divisional magistrate7 and a tehsildar in Padum, the political 7 The title given to the head of an administrative division, the District. A sub-divisional magistrate has several executive and magisterial roles to play under the Criminal Procedure Code 1973.

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and administrative powers have been in the hands of the lambardar8 (mayor) and the tehsildar.9 The Buddhists of Padum, however, continue to visit and consult the King of Padum for advice on family matters, inheritance, names and so forth. He is also part of the council of elders of the village unit that chooses the lambardar and the council of four persons charged with assisting the lambardar in his daily tasks. But from now on, he no longer takes any official decision such as dates of transhumance or conflict resolution between heirs. This type of decision and judgement is now under the power of the lambardar and the tehsildar. The king thus has lost his role in organising the ritual calendar and taking official part of the regulation of the web of order. Yet to see groups of men from different religions involved in the village, making informal visits and issuing invitations to one another, or taking part in conversations held in the “main bazaar” of Padum, makes one realise the great importance of speech interaction and socialisation through language. This constant concern to share elements and events of daily life bears witness to the keen awareness that people have of the weight of silence and the unspoken. Indeed, according to various testimonies of the elders, these are assimilated to a possible source of conflict. Similarly, during my interviews it emerged that each religious group is aware of the emergence of tensions related to the gradual disappearance of narratives concerning the arrival and settlement of Muslims in Zanskar. Buddhists and Muslims have kept this narrative as a guarantee of peace for their own history, and at the same time recognise the history of the area told by historians as a narrative. Therefore, Buddhists and Muslims tacitly agree to make the narrative a historical reality and the story of historians a myth.10 2

Being a Community by Language11

As we have just seen, shared narratives are the nodal point of the recognition of Buddhist-Muslim religious groups among Zanskarpa. But in which language 8

9 10 11

The “‫ ”د ر �ل���م��بر‬is chosen by villagers from among the elder males of the village. He has wide-ranging governmental powers: mainly revenue collection and a share in it, as well as collaboration with the police for maintaining law and order in the village. The lambardar therefore has social prestige. From Persian “tehsil” – “dār”; the officer in charge of revenue collection, etc. in a tehsil. Because of the religious dimension of the narrative, I prefer “myth” over “legend”. Review 2017: From an article “Refining community belonging through naming your relatives in Tibetan or Urdu language? The case of Zanskar in Indian Himalaya” In: Illmann, Kati; Schäfer, Alfred (eds.), Emerging Ladakh: Identity and Belonging in the Context

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Figure 8

Main bazar in Padum, 2017

do they share these narratives? In which language do they build their own history? How do they name each other? Since 2011, the kinship terminology that was once shared by both Buddhists and Muslims in the Zanskar Valley has been undergoing rapid transformation. Padum, the former capital of the ancient kingdom of Zanskar, stands today as the administrative and economic centre of the valley. A vast number of Nepalese and Indian seasonal migrants, as well as the civil servants appointed by the Jammu and Kashmir Federal State, stay in Zanskar from beginning of June to late October to avoid the harsh winter conditions. Moreover, the road that was built between Padum and Kargil, the District capital, in 1980, encourages the younger generations of the Zanskarpa to migrate to the neighbouring valleys or to the Indian plains for their studies and/or their work. To what extent does this recent intermingling of populations that can be noted among the 13,600 or so inhabitants of Zanskar allow us to explain changes and transformations of the kinship terminologies and the way in which they are used? Regarding the sociocultural dimensions of language, Alessandro Duranti (1985: 195) states that he considers “discourse as it relates to and is constructed by particular aspects of social organization and speakers’ of Increasing Changes; Schriften des Zentrums für Interdisziplinäre Regionalstudien, Universitätsverlag Halle-Wittenberg.

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cultural constructions of the world”. We may thus consider kinship terminology as a mark of belonging to a group and as a sign of the transformations of this very belonging. Can these changes, which affect how the forebears, offspring and the other next of kin are named, be considered as the marks of a border shifting within the self-definition of group belonging? We shall first depict Zanskar’s geography, before describing the terminology used by the Zanskarpa notwithstanding their religious affiliation. Within a largely Buddhist population, where Muslims do not represent more than 7.2%, we shall focus on the interreligious marriages that are ritualised every generation. We shall then underline the link between their shortage and the transformations of the kinship terminology as a symptom of the changes which Zanskari society is undergoing. 2.1 Matrimonial Regulation and Local Endogamy Both Buddhists and Muslims mostly marry within their own religious group. Whilst visiting each other in the winter, Muslim women discuss future weddings. Their decisions are dictated by not only the personalities of the two protagonists, but also the like-mindedness between the women who make the decision. Young boys and girls, fifteen years old or so, declare that they trust their mother, because she knows their personality. There are very few who wish to choose their spouse by themselves. The choices are made intuitu personae, that is to say through the mutual evaluation of each personality. In any case, the youngsters who are soon to be married respect their elders and trust their choices. Padum’s Muslims declare that there are no cases of repudiation or divorce; even if some ‘couples are better matched than others’ according to the eldest Muslim women. On the other hand, a majority of Buddhist weddings also take place between families belonging to the same social strata in the social hierarchy, and to the same pha.sPun (Crook and Osmaston, 1994: 501), in accordance with the households’ organisation: the marriage of the elder so […] precipitates a major reorganisation of the household in terms of personal powers, economic importance of deferring individuals, habitations and roles. […] Every family is a member of such a chain which is known as a pha.sPun. Crook and Osmaston, 1994: 501

Therefore, not only do they underline the candidates’ position within the social hierarchy, but Buddhist families also pay attention to their position among the brothers and sisters since within a Buddhist family, the eldest daughter

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deserves a ‘great marriage’ (Riaboff, 1997: 86) and inherits her mother’s jewellery. The name of the household gives information on both the status and the tutelary spirit. Not very long ago, Buddhists mixed polyandry (through levirate marriage) and sororal polygyny, to keep their land undivided. Today’s legislation prevents this. However, for a Buddhist to marry someone outside Zanskar Valley remains very rare. Buddhist marriages must respect a statutory system of belonging (Riaboff, 1997: 89, 96), as well as the tutelary spirit of the household (Kaplanian, 2008: 1997). Up to the present day, before the ‘reception of the chang’ (beer), that is to say settling the betrothal, families confirm with the astrologist that the bond is well received. They also have to respect the common patrilineal descent, the pha.sPun. When a Buddhist family cannot find a suitable husband for their daughter in the valley, such a family, not so long ago, would prefer to choose a Muslim consort, rather than see her leave Zanskar. As a matter of fact, the term ‘stranger’ (chhigyalpa/ philingpa) designates anyone from outside the valley. This is also true of property and land, which are defined in accordance with the household. Within matrimonial bonding, endogamy is favoured and defined as ‘within the valley’. Exogamy is perceived as choosing someone outside the valley and not as choosing someone outside one’s own religious group. Since 2007, this division has been gradually changing.

Figure 9

Meme Abdul Aziz and his wife Abi Fatima Bemo, a Muslim–Buddhist marriage, 2005

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2.2 The Particular Case of Marriage between Muslims and Buddhists According to Zanskari Buddhist or Muslim narratives, the King of Padum beseeched two emissaries of the Urdu language to come from Kashmir. These two Muslims took up positions as the King’s secretary and butcher. To make sure they would remain in the valley, the King gave each a wife, institutionalising the first interreligious matrimonial bond, which was repeated in every generation up to the turn of the twenty-first century (Deboos, 2010: 93). Various testimonies corroborate that these marriages are the free choice of each of the betrothed parties and that it is always a Muslim man who weds a Buddhist woman. The latter may be from Padum itself or from another Zanskar village. For instance, the maternal grandmother of Meme Abdul Aziz, a Muslim man from Padum, came from the village of Abran, located in the same valley but in the direction of Penzi La (Deboos, 2010: 112). The various testimonies point out that interreligious marriages take place as a consequence of the sterility of the first wife or after the latter’s death. When a woman dies, it comes to a female parent of the departed to help the widowed father in his day to day work and to keep up the household unless the eldest daughter is old enough to take in charge these duties. Depending on the origins of the deceased wife, this help may come from either Muslim or Buddhist women, as it was the case in the Abdul Aziz family after the death of his wife (leaving four young children). Thus, Abi Fatima Bemo, Buddhist of Karsha and a close relative of Abdul Aziz’s mother, came to help him for several years. They fell in love and finally Meme Abdul Aziz wed the Buddhist woman from Karsha. When there is no available woman to assume this role, the widower’s parents ensure that he remarries and choose a new wife for him. In the family of Shamsat Din (Muslim), after the death of his Muslim wife, while he was already a father of four, his parents arranged a second marriage with a Muslim woman. Thus, the social bonding upholding Zanskarpa’s relationship was not perceived, in the first place, as a reflection of religious belonging, but more the outcome of a geographical space: being from the Zanskar Valley. This was particularly noticeable for acquaintances and bolstered through the use of a kinship terminology, common to both Muslims and Buddhist, as address and as reference between two persons of the same generation, and the broad use of the words ‘sister’ and ‘brother’. In summary, both Buddhists and Muslims share particular concepts and uses such as endogamous marriage within a defined locality, understood as the Zanskar Valley. Interreligious marriages take place generation after generation and are rooted within the Zanskari narrative. These weddings between Buddhists and Muslims are the only ones where the spouses enjoy freedom of

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choice. According to Zanskari testimonies, exogamous marriage from a religious angle is perceived as endogamous from a communal angle: being a local is what matters. Thus, the common use of parenthood terminology, in addition to local endogamy, and common lifestyle, belonging to the territory of Zanskar, lead both Buddhists and Muslims to consider themselves as members of the same society. 2.3 The Use of Kinship Terminology Zanskar is one of those societies which “resort to kinship in a more systematic way […], they use kinship and matrimonial agreements to define belonging or non-belonging to a group”12 (Lévi-Strauss, 2011: 61). In Zanskar, the similarity of the terminologies used by Buddhists and Muslims alike to define their kin through descent is quite remarkable. Zanskarpa speak a Tibetan dialect very close to that of the Ladakhis, only with a different accent. In Ladakh, as well as among all the Buddhists and Muslims of Zanskar, the kinship terminologies, both as terms of address and of reference, are followed by the first name. For instance, ‘Abi Amina’, where the first word determines not only the generation (G+2 or G+3 in this case), but also the sex, ‘Abi’ (a-phyi13) for a woman. Thus, ‘Abi Amina’ refers to an elderly woman of the grandmother or great grandmother’s generation, whose first name is Amina. In current conversation, when someone’s name is said, the closeness or the remoteness among generations is always repeated in reference to the Ego. Furthermore, the post-fix ‘–lé’ (lƐ) is a sign of reverence attached to the kinship expression itself: ‘Abi –lé.’ Some terms common in Ladakh as an address (Dollfus, 1989: 195–218) are not in use among the Buddhists and Muslims of Zanskar  – not that they are unknown to the people but they are simply not in common use – the majority of the kinship terminology is identical. According to Pascale Dollfus, ‘The kinship terminology in use in Ladakh derives from the whole of the Tibetan ‘basic or root terms’ established by P.K. Benedict14 (1942: 314) from his studies of the classical texts, dictionaries and modern idiomatic forms, with the exception of the term sru, ‘mother’s sister’ 12 13 14

« font appel à la parenté d’une manière beaucoup plus systématique […], elles utilisent les relations de parenté et d’alliance pour définir l’appartenance ou la non appartenance au groupe » (Levi-Strauss, 2011 : 61). Words in brackets are transliterations of kinship terms. This article by P.K. Benedict focuses on comparative Tibetan and Chinese kinship terminologies. It is quoted by C. Levi-Strauss (1967, pp. 427–428), and also cited by P. Dollfus (1989: 197).

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Figure 10 Mother and children from Padum. July 2015

« ajang » [aʐaŋ]/ uncle

« ané » [anƐ]/ aunt

« Mémé » [mƐmƐ]/ grand-father

« puza » [puza]/ boy

« abachoung » [abatʃuŋ]/ small father

« Abi » [abi]/ grand- mother

« pumo » [pumo]/ girl

Ego

« amachoung » [amatʃuŋ/ small mother

« aba » [aba]/ father

« nono » [nono]/ small brother

« nomo » [nomo]/small sister

« ama » [ama]/ mother

« acho» [atʃo]/ older brother

« aché» [atʃƐ]/ older sister

Figure 11 Kinship terminology (G+1, G+2 and G+3) in Zanskar with phonetic transcription as pronounced in Zanskar

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and of the words distinguishing between grandparents and great-grandparents. In the same way, if the terms attached exclusively to parents younger than the subject are not neutral, however, they all bear a common root to which is added a male or female determinant according to each case: bu, the child, bu-cha, the male child, bu-mo, the female child’ (Dollfus, 1989: 197). In Zanskar, the root bu becomes pu, there is no such distinction for naming the grandparents (all old persons will be named Abi for women and Meme for men), and ‘ané’ refers to the father’s sister. – Kinship (address and reference) for G+2 and G+3 – Male kinship: all the men of the maternal and paternal grandfather’s generation and of any older generations are called ‘Meme’ (mes-mes) – Female kinship: all the women of the maternal and paternal grandmother’s generation and of any older generations are called ‘Abi’ (a-phyi) – Kinship for G+1 – Male kinship: the father is called ‘aba’ (a-pha), the father’s brothers are called ‘achoung’ or ‘abachoung’ (a-čhun or a-ba čhun), the mother’s brothers are called ‘ajang’ (a-žan), which can be extended to all the men G+1 generation as a sign of reverence. In this particular case, this term applies to any man whatever the kinship. – Female kinship: the mother is called ‘ama’ (a-ma), the mother’s sisters are called ‘amachoung’ or ‘machoung’ (a-ma čhun or ma-čhun). In a less restricted usage, all the women of the mother’s generation are called ‘ané’ (a-ne), whatever their kinship. – Kinship for G 0 – Male kinship: the elder brothers of the subject (Buddhists or Muslims), as well as all the elder boys but of the Ego’s generation, are called: ‘acho’ (a-čho). The younger brothers, as well as all the younger boys, but of the same generation, are called ‘nono’ (no-no) – Female kinship: Ego’s elder sisters (Buddhists or Muslims), as well as all the elder girls, but of the same generation, are called ‘ache’ (a-čhe). The younger sisters, as well as all the younger girls of that same generation, are called ‘nomo’ (no-mo) – Kinship for G-1, G-2 – Male kinship: the sons of the Ego’s sisters and brothers are called ‘tzao’ (cha-bo). This term is seldom used and the generic term ‘puza’ (bu-cha) is more common. It refers to all the boys of Ego’s following generations. – Female kinship: the daughters of the Ego’s sisters and brothers are called ‘tzamo’ (cha-mo). This term is seldom used and the generic term ‘pumo’ (bu-mo) is more common. It refers to all the girls of Ego’s following generations.

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– Neutral kinship All the girls and the boys under the age of fifteen or sixteen are called ‘tugu’ (phru-gu) by the elder generations. – Marriage and Matrimonial agreement Two terms define son-in-law and spouse: ‘magpa’ (mag-pa) for the boy; spouse and daughter-in-law: ‘nama’ (mna’-ma) for the daughter. First, one should note that the reduced terminology used for the various people of the G+2 and G+3 generations: they are all called ‘Meme’ or ‘Abi’, regardless of whether they are relatives or not. Ego’s entire generation is called ‘brother’ or ‘sister’, distinguishing only between those elder and younger. Moreover, Ego calls all belonging to the younger generation ‘boy’ or ‘girl’, or simply the generic term ‘child’. Ego, thus, only distinguishes precise kinship for G+1 generation, where different terms designate the father’s brothers and the mother’s sister; the others are simply called ‘uncle’ or ‘aunt’. The relatively richer terminology designating the G+1 parents is to be understood in reference with their place within the cycle of life rites of Ego. Upon Ego’s birth, if the father is missing, it is the latter’s brother or the grandfather who is in charge and who will bestow a name on the child. In the same fashion, among Muslims, they will take the place of the missing father for the circumcision. During the celebration marking the end of learning the Quran, again when the father is missing, it is also his brother, or the mother’s brother, or one of the grandfathers who congratulates the daughter or the son and prepares the festive meal. When families discuss matrimonial agreements and exchange a formal invitation to organise marriage, in the case that one of the parents is not alive, the deceased mother’s brother or the deceased father’s brother will be in charge of the negotiations. The women preparing the daughter-in-law are the mother’s sisters. At the wedding, if the father is missing, his brother plays a major part, because he takes the father’s place, and so does the maternal uncle who ‘bestows’ the daughter on her in-laws. Granting this duty to the maternal uncle is quite uncommon among Muslims, but not among Buddhists (Stein, 1996: 56). Thus, the extended terminology identifying Ego’s parents of the G+1 generation is related to their part within Ego’s various rites de passage (Van Gennep, 2001 [1909]: 97).





2.4 Recent Changes In recent years, kinship terminology in current use among Zangskapas Muslims, notably with regard to terms of address, is getting closer and closer to Urdu kinship terminology. Let us consider how the schooling system and the reserved job policy impact the way members of the younger generation of Zangskapas name their relatives.

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2.4.1 Schooling in Urdu, Hindi and English In July 2004, official statistics indicated a literacy rate of 15.3% in Zanskar, corresponding to people’s ability to read or write the official languages of the State of Jammu and Kashmir (Urdu, English, Hindi) and/or their maternal language (Zanskari). In July 2011, the administration informed me that this rate had ‘nearly doubled’. Padum leads the towns where this literacy rate has strongly increased, since it went from 29.9% in July 2004 to 51.3% in July 2011. Therefore, it took only seven years for the literacy rate in Urdu, Hindi or English to increase by 79.5% in Padum, the capital of Zanskar. The teachers are appointed by the State of Jammu and Kashmir for two years to the town schools of the valley. They are often absent except in the capital Padum (Deboos, 2010: 225). Anyone in charge of teaching has to have completed school up to the tenth or twelfth grade depending at which level he intends to teach. He has to have also completed his studies in Shimla, Dehra Dun, Srinagar or Jammu, and to have successfully passed the official test in the Urdu language. During the first year in a new position, the young teacher has to undergo an inspection which is sometimes dropped. The languages that are taught from the first year on are Urdu, English and Hindi. both-ig, a transcription of the Tibetan language, therefore Zanskari, is

Figure 12 Padumpa child doing homework – Padum. August 2005

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only taught as an option in the private schools sponsored by French or Swiss benefactors. Furthermore, history lessons, which start in fifth grade, deal mostly with lower India’s history and that of the Mughal Empire. The 1989 edition of these history books was edited anew but without any changes to the text. State schools do not provide any kind of religious teaching. Only the private schools teach the Dharma. After twelfth grade, young Zangskapas may ask for a scholarship to attend university. Others may pass the civil servant exam in Urdu. The young schoolchildren get to know the kinship terminology in Urdu, Hindi and English as early as the fifth grade. Very soon young children, mostly Muslims, make use of this new knowledge within their own families: the word of address for the paternal grandfather in Urdu and Hindi, dādā, replaces Meme. In the same fashion, maā ‘mother’ tends to replace the Zanskari ama. On the other hand, some terms of address, father for instance, are the same in Urdu and Zanskari: abbā. Finally, to define kinship in Urdu, Ego differentiates between paternal and maternal grandparents with the address and the reference, while it utilises the same word of reference and address to name the elder and younger relatives. This offers a strong contrast with the Zanskari terminology: Ego does not distinguish between his paternal and maternal grandparents, while both in address and in reference he differentiates his parents’ brothers and sisters in accordance with their birth ranks. Another change that must be taken into consideration is the study of the Quran at Padum’s new madrassa, built in 2001. It is only active during the summer, and the teacher comes from Lucknow for this very purpose. The young Muslims learn to read the Quran in Urdu. This does not involve any understanding of the text but only its memorisation. Young Muslims of Padum see advantages in the learning of Urdu at school: not only will they succeed at school but they will also be able to take part in the religious rites through the reading of the book. By contrast, the young Buddhists of Padum see learning Urdu only as an achievement at school, since the language of the Dharma is the both-ig transcription of Tibetan. 2.4.2 The Civil Service in Urdu Language As stated, Urdu is the official language of Jammu and Kashmir, and it is therefore used by the civil service of the Federal State. The various administrations of the tehsil15 are to be found in Padum: courts of justice, the office of development, public works, agriculture, etc. 15

An administrative unit divided into several districts.

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Figure 13 Secretary working in Urdu language in tehsildar office, 2011

Because of the reserved-job policy in the Indian constitution, all these institutions reserve a certain number of administrative jobs in the Zanskar Valley for people from this very region, as long as they have obtained their scheduled-tribe ‘boto’ certificate and are listed. In July 2011, 70.44% of the civil servants in Zanskar were Buddhist Zanskarpa while only 15.4% were Muslim Zanskarpa. The other civil servants were often Muslims, but come from other regions of Jammu and Kashmir. They are appointed in Zanskar for a two-year term. The figures differ in the various Zanskar administrative head offices. Here 32.14% of the head offices are held by Zangskapas Buddhists, while 42.85% are Muslim and 25% are Muslims from other regions of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is necessary to question this religious discrepancy. My own statistical inquiry16 shows that success at administrative tests is the first cause. After the tenth grade, Zanskarpa may pass a first test in Urdu in order to join the civil service at the lower levels. To advance or move into the Indian civil service at a superior level, the candidates need not only to have completed the twelfth grade and/or gone to university, but also must have passed a higher-level exam in Urdu; only Zanskarpa with a very good level of Urdu succeed. Therefore, it 16

Since 2001 I have been conducting extensive field research and gathering my own statistics, which I compare with the official figures from Padum and Kargil.

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is safe to assume that the seasonal migration for studies, whereby the younger generations often live with remote kin, coupled with the reading of the Quran at the madrassa and at home since early childhood, favours the Muslim Zanskarpa. Not only do they have a good command of the required vocabulary, they also use Urdu in their day-to-day life. Kinship terminology, regarding both address and reference, is a decisive skill that allows an individual to acknowledge his position within the social structure. However, the young Muslim Zanskarpa make use of the Urdu terminology. Therefore, the changes in this terminology may show that current religious affiliation overrides geographical belonging, contrary to the time when locality had precedence and kinship terminology was particular to Zanskar, and shared by Buddhists and Muslims alike. 2.4.3 The Transformation of Parenthood Terminology and Social Change The Zanskar Valley, on the edge of the Indian Himalaya, long remained remote from the international trading roads that led through the Tibetan plateau and along the upper Indus to the Arabian Sea. However, Zanskarpa take an active part in local trading. A large part of their own narrative deals with the importance of knowing the Urdu language. The myth shared both by Zanskar Buddhists and Muslims recalls the very first interreligious marriage and its renewal by every generation into the twenty-first century. The study of the transformations of the language and of the terms of address and reference allows us to fine-tune our analysis of the various elements contributing to the complex Zanskari identity (Ochs, 1993: 288). According to the founding myth, the two Muslim envoys, following their settlement in the valley, adopt Zanskari and Tibetan kinship terminology. This common use of terms of address and reference regarding the various members of the group was long an essential element to its self-definition and to a feeling of common identity among the Zanskarpa. Thus, through language, through terms of parenthood and through local endogamy, everyone had a self-awareness as a member of the same community. This would imply a definition of exteriority as a linguistic difference on one hand, and as a geographical difference on the other. Following the opening of the road in 1980, schooling in Urdu and Hindi, and the inclusion of Urdu-speaking civil servants in the Indian civil service, the Zanskarpa have faced deep linguistic changes and specifically regarding kinship terms of address and reference. Zanskarpa Muslims, already familiar with Urdu, the official language of their own federal state, find it easier to handle institutional requirements. Zanskarpa Buddhists, on the contrary, facing their inability to read and write in Urdu, feel excluded from this new state of affairs. Meanwhile, as they have a deep consciousness concerning their ancient

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settlement of the valley, they called for an administrative recognition of their long presence. These claims have become politically framed around language since 2007 and expressed as ‘defending their language’. The relationship to territory and locality are coming to be seen less and less from the perspective of someone’s place of birth or of the geographical delineation of a valley, and more according to religious belonging. The political linguistic claims push for a new self-definition regarding individuals and the group. These repercussions of the border effect are made visible through the changes in terms of address and reference regarding parenthood, which are becoming more noticeable and appear as signs of religious belonging. They are also the symptoms of a deeper dynamic of social change, involving the transformation of the community’s definition of identity, that comes together with a new relationship to the area. Several young Zanskarpa assert that for them to name one’s mother ama or maā is becoming accepted as a sign of the growing assertion of religious belonging which seem to override more and more the statement of common belonging to a cultural and social Zanskari territory. Previously, we reported on a transcendent history and a shared tradition formalised through locally organised administrative recognition. Thus, this construction of otherness, this representation of elsewhere, was made through the seasonal migration of people (pilgrimage, studies, trade) to the rest of India. The passes defined the limit of the valley; they are physical and symbolic places that materialise the experience of arriving in the valley when Zanskarpa return to their home village. In this migration and exchange of people entering and leaving via the Shingu La pass, of trade exchanges through the Omasi La pass and the Penzi La, the Zanskarpa wonder what the Other is since the commercial relationship totally depersonalizes what comes from others, so that what is received can be ‘re-personalized’ by the recipient according to his own identity, according to his ‘preferences.’ Godbout, 2007: 17817

Thus, the importation of goods coming from outside the valley does not directly question the definition of the Zanskarpa themselves. We have seen previously through the recorded narratives that the Zanskarpa have an acute awareness of the need to recognise otherness in their web of order and a process 17

« Le rapport marchand dépersonnalise totalement ce qui vient d’autrui de sorte que ce qui est reçu peut être “repersonnalisé” par le receveur en fonction de son identité propre, en fonction de ses “préférences” » (Godbout, 2007 : 178).

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to avoid conflict situations in order to maintain the coherence of exchanges in a Buddhist-Muslim community. The construction of a new road between Padum and Leh, the permanent settlement of the army, tourist migration and the development of facilities (electricity and gas) are all signs of modernity as understood by Western economists and analysts. Thus, is it the importing of “Western-style modernity” and being under the thumb of Indian policy promoting ‘Hindu roots culture’ that transform the way Zangskapas consider what should be a “community”? Or is it the movement of the Zanskarpa and the migration experience of “strangeness” that transforms their own way of considering themselves as part or not of ‘one community by land’ or ‘one community by religious affiliation’? Several aspects summarised in this chapter have been developed previously in my research (Deboos, 2010). Compared to this initial situation, changes are visible in socialisation through language, the hierarchy of the community, the institution of arbitration (which I have called the ‘web of order’) and intra- and interreligious matrimonial alliances. Moreover, young Zanskarpa, who now have access to schooling in Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, leave for several months and even several years to go to Manali, Dehra Dun, Dharamsala, Srinagar or Jammu. This feeling of “being different” and of being “foreign”, even if administratively they retain membership in the same community, has often pushed individuals to abandon some traditional practices, such as the dress code, and to adopt that of their new environment. Indeed, “being, before being substance, is relationship. In this relationship, everyone lives a ‘little death’ of himself. […] I only enter into a relationship through ‘loss’. Accepting to lose oneself implies active tolerance” (Bidima, 1997: 40–41).18 Thus, after several months of tasting some other Indian traditions, these young generations return to Zanskar, having already made this internal translation towards the Other which has allowed them to integrate and experience life in bond with others. What was outside is no longer totally an outsider. In terms of kinship and choice of spouse, exogamy will therefore be perceived and experienced differently by the new generations: it is no longer belonging to the valley that takes precedence over belonging to the religious group, but the reverse. Moreover, the inhabitants of Zanskar, from an administrative point of view, are classified as a “scheduled tribe”, which is claimed by locals as being continuing grounds for single affiliation. This administrative recognition allows 18

« L’être, avant d’être substance est relation. Dans cette relation chacun vit “une petite mort” de soi. […] Je n’entre dans un rapport que par la “perte”. Accepter de se perdre implique une tolérance active. » (Bidima, 1997 : 40–41)

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them not only to be exempt from certain taxes, but also to benefit from certain positive discrimination policies under the constitution of the Indian Republic. Among these policies, that of reserved jobs meant to ensure the return of young people who have studied in other Indian states is one that has enabled Zanskar in the last fifty years to ensure continuity in the projects established in the valley. Thus, this return to the Zanskar Valley is often a reality. This translation of the inner positioning of the younger generations vis-à-vis their peers is made visible by the recent introduction of membership of political parties, and in particular fundamentalist Buddhist and Muslim parties. These new political groups have already visibly engaged with the people from the adjacent valleys, and they appear at first sight to be an import, a corollary effect to the installation of Kashmiris or other administrators, or the strong European sponsorship of Buddhist cultural associations. It seems to me, on the contrary, that this visible reality is the result of a rampant change of definition of the Zanskarpa according to themselves because “in isolation, the individual […] is lost in belonging. Men, in an identical operation, that of giving, confirm to one another that they are not things” (Lefort, 1951: 1415).19 Thus, the Zanskarpa who have spent time outside the valley have experienced different belongings that are not understood by their own parents; this can be seen when back in Zanskar to the extent that these young generations try to involve the old generation in this new hierarchy of value. Yet this phenomenon might not be completed at once; it may be observable to a researcher in social anthropology only after several decades. Thus we are witness to a gradual but inexorable change in the way Zanskarpa define their community identity. 19

« dans la solitude, l’individu […] est perdu dans les appartenances. […] Les hommes, en une opération identique, celle du don, se confirment les uns les autres qu’ils ne sont pas des choses » (Lefort, 1951 : 1415).

Chapter 3

Building Community Identity through the Exchange of Goods Historically speaking, economic exchange and the monetary value of those goods exchanged, especially along the summer Silk Road which runs through the upper Indus Valley in the northeast of the federal state of Jammu and Kashmir, was a tightly integrated part of the social and political network of society in the Zanskar Valley (Polanyi, 1977: 16).1 Until very recently, far from being the privilege of the higher levels of society whose power of autonomy was based on their capacity for agricultural production, money was used only by and for the lower levels of Zanskari society. Zanskari society is a Buddhist-Muslim society, which is tightly structured in four main strata (rgyal po – kings, blon po – lords, phal pa – ordinary people, mgar ba or lag shes – blacksmiths). The Sunni Muslims are part of the “ordinary people”. The Buddhists, Mahayana (mainly Gelugpa) followers, comprising the aristocratic stratum, “ordinary people” (mostly farmers), and the clergy even today still believe that the people of the lowest stratum (blacksmiths and musicians) cannot take part in the exchange and circulation of money for commodities derived from agriculture such as (S)nganphe (tsampa) (roasted barley flour) or butter, because they are “too dirty”. The only way that they can have a role in the circulation of goods is by using cash. However, since 1970, paid civil servants have received their pay directly in cash at the end of each month. In addition, the development of tourism since 1990, the arrival of electricity and a telephone line during the same period and, in 2009, the opening of two Internet cafés in Padum have sped up the flow of cash. The effects of the integration of exchange and the circulation of goods into the Indian monetary economy have become tangible today, since the ability to procure manufactured goods by being integrated into the Indian monetary exchange system has become synonymous with social success. This chapter proposes to show how the integration of cash exchange (rupees) into the daily life of the Zanskarpa has not only caused a semantic change in 1 From the article published in 2017, “Traditional and modern crossing process exchange in a Buddhist–Muslim society, Case studied: the Zanskar valley in the great Indian Himalayas” In special Issue Religious diversity in Asia Edited by Lionel Obadia, Approaching Religion, Vol. 7, No. 1, April 2017, Helsinki, pages 32–45.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2023 | doi:10.1163/9789004548244_0

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Figure 14 Main bazar, Padum. July 2017

the term “wealth”, shifting from the ability to produce farm products to the ability to procure manufactured goods, but has also enabled better control of the territory by the Indian State through the integration of the Zanskarpa into the Rupee monetary exchange circuit. Then it shows how the seasonal usage of money, which is part of a social and geographical space, has led to a reconfiguration of economic life in Zanskar that is contributing to a redefinition of how Buddhists and Muslims consider themselves as part of Zanskari society, and the place of Zanskar society in the federal democratic state of India. Therefore, how goods and green or stamped money are exchanged impact and is impacted by the religious diversity of the population of Zanskar, which itself is not immune to influences emanating from the wider social, political and economic environment. 1

Money in Zanskar: From Production to Circulation

As we just mentioned above, Muslims are excluded today from a part of current exchange, namely tourism. However, they still take part in the traditional production and circulation of agricultural products and livestock, which is the base of the common communal identity building.

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The Production and Management of Vegetable and Livestock Currency Is a Woman’s Affair As mentioned earlier, two currencies from farming circulate in Zanskar, (S)nganphe (tsampa) (roasted barley flour) and butter. It has been this way since “time immemorial” as the historian Janet Rivzi (1999: 130) put it in her work on the trade routes across Ladakh. These two agricultural commodities have specific production methods in terms of technique, calendar and people.

1.1

1.1.1 The Production of ‘(S)nganphe (tsampa)’ Because of the geographical location of the Zanskar Valley, barley is at the foundation of all foodstuffs. This quick-growing spring cereal thrives where the weather conditions and the altitude allow the Zangskapas to work the land only from May to September, while the rest of the year the ground is frozen or covered in snow. This cereal is consumed in different forms (as flour made from cooked or uncooked grain, or else as grilled grain) and prepared in many different ways (as soup, compact flour balls, porridge, bread, dough) depending on the situation (every day or festive meals). The management of the grain stocks is only carried out by women. Each family has its own fields, often close to the home, and each family sows, grows and harvests its own cereal. In order to do this, each home brings out its dry toilets2 in April in order to mix human waste with the earth on the fields. This transfer of the soil-enriching agent is carried out by all members of the household (men, women and children); however, enriching the soil is only carried out by the women. They mix together the two substances with their bare feet, before the enriched earth is then spread over the fields. The manure is carried on the women’s backs in wicker baskets reserved for this annual purpose. Depending on the configuration of the household, the women might be helped by the men of the household to spread manure on the fields once it has been prepared. For this operation, one or two cows or bullocks (depending of the wealth of the house) are attached to a plough and the women and/or men plough the field. The men sow the furrowed ground with seed saved by the women from the previous year’s harvest. This task, which brings together both the women and the men, is usually followed by work carried out predominantly by women: picking the seed, 2 Zanskari houses are special in that they have a room upstairs with a relatively narrow rectangular opening overlooking the empty room on the ground floor. This opening is used for relieving oneself. The feces fall into the room below and each person covers them in earth or ashes when they have finished but water or paper are never used.

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weeding the fields and watching over the harvest. Finally, in the middle of summer towards the end of August the barley is harvested. The women, mostly, line up across the field and advance, crouched down with billhooks in their hands to cut the barley at the base of its stem. The harvested barley is then left where it is in the sun to dry and is turned regularly to remove the moisture and to stop it from going mouldy. The lines of cut barley are then rolled up and transported in 50kg bales by the women on their backs and placed on the flat roof of their house. It is here that the barley is trampled, the chaff is thus removed and aired either by using a clog-shaped sieve or a two-pronged fork. It is then sorted. The remains (bran and stalks) are kept to feed the animals in winter and are stored directly on the roof, thus also helping to insulate the houses. Once this is done, the family sends for a woman who is recognised for her skill to come and grill the barley grain without bursting it. This operation is long and tiring and requires the person to have large flat frying pans in which she puts a layer of sand that is heated over a fire outside the house. To this she adds grain, and stirs the mixture using a whisk with a handle and sieves the sand regularly in order to check if the grain has cooked. Once the grain is grilled, it is poured into 70 litre bags which are then transported to the water

Figure 15 Woman carrying barley, August 2009

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Figure 16 Working the fields in Karsha, July 2011

mill. These collective water mills belong to no one single person and their number is independent of the number of inhabitants in the village and directly dependent on the number of rivers. Each household takes its turn according to the social stratum to which it belongs (nobility, ordinary people or blacksmiths and musicians). These mills require no human presence, as a funnel-shaped bag is hung from the ceiling with its narrow opening positioned just a few centimetres from the mill stone, which enables a slow and regular flow of grain. The ground barley is gathered around the edge of the mill stone or also falls to the ground and is picked up by each owner. The bags of barley flour are then placed in the larder of each house under the responsibility of the oldest woman in the household, who has also put aside a part of the barley grain for sowing the following year. The other part is used for food or sometimes as money. 1.1.2 The Production of Butter This currency of animal origin coming from Zanskar is used for export trade (Rivzi, 2001 [1999]: 40). It is moved around mostly in winter because of the weather, as summer temperatures can reach 30 to 40°C in the sun, which prohibits the transportation of butter over long distances. During the summer,

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Figure 17 Woman making roasted barley, September 2011

Figure 18 Woman sifts the roasted barley, September 2011

Chapter 3

Building Community Identity through the Exchange of Goods

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Figure 19 Water mill, July 2007

the butter is stored in the larder of each household and thus kept at a constant temperature of around 10°C. The production of butter in the summer (and the management of butter stocks) is also left to the women. When summer arrives, the dzo (a cross between a (male) yak and a cow or a dri3 and a bull) are taken up to the mountain pastures (doksa), where they stay until September. The women milk the cows every morning. The milk acquired is then used for many different things. It is used every day for making sweet or savoury tea or yoghurt (djo) and butter, or cheese made from the whey, a by-product of making butter. The different milks of the household are neither mixed together, nor added to each other from one day to the next and each woman in each household is responsible for watching over this. The milk used for making butter is put into a large, covered receptacle, which today is largely made from white metal. As the cream starts to form, the woman places the churn and the churning whisk as near to the cosmogonic axis (central pillar) of the house as possible4 (Dollfus, [1989] 2005: 135; Deboos, 2010: 46). This operation often takes up to a day as once the cream has been churned, the lump of fresh butter is placed in a cloth and hung to drain. The 3 A dri or drimo is a female yak. 4 Each house has a central axis, which symbolises its relation with the cosmos.

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whey is then heated to boiling point. At this stage, a gelatinous layer forms on the surface. This layer is drained and the women use their fingers to form small flat cakes which are then laid out on a canvas on the ground to dry in the sun. These cakes are called chhurphe (cheese) and are added to soups made from (S)nganphe (tsampa). Finally, the remaining liquid is kept and fed to the calves.

Figure 20 Churning butter, July 2017

Figure 21 Butter churn, July 2015

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Figure 22 (1–2) Lumps of fresh butter, July 2015

2

Currency Circulation and Social and Territorial Reconfiguration

The Zanskarpa use two calendars for each year for exchange depending on whether it is winter or summer and if the exchange is within or outside the valley. The circulation of agricultural or cash currency depends on the location of the exchange. If this exchange takes place outside the valley – such as on the Penzi La pass, Umasi La pass or Charchar La pass, even on the market in Kargil or Leh – the currency used can be of two types: agricultural produce or cash. When the exchange takes place within the valley, the currency traditionally used is agricultural produce. As blacksmiths and musicians belong to the lowest stratum of society, they are considered to be “dirty” [‘(r)tsogpo’], and are thus excluded from the exchange of agricultural currency. They are only paid in cash (rupees). An obvious issue is then to understand how the other strata can obtain cash currency to be able to pay musicians and blacksmiths, who still occupy an important place in exchange as they take part in ritual ceremonies (weddings, New Year, festivals, protection etc.). 2.1 A Look into Past Exchange: Type and Place Different written sources (journals, autobiographies, accounts) such as the Tarikh-I-Rashidi or the Tarikh Jammun, Kashmir, Laddakh aur Baltistan enable

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us to affirm that the Zanskar Valley, although south of the salt and silk caravan route going through the upper Indus Valley, participated in exchange as early as the 17th century (Hashmatullah Khan Lakhnavi, Khan, Hashmatullah, 1939; Dughlat Mirza Muhammad Haidar, 1973), even though foreign traders never entered the valley. This trade took place at the mountain passes or on squares in Leh, Kargil and Manali (Deboos, 2010: 27). Following the partition of India in 1947, the Zanskarpa continued to travel mostly on foot (Deboos, 2010: 29), often remaining away all winter as they worked on road construction sites along the border with Pakistan, only coming back in the springtime to work the fields. They would earn 1 Rupee per day (Deboos, 2010: 30). During the summer season, travel was mostly towards Kargil and Manali to buy manufactured goods, foodstuffs and salt. In the winter months for three weeks in January and February, the Tsarap river froze over and was called Chadar and enabled trade in wood with butter often used as currency (Rivzi, 2001: 130–134). Zanskar had a particular status in intra-regional trade exchange. This valley, which at first sight seems to be a cul-de-sac, could be entered via paths from the North (Penzi La pass), from the East (Umasi La pass), from the West (Chachar La pass) and from the South (Singo La pass), but only during 4–5 months of the year due to the amount of snow in winter. Despite this, Zanskar occupied an important position in grain export (Drew, [1875] 1975: 284; Rivzi, 2001: 117) and cattle over the Umasi La pass (Deboos, 2010: 29; Rivzi, 2001: 126), and in the import of rice and wood across the Chadar or over the Singo La pass. Thus, far from being isolated, the Zanskar Valley has been both “in and out” of trade for more than three centuries and is currently undergoing internationalisation through open economic exchange with adjacent valleys. This exchange takes place during the summer between June and October and for three weeks in the winter months between mid-January and mid-February. The Zanskarpa participate in trade as exporters of certain commodities (barley, butter, cattle and pashmina wool) and importers of transformed consumable goods (salt, sugar, rice, kerosene, wood and manufactured goods). This is how salt was procured from the caravans which stopped at the mountain passes (Tanze, Lampa, Tchangpa) along the borders of the valley. The vessels were rudimentary and included earthenware vases for water, stone cooking pots and wooden cups (kore). The pots used to store food were made locally by the blacksmith (lag shes) using silver or copper found in the Tsarap or Zanskar rivers in Zanskar. The large covered pots or demijohn-shaped pots came from Shilling. The prices of all the above-mentioned products were fixed in Indian rupees and could be paid in roasted barley flour and in butter by weight equivalent.

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Figure 23 Circulation of agricultural currency and cash

If trade was in cattle, the higher prices were paid in “multiple currencies” as Georges Condominas (1989) developed in his article. The Zanskarpa traded cattle during the summer over the Umasi La mountain pass. The buyers came from the Padar valley with some 50 head of cattle to sell for meat or for producing milk. Some cattle loaded with bags of rice or lentils or bales of wool were then exchanged for barley, pashmina goats and sheep. Finally, religious books, particularly for the Muslims as each family possesses a copy of the Quran, were imported from ‘Industan’ (nowadays Pakistan) and were paid for in metal (silver or gold) collected in the rivers of Zanskar but never in vegetable foodstuffs ((S)nganphe (tsampa)) or animal foodstuffs (butter) and even less so cash (rupees). Exchanges in Zanskar Today: Tourism and the Normalisation of Goods The importance of trade in the neighbouring valleys, in the past and today, is widely revealed in texts and historical documents. Still today, the Zanskarpa affirm that a certain number of manufactured or non-transformed goods (in particular livestock) are acquired either over the mountain passes or directly in Kargil, Leh, Manali and Srinagar by themselves or are brought back by acquaintances. However, the road suitable for motor vehicles from Padum to Kargil which opened in 1980 has changed consumption trends by allowing the opening of small shops, something that had never existed as such in the valley before. Today, trucks driven by Sikhs come from the plains and Kashmir during the 2.2

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summer to supply the shops with fruit and vegetables, goats and building timber from the forests in Kashmir, since the Water and Forestry Office in the district only sells wood for heating purposes. Furthermore, both in the capital and in the different villages in the valley, domestic equipment has completely changed. New cooking utensils have replaced the cooking pot cut from volcanic stone that was used exclusively in the past, the copper ladle (tombu) from Shilling, wooden bowls (kore) whose shapes and sizes differed according to the usage (for drinking tea or eating soup) and the gender of the owner. Today, metal saucepans and dishes from Srinagar are displayed on the shelves in the main room. Hammered copper and brass stewing pots from Amritsar are purchased for rupees and offered as wedding presents. Only some small hammered copper and brass instruments are still produced by the blacksmith (lag shes) in Padum. Similarly, china teacups and thermoses today come from China and are bought and sold at the market in Leh for rupees. Finally, in homes, the traditional stove is still very often present and boasts two burners fired by butane gas bottles sold and paid for in rupees at the market in Padum. Concerning methods of payment for goods acquired or being acquired, the Zanskarpa give very different answers according to how the good is being acquired (transfer from another family member, from an acquaintance or from a trader from outside the valley). Certain old trade routes which are still active, like the one over the Umasi La mountain pass, enable the transfer of baby goats and cattle from the Paddar Valley in Kashmir to the Zanskar Valley from June to October. These are then taken to the abattoirs in Kargil in the Suru Valley. According to field data from 2011, a yak is worth between 20,000 and 25,000 rupees in Zanskar, between 10,000 and 12,000 rupees on the Umasi La pass and between 15,000 and 18,000 rupees in Kargil. At the market in Kargil, demand is said to be inelastic as volatility in cattle prices does not influence demand in the Suru Valley (district of Kargil). This is because demand is constant (high population density) and the production of local cattle is low. However, in the Paddar Valley in Kashmir, where a large part of the population are Shaivites and a smaller part Buddhist and so vegetarian, the cattle are used to work the fields and demand is limited. This circumstance and the law of supply and demand obliges the Zanskarpa to accept greater fluctuations in purchase price on the Umasi La pass, which depends on local demand especially at the market in Ganhār for example. Finally, when cattle are sold to the Zanskarpa, they can reach very high prices as demand here is also inelastic, cattle being used both to work in the fields and for food. Furthermore, given that the Paddar Valley is devoid of small shops and that a cash economy is almost non-existent, the objective of exchange at the Umasi

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La pass is not to obtain paper money but to procure goods such as grain and cheese from Zanskar. These grain and barter products are well-known in this area because of the skilled production and the high quality of the milk thanks to the high quality of the grass (average 3500m altitude). The recent cash economy is a limited phenomenon here and has developed only over the last 50 years. Therefore, prices fluctuate enormously and depend more on the availability of agricultural or cash currency and on the supplier and the buyer, than on a rational relationship between buying and selling at a fixed price. The second objective of this exchange is to maintain relations between families in the two valleys, since Buddhist families in villages at the foot of the Umasi La pass have created alliances through marriage with Zanskari families or have sent some of their children to monasteries in Karsha and Zangla in Zanskar. Here, “solidarity is safeguarded by customs and tradition; economic life is embedded in the social and political organisation of society” (Karl Polanyi, 1977: 16). Trade over the Umasi La pass has in fact always been open to relations with Kashmir and has for a long time ensured that the ancient kingdoms in Zanskar were not subject to armed invasions.5 Still today, certain forms of traditional trade are still active: for example, the trade in horses during the spring and summer, and the trade in butter during winter along the frozen river (Rivzi, 1999: 130). Zoubida, a 40-year old mother from Padum, explained to me that before the shop was opened in Padum in the 1980s/90s, the families living in Zanskar used to exchange their products known for having a long shelf-life (butter, cheese, roasted barley flour and horses), for fresh products from Leh (fruit and vegetables). We can note that today, two types of exchange exist: the first using agricultural currency and the second using cash. These exchanges change over the course of the year depending on the season. However, over recent years, the first type of exchange using agricultural currency has been slowly disappearing with the rise of the second type of exchange in which the circulation of rupees has resulted in the standardisation of the value of circulating goods. Following various conflicts with China and Pakistan, which have shaken this frontier region since the division of India in 1947, the Indian government has slowly been strengthening its military and administrative presence, which has injected money (rupees) into the area. Since 1979, the district of Kargil has administered several tehsil (administrative units) including the Zanskar Valley: this has led the administration to place personnel in the valley by naming a judge, an accountant and a secretary, a development that has in turn has 5 Over the centuries, no armed invasions over the Umasi La pass have been reported by historians (Bray, 2005; Crook and Osmaston, 1994).

64 Table 5

Chapter 3 The seasonality of currency

Summer Agricultural currency (S)nganphe (tsampa) Use decreasing Certain goods in isolated villages, especially those produced by craftsmen (shoes and traditional coats)

Winter Cash currency Rupees Increasing circulation Manufactured goods

Agricultural currency Butter All types of goods that can be transported along the Chadar (frozen river)

caused new services to develop: justice, land registry, accountancy and payments, a state-run shop, telecommunications, public buildings and works, health care and sanitary services (a medical centre and a free health centre), education (primary and secondary schools), water and forestry, fishing, a veterinary surgeon and cattle husbandry. Until the 1980s/90s the appointed administrators were only paid during the summer months (from May to October) but since 1999 they have been paid for the entire year. Most administrative personnel coming from Zanskar are paid monthly in cash deposited at a bank in Padum. This money is mainly spent during the summer as shops are closed during the winter. They open again in the summer, like all tourist services. Following this forced saving period, the Zanskarpa make the most of the reopening to procure fresh vegetables, meat and various tools. In 2007, the only bank present in Zanskar was in Padum. This small branch of the Jammu and Kashmir bank opened at the end of the 1970s and had 3,408 personal accounts on its books in July 2007 (134 credit accounts and 3,274 current accounts) for the 13,600 or so inhabitants of Zanskar. The bank director comes from Jammu and is the only Hindu in the valley. In the eyes of the Zanskarpa, the religious affiliation of the bank director is a sign of the Indianisation of the valley. This seasonal split between winter, renowned for its isolation, and the summer, which brings foreign interaction (tourists and semi-sedentary workers, such as shopkeepers and seasonal workers who might be Hindu, Muslims, Buddhists followers) explains the special relationship that Zanskarpa have with cash. In the past, a Zanskarpa’s level in society was closely linked with whether he looked down on cash or not. It was a method of payment which was exclusively reserved for the lower strata, too low down in the social hierarchy to be

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able to take part in the circulation of agricultural currency. Today this relationship is changing due to the number of tourists during the summer and the development of structures for tourism in the region, alongside the presence of the army, the development of sponsored schools, and the building of roads which have allowed the seasonal migration of Nepalese and people from Bihar. The director of the bank and the accountant in charge of the “accounting and pay” department in the administration of the tehsil have reported that cash currency does not leave Zanskar in winter. The bank director sends hand-delivered letters to the people who require paper currency when passage along the frozen river opens. The people involved go to the Jammu and Kashmir bank in Leh and pick up their cash there. As Zanskar is cut off from the outside world in winter it is important to keep cash currency inside the region to pay the salaries of administrative agents and meet any exceptional requests of people with an account at the Padum branch. Furthermore, when an individual wants to invest in transferable assets or property, he rarely uses the financial services of the bank but prefers to call upon his family and friends to help him out. This ethnographical example shows that solidarity is always placed in the religious group, but much less so in an inter-religious relationship. This form of solidarity still continues today between the inhabitants of Padum. If a person wants to acquire something but does not possess the amount required to buy it, friends and family will come together to lend him the money he needs. This assistance is limited geographically and can concern both cash and agricultural produce. If the harvest is bad, a household will be lent the grain required to sow its fields the following year. Whereas this method

Figure 24 Circulation of currencies since 1980

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of community help was not used only by people of the same religious confession but simply between people in the same locality up until the elections in 2008, it is today prevalent that lenders prefer to lend to people of the same religious confession. This change impacts directly on the currency exchange circuits, whether cash or agricultural. Following the local elections in 2008 concerning the Parliament from Kargil, the split between the local community and others along religious lines became apparent: a person coming from place X and of religion Y needed to borrow some money. He would first ask his friends and family living in place X whatever their religion and they would all, as far as possible, rally around to help him. If this help was not sufficient, then the person would ask acquaintances from places other than place X but of religion Y. After the elections in 2008, a person coming from place X and of religion Y needs to borrow some money. He first asks his friends and family living in place X, taking into account their religious confession. If this help was not sufficient, then the person would ask acquaintances from places other than place X but of the same religious confession Y. This reality is today embodied by a small part of each religious community, whose heritage is high social status, as part of noble strata within the Buddhist group, or land owners and farmers in the Muslim group, as the following ethnographic example shows: Shamsat Din tells us how he was able to make his fortune in Padum, which was previously unthinkable for the Zanskarpa. This Muslim Zanskarpa accountant has been in charge of the accounting and payments department in Zanskar since its creation in 1979 and is today the owner of a hotel, a bed and breakfast and commercial premises. In 1983, when the first tourists started arriving, they had nowhere to stay so they would knock on doors to find a place to sleep. So Shamsat Din had the idea of turning his home into a bed and breakfast and, with time, he saved enough to build a hotel in 1987. Shamsat says he received a loan of 5,000 USD for the building from a German photographer acquaintance and friend of the family who had been coming to Zanskar regularly since 1970. Lured by profit and the principle of amassing wealth, he invested in the construction of commercial premises on part of the fields he owned along the road to the bazar in Padum. As it seemed that “tourists prefer to buy from Buddhists”, these premises are rented to Buddhists from Ladakh or Manali. During the course of the last 50 years, exchange in Zanskar has slowly changed. In the past, both intra-stratum and inter-household relations were respected, and the circulation of agricultural currency was encouraged. Today the arrival of a market economy shows how Karl Polanyi’s observations are still applicable, especially when he wrote that individual will, regarding market

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access and activity, “is motivated in the last resort by two simple incentives, the fear of hunger and the hope of gain” (Polanyi, 1977: 47). Given these marked differences in respect to the emergence of religious separatism in the area, the communities of Zanskar are privileged cases for a comparative study of the conditions under which multi-religious communities have subordinated different world-religious identities (Buddhist, Muslim) in the interest of communal cohesion; and then, as a consequence, they sacrificed such a communal cohesion to the interests of an absolute world religious identity. Further to the developments and ethnographic facts described above, this example shows how both family relationships and political and religious systems are markers of a semantic shift among the Zanskarpa concerning the importance of currency circulation. Before the state administration arrived in Zanskar, currency circulation (agricultural or cash) occurred in varying ways according to the goods exchanged and the individual context. When the people involved were part of the lower stratum, cash was used. Today, the fear of shortage has encouraged the Zanskarpa to generalise the use of rupees in order to be part of a much wider exchange circuit. This includes standardising the value of exchanged goods using a system where the price is often displayed by the State directly on the item concerned. Using this ‘maximum rate for retail’ label, the State of India fixes the price of certain foodstuffs and manufactured goods permanently.6 We should also note that there is a direct link between the changes in the Zanskari community identity (Deboos, 2013, 2014) and what “Margaret Mead has described […] as the man ‘belonging’ to the piece of land rather than the land to the man” (Polanyi, 1977: 51). The ethnographic research described in this chapter shows how a society based on status (‘Status’) has shifted into a contractual society (‘Contractus’) (Polanyi, 1977: 48). 3

An Identity in Motion: The Impact of the Monetary Economy and Globalisation on Politics and Religion

3.1 A Valley Standing at the Crossing of Migratory and Tourist Traffic As stated previously, the Zanskar Valley stretches over 7000km² at an average altitude of 3600m. It is surrounded by mountain passes, the highest of which 6 Over the next few years, the development and standardisation of exchange in rupees for goods using the State-recommended retail prices will give us a clearer indication of the extent to which the local market in Zanskar has integrated into the economy of the State of India.

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Figure 25 Police check-point in Abran-Zanskar. July 2015

is at 5300m. Zanskar is entrenched between the Himalaya and the Karakoram ranges to the south of the Indus Valley and the Suru Valley. Winter, which keeps Zanskarpa in seclusion from October to May, confines agricultural activities to summer, when they are able to stock up on grains, fuel (dried cattle dung) and dried meat for winter consumption. Since 1980, a passable road links Padum, the valley’s capital, and Kargil, the district’s capital. In the aftermath of the 1947 Indian Partition, the Zanskar Valley was attached to the Jammu and Kashmir State, on the border of China, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and was involved in the Sino-Indian wars, the last of which ended in 1963 without the signing of a peace treaty between the two countries. It also took part in the Indo-Pakistan wars, the last of which had Kargil as a frontline in 1999, and ended in the summer of the same year with a ceasefire treaty. However, the Zanskar Valley was left relatively unscathed by these border conflicts. The region was closed to tourism until the nineties and is categorised as a restricted area by the Indian administration. However, since the end of the war in Kargil in 1999, the passable road allows for a growing population movement. It brings with it the movement of seasonal workers, the younger generations of Zanskarpa and tourists. In August 2011, the labourers (Nepalese, Biharis, Kashmiris and Punjabis, among others) numbered roughly 300 in the fields around Padum, not to mention those hired in villages such as Karsha, Zangla or Stongday that the motorable road reaches. This very year, the police

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forces told me that the number of labourers in Zanskar, working for the Public Works Department (PWD), was estimated to have reached around 3000. However, none of them spend the winter in Zanskar. As a matter of fact, on 7 November 2004, as I was about to spend the winter in Padum, the last ten Kashmiris workers were leaving the valley. Through state scholarships and/or private funding, the number of Zanskari families sending their children to study in Kargil, Leh, Manali, Srinagar, Jammu, Dehra Dun or even sometimes Delhi, is gradually increasing. These youngsters leave their parents at the end of August or in early September, to return only the next year for the summer holidays. These seasonal migrations that take place every year give an opportunity for their families, individually or as groups, to undertake pilgrimages, either Buddhist or Muslim, in Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Punjab or Kashmir, to mention just a few locations. Since 2000, tourists have been flocking to Zanskar to cross the ranges of the same name. These tourists were at first mostly Westerners but some now are also Indians. Many families from Mumbai, Delhi or Kolkata, who wish to go further than the outskirts of the Himalaya in the states of Himachal Pradesh or Uttaranchal reach Leh and hire taxis to reach Padum in July and August. They plan to visit the monasteries and shrines (sacred lakes, hermit caves and so on) in Ladakh, Nubra Valley and Zanskar. 3.1.1 Seasonal Movements in Zanskar Seasonal immigration and emigration in Zanskar involves Zanskarpa, tourists and Indian or Nepalese seasonal workers. As it lies off the Silk Road, the Zanskar Valley was not normally on the track of merchants’ caravans. However, this valley, while surrounded by 4200m and 5300m high mountain passes, was never isolated from the commercial exchanges taking place in Ladakh (Deboos, 2010: 25). For instance, right after the partition of India in 1947, the Zanskarpa organised themselves to join crews that were building roads in the region of Kishtwar in the State of Jammu and Kashmir near the Pakistani border. The Zanskari workers, often of the Muslim faith, left their families at the beginning of winter, climbed the Omasi La Pass (5300m), and travelled through the Paddar Valley to get to the roadworks (Deboos, 2010: 27). These men, who were able to read, write and speak Urdu had no trouble finding a job. Decades after decades, these men’s Muslim families established friendly relationships with other Kashmiri Muslim families. Today, the young generations who want to go to university in Srinagar or Jammu may count on the hospitality of such families. These friendly relationships reduce schooling costs, therefore making it is easier for young Muslims from the Zanskar to obtain university degrees. Through this social network, young Zangskapas Muslims also find it easier

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Figure 26 Seasonal workers – main bazar, Padum. August 2009

to obtain the administrative papers required to enter the civil service. These bonds between families of the two valleys are fostered by the Islamic law of assistance (zakat) especially between people sharing the same religious beliefs. Zangskapas Buddhists did not create such a social network with inhabitants in Jammu or Srinagar. However, they enjoy special bonds with families in Leh or Manali. These relationships have both matrimonial and commercial origins. There is no university, unfortunately, in either of these towns where schooling stops at the twelfth grade. Therefore, when young Zangskapas Buddhists want to continue their studies at university, they need to entirely provide for themselves financially. These costs are often far beyond the means of the poor families of Zanskar. For this reason Zangskapas Muslims do better at the higher levels of the local civil service. Padum’s central location in the Zanskar Valley brings some balance. It allows for faster commercial growth and stronger seasonal migration. Padumpa have better access to schooling than people in the rest of the valley. Foreign working migrants (guides, agricultural or public work labourers), as well as the Indian or Western tourists talk to Zanskarpa mainly in Hindi and Urdu. Padumpa are obliged to speak Urdu and Hindi to keep their trading sustainable. Zanskarpa perceive Urdu not only as the official language necessary to advance in the civil service, but also as the trading language, and the means to establish relationships with people from outside the valley. They are thus pressed to make use of adequate terms of address and reference.

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3.1.2 The Rise of Trade in Zanskar since 1980 Political instability in Nepal has pushed a number of trekkers fascinated with the Himalayan range to choose to trek in Zanskar instead of around the Annapurna circuit. In addition, with the opening of the road between Padum and Kargil in the 1980s, and the increase of tourism in Ladakh since 2000, Zanskar is now the subject of special attention, and new human activities are gradually changing the landscape of the valley as well as the behaviour of its inhabitants. Thus, in summer, travel agencies in Leh record peak activity, with the strong predominance of twenty-day expeditions. Apart from crossing Zanskar from Lamayuru to Darsha (Himachal Pradesh), another expedition from Lamayuru to Padum is in great demand. From July, the agencies charter four-wheel drive taxis to Lamayuru, where horses (with their owners, often Zangskapas) wait for tourists, ready to their carry food and sleeping equipment during the expedition. In order to guide them, Nepalese come to offer their services. The carriers, often Sherpas, are Nepalese, or else Ladakhi or Zangskapas. These expeditions do not end until early fall (late September), when snow starts to cover the passes and the cold sets in. This tourist flow brings with it development at the points of supply, in particular in Padum, a village located either halfway, or at the end of the trek. Thus, from July to the end of September, shopkeepers from Leh and Kargil rent stalls at Padum market. At the same time, hotel activity expands, with many hotels and guest houses owned or managed by Buddhists. Seasonal economic activity thus seems to benefit Buddhists at first sight. Indeed, when tourists are asked about their representations of the Himalayas, many speak of “Buddhist country”, or “Buddhist land”. Also, when they arrive in Padum and see a mosque, many of them think these Muslims to be Kashmiri invaders. Some are even surprised to discover that the Muslims of Padum are physically closer to Buddhists than Kashmiris. Through their attitude and their rejection of people of the Muslim faith, tourists support the Buddhist fundamentalist movements in Ladakh. This western idea of a “Buddhist land where the inhabitants are pacifists” was the starting point for the recent development of a Ladakhi regionalist feeling. In fact, Leh travel agencies prefer to employ Buddhist taxi drivers and porters. The same is true for Buddhist hotels which are widely booked by such agencies. This conspicuous favouritism causes a misunderstanding among the Muslim population of Zanskar, especially since no clear explanation is ever given. In addition, the rise of tourism has affected the development of rupees and other currency exchange in Zanskar. In order to carry out these treks, before departure, tourists pay the sum of the daily packages to the travel agencies in Leh, and these themselves pay the guides, porters, owners of horses and the hotels and guest houses. When the trekkers arrive in Padum, they feel they

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Figure 27 Tourism in Zanskar between 1990 and 2019

Chapter 3 1990 1995 2000 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

1109 622 157 1773 1257 2214 2225 2333 2761 1799 2843 48832 49025 61800 62873 100760 108579 76536

66 19 31 399 495 335 453 86 468 635 770 423 353 383 134 738 979 583

Figure 28 Foreign and Indian tourists in Zanskar between 2013 and 2019

do not have to spend money for anything locally, since supplies and sleeping arrangements have already been the subject of financial transactions. However, the people employed by travel agencies are preferably Buddhists. Thus, this religious favouritism in hiring constitutes the breeding ground for a religious rift where Muslims would favour Muslims and Buddhists, with the disappearance of the community spirit defined by the natives. This division of the Padum community into two religious communities is only the importation of the cleavage already visible and lived in Ladakh. Of course, tourists are not the only responsible party, as different considerations converge. On the one hand, the image conveyed by Ladakh highlights the beauty of Buddhist monasteries, and the originality of this land still preserved from “modernity”. On the other hand, the craze in the West for the Tibetan cause and the strong media campaign of the Dalai Lama’s message of peace associate “Tibet – Himalayas – Buddhism”. Finally, the strong desire of local

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Figure 29 Tourist taking a selfie with young Buddhist boys. Karsha festival. July 2017

travel agencies to be competitive in the tourist market pushes them to meet the demands that are explicitly or implicitly formulated by Westerners. Therefore, to be certain that tourists will continue to visit Zanskar in summer, Zanskarpa organise their activities to conform to the expectations of tourists. Thus, the guesthouses run by Muslim families are given the names of local animals or plants, as in the case of the D-Yak Guesthouse run by Iqbal and Zoubida. It took several months and long conversions in which I took part as a Westerner who was “respectful of Muslims,” according to Meme Abdul Aziz, before settling on the final choice of ‘D-Yak Guesthouse’. This story started after Meme Abdul Aziz died. The familial house and courtyard were split between him and his elder sister, and the cattle were given to the youngest sister. The eldest sister already built a house in the courtyard on the edge of the main house, and the main house remained with Iqbal. Then, Iqbal decided to renovate the main house in order to open a guesthouse. At this point, it should be recalled that Iqbal is a member of staff of the tourism office in Padum, and is therefore informed about new tourist policies as well as the advertising strategies of tourist agencies from Leh. Armed with this information, he asked me to create a webpage to advertise his hotel. He wanted me to mention only the location but not the family, because “tourists will not come if they get to know about the religious affiliation of the family,” he said. Then, in the years after these transformations, Arif, Iqkal’s first son, took

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Figure 30 (1–2) New D Yak guest house – rooms with en-suite bathrooms. Padum. July 2015

Bedroom

Bathroom

Bedroom

Latrines Storage room

Wood ladder

Sink Central Pillar Traditional stove Windows

Bedroom Main room:

Function room (only used for special occasions)

E N

S W

Kitchen and Terrace and Stairway

1 meter

Figure 31 Drawing of the first floor of Meme Abdul Aziz’s house in 2004

charge of the web page, and even created a new one in English on Facebook.7 Iqbal is not the only one to do so in Padum; most of the families, Buddhists and Muslims, when they decide to transform their home into a guesthouse or hostel, do the same: creating an internet address and a webpage to diffuse information mainly in English about new opportunities for tourists in Padum. Furthermore, all the websites mention that the hotels they advertise are able to offer services such as guides, porters, taxi and so forth. 7 https://www.facebook.com/TheYakGuestHouse/.

Building Community Identity through the Exchange of Goods

Fenced outdoor courtyard

Grand-parents and children’s Bedroom

Cowpat storage

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Coal Downstairs latrines Goat and sheep barn

Wood ladder

Sink Windows Central Pillar Traditional stove

Food Storage

Manger Cowshed

Main room: Kitchen and living room

Figure 32 Drawing of the entresol of Meme Abdul Aziz’s house in 2004

Family Bedroom

Family Bedroom

Storage room

Bathroom Latrines Stairs

Guesthouse Bedroom

Sink Gas stove Central Pillar Windows

Family Bedroom

Guesthouse Bedroom

E N

S W

Main room: Kitchen and living room

Function room (only used for special occasions)

1 metre

Figure 33 Drawing of the first floor of D-Yak guesthouse in 2019

While this illustrates the efforts of the Zanskarpa to reach a global market, it also shows how tourists who book with travel agencies in Leh might ask for one or another guesthouse in Zanskar without knowing anything about the religion of their host, but will establish contact through social media, and subsequently reassure Indian or Western tourists about the service they can

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Fenced outdoor courtyard

Room for labours

Cowpat storage

Storage room

Guesthouse Bedroom Sink Central Pillar Windows

Room for labours Room for labours

Downstairs Latrines Stairs Main Entrance

Guesthouse Bedroom Guesthouse Bedroom Guesthouse Bedroom

Figure 34 Drawing of the entresol of D-Yak guesthouse, 2019

expect to find. Thus, conforming to tourists’ fantasy is not just about being Buddhist, but involves mobilising Himalayan symbols such as “pashmina”, “yak”, “blue poppy” and “mountain peaks.” Meeting these expectations is the first challenge for Muslims, because, as previously mentioned, tourist agencies give priority to Buddhist hostels, guesthouses, hotels, taxi drivers, porters and guides. Thanks to payment facilities offered by travel agencies, the amount of money – whether rupees, dollars, or euros – in circulation in Zanskar, which was limited until recently, is directly impacted. Despite all the efforts made by the Muslims of Padum, the unreliability of the internet as well and the mobile phone network (which offers no possibility of sending text messages), as well as the limited ability of the younger generation to communicate in English, make competition with the marketing strategies of agencies in Leh very unequal. Thus, the capacity to attract more and more tourists to the newly-built guesthouses, as well as new shops offering facilities such as internet, the area is still under the thumb of travel agencies in Leh, especially because tourists pay almost the entirety the cost of their trip in advance before leaving Leh for Zanskar. Securing political power, or generally being empowered, at a local level means getting money from tourism, which obviously encompasses the local transformation from nyangpa mutual aid, to boto versus kaje mutual aid and support; in other words, the Zanskarpa’s interreligious alliance and support

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from Buddhism versus Muslim alliance and support. Bearing in mind the local multi-religious web of order in Zanskar (Deboos, 2010), as long as Buddhists are in the majority and economically dominant, the relationship between Buddhists and Muslims remains stable. However, it appears that this subtle management of interreligious relationships has become distorted in recent years because of massive Muslim migration from Kashmir, bringing with it people who are appointed to key positions in the administration and local political organisation (such as the lambardar, sub-divisional magistrate). As a result, while Buddhists had been in charge of local policy and political organisation before 1980, they now feel excluded from the decision-making process. This change is all the more difficult to manage as Zanskar alternates between a winter period of eight months of isolation and four months of intense economic exchange, tourist activity and migration of civil servants (coming only for the summer season). Furthermore, in order to match the Westerner’s conception of a “Buddhist land where the inhabitants are pacifists”, private or international tourist agencies or tours prefer to employ Buddhists no matter if they are native to Leh or Zanskar or from Nepal or the Tibetan refugee camps. Therefore, in Padum, Muslims who are building guest houses or hostels or even restaurants, employ, when they have the opportunity, Tibetan refugees or Nepalese to run the business during the tourist season. Nevertheless, the Muslims still fail to understand this preference, and most of their hostels and restaurants are appreciated by Kashmiri and other Indian tourists, but not by international tourists. Consequently, the development of tourism is also directly impacting the amount of money – whether rupees, dollars, or euros – in circulation in Zanskar, which was limited until recently. However, as mentioned earlier, those employed by travel agencies are mostly Buddhists. Thus, this religious favouritism becomes the breeding ground for a religious separation where Muslims favour Muslims and Buddhists favour Buddhists, with the disappearance of the territorially-based communal feeling as defined by the natives. This split of the Padum community into two religious communities has been inherited from a situation that is already prevalent in Ladakh. Of course, tourists are not the only ones responsible, as several different considerations converge. These include the image conveyed by the Ladakh Tourism Office, first, secondly, the strong media coverage of the Dalai Lama’s message of peace and thirdly, the strong desire of local travel agencies to be competitive in the context of a global tourism market. As a result, one of the perverse effects of this unequal economic development between Buddhists and Muslims in Padum is to change the relationship

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that Padumpa have with money. Thus, the increasing number of shops and intensification of exchanges with different cultures gives significance to the image given and perceived through what one possesses. While the exchanges witnessed by the elders testify to relationships of mutual aid, this phenomenon is tending to change. Indeed, there is less and less direct trade of goods, but more and more purchase of goods for cash. This evolution in the behaviour of the Padumpa has led to deep transformations in the relationship that the Zanskarpa have to “having” something; Buddhists and Muslims in Padum embody the relationship that the Padumpa have towards money: the image given and perceived through one’s property has become more significant. They focus more on the power that getting money will give them, than on the possibilities of sharing and mutual aid that it could offer. The Zanskarpa focus more on the power that rupees, dollars, and euros will give them: being able to display their wealth and establish their authority through money becomes the dominant consideration. As long as Buddhists in Zanskar are in the majority and economically predominant, the recognition of Muslim property and administrative power does not endanger the web of order in this multi-religious community. But as the Muslims become more and more numerous, notably because of the policy of hiring administrative personnel from Kashmir, and as they display not only their economic power through the possession of the timber trade and vegetable products from Kashmir at the main bazar in Padum, but become increasingly involved in local policy, it appears that this subtle management of interreligious relationships is becoming distorted: Buddhists feel excluded from the bench of decision makers. 3.2 Political Considerations in the Opening of Zanskar Following the political decisions of the Indian State in the years 1970–1980, roads8 connecting Leh to Srinagar, then Padum to Kargil, were constructed. In fact, the road between Srinagar and Leh follows the old caravan route that once crossed the Himalayan range from Tibet to Kashmir. When the Indo-Pakistani conflict in 1980–1990 resulted in attacks in Kashmir, the Indian state promoted the road between Leh and Manali, thus on the one hand allowing the Indian army to carry the necessary material, and, on the other, enabling Ladakh to continue its tourist development. At the same time, in the face of China’s hegemonic policy, India has closed certain border regions to tourism, asking the army not only to actively defend 8 Jonathan Demenge, ‘The Political Ecology of Road Construction in Ladakh’, Doctoral thesis, University of Sussex, 2011.

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the borders, but also to restrict the seasonal movements of local populations. Leh then became the decision-making centre for military border operations. A military airport was built and several reserve garrisons set up their camps there. Zanskar, considered by the army as a border region, has been the subject of special resolutions since 2002: all civilian satellite devices are prohibited (mobile phones in particular), and the valley is considered as an area under military jurisdiction. This need to control the territory led the Indian State to urge the State of Jammu and Kashmir to establish an administrative centre in Padum, the capital of Zanskar. Moreover, concerned with the modernisation of the valley, the Federal State of Jammu and Kashmir has promoted solar electricity by delivering free solar panels connected to electric batteries. Thus, many Zanskarpa equipped themselves free of charge and discovered the use of electricity in the 1990s. As a result of this modernisation of their daily lives, many Padumpa have transported television sets from Leh. Although the installation of satellite dishes was not allowed, they began to appear on Padum roofs during the late 1990s. At the same time, the inhabitants began buying “made in Taiwan” DVD players that were available for affordable prices at the market in Leh. Moreover, Bollywood film is now gradually coming to Padum. Through songs, dances and humour, this Indian film production spreads the values of an India where non-violence is more an ideal than a reality. After interviews, and according to certain testimonies, the information that the Zanskarpa see on television seems not to make an impression and not to have a palpable reality: several times I was told that all images of war or famine were not true, that it was for television. But, in front of Hollywood films, where synthetic images are incorporated, in particular in scenes of fights, people often admitted to me that they were overawed by the “strength” of the characters. When I tell them that these images are created by computer, they are doubtful and show their scepticism. Thus, the boundary between reality and imagination seems to be shifting. Since learning takes place mainly through sight and observation, this means of communication soon became a pedagogical tool. For some people, this “image box”, an extraordinary window onto a different world, can also have a deleterious effect on social relations in certain groups. Thus, the arrival of television, the values that the Indian or Western films convey, the violence they display and the brutality that they portray as a means of conflict management, are the polar opposite of the values that Zanskarpa would normally learn during their upbringing. Finally, the 2009 elections for the Kargil Ladakh Hill Council seats were the subject of a political awareness campaign addressed through the prism of religious issues. Political parties of Buddhist or Muslim persuasion courted the

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Zanskarpa, challenging in particular the tradition of the story of the arrival of the first Muslims in Padum. Two prominent Buddhist families from Zanskar who enjoy a special prominence because of their status as blon-po (Lord), took an active part in the Ladakh Buddhist Association’s campaign. The fact that the younger members of these families were able to study in Jammu and New Delhi gave them legitimacy with the Zanskarpa, and gave authority to their “enlightened” statements. One morning in July 2009, the Padumpa woke to find the foundations of a stupa that had been built during the night in the central square, a place reserved for taxis and perceived as a communal area. Padum Muslims immediately protested. The following nights, the foundations of a Muslim prayer room were laid, right next to the stupa. Tensions between Buddhists and Muslims became palpable. It was in that year that the Dalai Lama was expected to visit Zanskar in August. Finally, faced with the urgency of the situation, the taxi rank moved to the historic part of Padum, and the building of the stupa and the prayer room were completed. This solution not only heightened religious passions, but also widened the rift between Muslims and Buddhists in Padum.

Figure 35 Buddhist shop – main bazar, Padum. July 2017

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Following the consequences of the election campaign and the election results which favoured the Ladakh Buddhist Association, religious divisions became more deeply embedded. Thus, in October 2012, while 26 Buddhists9 from Zangla and Padum had converted to Islam on 24 September 2012, often out of love, Buddhist families in these villages attacked Muslim families in Padum. This violence resulted in the evacuation to Srinagar of three seriously injured Muslims. Since then, the situation has become calmer again, although Padum could no longer refer to itself as a “community”, as it had in the past.

Figure 36 Vegetable shop – main bazar, Padum. July 2017

9 M Saleem Pandit / TNN, Times of India, 25 October 2012, http://articles.timesoindia.india times.com/2012-10-25/india/34729135_1_town-after-communal-clashes-curfew-converts.

Chapter 4

Religious Faith and Practice Facing a Changing World 1

Targeting with Religious Feeling1

The Zanskar Valley in the Indian Himalayas is at a turning point in its history. After centuries of Buddhist-Muslim marriages, these are now rejected by both religious groups. This chapter addresses the impact of the rise of religious fundamentalism on social regulation and communal negotiation in Padum and in Zanskari society. This is a Tibeto-Burman speaking Himalayan population made up of a majority of Mahayana Buddhists and a minority of Sunni Muslims. Based on ethnographic research conducted through the medium of the Zanskari dialect of Tibetan, the anthropological approach presented here emphases the importance of speech acts, and adopts socio-cultural and psycho-sociological perspectives. It stresses historical and bibliographic investigations as well as research on the latest local political developments. In September 2012, a group of Buddhists had an altercation with Muslim families in Padum. Some of the Muslims were injured. As the Srinagar Daily News and the Economic Times reported the incident, around 26 Buddhists from six families had converted to Islam in the local Jamia Masjid. Of these families, five were residents of Padum and one lived in Zangla. As Muslims from Padum moved around in the market, the Buddhists started a social boycott which ended only in the summer of 2018 after a private talk between the Imam from Padum and the Dalai Lama. But at that time, the Zanskar Buddhist Association, the main party of the majority community, led a campaign against the conversions and then forced the family living in Zangla to return to the Buddhist fold. This chapter will address the impact of the rise of religious fundamentalism on social regulation and communal negotiation through a discussion of different speech acts in Padum and Zanskari society. One morning in December 2004, three years after beginning research in this region, I sat down with the grandfather of the family I was staying with to talk about local history and Muslim families in Padum. In front of everyone, 1 This chapter is a reworked version of the article “Religious fundamentalism in Zanskar, Indian Himalaya” In S. Deboos, J. Demenge and R. Gupta (eds), “Ladakh: Contemporary Publics and Politics”, Himalaya 32, 35–42.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2023 | doi:10.1163/9789004548244_0

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Figure 37 A pir from Baltistan in the house of Iqbal and Zoubida, July 2009

he asked me if I had already been to see the King of Padum (Rgyal po) and Shamsat Din, the senior figure in the oldest Muslim family in Padum. I replied that I had not. A few days later, I went to meet the King of Padum and later Shamsat Din. Both told me the same version of the history of the arrival of the Muslims in Zanskar. The King of Padum also told me about the history of some Buddhist families in Padum and then told me to go and meet the Imam to talk about the Muslim families. Then the grandfather introduced me to the Imam. It was only after these interviews with these dignitaries that the grandfather agreed to talk about local history and other Zanskari families. My anthropological approach uses a socio-cultural and psycho-sociological perspective informed by ethnography, and also stresses the importance of historical and bibliographic investigation, in spite of the relative lack of historical documentation on Zanskar (Friedl 1983). My previous work (Deboos 2010) highlighted the correlation between political experiences and the construction of local history. The accounts provided by Zanskarpa enable us to comprehend this local narrative about history both in the way it is told and perceived, and in the way that it is experienced by most people as a historical reality (Deboos 2010). The history that a community forges for itself about its common past – its traditional history or as Claude Lévi-Strauss call it the myth – holds great importance, and the memories of the successive generations help to constantly reshape or reinforce it.

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Most of my interviews with Zanskarpa in the Zanskari language were preceded by the same question: “Did you ask such-and-such a person before?” I could therefore appreciate how my own “socialization through language, and to use language, consist[ed] of empirically delineable understandings and practices that [were] disseminated across social space and enacted in situated contexts” (Kulick and Schiefflin 2004: 365). Understanding this enabled me to appreciate the role of language and especially speech interactions in Zanskari society (Descombes, 2005: 3). “Words do not merely represent meanings, but rather they fulfil a social function, and that is their principal aim. [One should pay] attention to the give and take of utterances [… and see] language not as an instrument of reflection but as a mode of action” (Keating and Egbert 2009: 169). Speech impacts the Padumpa social network, its organisation as an institution, and its regulation through negotiation. They provide clues to understanding the “web of order” (Pirie, 2002) in this Muslim-Buddhist community. An important fact is that the knowledgeable, erudite speech uttered by the King is recognised by both Buddhists and Muslims in Padum. The Padumpa can be considered as a unit constituted around the King in order to negotiate and avoid social drama (Turner, 1969). Indeed, if speech and words may create tension between people, they also may be considered as powerful tools to organise the community, and the latter attitude was the prevailing one in the early 2000s. Hence speech acts, as an institution and a component of social discourse, become essential in the development and the maintenance of the social network and especially in the building of Buddhist-Muslim relationships within the community. Therefore, knowledge about discourses “is knowledge of ‘social context’ or ‘situation’; and it is knowledge which the individual must have merely to sustain his co-presence with other participants in any ongoing activity, and thus be in a position to speak, let alone speak in a socially appropriate fashion. It is in this respect that an understanding of the regulation of participation can be seen as a necessary aspect of the ethnography of speaking” (Philips 1974: 109). For these reasons in the early 2000s, the inhabitants considered themselves as Padumpa before making reference to their religious affiliation. Zanskarpa usually spoke of their belonging to Padum and Zanskar, and of the importance of locality, which took priority over any religious affiliation. Today, in the very heart of the capital Padum, the growing participation of the Zanskar Valley in the regional political life of Ladakh has given rise to a political transformation. Buddhists and Muslims are changing the ways in which they live their religious affiliation in response to the intensification of economic exchanges concomitant with their political participation. The growing participation of the valley in the political life of the Jammu and Kashmir Federal State places the population right at the centre of religious issues: is Zanskar a Muslim or a Buddhist land?

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Figure 38 Mosque in Padum, built in the 1990s. July 2015

In this context, the recent events described above suggest that being a native of Padum is now becoming less important than the affirmation of religious affiliation. Therefore, I will point out changes related to the rise of new religious fundamentalisms, and show how these affect social regulation through speech acts and the dissemination of knowledge. 1.1 Relationships between Buddhists and Muslims in Padum The Zanskar Valley represents a particular spatiotemporal unit that gives a strong sense of homogeneity on which Padumpa identity has been constructed over time. Within the community of Padum, similarities and differences between Buddhists and Sunni Muslims are, according to circumstances, either stressed or downplayed. Indeed, until recently, a Buddhist father preferred to give his daughter in marriage to a Muslim family rather than see her leave the valley to marry into a Buddhist family elsewhere. Even if this is beginning to change, many Sunni Muslim families still have among them Buddhist women (belonging to different age groups) who have converted to Islam on marriage. In contrast, in the neighbouring valleys such as the Suru and upper Indus Valleys, Buddhists and Muslims live in a state of more or less constant tension: Buddhists and Muslims usually boycott one another’s shops; they avoid visiting each other. In 2006, serious riots arose between Muslim and Buddhist taxi-drivers in Kargil; several drivers were injured and one Buddhist taxidriver from Zanskar died. In Kargil, the two religious groups share the same

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neighbourhoods but have little contact. In the town of Leh, where the majority of the Muslims are Shia, when the Muharram festival time comes, they flagellate themselves in the street. Buddhists condemn such practices, which are against their beliefs and considerations about life. Such practices do not exist in Zanskar where the Muslims are Sunni. Moreover, in Padum, Zanskar, at the end of the month of Ramadan, Buddhists offer a white auspicious scarf (khatak) to Muslims to congratulate them, especially when they are related through inter-religious marriage. In the Zanskar Valley, as far as I could ascertain, significant acts of anti-social behaviour or public violence are so rare that none have been recorded for a century, a fact also noted by other scholars working on Zanskar (Gutschow 1998). However, domestic violence exists but is considered as a “childish act” by the Zanskarpa. Furthermore, in the commonly accepted meaning of the word, violence (nodches  – to hurt; (r)tibches, (s)gyelches  – to knock down) is considered to be “impetuous” behaviour having no limits to contain it. Indeed, the term violence is used to describe a ‘passionate’ act in everyday life which is expressed or realised without any limit to contain or stop it. For Y. Michaud (1973), violence “is a direct or indirect, focussed or distributed action intended to strike a blow to one person or to destroy him either in his physical or mental integrity, or to his possessions, or to his symbolic participations”.2 The term “violence”, through its polysemy, is as difficult to define as it is easy to identify. From the anthropological point of view, I consider violence in its widest sense both symbolically (especially in the internal organisation of Zanskari society, following both inferred and expressed rules) and literally as it is expressed openly in everyday life (malicious gossip or domestic violence in particular) within the community. I reserve the term “conflict” for situations of tension, explicit or not, which can develop into a form of open opposition leading to a physical or verbal manifestation of violence. The past situation of the Ladakh region and, by extension, that of Zanskar, was not always as peaceful as the monastic chronicles recount. And moreover, Zanskari society – particularly the Padumpa – has invented strategies that are ritualised and built around the historiographic and political axis in order to maintain a unity at the heart of the group.3 By contrast, the present situation involves new representations – an increasingly present external influence 2 « La violence est une action directe ou indirecte, massée ou distribuée, destinée à porter atteinte à une personne ou à la détruire, soit dans son intégrité physique ou psychique, soit dans ses possessions, soit dans ses participations symboliques ». 3 Salomé Deboos, Être musulman au Zanskar, Himalaya indien, Saarbrücken, Éditions Universitaires Européennes, 2010.

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through migration, TV, internet, telephone access and so on – that can potentially degenerate into conflict in a society whose isolation had forced its members to come up with solutions in response to a changing environment. Therefore, following Françoise Héritier, we might consider the construction of identity as a “foliation, an assembly of material and immaterial components”.4 However, we should question the influences of seasonal or permanent migratory flows in the construction of the Zanskari community and individual identity process especially regarding the religious affiliation feelings. Therefore, I consider that to identify the different components of this identity, we need to be at the intersection constituted, on the one hand, by the representation of the Other and the encounter with this Other; and, on the other, constructing this representation of self and the positioning of the Zanskarpa in their definition of community membership. Furthermore, being at the heart of an exchange network while remaining on the margins of the perennial major trade routes that cross the Himalayas has allowed the Zanskarpa to define themselves in their relationship both to their territory and also to politics. Then in order to trace the evolution of Zanskari identity, I paid special attention to the way they live their religious affiliation as a blend of symbolic and material engagement, in the face of political radicalisation, focusing on the influence of fundamentalist Buddhist and Muslim parties. In what way is the construction of identity, in its permanent renegotiation within Zanskari society, both at the origin and the culmination of manifestations of Buddhist and Muslim fundamentalism?

Figure 39 Casual visit of Buddhist women to a Muslim household, Padum, July 2009

4 Françoise Héritier, « L’identité Samo », In Claude Lévi-Strauss, L’identité, 
P UF, Paris, 2008, [first edition 1983], p. 60.

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Social, Political and Demographic Changes and the Rise of Religious Fundamentalisms The situation in Ladakh since the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Council elections in Kargil in 2008 and in Leh in 2009 has been characterised by the development of new political and religious groups (Pirie, 2007) which define their aim and themselves either as “defenders of Buddhist (Mahayana) Culture” or as “protectors of the Islam doxa”. This was also the case for the last political elections for the Panchayat in 2011. As these groups claim to very strictly observe the basic rules and teachings of Buddhism and Islam respectively, I shall call them Buddhist and Muslim fundamentalists. Zanskar is the Buddhist majority belt of the Kargil district, which has a Muslim majority. Conversions have remained a major issue in the Ladakh region. Though earlier, the tradition of polyandry was a factor leading to conversions and inter-faith marriages, its incidence is now much reduced. Although Muslims and Buddhists have intermarried for centuries in the whole region, including Zanskar, in the Ladakh area inter-faith marriages became a major issue in 1989. Due to the tension arising in Kashmir, the Ladakh area applied for Union Territory Status under the Indian Constitution. This application was handled by a young generation of Buddhist leaders, among them some members of the Ladakh Buddhist Association (LBA). A series of “scuffles” (Bray 2007: 7) between Muslims and Buddhists later turned into real riots and were followed by a social boycott from both religious groups against each other. As a result, in 1990 the central government of India recognised the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council for Leh (Pirie 2007; Van Beek and Pirie 2008). The two districts of Ladakh have been witnessing peculiar demographic upheavals especially after they were opened to tourism. In the forty years before 2001, census analysis suggests that Buddhists lost 7.96 percent of their share in the combined population of Leh and Kargil districts. Though Muslims raised their tally by 1.97 percent, the real gain was among Hindus, who reached 5.57 percent, almost tripling their share since 1981. In the last census of 2011, Muslims constituted 47.4 percent of Ladakh with Buddhists at 45.87 percent. Hindus, Sikhs and Christians represent respectively 6.22, 0.31 and 0.17 percent of the population (official census 2011). The Ladakh area, at the boundaries of China, Afghanistan and Pakistan, is also involved in national policy as well as economic and security issues (Fewkes 2009; Warikoo 2008). In fact, as Warikoo (2008: 30–51) noticed, the Ladakh area represents a unique geo-strategic location. Since the nineteenth century, the exchanges that took place in this area were influenced by the state of diplomatic relations between Britain, Russia and China. Furthermore, the 1.2

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Karakorum Range and the Zanskar Range of mountains are known to have untapped ore and fossil resources, and at the same time, the desolate and uninhabited area of the Karakorum Range presents highly sensitive security and military issues; P.N. Jallali mentions “a dimension that brings to mind a hundred year long unending debate which highlights the importance of the Himalayan rampart […] where the huge land masses of the five nations meet” (Jallali, in Warikoo 2009: 36). In addition, since the beginning of 1996, the civil war in Nepal has encouraged tourists to turn to Ladakh and especially, since 2002, to the Zanskar trek, a 20-day expedition with guides and Sherpas. Finally, Ladakh and Kashmir are not only tourist destinations, they are also targeted by religious pilgrims: Hindu, Muslims and Buddhists all have shrines in the Himalayas. One of the main questions underscoring political and religious discourses in Ladakh for the last decade has been whether Ladakh is, or is not, an exclusively Buddhist land. During the last three decades, many texts have attempted to find answers to the question of the religious colour of the land by recomposing historical events. Among them are two books, Buddhism in Kashmir by N.K. Singh ([2000] 2011), and Emergence of Islam in Ladakh by Z.u. Aabedi

Figure 40 Making business – selling Muslim prayer carpet – in front of the Buddhist prayer-mill, August 2015

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(2009). This new literature, described by its authors and some of its readers as scientific and historically proven, follows a political movement initiated by Buddhist and Muslim religious radicals in Ladakh in the 1980s (Pirie, 2006: 175). They promote a new insidious identification process which stresses not, as before, territorial or village affiliation but confessional affiliation. Pirie described it at the beginning of the 2000s for Ladakh as a consequence of the inter-religious tensions between Buddhists and Muslims in Leh in the 1980s and the 1990s, corresponding to the electoral success of the Ladakh Buddhist Association (LBA). As she notes, “In the 1980s and early 1990s the LBA became, and has remained, a campaigning organisation whose activities also led to drastic divisions between the Buddhist and Muslim populations of Ladakh and to violent, communal antagonism between them” (Pirie, 2006: 178). The situation in the Zanskar Valley is different from that in Ladakh district. First of all, the road linking Kargil to Padum was only built in 1980. Thus, Zanskar remained a remote place somewhat apart from the mainstream global market which had meanwhile spread to Ladakh. Secondly, Zanskar is a “restricted area”, which means it has seen less migration than Ladakh. The valley was only recently opened for tourism (in the late 1990s). Furthermore, Zanskarpa were not traditionally involved in the Silk Road trade, and most of them conducted trade at the Zanskar Valley boundary on the high passes of Penzi La and Omasi La. Moreover, even if Zanskarpa were involved in other kinds of regional trade such as butter, salt, etc., the Zanskari population met, visited and shared ideas with Ladakhi people during important festivals or pilgrimages, such as attending the Dalai Lama’s teaching conferences. In 1980 and 1988, the Dalai Lama came to Padum and Buddhists and Muslims organised the visit of His Holiness together: My old Muslim acquaintance from Padum, Abdul Aziz, told me in November 2005 that he cooked several dishes for the Dalai Lama, and the King of Padum added that the male council of Padum, composed of Buddhists and Muslims, agreed on the organisation of his Holiness’ visit, and planned it together. During his stay in Padum, the Dalai Lama and the Imam met in Padum (Deboos, 2010: 90). In 1999, following the Indo-Pakistani Kargil war, India strengthened its control over the frontiers and especially along the main road between Srinagar and Leh through Drass and Kargil. At the same time, Zanskarpa saw an increase of European trekkers visiting their Valley and became aware of inter-religious tensions in Leh and Kargil. The Ladakh Buddhist Association, which is also a political party, led boycotts along with other religious-based political actions (Pirie 2006: 180) and as they explained, intended “to use religion to create a sustained movement” (Van Beek and Bertelsen 1997: 54) so as to attract western NGO s to fund Buddhist social and cultural heritage associations and Buddhist schools.

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At the same time, one windfall benefit of the main road was that the parents of the younger generation of Buddhists and Muslims began to send their children to Srinagar, Kargil, Leh, Jammu, Manali or Dehra Dun to study in secondary schools, high schools or colleges and universities. Taking advantage of the reservations policy in the Indian Constitution, since 2005 these young adults have been able to return to their villages to work as civil servants in their own valley. Since the end of the last decade, the global market and the tourism economy have increasingly impacted the local Zanskari economy. Local NGO s sponsored by Switzerland, France or other European countries claim the area to be a “Buddhist land” or “The Himalayas as Buddhism’s nest” as numerous trek flyers and tourist agency advertisements claim, or as Richard Gere states in the movie “Journey from Zanskar” (2010, Jupiter Film distribution). After their studies and when they are looking for jobs, the young Zanskari generation is targeted mostly by these foreign NGO s who consider them as a local guarantee for the good use of their budgets. This educated generation in their thirties is also now trusted in community negotiations: the council of elders has great consideration for their knowledge and acknowledges their advice. The erudite discourse thus does not only reside with the King anymore. It has become split and disseminated among young graduates from Padum. In addition, these young Buddhists are involved in political parties like the LBA and agree with the mainly European concerns about religion as a marker of territory. In response to this rise of a Buddhist fundamentalist party, Muslims from Kargil have strengthened their position among the Padumpa. Whereas Zanskarpa’s Muslims are Sunni, in the neighbouring Suru Valley, like in Kargil, they are predominantly Shia (95 percent). Thus, Muslim Padumpa have withdrawn into themselves: in marriage arrangements, they pay greater attention to the religious origin of the bride and the groom. Where in the past, Zanskarpa were greatly concerned with finding a Zanskari partner, nowadays, as they have recently told me, they consider the partner as being worthy when he/she is Sunni no matter if he/she is from Srinagar or Zanskar. In this restriction of themselves as a religious group, they have also developed a new identity. At the same time, they have started to reconsider the way they learn and read the Quran. Until September 2012, Muslims from Zanskar considered the main criterion for the choice of Imam of Padum was his voice, which should be “beautiful” to be able to sing the holy Quran with “harmony”. We “choose him because the Imam’s voice should be beautiful enough to carry our prayers in the name of Allah” an old Muslim man from Padum said in 2005. The current Imam in Padum did not go to any madrasa to study Islamic philosophy. In 2010, men from Padum told me that they do not go to the mosque to listen to preachers but only to pray and meet each other. They also point out that

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they do not exchange views on the Quran or on the Shariʿa, and the Imam does not emphasise the fact that they all belong to the Umma. Indeed, most Padum Muslims do not understand the Quran, although they have learned it by heart and recite it from memory (Deboos 2012: 152). Most believers, both male and female, told me that “what is important is not to understand the Holy Quran, but to say it with faith and to sing it with a beautiful voice”. Therefore, through the “beautiful” voice of the Imam, Allah should bless Muslims. The Imam’s speech is not only aurally aesthetic. It is directed at another form of aesthetics as it also relates to the religious and the cosmological dimensions since the Imam is in charge of prayers and of ensuring God’s blessing for the Muslims’ group and by extension, Padum. But these specifically Muslim religious speech acts are now deeply questioned, especially as recently, a mullah from the Islamic University in Lucknow has come each summer to teach the Quran in the new Padum Madrasa. This and the recent riots are deeply transforming the way Muslims from Padum experience their faith and assess clerical competence. Now religious speech is not purely aesthetic and spiritual anymore, but, mainly through the outside influences I have described, has now also become scholarly and political. 2

The Impact of Women on the Development of Religious Identity

In September 2012, the Hindustan Times carried the headline “Curfew in Zanskar continues after communal clashes”. 26 Buddhists from five families, belonging to low castes, had converted to Islam. Some young Buddhist people attacked these new Muslim converts in an attempt to force them to return to the Buddhist fold. 18 of them did so. Then two years later, in July 2014, a local newspaper called Stawa published an article entitled “Zanskar, communal tension and dialogues?” Members of the local youth commented on what had happened and were talking about new “religious extremism feelings”. What does that mean for them? How do they define “religious extremism feelings”? In the face of increasing religious (Buddhist and Muslim) and economic issues (such as tourism, monetary economy, road-building and administrative jobs) in the Zanskar region, the important factors which define the affiliation to a community are changing. Even if the situation in Zanskar has remained stable to date, I have noticed over the course of my last few visits (2009 to 2017) an increase in radical political movements. Recent graduates from Srinagar and Jammu universities come home to Zanskar where the policy of reserved jobs ensures a stable income for them.

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Figure 41 Young girls ready to celebrate Aïd Al Kebir

Figure 42 Iqbal and Zoubida with their three daughters and their daughter-in-law (left, in a black veil), July 2015

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These Zanskarpa are classified by the Indian State as “scheduled tribe Boto” which is derived from Bhot, meaning Tibet (Bod), but which is understood and explained by Zangskapas as “meaning ‘Buddhist’ Tribe”. However, this designation applies whatever their religious confession may be; Muslims in Zanskar are also classified as such. At the same time, the official administrative language is Urdu, a language which Muslims can read from a very young age thanks to their religious education. The members of this generation of 30-year-olds have therefore built up their community identity around their geographical origins and their family relations. During their “expatriation” for further education or their first professional experience, they are confronted, in an India where religious affiliation is of primary importance, with the need to call upon their confessional group for mutual help in organising accommodation and supplies. When they return home to their villages as qualified graduates (with a degree or some other diploma) they have a high degree of awareness as to what confessional affiliation really means for them. Therefore, we should consider how religious radicalisation and violence processes might be studied through relevant connections between migration, study and gender issues. In fact, Zanskar is not immune from outside influence, and Zanskarpa themselves leave the valley for their studies and then return. This anthropological approach could provide clues to answer some fundamental questions such as: on what basis are inter-confessional and intra-community relationships organised in Padum to regulate or to order social relationships? Is this coherence within the community in Padum not built around two main pillars, one historical and the other political? How do factors such as status, age, knowledge and educational qualifications impact discourses and word circulation within the community? How does the inner-Indian sub-continent migration experience of these Zanskarpa women, either Buddhists or Muslims, over the last few decades bring about a radical transformation of the factors that define the identity of the whole community of the Zanskar? How do these women influence the local economy and local policies? How and why is the Zanskar Valley, which was isolated from market economies and state political issues until the 1980s, increasingly susceptible to the economic and political influences? Is there any correlation between Westerners’ point of view on first a Buddhism seen as a philosophical approach of concept of Peace, second, the historical depth concerning the mistrust that Westerners have towards Muslims and the local discourses of Buddhist and Muslim radicals?

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2.1 Analysing the Discourse A speech act can be perceived as both violent or peace-making as I already mentioned in the first chapter of this book. Therefore I undertook a comparative analysis between the institution of the palabre (Bidima, 1997) in West Africa (Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Mali) which organizes speech acts as so many cords allowing the weaving of a tight “web of order” which is perceived as both container and content of society and the investigations in Zanskar. Women are at the centre of this analysis of word exchange, while older men are responsible for political organisation. The women of the community hold a very important position as they visit each other regularly: Buddhist and Muslim women spend long afternoons talking together over cups of tea. Marriages between Muslims only happen when the women agree and give their consent (Deboos, 2010: 128). Women manage the home, bring up children, work in the fields and look after the animals. The female image is one of patience, self-abnegation and temperance. Every morning in winter as in summer, women get up without fail to look after children, feed the family, sort out everyday problems between their children or between other members of the family. The mother of the family is there to smooth out any verbal arguments among family members. On another level, marital violence is managed within the family nucleus. Community members can be aware of the perpetrator’s acts but their involvement is limited to providing verbal support for the person who has to manage this brutality, the mother of the family. This support takes the form of small banknotes handed to the woman in such a way that she understands that everyone sees her as being the one who can stop the conflict degenerating and going beyond the household. Therefore, this female speech plays a harmonising role as far as the Zanskarpa are concerned: being aware of the continuity of things and people, and of the lack of permanence of the energy they convey in the cycle of life, and thus being aware of the need to treat every comment positively and ignore malicious gossip as far as possible. Women play a key role in the continuation of the shared narrative by inviting each other to discuss major issues of the community that men would publicise and formalise through a locally organised administrative recognition. This construction of identity was achieved in relation to otherness, and the representation of the outside was created through the movement of seasonal migrants (for pilgrimage, study or trade) from the valley to the rest of India. The high passes, which mark the limit of the valley, are symbolic places that allow the Zanskarpa who are leaving or returning to be able to construct their lives in the valley. Therefore, becoming more and more open to fear due to climate change first, and second the new roads linking Manaly to Leh via Padum, impact directly

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Figure 43 Buddhist women at the Karsha’s Gompa festival, July 2017

the way women’s speech acts may maintain cohesion within the Zanskarpa community. The transformation of speech acts concerns both the community and the Muslim group. For the community, speech acts from the Rgyal po, or the lambardar, or the tehsildar or the Imam have a capacity for social regulation, which is based on respect for the knowledge of dignitaries and emphasises the interaction between individualities defined as being from Padum. When new actors interact in these consultations, such as young educated people, a different kind of knowledge is involved, and the balance of the social regulation is remodelled. This is the case with the young Zanskarpa who, thanks to the positive discrimination policy in the Indian Constitution, have a better chance of funding and completing their studies in the universities of Srinagar, Jammu or Delhi. During their time away from Zanskar, they use their faith-group connections to access facilities such as places to stay or to eat. Then, after graduation, they obtain administrative positions in Zanskar, or, while waiting for a position in Zanskar, they serve in some other places in Jammu and Kashmir Federal State. Hence, the recognition by both faith groups of the importance of the tradition has tended to change. These new young social actors who are self-confident in their possession of “real” knowledge about community management, some of which stresses the dominance of religious affiliation over local belonging,

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gain more and more administrative, political and economic power. Within the Muslim group, the whole orientation towards the Quran seems to be tilting from considerations of beauty and aesthetics in the enunciation of the holy text towards its interpretation, thus opening the way to its political instrumentalisation. Within the Buddhist group, the Ladakh Buddhist Association funds the re-writing of the region’s history and claims to be preserving its Tibetan heritage. As a result, the focus in the way the young generation of Zanskarpa identify themselves has shifted from Zanskarpa Buddhist or Muslim to Buddhist or Muslim from Zanskar. As a Zanskarpa told me in January 2013 on the phone, “taksa Zanskar sokpo song, mi ma zer! Ngoula, Boto Kage niampo zerspen, tcha niampo tungspen, taksa minduk, tsar!”, “Now Zanskar has become bad, people don’t talk to each other anymore! Before, Buddhists and Muslims were talking to each other, they used to drink tea with each other, now they do not; this is finished!” The Impact of Seasonal Student-Migration on Community and Perspectives In June, most of the young students return to Zanskar for their holidays. They share with family and relatives their experiences before travelling back to their college, high school or university in mid-July. For some of them, this annual return is for many reasons a definitive stay: they might get married and settle down, or they have freshly graduated and are applying for a state-job under the reserved job policy, since they can prove that they belong to the “scheduled tribe Boto”. As mentioned before, the local meaning of boto is “Buddhist”. This administrative classification applies, however, regardless of their personal religious confession, as Muslims, locally called “kaje” in Zanskar are also part of “scheduled tribe Boto”, and according to local understanding are part of the “Buddhist Tribe”. At the same time the official administrative language is Urdu, a language which Muslims can read from a very young age for confessional reasons. Therefore, thanks to their “expatriation” for further education or their first professional experience, they are confronted with an India where religious affiliation is of primary importance and with the need to call upon their confessional group for mutual help in organising accommodation and supplies. When they return home as qualified graduates to their village they have a high degree of awareness as to what confessional affiliation really means for them. This generation of 30-year-olds have therefore built up their community identity around their geographical origins and their family relations. Thus, we need to understand how these Zanskarpa, who have experienced being “foreign” (“person who does not belong or who is considered as 2.2

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not belonging to a group [family, social]”5), change the factors which define existing community identity when they return home. Among these young Zanskarpa, I will focus on the discourses of the women, as they are the ones who will have to manage the house as well as work in the fields. They are also in charge of cattle and bringing the barley to the mill to produce flour for the winter season, and therefore play a key role in the local social organisation. In this movement of people going back and forth, the Zanskarpa challenge their way of looking at the Other, since commercial relations completely depersonalise what comes from others, so that what is received may be “re-personalised” by the recipient according to his own identity, and according to his preferences. Thus, the supply of goods external to the valley does not directly challenge the Zanskarpa’s self-definition. In fact, through the construction of the narrative of community memory, the Zanskarpa are keenly aware of the need to recognise otherness in social regulation in order to maintain the coherence of exchanges in a multi-denominational community. But the construction of a new road between Padum and Leh, the permanent establishment of the army, the influence of tourism, and electrification – which are all signs of opening the valley – are importing Western modernity, and are directly linked with the policy of Indianisation promoted by the national government. Is this what causes profound changes in the definition of “community”? Or is it the out-migration of Zanskarpa and this experience of expatriation and “foreignness” that transform their perception of themselves? The changes are visible through the narratives, the hierarchy of the community, arbitration institutions and marriages within and between the two communities. Moreover, young Zanskarpa, who now have access to schooling in Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, leave their parents’ home for several months and even several years. This feeling of “being different” and of being “foreign”, even if administratively they retain membership of the same community, has often pushed individuals to abandon some traditional practices, in order to engage with other Indian traditions. When these young generations return to Zanskar, what was outside is no longer totally alien: it is no longer belonging to the valley that takes precedence over belonging to the religious group, but rather the opposite. Furthermore, the native inhabitants of Zanskar are administratively classified as a “scheduled tribe”, which exempts them from a number of taxes, and allows them to benefit from certain positive discriminations according to 5 Translated from Dictionnaire Petit Robert 1e éd. 1992, page 709, I choose this definition because the one in English dictionary is too restricted as it refers to “belonging to a country or not” (see Oxford Advanced, ed. 2010, page 607).

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government policy. Among these policies, that of job quotas for young people who have left to study in other Indian states is one that has allowed Zanskar, in the last fifty years, to be able to ensure a continuity in projects that have been set up in the valley. This shift in the internal positioning of members of the younger generation towards their peers is to be seen in the recent introduction of political affiliation, and in particular to fundamentalist Buddhist and Muslim parties. These new political formations, which are already visibly engaged with the populations of the adjacent valleys, appear at first sight as an importation, a corollary to the installation of Kashmiri or other administrators, or the strong European sponsorship of Buddhist cultural associations. This visible reality, however, seems to be the result of a less obvious movement: the Zanskarpa’s own self-definition. In fact, “in solitude, the individual […] is lost in belonging. […] Men, in one identical operation, that of the gift, agree with one another that they are not things” (Lefort, 1951: 14–15). Thus, during this experience of expatriation coupled with the contribution of new technologies (monetisation, TV and cinema), the young Zanskarpa have enrolled in different memberships. During my last field research I was able to witness something totally new in this consideration of young generations by the older generations: when returning to Zanskar, the former are recognisable to their parents only to the extent that they adhere, at least in part, to the ideas of religious and political affiliations that are understood and transmitted by members of the younger generation. This inter-generational movement is perhaps the single most important factor in the change of position of the definition of Zanskari community identity. How is it that male and female discourses are coming to be valued increasingly differently by members of the community? What is the local understanding of this process of male speech acts becoming more predominant, relegating the female speech acts to matrimonial negotiations only? Informal invitations between women from different regions still exist but create fewer bonds between members of the community, particularly between members of Buddhist and Muslim groups. The exchange of discourses and speech acts and the allocation of status through language enable us to understand how “our understanding of language is not only a mode of thinking but, above all, as a cultural practice, that is, as a form of action that both presupposes and at the same time brings about ways of being in the world” (Duranti, 1997: 1). This approach makes it possible to observe how far recent Koranic teaching and new historical developments and discoveries about the origin of Zanskar’s population feed inter-religious tension. This is the first step towards the Padumpa redefining their community identity themselves.

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How does the expatriation experience of these Zanskari women over the last few decades bring about a radical transformation of the factors which define the identity of the whole community of Zanskar? Does this migration experience let us consider them as migrants? What do they say about their return to Zanskar? Another way to express the aim of the project would be: how does this migration experience give us a deep understanding of the process of the transformation of community identity? The Zanskar Valley, which was almost isolated from market economies and state political issues until the 1980s, is increasingly susceptible to the economic and political influences of Buddhist and Muslim radicals. We should not forget that the Zanskarpa, despite extreme climatic conditions and the difficulty of accessing the valley, have always been part of local commerce (salt caravans along the Silk Road, trading in cattle and goats). Many archaeological studies (Francfort, Klodzinski, Mascle, 1990) and historical studies (Rizvi, 1999, 2001; Franke, 1999; Bray, 2005) show the importance of migratory movement in this part of the world. However, few studies (Crook and Osmaston, 1994) discuss the seasonal migratory movements of the Zanskarpa. What is often mentioned by the Zanskarpa and in scientific studies is their participation in regional exchanges which take place at the passes at the limit of the Zanskar Valley (Deboos S., 2011).6 This historical perspective in considering the exchange of goods and therefore also discourses helps to obtain a better understanding of discourses surrounding what is “foreign” (Zanskari chhigyalpa or philingpa). To better understand these feelings, we should return to 2000, when I arrived in Zanskar for the first time. I was introduced to the family of Meme Abdul Aziz by Buddhist friends. His first son, Iqbal, and his wife, Zoubida, already had five children aged between three and nine years. I have watched these children growing up in Zanskar between 2002 and 2020. In 2015, the three young women had moved to Jammu and Srinagar to continue their university studies, and the eldest son married a young Muslim woman, a Shia follower, in 2016. The second son then continued his studies in Srinagar. 6 « Dans ce mouvement de va et vient des personnes (col du Shingu La), d’échanges matériels (commerce au col du Omasi La, du Penzi La) les Zanskarpa remettent en jeu leur manière d’envisager l’Autre puisque « le rapport marchand dépersonnalise totalement ce qui vient d’autrui de sorte que ce qui est reçu peut être “repersonnalisé” par le receveur en fonction de son identité propre, en fonction de ses “préférences” » (Godbout J., 2007 : 178) Ainsi l’apport de biens extérieurs à la vallée ne remet pas en cause directement la définition des Zanskarpa par eux même. » (“Des montagnes pour vivre, des cols pour échanger” presented during the 4th Student International Colloqium in History, University of Sherbrooke, Panel “D’une frontière à l’autre”, 2011).

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In 2017, when I stayed in Iqbal and Zoubida’s house as in previous years, I noticed significant changes in the gestures I could make and the utensils I was allowed to touch; these changes reminded me of when I was welcomed into the household in 2000 and when the grandfather interceded with his wife several times so that I was allowed to cook meals, or even to do the dishes. The grandmother, converted by marriage, was very attached to certain rules, such as the one stating that only Muslims could prepare meals for family members. In fact, as soon as something unusual happened in the house, she would say to anyone who wanted to hear it, “It’s because we have a Christian under our roof!” (Deboos, 2010: 13). Abi Fatima Bemo was herself a chhigyalpa regarding the land and faith: she was from Karsha village, and she was Buddhist. Finally, by marriage and by virtue of her lifestyle, when I arrived in Padum she was considered as a nangpa (insider). Thanks to this recognition, and even if she had not studied the Quran, she was the guardian of the tradition and transmission of the rules from women to young girls, especially concerning the Islamic faith. Let us return now to the field research I carried out in 2017. The wife of the eldest son was first locally considered to be a chhigyalpa, because she came from Suru Valley and belonged to a different sect of Islam (Shia). Finally, she was and is still considered as a nangpa by marriage. As the wife of the first son, Arif, she and her husband will inherit the house after his parents’ death. Therefore, she stays at home, taking part in farming work and also in decisions that concern the household. Furthermore, she has pursued higher studies, unlike Zoubida who went to a local school and then got a secretarial job at the local court. The same is true of Zoubida’s three daughters, who return home for their summer holidays each year. These young women speak to Zoubida about Islamic rules regarding women’s clothing, and appropriate attitudes to have in front of foreigners (especially what these are allowed to touch or do in the main room). They were told by a pir in Srinagar that, to protect themselves from the evil eye and from curses, they should wear “full Muslim women’s clothing”. To conform to these rules themselves in the first place, and then to be sure that their mother would be protected, they bought Zoubida a niqab and gloves and asked her to wear these, as well as the abaya and the hijab, whenever she left the house. This is by no means an isolated case. Many households in Padum that accepted Sunni-Shia marriages, and who leave their children to follow the teachings of some pir without first determining whether or not he is known to be radical, are now subscribing to the same transformation of the women in their family. At the same time, men are asked by women of the household to perform their prayers strictly and to secure more influence in local politics. Even if female discourse remains very important in internal household decisions, it is

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Figure 44 Young woman going along field path, Padum, July 2017

less influential in decision-making regarding local policy and the administration of the locality. All this provides certain clues about analysing changing discourses regarding Buddhist and Muslim religious groups and male and female social groups. For example, it highlights the dynamics and mechanics of the transformation of community identity by examining the results of internal movement from within the community, rather than accepting influences from outside it. This would eventually contribute to understanding the internal mechanism(s) that radicalising groups use to spread their influence among communities. In sum, women’s discourse, changes in local policy, and the reconstructed history of the community provide relevant connections between migration, gender, and processes of religious radicalisation and violence. Being a Woman First or a Good Wife/ Daughter under Religious Consideration In recent years, the debate on the place of women in social dynamics has received increased attention especially in socio-economic and social-political research. What we now know about the political, economic and educational empowerment of women is to a significant extent the result of research programmes shaped within the geopolitical dynamics of the 20th century. Since then, no research has been conducted on the impact of women migrants in

2.3

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Figure 45 Girls attending Karsha monastery festival. July 2017

the religious radicalisation process. This research therefore adopts an original approach to the subject. In fact, since my first stay in 2001 with Iqbal and Zoubida’s family, the girls who were three, four and seven years old are now young women who have studied in Kargil, Jammu and Srinagar. These young ladies, who would simply cover their heads just as their mother used to do, are now telling their mother that she has to wear a niqab and not only the hijab with the abaya, and also to cover her hands. When I asked the three daughters about this change, they told me that they learnt “how to be a good Muslim when they studied outside”. Existing anthropological studies have not focused on understanding the dynamics and mechanics of the transformation of community identity that results from internal movement within the community, rather than from accepting elements (people) from outside the community. They have either reflected the first approach or have been unable to account for its implications in Zanskar. New studies have started a reappraisal of historical (Rizvi, 2001; Franke, 1999; Bray, 2005) and political (Van Beek, 1997; Gupta, 2013) evidence. We know now how the importance of gender issues impacts the way in which a community might identify itself, and also as an economic asset (furthering women’s empowerment in restricted areas of India where women can produce carpets to sell on the market and directly benefit from the money they generate by being employed).

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Figure 46 Girls in the main bazar. Padum. July 2017

These studies have helped to unveil many aspects of Buddhist women’s impact on the local economic network. Even so, the anthropological study of “being a woman in Zanskar” (Gutschow, 2006) is by and large the result of research conducted by American investigators, just as English anthropologists such as Sophie Day have examined women’s impact on the household economy, whereas little or nothing has been done in these fields by other anthropologists in Europe. These studies focus primarily on gender issues. In this book, I have demonstrated how Buddhists and Muslims who are very aware of their differences manage to remain determined to build a shared community in Padum, and how women are taking part in this enterprise in the context of this border area, where religious difference has often been the source of conflict (as in the case of the Indo-Pakistan wars). I assessed the importance of narratives and speech acts among women’s groups, whether Buddhist or Muslim. At the same time, I pointed out how the shift in the way they address and refer to relatives is symptomatic of a change of belonging to one or another faith group. Among this new generation of women, speech acts and narratives operate in the same way: first of all they are cut off from their whole family for several months due to schooling or studying; and secondly, the major language of their education is English or Hindi or Urdu, but not their mother tongue, Zanskari, which is a Tibetan dialect. Therefore, when they leave their families, they learn how to express feelings in

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their own way, especially with regard to their sadness at being away from their parents and their village. These young women must articulate new concepts in a new language to express their melancholy and also to achieve success in their studies. To help them, they will have teachers of course, but most of the time, this function will be assured by religious authorities, such as monks and nuns in Buddhism, or Imams and Pirs in Islam. When they come back home, the knowledge they have acquired in the course of their studies and the dress codes and self-presentation they have cultivated mean that their mothers and aunts listen to them carefully, especially regarding religious rituals and doxa. As a result, girls and nieces teach their mothers and aunts how to dress, how to pray, and how to ensure that their prayers are truly conveyed and answered. We might also take into account the fact that, in recent years, there has been a change among Zanskari Buddhists and Muslims with regard to finding marriage partners for their sons and daughters. As we saw in chapter two, during the wintertime, thanks to official invitations, women used to discuss first who could marry whom; and secondly, it was noted that families preferred to marry their children within the valley rather than to establish matrimonial alliances beyond it. In the light of these observations, we may ask why Zanskari families today would prefer to send their daughters out of the valley, even if this means that they might never see them again due to the domestic chores and agricultural work that occupy them in summer, and because of the climatic conditions that result in passes and roads being blocked in winter. This question is directly linked to another, highlighting the fact that common or shared mechanisms and strategies implemented at the community level constitute one of the most fundamental issues of this work: how does sharing the same affiliation to a confessional group take priority over space and way of life? The aim of this book has been to identify and comment on the changes that have resulted from a shift in the process of identity construction. My understanding is that this shift is informed by a change in the way in which Zanskari people regard themselves as individuals, parts of a whole that is the faith community, or persons who are, at the same time, part of a land and also a faith group. At this point, women on the one hand – because they are in charge of the domestic economy and the social cohesion – and religious leaders on the other – because they are in charge of the political aspect of social cohesion, and the rewriting of the local history of the community – are the two main pillars of the way these women and men, classified “scheduled tribe” Tibetans, Buddhists and Muslims, all Indians, will define themselves being part of their common territory, Zanskar.

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Figure 47 Padum. July 2015

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Reimagining a New Community Identity Process in Zanskar 1

The Useful Expertise of Social and Cultural Anthropology in Modern Conflict Comprehension

The diversity of approach within the fields of social sciences, despite the current hesitancy of French political authorities, remains the first key to understanding societies. Sociologists and anthropologists have differences in methodological approach while studying the same object which are not only the way to use concepts but also the field-work approach (Okely, 2012) and how scientists investigate during their field research (Pink, 2015). Therefore, difficulties in understanding each other often arise especially when, as has been the case for more than a century now, these semantic quarrels have not been resolved. Following the model of Scandinavian countries (Finland and

Figure 48 My daughter playing with Kapla in a Kargil tea shop with Kargili boy, Tibetan teacher, and Kashmiri girl, 2017

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2023 | doi:10.1163/9789004548244_0

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Sweden, among others), the decision-making authorities of governmental policy tendentially include more anthropologists. The object of this chapter is neither the history, nor the definition of these two scientific fields, but the place of anthropological methodology in understanding the web of order (Pirie, 2006) or conciliation processes in a community comprising several religious affiliations. We may thus wonder how far this scientific field, in a multidisciplinary scientific discourse, represents a breakthrough in understanding and clarifying the internal dynamics of community as well as those on the individual and collective level, and then conceptualise the ways these people consider themselves as part of one or another community. Anthropologists live within and among the communities they study, and their scientific object of research is therefore observed and understood from the internal – local community – point of view. Back at their desks, anthropologists compare their field observations with other similar cases observed during different field research trips that belong to other geographical and cultural areas, as Pierre Bonte as Professor in social and cultural anthropology at the Collège de France quoted in the dictionary of anthropology he edited: Anthropology […] by means of comparison, generalisation and passage into theoretical form, puts the results of ethnological investigation to the service of the ‘general knowledge of mankind.’ Bonte and Izard, 2000: VII1

So, following this ethnographic method, we first of all observed the conciliation process at work in Padum, in the Zanskar Valley. This observation, made in the course of long-term field work, meant that we were able to pinpoint an evolution in interdenominational and infra-community relations due to the opening of the valley to the global economy, as evidenced by marriage choice and conciliation processes. Using local investigation in the valley, I could notice the change in my informants’ speech acts regarding the choice of the bride especially when they talked about inter-religious marriage. In fact, inter-religious marriage has been shifting from local choice – understood as within the valley  – to far away  – understood as the neighbouring valley of Kashmir and justified by being inter-religious because of their respective Sunni and Shia identities. Secondly, I noticed the visible and less visible effects of the rapid 1 « l’anthropologie […] par le moyen de la comparaison, de la généralisation et du passage à la forme théorique, met les résultats de l’investigation ethnologique au service d’une “connaissance générale de l’homme” » (Bonte and Izard, 2000 : VII).

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development of global market especially thanks to tourism (trekking, meditation, spiritual retreats), all focusing on the ‘Buddhist area’ and providing a real economic boost to the Buddhist community. Simultaneously, Muslims are gaining a vox populi in Padum in local political negotiation and administration thanks to their administrative organization directly linked with Kargil district’s management. As we have seen during these observations and theorisation of arbitration mechanisms in the Padum community, the question of identity is clearly present. Indeed, “the theme of identity is situated not only at a crossroads, but at several crossroads. It is of interest to almost all disciplines, and it is also of interest to all societies studied by ethnologists; it is also of interest to anthropology in a very special way” (Lévi-Strauss, 2008: 9).2 To build up a “community” is not a state of facts, but the result of a journey, a construction of a common history, a system of values transcending individual identity differences. Thus, despite their remoteness in space and their profoundly heterogeneous cultural contents, none of the societies constituting a random sample seems to take for granted a substantial identity: it fragments it into a large variety of elements of which, for each culture, although in different terms, synthesis poses a problem. Lévi-Strauss, 2008: 113

Therefore, after different stays in the Paris suburbs, I found relevant to shed light on the conflicts and observations made there with the theoretical conclusions of field research as different as that of the Zanskar Valley in the Indian Himalayas. Indeed, the anthropologist living with indigenous people perceives the social boundaries, the extremely codified shared narratives and the political balance that is struck, which are the result of an acute awareness of the importance of taking otherness into account. We will not return to the theoretical discussion 2 « le thème de l’identité se situe non seulement à un carrefour, mais à plusieurs. Il intéresse pratiquement toutes les disciplines, et il intéresse aussi toutes les sociétés qu’étudient les ethnologues ; il intéresse enfin l’anthropologie de façon très spéciale […] » (Lévi-Strauss, 2008 : 9). 3 « en dépit de leur éloignement dans l’espace et de leurs contenus culturels profondément hétérogènes, aucune des sociétés constituant un échantillon fortuit ne semble tenir pour acquise une identité substantielle : elle la morcelle en une multitude d’éléments dont, pour chaque culture, bien qu’en terme différents, la synthèse pose un problème » (Lévi-Strauss, 2008 : 11).

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of the earlier part of this chapter. What is important here is that, despite a fundamental difference in perception and constructions of the world, despite the existence of social stratification on the one hand (among Buddhists) and the absence of social stratification on the other (among Muslims), two distinct human groups come to constitute a community. Transferred to our “Western” societies, these observations give some clues to the organisation of a multidisciplinary team where various scientific approaches shed light on the perceptions that individuals have of their experiences, their values and the values of the host society. Thus, anthropologists, through their expertise (especially in their capacity of being off-centre) and empathy with their field of research, will internalise certain markers of the social regulation of the group studied. This inner comprehension will become exteriority (distanced) when anthropologists, back in their original society, will start to theorise their fieldwork observations. The difficulty for researchers is therefore their rehabilitation and readaptation upon their return. When this has taken place, the unspoken, the social markers, the codifications of social bounds then appear clearly to them. These comings and goings between the native culture of the researcher and the culture of the object studied lead the anthropologist to make the bridge between the experiences of societies from different cultural and geographical areas. It thus appears as one of the important elements in the establishment of multidisciplinary teams by allowing the interested parties to become aware of and to formalise these unspoken elements that integrated into what Bourdieu calls the habitus. This concept is therefore well understood as an incorporate memory underlying the social and cultural choices and habits among a local community or social group. Let us take two examples to illustrate the point. The first is an observation made in the town of Saint Denis in suburbs of Paris: the local police encounter many difficulties in establishing contact with young people from so-called “sensitive” areas such as the Francmoisins Quarter (on the other side of the canal, along the Stade de France). This area is famous for its violence, not only against citizens (carjacking, pick-pocketing, hold-ups and so on) but also against the police. The management of the supermarket of the area (a branch of Franprix) requested a permanent police presence during opening hours in order to reinforce its private security team. Customers must constantly call the security guards, because most of the products (chocolate, hygiene products and so on) are locked behind glass. Security guards in uniform ensure that no young person provokes or insults the cashiers. These young people continue to break the rules and lack respect. They feel under constant supervision which, instead of decreasing the incidence of violence, makes them feel stronger and more

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organised. Neither the presence of security guards nor that of the police have reduced the acts of violence, but rather the opposite. This example shows that it is obviously not a simple presence of security which will impact on a particular way of acting. Neither will merely organising meetings, which has already been tried in this area. When the city council is questioned about projects set up in this area, it ensures that “teams of sociologists” have reflected on “the” question and conclude that more places of “socialisation” should be set up. For this initiative to bear fruit in the long term, it is necessary to add a team of specialists such as sociologists, social workers, anthropologists and psychologists, whose mission would be to listen and discuss with the residents of this area so that users really take part in the development of the project. However, no team has been set up and violence and brutality are still increasing. Another example is the trial in December 2007 in N’Djaména (Chad) of the association L’Arche de Zoé. Europeans, in collaboration with local personalities, launched adoption procedures for 103 Chadian children. But no European working in this association spoke the local language and did not ask for collaboration with “Children Rescue” where anthropologists work. Moreover, most of the Chadian counterparts had no real knowledge of Europe. However, under the African traditional way of naming somebody you meet or know, any person of a higher age group than the one who is talking might be named by any other person of a lower age group as a “father”, “uncle”, “mother” or “aunt” without being members of any actual kin category. Moreover, studying in Europe is seen as an opportunity for the family, since it means that the child will then be able to help and support his or her large family. Also, if the association’s team had hired an anthropologist who spoke the local dialect and had a good knowledge of the field (social structure, kinship, value system …), Europeans would have understood quite quickly that for their counterparts the word “adoption” did not have the same meaning as for European foster families. These two examples show how public policies and actions can fail when stakeholders have not been involved in their development or when they respond to surveys in their own language, which is sometimes poorly translated. Anthropologists are thus there to create this link, to help the cross-understanding between decision makers and interest groups from various cultures. Indeed, because of the structure of his theoretical concepts and of his methodology, the sociologist is often ethnocentric. Anthropologists, who are able to place themselves off-centre, so to speak, contribute in a multidisciplinary team to a better understanding by citizens of the terms and the aims of new public policies and social innovations. At the same time, in order to improve this mutual understanding, social anthropologists are able to explain and translate to city councils and decision makers and interest groups the

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expectations of the inhabitants and local population. Thus, through their knowledge of the exotic research fields, by reporting on differentiated ethnological materials and comparing them with those of their own culture, social anthropologists in a multidisciplinary team contribute to the success of social projects driven by national policies where idealism (as is often the case for associations) is often present. 2

Back to Zanskar: When Religious Leaders Build a New Political History

A Narrative Remodeled by Religious Leaders A Look Back over the Past Reconstructed with Historical Facts and Testimony As we have seen in the third chapter, a full understanding of current transformations and changes in the area requires us to consider certain events that occurred in the 16th century. The saga of “Little Tibet” (Francke, 1999), which includes Ladakh, Zanskar and Baltistan, assumes that the histories of these different kingdoms were closely linked with the presence of Muslims in the area. The purpose of this establishment of Muslim groups all along the upper Indus Valley was primarily commercial (Dollfus, 1995: 35). The principal motivation for Buddhist families marrying their daughters into a Muslim family was to ensure access to trading connections and consequently the prosperity of the whole Buddhist family. The first royal marriage between a King of Ladakh and a Muslim Mughal princess, a Sunni follower, took place around 1590; several centuries later, a king of Ladakh converted to Islam. At the end of the 16th century, Muslims in Zanskar established a settlement. They were merchants, Sunnis who followed the Hanafi school of law (Dollfus, 1995: 35), despite the fact that the adjacent valleys were still populated by Shias (Grist, 1995: 59). But history (Petech, 1977) is more complex because the Zanskar Valley has always been considered by Buddhists as a “mystical land” thanks to texts written in boht-ig4 and known as the “boht-ig documents” (Schuh, 1983: 51). Finally, the documents Tarikh-I-Raschidi and Tarikh-I-Jammu-Wa-Kashmir, i.e. the journals relating the facts and activities of the court of the Mughal Abdu Rachid Khan, tell us about the invasion of Zanskar by Mirza Haidar around 1532. Then, the Tarikh-I-Jammu-Wa-Kashmir talks about the fact that the conquerors did not remain in the Zanskar Valley. It is said that a merchant named Haji-Lo, in the service of the Mughal Abdu Rachid Khan, was sent to the Zanskar Valley in 1535 to stay for the whole winter, according to the will 2.1 2.1.1

4 Tibetan script.

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of the Mughal. The aim was to report back regularly on the development and movements of the population of this region. He was the guest of the king of Padum and then married and, by tacit agreement with the king, founded the first Muslim family in Padum. This fact is also mentioned in the memoirs of Mirzà Muhammad Haidar Dughlat (1973: 460), who was also in the service of the Grand Mughal, and who had been through all around Kashmir, Baltistan then when the winter came, had to stay for several months in Zanskar. Then, towards the end of the 16th century, the Tarikh-I-Jammu-Wa-Kashmir mentions the conquest of the Zanskar and specifies that Wazir Zora Wasin has named a representative, Larsing, in Zanskar and that he has allocated some men to this merchant (Haschmat Ullah Khan Laknalli, 1981: 654–666). We can therefore see that this conquest of the Zanskar firstly engendered an armed movement capable of defeating a people, but also secondly, that the harshness of the climate and the extreme living conditions obliged the military forces to withdraw back over the passes into Ladakh. Thirdly, the Grand Mughal, in order to preserve his hold over the newly conquered territories, sent a merchant who would be his intelligence agent. It is only at the end of the 16th century that the Islamisation of Padum started, when a marriage was approved by the king of Padum with a local Buddhist girl. 2.1.2

A Ritual That Has Been Reinvented to Recreate a New Narrative

Figure 49 The Imam of Padum and Buddhist monks from the monastery in Padum conversing in Padum’s main street, August 2009

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2.1.2.1 The Breaking Point As mentioned above, the construction of the local historical narrative, unique to Zanskar and its region, pinpoints first royalty as being the basis of social cohesion in the bi-faith area around Padum and, by extension, of social cohesion in the whole Zanskar Valley. Furthermore, the narrative passed down by royalty has a historical value and is understood as being the original truth, the explanatory and substantiating spoken word used in exchanges during Buddhist and Muslim weddings and religious festivals such as Aïd or Losar (Tibetan New Year). Finally, as royalty has taken a back seat and religions have come to the fore, the speeches given by the Dalai Lama in Padum as part of his teachings in 2009 and then in 2011 and 2013 (Deboos, 2015 & 2017), speeches about tolerance and acceptance of differences between individuals as being complementary, have led people to demand locally the abolition of discriminations directly resulting from being members of different social strata. This demand has led to local armed revolts, the intervention of the Indian army and the police of the Federal State of Jammu and Kashmir, and finally a local social boycott between Buddhists and Muslims in Zanskar. Because of this, Buddhists and Muslims avoid each other in the streets, no longer greet each other, only patronise shops run by people of the same faith, send their children to schools which are preferably faith-based, and only take part in festivities (religious and life milestones) when they are of the same faith as themselves. During the Dalai Lama’s visits to Zanskar in 2009, 2011 and 2013, the association of Padum Muslims and local Muslim religious leaders were stigmatised as personae non gratae by the association of Zanskar Buddhists. They were then excluded from the Dalai Lama’s official visits to different local initiatives in the Zanskar Valley. Furthermore the Muslims, in fear of reprisals, did not dare to attend the teachings given outside in the garden of the Dalai Lama’s official residence in Padum. 2.2 The Importance of the Shared but Denied Spoken Word Even though Buddhists attended the Dalai Lama’s teaching sessions, I often hear the Muslims complaining about the Buddhists’ attitude and calling them “bad believers” or “bad followers”. The Muslims explained to me that even though the Buddhists attend the teachings of their spiritual leader, it is more about being present at these events rather than about really listening to his teachings. As for the Dalai Lama, he was made aware of the brewing conflict in the valley and now visits Zanskar every two years after a period of 20 years without a visit between 1988 and 2009.

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Nonetheless, some Buddhists and Muslims regret this situation. These men and women, who are often related by marriage, express how embarrassed they are to visit each other whether they are Buddhist or Muslim. In the same way, the women explained to me how they order products in secret by mobile phone from Muslim shops when they are Buddhists and vice versa, and add mischievously that the mobile phone allows them to call a friend of the “other” faith who can then drop the parcel off in front of their door. When I question my female Muslim friends, they say that this social boycott is just the result of tensions between Buddhists who refuse to see themselves as equal and follow the teachings of the Dalai Lama. And when I question my female Buddhist friends, they state that this social boycott is due to the fact that certain Buddhist families do not respect the social order, which dictates that these families are excluded from certain ritual or even daily exchanges like sharing tea. Buddhist and Muslim women alike accordingly stigmatise the five families who have demanded recognition within and from the Buddhist faith group. Finally, during winter, whether they are monks or laypeople, Buddhists or Muslims, the families that remain in the Zanskar during the nine months of relative isolation, as the frozen river enables some exchange with the Ladakh for three weeks in February, affirm that if a Buddhist or Muslim family should be short of fuel for the stove, roasted barley flour for food, or lose someone from illness or any other event, the whole of the local community would be there to help. However, it was also explained to me that, as soon as the road is open again, when children come home for the school holidays, and the families who have left to go on pilgrimages or who live lower down in Himachal Pradesh or Kashmir come back, the social boycott “obviously” resumes. 2.3 The Return of the Open Exchange of the Spoken Word We had to wait until the summer of 2015, and then the summer of 2017, for the Muslims in Padum to be invited to actively help out in the preparations of the visit and welcome of the Dalai Lama, as was the case in 1980 and then in 1988. After several years of avoiding each other in Padum’s main street, the street which crosses the village and the only one suitable for motor vehicles, Buddhists and Muslims, sometimes even related, started talking to each other again to make practical arrangements for the Dalai Lama’s stay in the Zanskar. The Buddhist Association of Zanskar announced the official schedule sent by the Dalai Lama’s secretariat, and, as soon as it was announced, everyone knew that a meeting between the religious leaders of both faiths would take place in Padum at the Muslim faith school, the Public Model School, following an invitation extended by the Padum Muslims.

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In order to prepare the welcome of the Dalai Lama, my informants from the Buddhist Ladakh Association told me that they had spent altogether around 15 lakh (1,500,000) rupees: 11 lakh were given as a donation to the Dalai Lama; on top of this they had to provide supplies for four kitchens (one for the Dalai Lama, one for the monks and nuns, one for official guests, and one for the public); they had to organise five taxis for the Dalai Lama’s entourage, and provide plane tickets and hotels for around ten people who follow the Dalai Lama everywhere, such as his medical doctor and certain relatives. Then the Executive Councillor from Zanskar told me that Muslims organised themselves to welcome the Dalai Lama to the Model Public School, and for this event, they invited 120 people as official guests, and an additional 400 Buddhists and 800 Muslims from Zanskar to attend the event. Thus the tea and food served during the Dalai Lama’s visit and the public meeting between the two religious leaders was all financed by the Muslim faith group. As anticipated, the Dalai Lama first arrived to inaugurate the new Men-Tsee-Khang clinic of Padum where Canadian and American researchers on Buddhist medicine and local amchis (traditional doctors) would practise and take over surgery (teeth and eyes especially) and medication from local people. Buddhists and Muslims were actively working on this project, and they all took part in the inauguration. This event gave politicians from Ladakh, Kargil and Padum the opportunity to insist on the necessity for both faith groups to end the mutual social boycott. The foreign researchers who were engaged in this project then presented statistics concerning daily patient numbers, especially regarding cataract surgery demands, dental infections as well as burns and complications with deliveries. All of these would give good reason for securing long-term funding for this clinic and also to create an awareness that local amchis should receive proper training to be able to deal with such a wide range of issues. In his inaugural talk, the Dalai Lama first of all expressed his thanks for the great work that had been done to open this Men-Tsee-Khang Clinic in Padum, and also emphasised that this could take place only because politicians from all religions in the Ladakh area had worked together (inaugural speech 16 July 2017). He then mentioned that medicine was one of the major sciences in Buddhism, and that it was linked to “philosophy, which is a bridge between all world religions such as Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and the Jewish [faith]” (Dalai Lama, inaugural speech, 16 July 2017). On the second day of his visit, the Dalai Lama gave the first talk, and reminded his audience that, a few years earlier, in 2012, he had had tea with musicians and the blacksmith to emphasise that “all human beings are equal” (Dalai Lama, 2012). He then made the recommendation that the Buddhist

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Figure 50 Canadian and American medical team, 16.07.2017

Figure 51 (1–2) New Men-Tsee-Khang of Padum, inaugural day, speech by the Councillor of Kargil, 16 July 2017

Dharma and other religions should be studied in their original languages, and not just read and followed through interpretations, because these are the “starting point of all arguments and conflict”. This first day of teaching introduced the second day, during which he insisted on the fact that “religious leaders should think about humanity because the whole of humanity needs all religions” (Dalai Lama, 18 July 2017). He then spoke about the relationship between Buddhists and Muslims in Zanskar in front of several thousand people and reminded them, using personal anecdotes about followers of other

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faiths than his own, that “religion and the doxa are specific to and created by man; there is only one immanence and transcendence” (Dalai Lama, speech given in Padum on 17 July 2017). The Dalai Lama completed his morning teaching, and the visit to the Model Public School, which is run by Muslims, took place in the afternoon of the second day of public teachings, on 18 July 2017. On 18 July 2017, at 1.15 pm, the Dalai Lama arrived at the Model Public School in Padum. The Muslim pupils stood up to greet him. The two Imams of the two mosques in Padum invited him to take a seat on the rostrum so that he could speak freely with everyone. Several speeches were then given, the first by the president of the association of Padum Muslims, who reminded everyone that two groups had been in conflict since 2012. The Dalai Lama then declared how much he was affected by these facts, and that “all religions stem from and give rise to different traditions, but they all agree on one point, the recognition of one single immanence and transcendence” (Dalai Lama, 18 July 2017, Padum). As in 1980 and then in 1988, a series of culinary preparations were presented to the Dalai Lama: first, dried apricots which had been rehydrated and then cooked in syrup, and then in salted tea to accompany the plate of rice served with different vegetable dishes, then the tsampa (roasted barley flour) with clarified butter, and finally sweet tea accompanied by halwa (pastry made with semolina, clarified butter and dried fruit) and small cakes.

Figure 52 Visit of the Dalai Lama to the modern public school, Padum, 18 July 2017

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All these dishes are usually only prepared and presented to guests in this way at ritual celebrations such as weddings, Aïd parties and formal invitations for negotiating marriage alliances. At the end of the meeting, the Muslim community gave a valuable present to the Dalai Lama: a pure patoo pashmina shawl made from the goats of Zanskar. One member of the Muslim faith group told me that the gift was from a personal collection of precious shawls. This was a particularly fine item that had been hand-woven many years earlier in Kashmir, then dyed and embellished with fine needlework on the borders in the Kashmiri style. The time and place chosen for this meeting between the Dalai Lama and the two Imams in Padum, and more widely with the inhabitants of Padum and the Zanskar Valley, marked it as a special event to which a great deal of energy had been dedicated with the aim of transforming the relationship between Buddhists and Muslims through intercession, dialogue and exchange, involving the sharing of food between the Imams and the Dalai Lama. 2.4 Rewriting of Local History Thanks to New Ritual This locally organised event also took place in the summer of 2018 and reaffirmed the will of religious leaders in the valley, Buddhists and Muslims alike, to build a new narrative together which could enable the inhabitants of the Zanskar Valley to renew contact with their relatives of a different faith, as had been the case with weddings between Buddhist and Muslim families in the past. So, as mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, taking his cue from Marcel Mauss, Maurice Godelier reminds us of the social importance of exchange considered as a “total service”. In the same way, in the preface to his posthumous work on Arthur Maurice Hocart, Lucien Scubla notes that Hocart had established that “a culture is firstly a form of cult” (Hocart, 2005: 12). In this valley, belonging to a faith is not simply about being linked to a dogma but above all about transmission from teacher to pupil. These teachers are the religious leaders, and it is they who are to be followed in the manner in which they both act and pray. This transmission is the one from religious leader to the faithful according to age-old tradition in which contact with the teacher is foremost, and where the teacher has to be an example for the followers. This is exactly what took place, and what I was able to witness. The Imam and the Dalai Lama not only met but also exchanged spoken words on the subject of living together and on the complementarity of their different ways and their perception of the unfathomable. At the same time, Buddhists and Muslims all attended not only the teachings of the Dalai Lama, which took place outside, but also the speeches he gave at the Muslim faith school. In the

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eyes of both Buddhists and Muslims, exchanging food during this visit sealed the understanding between the religious leaders, since offering and accepting food within an alliance such as this makes direct reference to matrimonial alliances, during which prepared food is shared between the spouses. More generally speaking, food exchange is also taking place during the aïd celebration and lhosar celebration, when local Buddhist and Muslim families visit each other. This food exchange is therefore central in the peace-building community. When this ritual is performed by religious leaders, this activity is understood not only on the religious peace-building dimension but also on the local political peace-building will. So, a new narrative was forged before the researcher’s eyes, embodied in the exchange of food and the circulation of the spoken word that was given, received and passed on during the ritual. This religious function replaced the political one and itself became political in the wider sense of the term, that is, as a basis for the smooth running of negotiations and hence resolving potential conflict within the Zangskar community, that is now defined by religious affiliation. We can therefore talk about a semantic shift as mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, when the king of Padum passed on the narrative. He is the one who gave legitimacy to the settlement of Muslims in Zanskar, and he is furthermore the one who chose and gave a wife and land (fields named Khar Jing, literally the castle fields), to the Muslim envoys he had summoned from Kashmir. This reinvention of the narrative, orchestrated by a ritual, creates a new reality for the local experience of history, not in the historical scientific sense, but in the sense of an institutionalised oral narrative that is incarnated both by shared worship (during religious rituals such as Aïd, Losar or weddings) and cultural experience (sharing the same language or as part of agrarian festivals). This is the very definition of Mauss’ “total social fact”; it clearly shows that “man is not only a being that can adapt, he is also a being that continually reinvents himself. He is a being that cannot live in society without acquiring or receiving, right from birth, the capacity to produce his society to live in it” (Godelier, 2007: 189). 3

Epilogue: Reflections on the Progress of Individualism You are not a fish constantly looking for its birth place For the fish, the current is life itself. Tulu Poem

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Figure 53 Monk at the Karsha monastery festival in July 2017, Zanskar

The Zanskarpa, far from being out of touch and unconcerned by the so called productive and capitalistic-economy world where our modern society has been developing for several centuries, started experimenting in what we call consumption about twenty to thirty years ago when the valley opened up to tourism. As this work shows, about twenty years ago, the only telephone line in the valley was held by the army and only accessible to military contingents during the winter. During the summer, a telephone landline worked but only partially, when it hadn’t been damaged by the bad winter weather. Today everyone has a personal mobile phone, with a local SIM card only given to local residents. International mobile phones do not work and text messages are often intercepted and never reach their recipient. Similarly, the internet connection is very random and depends largely on local and central political decisions. So, this window to the world is open but heavily controlled. The main aim of locally conveyed information is to highlight political decisions taken by the central government in a similar way to what happens in Europe and North America. Why would people want to change their way of life to such an extent that even the inside of their home is completely transformed, even abandoning ancient building techniques in favour of new materials and techniques that reduce the thermal mass even further and increase the need to use more technology

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from outside (such as gas-fired free-standing heating units in homes)? Does this come from a fascination for the Western way of life? Does nobody criticise the West? What areas of Western life do Zanskarpa actually adhere to? What misunderstandings develop when a Westerner enters a Zanskarpa home? Is there fascination or projection? To better understand the scope of this work we have to consider the last seven centuries which have transformed our western society into a democracy based on Rousseau’s social contract, contrat intuitu personae, where every individual accepts and chooses to adhere to the construction of a common whole, each contributing his or her own skills and drawing from it his or her own personal interests. The Zanskar Valley, far from having benefitted from this slow transformation, was thrown into the Indian political world from 1947 onwards following the separation of India and Pakistan, then into the Indian administrative world in the 1970s and finally into a global economic world, first slowly in the 1990s and then more abruptly from the beginning of the 21st century. These transformations – initially political and then economic – have therefore directly impacted the way in which Zanskarpa experience their community life. Louis Dumont remarks that actually, the hierarchy/equality contrast, if it is very apparent, is only an aspect of the matter. Underlying this contrast, there is another that is more general in its application. On the one hand, most societies value, in the first place, order: conformity of every element to its role in society – in a word, society as a whole; this is what I call “holism.” On the other hand, other societies – at any rate ours – value, in the first place the individual human being: for us every man is, in principle, an embodiment of the humanity at large, and as such he is equal to every other man, and free. This is what I call “individualism”. We may immediately remark that in the holistic type, the requirements of man as such are ignored or subordinated, just as are the requirements of society in the individualistic type. Now it so happens that, among the great civilizations the world has known, the holistic type of society has been overwhelmingly predominant; indeed, it looks as if it has been the rule, the only exception being our modern civilization and its individualistic type of society. Dumont, 1977: 3–4

As we have just seen from the study of Zanskar over the past 20 years, we have indeed moved from a holistic idea of society where the basis of the society’s existence consisted of belonging to a common birthplace or attachment by filiation, to an individualistic society, where what enables people to differentiate

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themselves from each other today is the individualistic choice which enables each person to re-affirm his or her religious affiliation, brandished as the foundation of community identity. Various measures have enabled a certain number of young people to access higher education and jobs in administration: positive discrimination policies implemented by the Indian State, giving priority access to universities to certain categories of Indian society, and also the reserved job policy in local administration, have encouraged the creation of competition locally where only the most deserving individual can benefit from these public policies. This individual then becomes invested with a certain knowledge and in the same way becomes an essential local reference person when social, political or economic links have to be maintained, repaired or rebuilt within this society. In the past, these educated people, as individuals – pivots for social links and for local community identity – were considered out of this world as they had a special status which placed them outside local networks of power and influence. Today these individuals are now within this world as they draw their power and legitimacy either from local democracy (through local elections) or from economic or religious factors by showing that they are capable of centralising an influx of wealth from the outside (mainly tourism from India and the West). As I inferred in this book, politics is considered as a part of the social area, therefore, can be considered as political, the set of human activities suitable for structuring, organizing, ranking a social group, moving it and transmuting it. In this sense, the religious and the economic are political in so far as they contribute or are at the origin of these transformations of the social bond suitable for organizing and defining the political bond. As quoted by Marc Abelès (2005: 11) we have to accept the idea, which is moreover heterodox for a Cartesian mind, that anthropology tends to complicate rather than simplify our spontaneous representation of politics. Political anthropology is an approach that emphasizes the interweaving of the political and other dimensions of the social. And as I developed, one other part of social activity is Religious acts. We consider how religion influences the life of a community or society today. I consider religion as a pattern of beliefs, values, and actions that are acquired by members of a group. Thus, religion constitutes an ordered system of meanings, beliefs, and values that define the place of human beings in the world. This system is structured by activities such as ‘religious acts’.

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This very phenomenon of being capable of centralising an influx of wealth from the outside occurred in Europe several centuries ago, as Louis Dumont explains: In summary, individualism was a characteristic of Christian thought from the start; evolution was from otherworldly individualism to more and more this-worldly individualism, in which process the holistic terrestrial community almost disappeared as such. Fortunately, the initial flaw in the published paper does not distort its description of the progress of individualism, of the birth of the State, and of the political category. Dumont, 1977: 15

In fact, Louis Dumont is here referring to his perceptive analysis of Indian society in his published book Homo Hierarchicus, The Caste System and Its Implications (1970) which helped him to form a better understanding of the current transformation of Western society, thanks to the comparative perspective he adopted. He consequently published Homo Aequalis, Génèse et épanouissement de l’idéologie économique (in English: From Mandeville to Marx: the Genesis and Triumph of Economic Ideology) in 1977, where he proposes an analysis of political and economic organisation in Western societies from an anthropological perspective. The excerpt cited above is from this work. As stated by Radcliffe-Brown (1940: 193–94) every human being living in a society is two things: he is individual and he is also a person. As individual, he is a biological organism […] Human being as individuals are objects of study for physiologists and psychologists. The human being as a person is a complex of social relationships […] If you tell me that an individual and a person are after all really the same thing, I would remind you of the Christian creed. God is three persons, but to say that He is three individuals is to be guilty of a heresy for which men have been put to death. Yet the failure to distinguish individual and person is not merely a heresy in religions: it is worse than that; it is a source of confusion in sciences. Louis Dumont (1996: 94), based on a comparative method asserts that to see any “culture in its unity and specificity, we must set it in perspective and contrast it with other cultures. Only so can we gain an awareness of what otherwise goes without saying, the familiar and the implicit basis of our common discourse.” He continues

Reimagining a New Community Identity Process in Zanskar

125

when we speak of man as an individual we designate two concepts at once: an object out there, and a value. Comparison obliges us to distinguish these two aspects analytically: one the empirical subject of speech, thought, and will, the individual sample of mankind, as found in all societies; and, two, the independent, autonomous, and thus essentially non-social moral being, who carries paramount values and who is found primarily in our modern ideology of man and society. From that point of view emerge two kinds of societies. Where the individual is a paramount value, [Louis Dumont speaks] of individualism. In the opposite case, where the paramount value lies in society as a whole, [Louis Dumont speaks] of holism. Then, as the Zanskarpa choose to be more and more confident in the way advocated by the newly-graduated young generation, by combining economic choice with religious choice, there is a gradual displacement of the old generation outside the decision-making structures of the society. This generation considered that belonging to the valley was the basis for being a nangpa, someone from inside the community. Conversely, someone from another valley or locality was considered as a chhigyalpa – a stranger or foreigner. Because of this partition between people from inside and people from outside, building community identity was understood as a whole, including all human beings as long as they were tightly linked to the locality. But for this new generation, who are aware of an internationally globalised world and the web-scape, being part of a community means first and foremost that the enhanced capacities and abilities that come with greater individualism might improve the group community. Therefore, people from outside lack this ability, while people from inside adhere to this common project most of the time, on the basis of their beliefs and ideas. Leaving one stage of knowledge to assume another would ideally entail benefiting from new discoveries, while taking the time to re-consider the past and drawing on the experience of the older generation. But in the case of Zanskar, there is no time for a gradual transition because of the time-limits imposed by economic and political deadlines. In this case, beliefs, whether religious or otherwise, are the only way to re-invent a new way to build a community identity and to win membership from the majority of the local people. Therefore, the main challenge a group has to face, is how to exist as an individual in opposition to the ideal of community identity, without dispensing with an inherited culture that includes a language, a set of beliefs, and an entire way of life.

126

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Figure 54 Transmission from the elders to the younger generation, from Zanskarpa to foreigners, Padum, August 2009

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Index of Authors Aabedi, Zain Ul 89 Abbasi, M.R. 12 Bidima, J. G. 2, 49, 95 Bonte, Pierre 4, 108 Benedict, Paul King 40 Bruneau, Laurianne 6 Bresi, Pascal 19 Bray, John 2, 63, 88, 100, 103 Clastres, Pierre 17 Condominas, George 61 Crook, John 2, 30, 37, 63, 100 Day, Sophie 2, 104 Deboos, Salomé 2, 3, 10, 14, 15, 22, 39, 44, 49, 57, 60, 67, 69, 77, 82, 83, 92, 95, 100, 101, 114 Dollfus, Pascale 2, 7, 12, 29, 40, 42, 57, 112 Drew, Frederic 60 Descombes, Vincent 18, 84 Dumont, Louis 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 34, 122, 124, 125 Duranti, Alessandro 36, 99 Dughlat, Mirza Muhammad Haidar 31, 60, 113 Fewkes, Jaqueline H. 88 Francfort, Henry Paul 6, 25, 30, 100 Franke, August Hermann 100, 103 Friedl, Wolfgang 1, 83 Godbout, Jacques 48, 100 Grist, Nicola 2, 12, 29, 112 Gupta, Radhika 82, 103 Gutschow, Kim Irmgard 2, 86, 104 Hashmatullah Khan Lakhnavi, Maulvi 60 Héritier, Françoise 24, 87

Izard, Michel 4, 108 Kaplanian, Patrick 38 Klodzinski, Daniel 6, 25, 100 Lefort, Claude 50, 99 Lévi-Strauss, Claude 11, 12, 17, 40, 83, 87, 109 MacDonald, Ariane 7 Mascle, Georges 6, 25, 100 Ochs Elinor 22, 47 Osmaston Henry 2, 37, 63, 100 Petech, Luciano 2, 29, 30, 112 Pirie, Fernanda 2, 3, 12, 84, 88, 90, 108 Pinault, David 2, 12 Polanyi, Karl 22, 51, 63, 67 Pordié, Laurent 12 Ramsay, Henry 7 Riaboff, Isabelle 2, 7, 34, 38 Rizvi, Janet 2, 53, 55, 60, 63 Schuh Dieter 6, 12, 29, 112 Singh, Nagandra Kr. 89 Suba, Chandran Chari 10 Stein, Rolf Alfred 43 Testart, Alain 2 Turner, Victor 23, 84 Van Gennep, Arnold 43 Van Beek, Martijn 2, 12, 88, 90, 103

Index of Local Terms Aba[aba], abbā 1, 41, 42 Abi [abi] 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 101 Abachoung [abatʃuŋ] 41, 42 Ache [atʃƐ] 41, 42 Acho [atʃo] 41, 42 Aïd (‫ )�ع����ي�د‬93, 114, 119, 120 Ajang [aʐaŋ] 41, 42 Ama [ama] 1, 22, 41, 42, 45, 48 Amachoung [amatʃuŋ] 41, 42 Ane [anƐ] 41, 42 Bakawal [bakawal] 27 Blon po [lonpo] 51, 80 Brgyud [giu] 7 Both ig [bɵtig] 44 Boto [boto] 46, 76, 94, 97 Chadar [tʃadar] 27, 28, 60, 64 Chang [tʃɑ̃ g] 25, 38 Chhigyalpa [tʃigialpa] 1, 11, 38, 100, 101, 125 Dādā [dada] 45 Djo [dʒo] 57 Dri [dri] 57 Doksa [doksa] 57 Dzo [dzo] 57 Gonche [gɔ̃ tʃƐ] 27 Halwa [ˈhɑwa] 118 Kaje [kɑʒԐ] 76, 97 Karma [kaᴚma] 19, 32 Khar jing [karʒɪŋ] 120 Kore [koᴚԐ] 60, 62 Lag shes [lagʃɛ] 8, 9, 10, 22, 27, 51, 60, 62 Lambardar (‫ )د ر لم��بر‬16, 17, 35, 77, 96 Losar [losar] 32, 114, 120 Madrassa [madrasa] 45, 47 Magpa [makpa] 1, 43

Meme [mƐmƐ] 38, 39, 41, 42, 43, 45, 73, 74, 75, 100 Muharram [muˈharam] 86 Nangpa [nɑ̃ gpa] 1, 101, 125 Nodches [notʃԐs] 86 Nomo [nomo] 41, 42 Nono [nono] 41, 42 Palabre [pɑlɑbᴚ] 2, 3, 95 Pathpun [paspun] 11 Philingpa [filiŋpɑ] 11, 38, 100 Pir [piᴚ] 83, 101 Puja [puʒɑ] 32 Pumo [pumo] 41, 42 Puza [puza] 41, 42 Rigs [rig] 7 Rus [rus] 7 Rgyal po [gialpo] 8, 15, 16, 17, 83, 96 (r)tibches [titʃԐ] 86 (r)tsogpo, sokpo [sogpo] 59, 97 Samsara [samsaᴚa] 19, 32 (s)gyelches [gԐlʃԐ] 86 (S)nganphe (tsampa) [tsɑmpa] 28, 51, 53, 58, 61, 64, 118

‫تَ خ‬ �ِ ‫ت‬ � ) 6, 8, 34, 35, 63, 65 � Tehsil (‫��صی���ل‬ ��‫ح‬ Tarikh (�‫ ) �ا ري‬6, 31, 59, 112

Tehsildar 15, 16, 34, 35, 46, 96 Tombu [tɔ̃ bu] 62 Tsik [tsik] 13

‫آّة‬

Ummah ( ��‫ ) � �م‬19 Zun [zun] 13