https://whatiskashmir.com/2026-09-07https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/whatiskashmir-hero-by-muzzammil-eddie-sajjad.webpAn original composite artwork used as this site's opening image.“Same land. Two stories. One Kashmir.” An original composite artwork, not a photograph — the people in it are not identifiable individuals and no part of it is documentary evidence of a particular event.https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/kashmir-map-art-by-muzzammil-eddie-sajjad.webpAn original composite artwork in the shape of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.“Heaven on Earth, Prison in Reality.” An original composite artwork, not a photograph: the two futures of the same valley held inside one outline.https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/un-view-map.webpA map of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir drawn to the United Nations convention for…The territory drawn to the United Nations convention for a disputed area — the depiction that does not assume the answer. Indian and Pakistani official maps each show the whole territory as their own.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/valley-satellite.webpA satellite image of the Kashmir Valley, showing the valley floor enclosed by snow-covered mountain…The Kashmir Valley from orbit. The enclosing ranges are why this is a distinct place with a distinct people, and the reason two states have spent seventy-eight years contesting it.https://whatiskashmir.com/history/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/maharaja-bourne.webpA 19th-century photograph by Samuel Bourne of the Maharaja of Kashmir seated with his retinue.The Maharaja of Kashmir and his retinue, photographed by Samuel Bourne in the 19th century. The Dogra dynasty acquired the territory under the 1846 Treaty of Amritsar for 7.5 million rupees — a Muslim-majority population transferred by a commercial transaction to which none of its inhabitants was party.https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/kashmir-1890.webpAn 1890 photograph of Srinagar showing a mosque with a tiered spire on the bank of the river…Srinagar on the Jhelum, around 1890 — under Dogra rule, half a century before Partition.https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/tribesmen-1947.webpA 1947 black and white photograph of armed tribesmen standing on and around a truck during the…Armed tribesmen during the first Kashmir war, 1947. Fighters from Pakistan’s North-West Frontier crossed into the state on 22 October; Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession on 26 October and Indian troops were airlifted to Srinagar on 27 October.https://whatiskashmir.com/law/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/accession-1947.webpThe first page of the typed Instrument of Accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India.The Instrument of Accession, October 1947 — the document on which India’s entire claim to the territory rests. It was signed by an unelected hereditary ruler whose family had acquired Kashmir by purchase in 1846, on behalf of a population that was not consulted.https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/un-map-karachi-1949.webpA United Nations map of the state of Jammu and Kashmir showing the cease-fire line agreed under the…The United Nations’ own map of the cease-fire line, as agreed under the Karachi Agreement and ratified by both governments in July 1949. It was meant to be a temporary military line. Seventy-seven years later it is still, in modified form, the line.https://whatiskashmir.com/record/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/dossier/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/dossier/killings/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/bijbehara-martyrs.webpA painted memorial board at the Mazar-e-Shuhada martyrs' graveyard in Bijbehara.The memorial board at the Mazar-e-Shuhada in Bijbehara, listing by name those killed in the town on 22 October 1993, when security forces fired on a protest march. Thirty-three years later, no accused has been punished. This site does not publish photographs of the dead.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/pahalgam-valley.webpA wide photograph of the Pahalgam valley in Kashmir: green meadows and forested slopes rising to…The Pahalgam valley. On 22 April 2025, gunmen killed twenty-six people here, most of them Hindu tourists. Fourteen UN special-procedure mandate holders condemned that attack without qualification — and then documented what the state did afterwards.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/dossier/torture/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/dossier/disappeared/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/martyrs-of-kashmir.webpA photograph of a single white marble gravestone, inscribed in Urdu.A grave in a martyrs’ cemetery. Between eight and ten thousand men are estimated to have been disappeared since 1990; 2,730 unmarked graves were confirmed by a state human rights commission in 2011, and of 2,156 bodies examined in north Kashmir, 574 were identified as local.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/dossier/impunity/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/dossier/detention/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/dossier/pellets/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/dossier/sexual-violence/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/dossier/blackout/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/dossier/press/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/dossier/health/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/dossier/demography/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/library/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/references/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/data/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/credits/2026-09-07https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/abdullah-1931-sm.webpA 1931 black and white photograph of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah seated with other leaders of the 1931…Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah with other leaders of the 1931 agitation. Police fired on a crowd outside Srinagar Central Jail on 13 July that year, killing twenty-two people — the beginning of organised mass politics in Kashmir. Abdullah would be dismissed and imprisoned by India in 1953.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/accession-1947-sm.webpThe first page of the typed Instrument of Accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India.The Instrument of Accession, October 1947 — the document on which India’s entire claim to the territory rests. It was signed by an unelected hereditary ruler whose family had acquired Kashmir by purchase in 1846, on behalf of a population that was not consulted.https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/apple-orchard-sm.webpA photograph of a woman in a yellow shalwar kameez tending fruit in an apple orchard in Kashmir.An apple orchard in Kashmir. Horticulture, not tourism, is what most households actually live on — a point Kashmiri economists make sharply against the political weight given to the visitor economy.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/baglihar-dam-sm.webpA wide photograph of the Baglihar hydroelectric dam on the Chenab river in Jammu and Kashmir.The Baglihar dam on the Chenab — one of the three western rivers allocated to Pakistan under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, which flow through the territory India administers. Pakistan challenged this project through the treaty’s own dispute mechanism.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/bijbehara-martyrs-sm.webpA painted memorial board at the Mazar-e-Shuhada martyrs' graveyard in Bijbehara.The memorial board at the Mazar-e-Shuhada in Bijbehara, listing by name those killed in the town on 22 October 1993, when security forces fired on a protest march. Thirty-three years later, no accused has been punished. This site does not publish photographs of the dead.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/dal-houseboats-sm.webpA photograph of wooden houseboats moored along the shore of Dal Lake in Srinagar.Houseboats on Dal Lake. In a peaceful world this is a destination on the scale of the Alps, and the people who live here would be prosperous from it.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/dal-satellite-sm.webpA false-colour satellite image of Dal Lake and Srinagar.Dal Lake and Srinagar from orbit, in false colour. Vegetation reads blue; the city reads grey.https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/gulmarg-sm.webpA photograph of Gulmarg in Kashmir: pitched-roof buildings on a snow-covered meadow with…Gulmarg in snow.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/kashmir-1890-sm.webpAn 1890 photograph of Srinagar showing a mosque with a tiered spire on the bank of the river…Srinagar on the Jhelum, around 1890 — under Dogra rule, half a century before Partition.https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/kashmir-map-art-by-muzzammil-eddie-sajjad-sm.webpAn original composite artwork in the shape of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.“Heaven on Earth, Prison in Reality.” An original composite artwork, not a photograph: the two futures of the same valley held inside one outline.https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/loc-fence-sm.webpA close-up photograph of a barbed-wire strand on the fencing along the Line of Control between…The fencing along the Line of Control. The line was drawn as a temporary military ceasefire line in 1949 by two armies, neither of which asked anyone living on either side of it.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/loc-map-sm.webpA schematic diagram of the Line of Control showing villages and border posts on the Pakistani side…How the Line of Control works on the ground: villages and posts either side of a line marked in 1949 as a temporary military expedient. Families were divided by it and, for most of the years since, could not cross it.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/london-protest-sm.webpA photograph of a crowd of protesters in central London holding placards and flags.Protesters in central London. The demand made from outside the territory is the same one made inside it, and the same one the Security Council made in 1948: ask the people who live there.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/maharaja-bourne-sm.webpA 19th-century photograph by Samuel Bourne of the Maharaja of Kashmir seated with his retinue.The Maharaja of Kashmir and his retinue, photographed by Samuel Bourne in the 19th century. The Dogra dynasty acquired the territory under the 1846 Treaty of Amritsar for 7.5 million rupees — a Muslim-majority population transferred by a commercial transaction to which none of its inhabitants was party.https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/martyrs-of-kashmir-sm.webpA photograph of a single white marble gravestone, inscribed in Urdu.A grave in a martyrs’ cemetery. Between eight and ten thousand men are estimated to have been disappeared since 1990; 2,730 unmarked graves were confirmed by a state human rights commission in 2011, and of 2,156 bodies examined in north Kashmir, 574 were identified as local.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/pahalgam-valley-sm.webpA wide photograph of the Pahalgam valley in Kashmir: green meadows and forested slopes rising to…The Pahalgam valley. On 22 April 2025, gunmen killed twenty-six people here, most of them Hindu tourists. Fourteen UN special-procedure mandate holders condemned that attack without qualification — and then documented what the state did afterwards.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/pashmina-weaver-sm.webpA photograph of a Kashmiri weaver working at a large wooden handloom in a workshop in Srinagar.A pashmina weaver in Srinagar. Handicraft employs over 350,000 people in the region, most of them poor. Reported industry turnover fell from roughly $250 million in 2013 to $34 million in 2019 — a sector losing seven-eighths of its trade is a specific number of families losing everything.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/saffron-pampore-sm.webpA photograph of purple saffron crocuses in flower across a field at Pampore in Kashmir.Saffron in flower at Pampore. Kashmiri saffron is among the most valuable agricultural products in the world by weight, and one of the few export industries the region has.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/tribesmen-1947-sm.webpA 1947 black and white photograph of armed tribesmen standing on and around a truck during the…Armed tribesmen during the first Kashmir war, 1947. Fighters from Pakistan’s North-West Frontier crossed into the state on 22 October; Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession on 26 October and Indian troops were airlifted to Srinagar on 27 October.https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/un-map-karachi-1949-sm.webpA United Nations map of the state of Jammu and Kashmir showing the cease-fire line agreed under the…The United Nations’ own map of the cease-fire line, as agreed under the Karachi Agreement and ratified by both governments in July 1949. It was meant to be a temporary military line. Seventy-seven years later it is still, in modified form, the line.https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/un-view-map-sm.webpA map of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir drawn to the United Nations convention for…The territory drawn to the United Nations convention for a disputed area — the depiction that does not assume the answer. Indian and Pakistani official maps each show the whole territory as their own.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/valley-satellite-sm.webpA satellite image of the Kashmir Valley, showing the valley floor enclosed by snow-covered mountain…The Kashmir Valley from orbit. The enclosing ranges are why this is a distinct place with a distinct people, and the reason two states have spent seventy-eight years contesting it.https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/whatiskashmir-hero-by-muzzammil-eddie-sajjad-sm.webpAn original composite artwork used as this site's opening image.“Same land. Two stories. One Kashmir.” An original composite artwork, not a photograph — the people in it are not identifiable individuals and no part of it is documentary evidence of a particular event.https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/wular-lake-sm.webpA photograph of Wular Lake covered in lotus pads and flowers, with mountains on the far shore.Wular Lake, fed by the Jhelum — one of the largest freshwater lakes in Asia, and part of the river system that waters more than ninety per cent of Pakistan’s crops.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/self-determination/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/un-view-map.webpA map of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir drawn to the United Nations convention for…The territory drawn to the United Nations convention for a disputed area — the depiction that does not assume the answer. Indian and Pakistani official maps each show the whole territory as their own.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/dossier/water/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/baglihar-dam.webpA wide photograph of the Baglihar hydroelectric dam on the Chenab river in Jammu and Kashmir.The Baglihar dam on the Chenab — one of the three western rivers allocated to Pakistan under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, which flow through the territory India administers. Pakistan challenged this project through the treaty’s own dispute mechanism.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/wular-lake.webpA photograph of Wular Lake covered in lotus pads and flowers, with mountains on the far shore.Wular Lake, fed by the Jhelum — one of the largest freshwater lakes in Asia, and part of the river system that waters more than ninety per cent of Pakistan’s crops.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/dossier/economy/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/apple-orchard.webpA photograph of a woman in a yellow shalwar kameez tending fruit in an apple orchard in Kashmir.An apple orchard in Kashmir. Horticulture, not tourism, is what most households actually live on — a point Kashmiri economists make sharply against the political weight given to the visitor economy.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/dal-houseboats.webpA photograph of wooden houseboats moored along the shore of Dal Lake in Srinagar.Houseboats on Dal Lake. In a peaceful world this is a destination on the scale of the Alps, and the people who live here would be prosperous from it.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/pashmina-weaver.webpA photograph of a Kashmiri weaver working at a large wooden handloom in a workshop in Srinagar.A pashmina weaver in Srinagar. Handicraft employs over 350,000 people in the region, most of them poor. Reported industry turnover fell from roughly $250 million in 2013 to $34 million in 2019 — a sector losing seven-eighths of its trade is a specific number of families losing everything.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/saffron-pampore.webpA photograph of purple saffron crocuses in flower across a field at Pampore in Kashmir.Saffron in flower at Pampore. Kashmiri saffron is among the most valuable agricultural products in the world by weight, and one of the few export industries the region has.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/why/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/loc-fence.webpA close-up photograph of a barbed-wire strand on the fencing along the Line of Control between…The fencing along the Line of Control. The line was drawn as a temporary military ceasefire line in 1949 by two armies, neither of which asked anyone living on either side of it.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/maharaja-bourne.webpA 19th-century photograph by Samuel Bourne of the Maharaja of Kashmir seated with his retinue.The Maharaja of Kashmir and his retinue, photographed by Samuel Bourne in the 19th century. The Dogra dynasty acquired the territory under the 1846 Treaty of Amritsar for 7.5 million rupees — a Muslim-majority population transferred by a commercial transaction to which none of its inhabitants was party.https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/loc-map.webpA schematic diagram of the Line of Control showing villages and border posts on the Pakistani side…How the Line of Control works on the ground: villages and posts either side of a line marked in 1949 as a temporary military expedient. Families were divided by it and, for most of the years since, could not cross it.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/london-protest.webpA photograph of a crowd of protesters in central London holding placards and flags.Protesters in central London. The demand made from outside the territory is the same one made inside it, and the same one the Security Council made in 1948: ask the people who live there.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/dossier/surveillance/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/2019/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/support/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/contribute/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/contributions/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/questions/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/dal-satellite.webpA false-colour satellite image of Dal Lake and Srinagar.Dal Lake and Srinagar from orbit, in false colour. Vegetation reads blue; the city reads grey.https://whatiskashmir.com/about/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/ur/contribute/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/ur/contributions/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/ur/dossier/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/ur/dossier/demography/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/ur/dossier/detention/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/ur/dossier/economy/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/apple-orchard.webpA photograph of a woman in a yellow shalwar kameez tending fruit in an apple orchard in Kashmir.An apple orchard in Kashmir. Horticulture, not tourism, is what most households actually live on — a point Kashmiri economists make sharply against the political weight given to the visitor economy.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/dal-houseboats.webpA photograph of wooden houseboats moored along the shore of Dal Lake in Srinagar.Houseboats on Dal Lake. In a peaceful world this is a destination on the scale of the Alps, and the people who live here would be prosperous from it.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/pashmina-weaver.webpA photograph of a Kashmiri weaver working at a large wooden handloom in a workshop in Srinagar.A pashmina weaver in Srinagar. Handicraft employs over 350,000 people in the region, most of them poor. Reported industry turnover fell from roughly $250 million in 2013 to $34 million in 2019 — a sector losing seven-eighths of its trade is a specific number of families losing everything.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/assets/img/saffron-pampore.webpA photograph of purple saffron crocuses in flower across a field at Pampore in Kashmir.Saffron in flower at Pampore. Kashmiri saffron is among the most valuable agricultural products in the world by weight, and one of the few export industries the region has.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/https://whatiskashmir.com/ur/dossier/health/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/ur/dossier/pellets/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/ur/dossier/press/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/ur/dossier/torture/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/ur/support/2026-09-06https://whatiskashmir.com/ur/2026-09-06