Dr Etee Bahadur
The Central Institute of Buddhist Studies and the Ladakh and the Himalayan Cultural Heritage Foundation invited me to deliver a talk in their series of the ‘Heritage talks’ on 29th May 2020. The ‘Heritage Talk’ was a corollary to an Op-ed article of mine published in the Daily Excelsior https://www.dailyexcelsior.com/being-balti-in-the-nation-state-of-pakistan-a-search-for-a-cultural-identity/ (9.05.2020) . The talk is available at https://twitter.com/DailyExcelsior1/status/1266669802686304257?s=20
The text of the talk is as follows:
All of us relate to certain cultural traditions, all of us speak a certain language which is a part of our cultural identity. Almost all of us have follow certain traditions which are a part of our culture and our heritage. We might have lived in different time-frames, we might belong to different nations, we might live in different societies, yet all of us have a past which is preserved in different forms and this is transmitted to us from one generation to another. These cultural traits prevalent in the groups of people would then begin to define it’s social and cultural identity, which is why I would be talking on the dynamics of the culture of the Balti people on and what it means to be a Balti and the search of these Balti people for a Cultural Identity.
History is one discipline which gives us a sense of time and that is why I chose to begin with the fact of the reference to Baltistan as a region referred to in the ancient first epic of King Gesar (Ling Gesar). Ptolemy’s also mentions a Byaltlae people. The Dards refer to Balti as Balor, the Arabs call it Baloristan and the Tibetans, Nang-Kod, it was Tibet-i-Khurd or Little Tibet in the medieval literature.
Tibetans gave their language and culture to Baltistan but it was from Baltistan that Buddhism would travel from India to Central Asia, Tibet and China. There is reference to Buddhist priests and the construction of Buddhist monasteries in Tibetan texts and historical records. Baltistan remained under several petty chiefs till the twelfth century A.D.
In the thirteenth century, Ibrahim Shah who had reached Baltistan from Iran via Kashmir, married the only daughter of the Shagari tribe of Skardo and thereby called maqpa which means son-in-law in Balti, founded the Makpon dynasty and then around the fifteenth century a Muslim missionary, Mir Shamsuddin Iraqi spread the Nur-Bakshia of Kubrawiya Sufi order in Baltistan. It is said that in the sixteenth and the seventeenth century the Persian Shia clerics (Persian Twelver Shias) moved into Baltistan. The Mughal rule which would continue till 1753 saw Baltistan acquire a lot of change, as artisans (cobblers, jewelers, masons, stone-cutters) from other parts of India settled in Skardu during this time. Soon control over Kashmir passed on to the Afghans and then to the Sikhs, and the Dogras of Jammu.
The Dogras established the Ladakh Wazarat , which was divided into Leh, Kargil and Skardo administrative units and Skardo being the winter capital of Ladakh and Leh being the summer capital.
Ladakh and Balitstan were part of the same administrative set-up the Partition of the Indian subcontinent. The dispute over the territory has divided Baltis and Ladakhis on both sides of the LoC affecting the economic-development and the culture of the region.
It was in 1974 that the Northern Areas was created to detach Baltistan and Gilgit from the rest of Jammu and Kashmir. The Northern Areas would otherwise technically comprise of the former Gilgit agency, Chilas, Hunzas, Nagar, Koh, Ghizar and the tribal areas of Gilgit Agency.
This partition of the Ladakh Wazarat left a void in the cultural space of the people who inhabited the area on both sides of the LoC.
We are well of the fact that with Partition and the creation of borders what is experienced is not only a demographic change but a change in the life and culture and identity of a group of people who would now have to live with these new border realities which might not necessary be the significant will of the people.
That is why we need to understand the dynamics of the culture and identity of the people who have had to cross-borders maybe permanently they might be immigrants, they could be refugees or exiles or an Internally Displaced People (IDP’s) like the Hindus who belong to the valley of Kashmir.
Centred around Skardu are a people whose mother tongue is Balti. Balti is a local Tibetan derived dialect. Balti is still spoken by the people living in the valleys of Baltistan like the Skardu, Rongdu, Shigur Khapulu, Kharmarg and Guttari. Balti is also spoken in India in places in Kargil and in pockets where the Baltis in India live. The culture and identity of Baltistan of the Balti people who have lived together as the people of Baltistan and Ladakh under one set up under the state of Jammu and Kashmir will slowly get erased from the memory of the local people and we tend to notice a trend across cultures where the lot of the younger generation has begun to lose interest in their local traditions and festivals. However we see that their is a sense of yearning among the Tibetan origin Baltis to revive their old national roots and attempts to revive the traditional ritulas like Me-Phang, which is a fire-ritual, there is a move as well to preserve and protect Skardu’s ancient monuments rock carvings and other related heritage. There are many scholars who work on different facets of the Balti cultural identity, the Baltis would like to further their relations with Ladakh as they have a shared Ladakhi identity and heritage in the form of their language, music, dress, food, sports like polo and daphang which is archery, and most importantly Balti folklore like the King Gesar (Ling Gesar).
Baltistan’s connect with Ladakh, Tibet and Jammu and Kashmir, has been kept alive by writers and cultural commentators who write and speak on the Balti culture and history. the Balti tamlo containing 900 Balti and Ladakhi proverbs, the popularity of the Ladakhi songs in Baltistan all are an evidence to this.
In the absence of a script, a written language, the existence of folklore and oral tradition are in jeopardy. A section of the scholars also work towards preventing their Tibetan language from the growing influence of Urdu and Punjabi, and to revive the Tibetan script again is a way to preserve their culture. Such is the linguistic predicament of the Balti people, who were once a part of undivided Jammu and Kashmir.
(The author teaches Development Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi .)
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