A comprehensive overview of the geographical, cultural and socioeconomic aspects shaping the unique identity of downtown Srinagar, drawn from local insights and observations

Downtown is the most densely populated area of Srinagar city, mostly located on the banks of the Jhelum River, about five km from the city center. Housing various historical sites, the area holds immense historical merit. Specific areas within the city boundaries include Bulbul Lankar, Aali Kadal, Rajouri Kadal, Wazzpora, Gurgari Mohalla, Wattal Kadal, Qutn Din Pora, Jamalatta, Hawal, Gojwara, Nowhatta, Roniwara, Khanyar, Khoji Bazaar, Malaratta, Saraf Kadal, Bohri Kadal, Zaina Kadal, Habba Kadal, Eidgah, Kawdara, Nawakadal, and Kadikadal, among others. The geographical circumference of Downtown Srinagar includes areas like Khanyar on one side, Sekdafar on the other side, Alamgiri Bazaar on the Hawal side, and Rainawari on the Nowhatta side.
Land Usage: Arable or Commercial or Both?
The area of downtown Srinagar is remarkable for its business-related activities. We could divide the land into two major sections:
Commercial Land: Old shops, with new ones under construction, constitute a substantial portion of the land. The region consists of establishments like milk-selling shops, newly constructed shops, street vendors, and other shops selling varied contents. Zaina-Kadal has been remarkable for its Mundi, selling spices, dry fruits, and copperware. People from rural areas flock to the Mundi to purchase commodities from the sellers. Besides, there is another market called Jamia Market, with shops established selling different commodities. Additionally, we could witness shops engaged in business, lining the streets. Commerciality holds utmost importance in the regional economic domain.
Arable Land: We have a few areas where cultivators grow plants, including collard greens, radish, capsicum, pepper, and so forth. Kawdara, Dumbpora, and Khanyar are among these regions. The yield acquired is either sold to street vendors selling it to customers, or customers come to the homes of cultivators to purchase the vegetables.
Note: Those engaged in cultivating vegetables aren’t looked down upon, yet there is a deep unconscious sense of superiority and inferiority when it comes to matchmaking. Butts from the business sector refuse to tie the knot with the Sufi land cultivators. We need to note it.
What are the houses made of: Brick houses or mud-brick houses?
The housing pattern in the Old City demonstrates a highly skilled usage of mud-bricks, plastered with mud. Most of the houses ascend towards two to three storeys and are roofed with a hall closing. The salient features of the houses could be understood in the following points:
A) Niches are employed on the edges of the windows to give them a pleasing look, reflecting the age-old Indo-Persian architectural design.
B) Thin bricks made of mud are the principal building blocks of the housing pattern.
C) At certain places, one could see the usage of stones in building the old housing structures.
D) The rooms of the houses are roofed with fine wood, locally called Burzil Lakir, whereas the walls are also made of mud-bricks.
E) Rooms in the houses could extend to 5-6 rooms or even dozens of rooms. At certain places, we could see small housing structures consisting of a few rooms, whereas at other areas, we could witness houses like that of European Castle: one such structure exists at the backside of Islamia College, at Gojwara, etc.
The case of dismantling older structures in the pursuit of constructing concrete structures: For the past few decades, we have been witnessing growing cases of dismantling mud-made houses and replacing them with brick-built houses. With the increasing alterations in the notions regarding the housing pattern, the people of the region, in most cases, prefer to convert the older establishments with either concrete houses made of bricks or commercial entities. Such examples could be seen occurring from afar as one wanders the roads of the Old City. A total, stark metamorphosis of the housing pattern, with carving out shops facing the roads, with the established structure going through partial – or impartial – overhaul.
Are we losing historical structures to concrete ones? This we need to note.
What’s different for the folks of the Old City, distinguishing them from the people residing in the civil lanes?
The people from the old city differ from those residing in the civil lanes regarding family setup, handicrafts, ascent, among others:
A) Housing Patterns: The people from the Downtown region have been living together as a joint family. In each house, there exists a number of families, living together, ranging from uncles to married children to grandchildren. This system of sharing the house with kiths and kins has always been here. However, a shift to breaking from the joint household family system to embracing the nuclear family is on the loose. Nuclear families are on the rise. Speaking of the civil lanes, we witness swaths of nuclear household setups. Joint household families are a no-no. This complete or near-complete disjoint between the joint household family setup of the old city and the nuclear family – choosing of the civil lanes differ from each other, as far as the housing pattern is concerned.
B) Service Sector and Handicrafts: The majority of the people from the civil lanes are engaged in the service sector, ranging from bureaucrats to petty government servants, whereas people from Downtown Srinagar are engaged in different businesses – ranging from shopkeepers to handcrafters, with a few among them engaged with the government sector. This marks a crucial difference in terms of the preference of earning bread between the old city and the civil lanes.
Besides, in the opinion of the people from downtown Srinagar, people residing in the uptown exhibit a high level of formality in matters concerning conversation and neighborhood attire, whereas people on the other side of the spectrum showcase casualness in words, dealing with the public, and clothes. Pheran in winters and Khandras in summers are the principal clothing materials worn by the people from the Old City, whereas formal attire remains the hallmark of the clothing material in the uptown region. The language used by the uptown populace has a slightly different accent from the Downtown populace. People here, as one of the residents suggest, speak pure Kashmiri words, whereas the uptown language has a mix of Kashmiri and Urdu to it.
Note: We must not generalize that people have set characteristics regarding clothing, casualness, formality, and so forth. Nevertheless, public opinions hold merit in the nuanced understanding of the complexities regarding the people of the two regions.
What’s special about Shehr-e-Khaas
A) Houses in a Tight Row: There is hardly any space between the houses. Houses are in a state of extreme proximity to one another, and neighboring houses stand as if they are part of another house in its close proximity. Such compactness characterizes the housing pattern of the downtown Region.
B) Shrines in Swathes: From Dastgeer Sahib in Khanyar to Makhdoom Sahib on the Nowhatta side; Khanqah-e-moula near Fateh Kadal to Bud Shah in Mehraj Gunj, the region of Downtown is dotted with structures of historical importance. Jamia Masjid, located at Nowhatta, is another architectural and structural hallmark of the Downtown region. With these structural legacies of the past, the old city holds utmost importance regarding its historicity.
C) Mirwaiz Manzil: Situated in Rajouri Kadal. Moulvi Ateequallah, son of Molvi Yousuf Shah, set up an educational institution ‘Anjuman-Nusrat-ul-Islam’. This organization started Islamia High School at Razouri Kadal. It also set up some Middle schools on other parts of the Valley.
D) Dr. Ali Jan, Moulvi Abbas Ansari, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, Pt. Anand Kaul Bamzai, et al: The best physician, as people claim, of the whole Kashmir, Dr. Ali Jan, hailed from the Gojwara region (nearby Nowhatta). His contribution to the healthcare sector, treating patients suffering from morbid sickness and exhibiting acute, sharp, and effective diagnostic skills. An area nearby SKIMS has been named after him: Dr. Ali Jan Road. Moulvi Abbas Ansari, a Shia cleric, and Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, former Chief Minister of J&K, belonged to Nawakadal. Well-known hakim of his time, Pt. Sansar Chand Hakim also lived there. Pt. Anand Kaul Bamzai, a historian, belonged to Gaghri Mohalla.
E) Handicrafts: The sector of handicrafts makes the region of downtown distinct from other areas: from Carpet-Weaving to Namdah-Making; Shawl-weaving to Walnut Wood Carving to Papier-Mache, people – people here are attending to these historical legacies by engaging with them.
Besides, we have a slew of other characteristics – the majority of the houses built using earthen bricks, arches, and so forth. The point to note is that, as time passes by, the region is lost to a brume of modernistic notions: dismantling old structures, as mentioned earlier, people least taking to crafting professions, drug abuse, and so on and so forth.
Economy: Haakh Batte
The economic facet of the Downtown region of Srinagar depends on a slew of markets, handicraft sector, shopkeepers, yields from arable land, etc.
A) Markets: Jamia Market, one of the biggest markets in the Srinagar district, is located outside the Jamia Market, in Nowhatta. A slew of shops selling burkas, hosiery, cups, clothes, utensils and so on. People throng the market to purchase the commodities. During the summer times, the market generates good wealth by selling these commodities. On occasions like Eids, hardly a space could be found to pass through the lanes of the market, typifying the booming economic activities in the region. Besides, the reference could be made to Mehraj-Gunj Market. The market has been engaged with the wholesale of commodities – ranging from spices to copperware to dry fruits to disposable items used in marriages. People from the rural areas throng the market to purchase the products either for consuming them or selling them back at home to customers. Pointing to the hub of trade with the Srinagar-Rural areas, generating wealth and contributing to the overall economic facet of the downtown region.
B) Handicrafts: Other than the selling-purchasing economic side of the region, we have, as earlier mentioned, handicrafts, including Kani-Shawl making, Sozni-Work, Walnut Wood-Carving, Carpet-Making, Papier-Mache, contributing to the economic facet of the region. Hawal is remarkable for making shawls, and one of the biggest families engaged with Shawl-making is GM Shawls located nearby Firdaus Cinema. Besides, Zadibal is known for producing fine Papier-Mache products. Regarding potters, we have references to the Khanyar region, where people are engaged in making products from the earthen clay. These sectors are the other sources of generating wealth in the region.
C) Arable Land: People from certain areas around Khanyar, Dumb Mohalla (Rajourikadadal) possess swathes of arable land, cultivating vegetables ranging from collard greens to radish to pepper to turnips. They are locally called ‘Aram.’ Their children are associated with the arable land as well, symbolizing self-sufficiency, besides adding to the overall economic gain.
Besides these three, we have references to a few people engaged in government jobs: some assistant professors, some working in SMC, others working in America, such as Duranis and Fazillis of Gojwara.
Note: A growing number of people, as they claim, eats Haak-Batti, pointing to the thankfulness to the almighty for bestowing them with morsels of food, further pointing to the not-so-good economic status. Comparatively speaking, people from the civil lanes, most of them, are engaged with the government sector, whereas people from this region exhibit self-sufficiency regarding owning shops, selling, and gaining income. Seeing the broad picture of the two, one sees differences in terms of houses, cars, and the overall contrasting picture of the economic status. This is to be noted.
Women: Reeling under Patriarchy or Free?
The status of women in the region is somewhat confined to household chores, preparing food for the family. It’s a popularly held belief that women in the region mustn’t exhibit masculine orientations, ranging from earning bread for the family to wandering all day without explanation to male members.
Deep at the subconscious level, women also have moral scruples about transcending the prevailing norms regarding clothing. Headscarves are worn by most women, standing in sharp contrast to the skin-tight attire. Housemakers make up most of the women in the Downtown region.
The least number of women are engaged in job-related activities, most of which range from teaching to handicrafts, and other petty jobs. The literacy rate among women isn’t promising as well. However, with passing time, we witness women from the region aspiring to earn money by pursuing diverse career options.
The confining of women to household chores and tending to children is metamorphosing into seeking out jobs. A radical shift at the subconscious level, with the advent of modernistic notions of women being independent, we witness women freely pursuing education (supported by families).
Comparing the society of the Downtown from the recent past to the present, we witness changes in attire. Not all women wear headscarves. This paradigm shift symbolizes women embracing changes, unlike being stuck in patriarchal gaze.
Note: Zawaal, as people poignantly call the current times. Western culture has influenced the region as well, with women embracing feminist narratives and breaking away from the ages-long historical legacies of simplicity, men earning bread, and fixed gender roles.
So, are women from the region subjugated by men? Yes-No. The former in the sense of discouraging love marriage, wandering, earning bread; no, in the sense of – as it provided security to the womenfolk: as in, you-don’t-have-to-work-I-am-here kind of an ideology.
Conservative or Liberal Societies – or Somewhere in Between
Seeing the broader picture of the region, one can conclude from the offering of prayers – holding of fasting, performing of pilgrimage, restrictions on indulging in immoral activities, including drinking booze, adultery, cheating, lying – that the society is largely influenced by theistic narratives, especially Islam.
The Islamization of the region, in particular by Shah Hamadan, resulted in different norms and values for the society, where greater importance is placed on God, His prophet, and their commandments. No booze shops exist in the region, unlike civil lanes – Sonwar, Dalgate.
We often see men, as I have observed among the young and the old alike, passing comments, spoken or unspoken, on women as being whore-type for wearing tight jeans and showcasing braids, coupled with a few advise-filled characteristics of the women from the past. ‘Saezer Oius’. We can infer from it that certain values in society are deeply rooted in its historicity.
Nevertheless, we have certain elements as far as liberal values are concerned. Men and women could opt for their clothing; the former could smoke, even amidst public places, the latter could opt for jobs – of their own will. In certain instances, love marriages occur more often than not, without any restrictive bars on the part of the family heads.
Note: The current state of the region runs toward, with difficulties, for the complete freeing of women from the imposed – or non-imposed – values from the menfolk. However, at the same time, we need to be aware of not losing the values of our past, the collective wisdom, comprehensive gender roles to a few modern narratives. This is to be noted.
Furthermore, it’s to be noted that we mustn’t generalize values onto the whole populace. Whereas the majority of the populace is conservative, a slew of others are conservative-liberals.
The writer has got information from the local residents of the Downtown region, besides observing things on his own. He has, in addition, taken insights from online sources regarding the Shehr-e-Khaas, including: ikashmir.net. Feedback at [email protected]

Peer Faizaan Bashir