By Siddhartha Garoo

Any discussion about Jammu and Kashmir is so much dominated by what has happened and what continues to happen in Kashmir valley that little is known or understood about parts of former princely state that neither belong to Kashmir region nor to Jammu region. This vast land tract, which constitutes most of the land mass of the former princely state of Jammu & Kashmir is known by various names and is home to many distinct and proud ethnic groups with their own independent culture, history and traditions, which gets unnoticed because of the numerical strength of people from Kashmir valley and Jammu regions.

Photo source: webjazba

The key to understand this “other Jammu & Kashmir” lies in terms “wazarats” that was used for two main ethnic and linguistic regions of the “wazarat of Gilgit” and “wazarat of Ladakh”. These wazarats were vassal states of the princely state…