Covert conspiracy on the Hindutash Pass in Kashmir

There was a covert conspiracy on the Hindutash Pass in Kashmir! It is not as though the cartographers were ignorant and  oblivious and unaware of the presence of the Hindutash Pass in Ladakh and Kashmir and the significance of the pass. The cartographers were shrewd enough and very well knew that the Hindu-tash Pass was the point of entry into India from across the Kuen Lun Range Border and  the implication  that the whole Kuen lun Range was the international boundary of India with East Turkistan. Being geostrategists,  there was jealousy and these cartographers were envious of India and did not willfully want to do India a favour by depicting the international border correctly by depicting Hindutash as part of Kashmir and the cartographers did not want to depict the international  border on the Kuen Lun Range on the edge of the Highlands of Kashmir. They had a game plan for the future as they were aware that India would never surrender Hindutash and there would inevitably be a war in the future and they wanted to capitalise on the future inevitable and impending war which is waiting to happen. 

 

In fact the colonial English regime actively curtailed the process for the consolidation of the territorial integrity of Kashmir and actively supported Chinese encroachments into the territory of Kashmir on this side of the Kuen Lun Range.   So, when the Government of Kashmir in 1885, at a time when the Chinese were least concerned or the alien  trans- Kuen Lun areas in the highlands of Kashmir, beyond their Eastern Turkistan dominion “and had literally washed their hands of it”, prepared to unify Kashmir and the Wazir of Ladakh , Pandit Radha Kishen initiated steps to restore the old Kashmiri out post of Shahidulla, Ney Elias who was British Joint Commissioner in Ladakh and spying on the Government of Kashmir raised objections. “This very energetic officer’ , he wrote to the resident, who duely forwarded the letter to the Government of India, “wants the Maharaja to reoccupy Shahidulla in the Karakash valley ….I see indications of his preparing to carry it out, and, in my opinion, he should be restrained, or an awkward boundary question may be raised with the Chinese without any compensating advantage”. 

 

 

In the map annexed to the "Report on His Journey to Ilchí, the Capital of Khotan, in Chinese Tartary,", Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of

London, Vol. 37. (1867), pp. 1-47 By Mr. Civil-Assistallt W. H. JOHNSON, F.R.G.S., Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, the International boundary is depicted on the Hindutash Pass and the Walagot or Sanju-La Pass in Ladakh though the boundary is arbitrarily depicted as shifting from Doba in Kashmir near the Tynzap River and  the Walagot pass in the Kuen Lun Range to the Karakoram range. Why the border is depicted as jumping from Doba in Kashmir on the Kuen Lun Range in northern Kashmir to the Karakoram Range rather than logically and naturally continuing on the Kuen Lun Range is intriguing and amazing. There was foul play. The arbitrary and unilateral pernicious act gave the excuse they badly needed for subsequent cartographers to follow suit. The crux of the issue is the present map pertaining to the  "Report on His Journey to Ilchí, the Capital of Khotan, in Chinese Tartary,", Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of

London, Vol. 37. (1867), pp. 1-47 By Mr. Civil-Assistallt W. H. JOHNSON, F.R.G.S., Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, was not a replica of the original actual map prepared W. H. Johnson but altered obviously by those who hated India. There was foul play. Colonel Walker who was the Surveyor General in 1867 “insisted that the map as published was far different from Johnson’s Original”. Obviously the actual original map prepared by W. H. Johnson did not arbitrarily and unilaterally summarily jump from Doba in Kashmir near the Sanju-la Pass in Kashmir on the Kuen Lun Range in northern Kashmir to the Karakoram Range in central Kashmir  rather than logically and naturally continuing on the Kuen Lun Range. The original map drawn by W. H. Johnson  has to be recovered,  traced out and  subjected to scrutiny. The pernicious manner of depiction  in the subsequently unilaterally and summarily altered map drawn by W. H. Johnson gave subsequent cartographers the sanctity, excuse and opportunity they desperately needed  to  follow suit and start depicting the border as jumping from Doba in Kashmir near the  near the Tynzap River and the Sanju-la Pass in Kashmir  to the Karakoram Range in central Kashmir. It was availed inter alia in the 1874   map, titled "Ost-Indien" (East Indies), drawn by F. Von Stulpnagel, and The 1875 map, "Vorder-Indien oder das Anglo-Indische Reich”, a cartography of Hermann Berghaus (Heinrich Berghaus) and this pernicious  state of affairs which gave the cartographers the free for all  continued till 1947. Thus, 

 

In the  map, titled "Ost-Indien" (East Indies), drawn by F. Von Stulpnagel,

a part of Stieler’s Hand-Atlas No. 66 published by Justus Perthes in Gotha in 1874, the Hindutash is depicted as  part of Kashmir. 

 

The map, "Vorder-Indien oder das Anglo-Indische Reich”, a cartography of Hermann Berghaus (Heinrich Berghaus) from the 6^th Edition of  Atlas: Stieler's Hand-Atlas über alle Theile der Erde, (1875-1881) 1873 published by Adolf Stieler/ Johan Georg  Justus Perthes in Gotha in 1874, is perhaps deliberately shabbily shown but the map actually depicts the Hindu-tash pass as part of Kashmir but the legend Hindu-tash is itself

not available and only the legends Kuen Lun and the  Kara Kash, a river flowing in Kashmir and entering East Turkistan near the Sanju-la Pass in Kashmir through a gap in the Kuen Lun Range on the northern edges of the Highlands of Kashmir and the corresponding southern edge of East Turkistan is portrayed, and the area of Hindutash in Kashmir is outside the regular edges of the map and is shown as an extension with the international boundary with East Turkistan depicted on the Kuen Lun Range, though the extended area beyond the regular edges of the map is the most important portion of the map in question.

 

In the map titled "Indien & Inner-Asien In 2 Blattern," created by Adolf Stieler, edited by E. Debes and H. Habenicht, and printed by Hellfarth in

Gotha, a  part of Stieler's Hand-Atlas No. 63-64, published in 1875 by  Justus Perthes, the international Boundary is depicted on the Hindutash Pass though two different Borders are depicted for reasons best known to the cartographers, but subsequently In the map, "Stieler's Hand-Atlas No. 64. Indien & Inner-Asien, Nordliches Blatt," created by Adolf Stieler and A. Petermann in 1881 and published by Justus Perthus of Gotha, the cartographers for no credible reason do not depict the international boundary on the Hindutash in Kashmir and depict the boundary to the south of the Hindutash and on the Raskam River and do not portray two boundaries at all. 

 

In the map titled the "A Map of the Countries between Constantinople and Calcutta: including Turkey in Asia, Persia, Afghanistan and Turkestan" 1:7,000,000 published in 1885 published in 1885 by Edward Stanford Ltd., a

London map seller and publishing house established in 1853 by Edward Stanford (1827–1904),Stanford's Geographical Establishment, London known for its London shop catering to famous explorers and political figures, the area comprising the valley of the Karakash in the Aksai Chin in Ladakh in eastern Kashmir is portrayed and  the Kilian, Sanju-la, Hindutash and Yangi Passes in Ladakh in the Kuen Lun range in northern Ladakh up to the Khathaitum in the Kilian Valley in northern Ladakh is depicted as part of Kashmir.

 

 

In the Map titled Chinese Empire & Japan by John Bartholomew & published, in 1893 by John Walker and Co Ltd, London in The Handy

Reference Atlas of the World depicting the International Boundary of India with East Turkistan on the Kuen Lun Range,  the  Kukalang & Hindu-tash Passes, & the Raskam Tract adjoining the Kuen Lun Range in northern Kashmir & the Kara Kash River in Kashmir is depicted as part of India and the provinces of Bengal, Nepal, Assam including the Assam Himalaya, and Kashmir are depicted as part of India in 1893 prior to 1947.

 

The  Times Atlas of the World had  depicted the  Hindutash Pass as part of Kashmir in 1900. 

 

However the publishers of the Times Atlas of the World make a volte facie and The Hindutash  and the Sanju-la Passes  in north eastern Kashmir  are  no longer depicted as part of Kashmir in the 1959 map published by the Times Atlas of the World though the very same Times Atlas of the World had previously depicted the  Hindutash Pass as part of Kashmir in 1900! In this 1959  map, the cartographers and publishers  have the audacity to draw two lines with the caption “undefined frontier” between them but even in this 1959 map the Hindutash and Sanju-la  Passes  are  not

depicted as part of Kashmir and the international border is not depicted on the Kuen Lun range in that area even as an alleged extreme view of the border not withstanding the fact that they have portrayed two lines allegedly showing the two extreme positions and the border is shown arbitrarily shifting from the Kuen lun range to the Kara Kash river after the Kukalang and Yangi Dawan passes in northern Kashmir instead of naturally continuing along the Kilian including Katai Tam and Sanju-la  passes in northern Kashmir and proceeding to the Hindutash pass in northern Kashmir through the Hindutash Ridge connecting the Sanju-la Pass  and the Hindutash Pass unlike  the earlier map titled "Indien & Inner-Asien In 2 Blattern," created by Adolf Stieler, edited by E. Debes and H. Habenicht, and printed by Hellfarth in Gotha, a  part of Stieler's Hand-Atlas No. 63-64, published in 1875 by  Justus Perthes  where the international Boundary is depicted on the Hindutash Pass though two different Borders are depicted for reasons best known to the cartographers.