When Maharaja Gulab Singh founded the state of Jammu and Kashmir in 1846, he inherited not only the territories of the old Sikh Empire but also its administrative traditions — and among them was one of the most enduring legacies of medieval India: the Persian language.

For centuries, Persian had been the language of diplomacy, law, and administration across much of northern India. Introduced in the subcontinent under the Delhi Sultanate and elevated by the Mughals, Persian had outlasted dynasties and found its way into the courts of hill principalities and the Sikh Empire alike. When the Dogras established their rule over Kashmir, Persian remained the official language of state, used in records, decrees, taxation, and correspondence.

There were practical reasons for this continuity. The Dogra rulers — though Hindu Rajputs from Jammu — governed a population whose administrative elite and literati were already trained in Persian. The clerical class in Srinagar, from accountants to qazis and scribes, worked in Persian; the archives, land deeds, and judicial orders were all composed in it. To replace Persian abruptly would have meant dismantling the bureaucratic machinery that sustained the new state.

Moreover, Persian was more than a working language — it was a shared medium of culture and prestige. Across the subcontinent, Persian symbolised refinement, learning, and legitimacy. In the Kashmir Valley, where Persian literature had long flourished under Muslim rulers, poets and scholars continued to produce works of prose, philosophy, and verse even under the Dogras. Many Hindu and Sikh officials were equally fluent, and the continuation of Persian helped bridge the administrative gap between the new rulers and the established Kashmiri elite.

Under Maharaja Ranbir Singh, Persian continued as the language of governance for most of his reign. The Maharaja himself was educated in Persian and Sanskrit, and official communication between provincial offices and the court was still conducted in that tongue. Persian remained the language of law courts and revenue offices, while translations into Dogri or Hindi were made only for limited internal use.

The endurance of Persian during this period was also symbolic of cosmopolitan governance. Ranbir Singh presided over a multi-religious, multi-lingual kingdom stretching from Jammu to Ladakh; Persian provided a neutral administrative link across regions that spoke Dogri, Kashmiri, Balti, and Ladakhi. Its continued use represented a conscious decision to maintain continuity with past institutions rather than impose linguistic uniformity.

Yet by the late nineteenth century, winds of change were blowing. The British Empire had long since replaced Persian with English and vernaculars in its own provinces, and even in Punjab and Delhi, Persian had receded from public use. In Kashmir too, a new generation of officials educated under colonial influence found Persian increasingly archaic. Toward the end of Ranbir Singh’s reign, Urdu — written in the Persian script but more widely spoken — began to emerge as the practical alternative, eventually replacing Persian under his successor, Maharaja Pratap Singh.

But in the mid-nineteenth century, Persian remained the language of record and authority — a vestige of Indo-Islamic culture that carried over into the Hindu Dogra court. Its longevity under Gulab and Ranbir Singh reflected not conservatism but statecraft: the recognition that the strength of governance often lies not in abrupt reform, but in preserving what connects a people to their shared past.

Sources & Further Reading

• Chitralekha Zutshi, Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir (2004)
• P.N.K. Bamzai, A History of Kashmir (1954)
• S.C. Ray, Administrative System of Jammu and Kashmir (1846–1947) (1990)
• Mohammad Ishaq Khan, History of Srinagar (1846–1947) (1999)
• Mridu Rai, Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects (2004)
• Official archives of the Jammu and Kashmir State (Persian-language records, 19th century)