In 1872, under Maharaja Ranbir Singh of the Dogra dynasty, the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir introduced a practice that would define its administration for almost 150 years — the Darbar Move. Every spring, the royal court and government secretariat shifted from Jammu to Srinagar, returning again in autumn. What began as a matter of climate and strategy became, over time, an emblem of the region’s political unity and cultural rhythm.

The origins of the Darbar Move lay in both geography and geopolitics. The Dogra kingdom spanned low-lying Jammu, the temperate Kashmir Valley, and the highlands of Ladakh. In winter, snow closed the passes into the Valley; in summer, Jammu sweltered in subtropical heat. Ranbir Singh’s officials could not operate effectively from one capital year-round. Shifting the Darbar ensured that governance remained continuous and symbolically accessible to subjects in both major regions.

There was, however, another layer of influence. British officers in Lahore and Murree, already watching the northern frontier with concern, encouraged the Maharaja to station his government for part of the year in Srinagar, closer to the routes leading to Gilgit and Central Asia. At the time, the British Empire feared growing Russian advances southward through Central Asia — the era of the Great Game. The Dogra ruler’s summer presence in the Valley, near the strategic mountain corridors, served imperial as well as local interests: it demonstrated sovereignty while reassuring the British that Kashmir was securely under loyal administration.

From that first journey in 1872, the Move evolved into a grand biannual migration. Hundreds of officials, soldiers, clerks, and animals — and later rail wagons and motor convoys — carried thousands of files, tents, and furnishings across the Pir Panjal Range via the Jammu–Banihal route. What began as logistics turned into ritual. The sight of the Maharaja’s entourage winding through the mountains became a symbol of connection: governance in motion, uniting two very different capitals into a single polity.

Even after the Dogra monarchy gave way to elected government, the Darbar Move continued. It survived the turbulence of independence, the 1947 war, and decades of political change. For generations, it came to represent a shared administrative heritage, reminding people that Jammu and Srinagar, though distinct, were inseparable parts of one state. By the late 20th century, it had also acquired an emotional dimension — a festival of continuity that marked the changing of the seasons and the rhythms of governance.

In 2021, two years after the abrogation of Article 370 and the reorganisation of the state into a Union Territory, the administration suspended the Darbar Move. The government argued that electronic records and e-office systems had made the costly biannual transfer unnecessary. Yet many saw in the decision a deeper symbolism — part of a broader attempt to redefine Jammu and Kashmir’s cultural landscape under the post-370 order.

In 2025, the administration revived the Darbar Move, though in a ceremonial form — not the full caravan of old, but a symbolic resumption acknowledging the practice’s place in regional memory. Whether the Move will ever return in its original scale remains to be seen. But its endurance, across empires and political systems, has made it an intangible heritage of governance — born of mountain necessity, sustained by political balance, and remembered as a living link between the Valley and the plains.

Sources & Further Reading

• P. N. K. Bamzai, A History of Kashmir (1954)
• S. C. Ray, Administrative System of Jammu and Kashmir (1846–1947) (1990)
• The Leaflet, “Examining the History and Significance of the Darbar Move in J&K” (Apr 2021)
• Kashmir Life, “Darbar Move – An Obituary” (July 2021)
• The Indian Express, “The Tradition of Darbar Move is Back in J&K” (Oct 2025)
• Civils Daily, “What is Darbar Move?”