Frederick Drew, the distinguished geologist, traveler, and author of ‘The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories’, remains one of the earliest scholars to provide a systematic geographical and ethnographic account of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Through the study of the region’s map of rivers and mountains, he examined how terrain shaped society, culture, livelihood, and movement.
Among the many regions he described, the present-day districts of Doda, Kishtwar, and Ramban occupy a particularly important place. These districts formed part of what he broadly understood as the Middle Mountains, the inhabited, forested, agriculturally productive central mountain belt situated between the plains and the high snowy Himalayas.
To understand his view of Doda, Kishtwar, and Ramban, one must first understand his mountain classification. He distinguished between the outer hills near the plains, the middle mountain zone where human settlement and cultivation flourished, and the great inner Himalayan heights marked by snow, glaciers, and sparse habitation.
In this framework, Doda, Kishtwar, and Ramban were not peripheral lands but part of the living Himalayan core. These regions represented the practical mountain world where communities farmed terraced slopes, grazed livestock, traded through passes, built villages on ridges, and developed languages and customs shaped by altitude and isolation.
Ramban was seen as a gateway district of the Middle Mountains. Located along the Chenab corridor and connecting Jammu with the higher interior zones, Ramban historically functioned as a passage between lower and upper mountain zones. Its steep ridges, narrow valleys, forests, and strategic routes made it an important transit landscape. In geographical terms, Ramban was the threshold where the plains gave way to the true mountain country. Its settlements reflected adaptation to rugged slopes, seasonal weather, and communication routes that were difficult yet essential.
Doda, in his understanding, represented the settled Pahari landscape of the Chenab basin. Rich in forests, marked by river valleys and tributary streams, and inhabited by long-established communities, Doda embodied the productive aspect of the Middle Mountains.
It was a land where agriculture, pastoralism, and woodland resources combined to sustain life. Drew wrote in details about the villages that were often perched on slopes or spread across terraces overlooking valleys, illustrating how people mastered difficult terrain through local knowledge and labour. For him, such landscapes demonstrated the intimate relationship between geography and society.
Mountainous and expansive Kishtwar
Kishtwar, by contrast, appeared as both mountainous and expansive, a high inland basin linked to outer districts yet opening toward greater Himalayan environments. Kishtwar’s remarkable topography, alpine meadows, forest belts, and routes toward remote ranges made it especially significant. It was seen as neither a part of the forested lower hills nor entirely of the high, barren Himalayas. Instead, it stood at the meeting point of multiple ecological zones.
This gives Kishtwar a distinctive importance in trade, seasonal migration, grazing patterns, and cultural exchange. His geographical method places Kishtwar as one of the most striking examples of transition within the mountain system.
A central feature of Drew’s understanding of these districts was the Chenab River. The Chenab and its tributaries were not merely waterways but organising forces of settlement and movement. Valleys determined habitation, transport, cultivation, and social contact.
In regions like Doda, Ramban, and Kishtwar, rivers cut deep through mountains, creating corridors where life concentrated. Drew recognised that in mountainous countries, rivers often function as roads, boundaries, lifelines, and historical connectors all at once.
Equally important was his appreciation of the people of these mountains. He often used broad geographical terms such as hill people, mountaineers, or Pahari-speaking communities rather than rigid modern identity categories. In the context of Doda, Kishtwar, and Ramban, he would have understood local populations as Pahari dwellers of the Middle Mountains - communities whose language, architecture, dress, agricultural methods, and social organisation reflected mountain conditions.
The term “Pahari,” derived from pahar or pahad, meaning hill or mountain, naturally described inhabitants of this terrain.
These populations were not isolated primitives in his framework, but they were adaptive societies shaped by the environment. They practiced terrace farming on steep slopes, managed forests and pasture cycles, maintained local trade networks, and developed resilient settlement patterns. Seasonal movement between lower and higher elevations, mixed economies of farming and herding, and strong kinship structures were all features of mountain life that scholars like Drew found noteworthy.
‘Pahari Dwellers of Doda, Kishtwar & Ramban’
He called People of Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban as ‘Pahari Dwellers' in his book.
He also understood the cultural diversity of mountain districts. Terrain creates separation, and separation often produces dialect variation, local customs, and strong regional identities. Thus, the hills of Doda, the uplands of Ramban, and the basins of Kishtwar would each possess internal distinctions while still sharing a broader Middle Mountain character.
This explains why the Chenab region historically developed a mosaic of linguistic and cultural forms within a connected geographical sphere.
Strategically, these districts mattered because they linked Jammu with Kashmir and the interior Himalayas. Before modern roads, mountain routes determined political control and economic exchange. Whoever understood the passes, valleys, and ridges understood the country itself.
Drew, as a careful observer, recognised that Doda, Kishtwar, and Ramban were not marginal backwaters but essential connective territories within the larger state.
Modern readers can draw an important lesson from Drew’s writings. Geography is not destiny, but it profoundly shapes historical possibilities. In Doda, Kishtwar, and Ramban, mountain geography encouraged self-reliance, localised cultures, difficult communication, ecological adaptation, and strategic significance. These are not accidental features but recurring patterns of Middle Mountain societies across the Himalayas.
Today, when discussions arise about identity, language, regional development, and historical recognition, his framework remains relevant. He effectively placed these districts within the inhabited central Himalayan world rather than treating them as extensions of either the plains or the remote high-altitude deserts. This distinction matters because it highlights their unique civilizational position as mountain societies rooted in forests, valleys, ridges, and river corridors.
Drew’s interpretation reminds us that these districts were historically significant not despite their mountains, but because of them. They were, and remain, among the most representative mountain societies of the western Himalayas.
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