Srinagar: Union home minister Amit Shah’s attempt to link the name ‘Kashmir’ with Hindu Vedic sage Kashyapa has revived the debate about the Bhartiya Janta Party’s (BJP) alleged policy of imposing Hindutva on the country’s only Muslim-majority region.

“We all know that Kashmir has been an abode of Kashyapa. It is possible that Kashmir was named after him,” Shah claimed at a book launch function in the national capital on Thursday (January 2).

A Delhi-based TV network went a step ahead to claim that the Modi government could rename Kashmir after the Vedic sage. This set off a series of fact-checks about the government’s alleged remarks by some media outlets, which pacified the simmering public outrage in the valley to some extent.

Shah said that the Modi government would “restore … whatever was lost” while showering praises on the book, Jammu Kashmir & Ladakh Through the Ages: A Visual Narrative of Continuities and Linkages – a collaborative work of Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) and the National Book Trust.

A statement by the Press Information Bureau said that the book was in the making “for years”. Quoting Shah, the statement said that the book “eloquently captured … the relationship between Kashmir, Ladakh, Shaivism and Buddhism”.

The book, Shah said, has “broken the myths about Kashmir… and …. presented history with truth and evidence”.

Geology versus myths

Kashmir’s 3,000-year historical record is documented in Rajtarangini, a 12th century chronicle of the Indian sub-continent by Kalhana, that has lately come under the scrutiny of historians.

Professor Noor A. Baba, a political scientist based in Srinagar, observed that Shah’s reference to Kashyapa aligns with Kalhana’s mythologically oriented account of Kashmir which went largely uncontested during medieval times.

Recent archaeological and geological findings offer a more objective understanding of Kashmir’s evolution as a habitable landmass.

Geologist and assistant professor in Structural Geology, Physical and Geological........

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