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Jammu and Kashmir (India)

by Stuart Notholt and Jorge Candeias, 11 December 1998

The state flag
Flag use today
Variant of the flag
Postal Service

See also:

Variant of the Flag

by Jorge Candeias, 11 December 1998

The state flag

India has (had?) a flag for Jammu and Kashmir. This was red, to symbolize labour, with three white vertical stripes in the hoist (which do not run the whole height of the flag). These stand for the three districts of the region. In the hoist, also in white, a stylized agricultural implement (?) A plough (?)

Stuart Notholt, 22 September 1996

I don't know what the device is, but I also believe it is a plough of some kind, even if it looks to me more like a weird kind of iron. Smith gives this as a state flag, with 2:3 proportions, so this wouldn't be a flag used by the Kashmiris, but by the regional government.

Zeljko Heimer, 24 September 1996

Kashmir, because of its special status under the Indian Constitution (it is, for example, the only province where non-natives of the province are prohibited from owning real estate), is the only Indian province with a flag. Princely State flags (as discussed elsewhere) continue to be used in appropriate areas, without any official sanction. The National Flag is the national flag and Indian law and custom are adamant on this point.

The plough is, by the way, really a plough. Really.

Ed Haynes, 24 September 1996

Flag use in Jammu and Kashmir

In Indian Kashmir, the Indian flag is used.

Ed Haynes

Barraclough (1971) says that the flag of Jammu and Kashmir is no longer in use.
Nitesh Dave, 29 Feb 2000

If Barraclough is correct, and that was the case in 1971, it certainly is not now (and has not been for some time). I lived in New Delhi 1994-97, and the Jammu and Kashmir flag flew every day, next to the Indian national flag, at "Jammu and Kashmir House" (a sort of state cultural, trade and tourism promotion office in the Indian capital).
Glen Hodgins, 01 Mar 2000

I have seen some designs of Kashmir's flags: first the flag of the indigenous state; second, the flag of the state (?) in the 1970's (the design comes from the Catalan Encyclopedia and the book by Whitney Smith); third, two flags probably nationalist flags, that I have seen on TV in the last two years:

by Jaume Ollé

Green, red, green horizontal

by Jaume Ollé
Green over red horizontal, and, in the hoist, a polygon figure in white

by Jaume Ollé
A triangular design, similar to the Philippine flag.
This flag seems to be used by nationalists (neither pro-Indian nor pro-Pakistani), for instance on the following URL http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/8215/struggle.html, which is a page of the J&K Liberation Front.
Thanh-Tâm Lę, 28 January 1999.
From Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front:

Our organisational flag is of three colours i.e. Green, Red and White. Each colour has two meanings. Green represents the Muslim majority and the greenery of the State. Red represents our revolutionary ideas as also our belief that we can not achieve our objective unless we shed our own blood and that of the enemy too. The White colour represents the religious minorities (non-Muslims) of the State and our peaceful efforts on political and diplomatic fronts to achieve our objective. The ratio of Green and White portions of the flag is the same as that of the Muslim and non-Muslim populations of the whole State (IHK, AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan)
Located by Esteban Rivera, 30 May 1999

by Jaume Ollé
A flag, probably with a 1:3 ratio, the top (2/5) divided in vertically yellow and green and in the green a crescent and star in white; in the bottom (3/5) bars white and green, green being the bottom bar.

Jaume Ollé

Kashmir Postal Service

by Jarig Bakker, 19 Apr 2001

[A green triangle] is the flag of the Kashmir Postal Service if I don't remember wrongly.
Jaume Ollé, 11 June 1999

Around the year 1000 Himalayan postmen took a stick of two feet long, split it on top and stuck in the gap a letter; the messenger carried the stick as a small flag in front of him (source: A Springer, 'Die Post-und Reiserouten des Orients', c. 1880, reprint c. 1970)

The dak-runners (postmen) continued their services at least until the beginning of this century, since Aurel Stein received post from 'his' dak-runner in Lop-nor (Sinkiang) in 1907 (v. 'Ruins of Desert Cathay', 1912, vol I, p.407) When a flag was instituted I don't know.
Jarig Bakker, 11 June 1999

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