Iqbal, the poet dubbed Payam-I-Masriq (Message from the East), wrote with sadness about Kashmir, the land of silkweavers in India's mountainous north: "In the bitter chill of winter shivers his naked body," he wrote, "whose skill wraps the rich in royal shawls."

He saw this contradiction in that land often called "Paradise" on a visit in 1921.

Statistics showed that 90 percent of the Jammu and Kashmiri populati