Being a Part of Kashmir’s Legacy in Tourism

Dhruv Razdan

Kashmir’s tryst with tourism goes long way back of course, but it was the very few who realized its potential in the early years.  One such person was Late Mr. ML Razdan, the founder of Razdan Holidays and also my grandfather. 

Razdan Holidays, then known as Razdan Travel Service, was established in 1957. The company has been in existence for over 60 years now. 

I am the 3rd generation in the company and my father took over the baton in his early 30s after my grandfather left us quite early. He had to take the responsibility of taking the company forward quite early after the tumultuous years that had been in the past.

Kashmir’s tourism industry was quite dis-jointed but you know the quote “If there is heaven, it is here” doesn’t exist for nothing. 

Mr. ML Razdan was one of the many brothers and sisters in his family. At an early age, he joined the Police force of Kashmir as a constable. In the meanwhile, owing to the lack of medical advancement in India and low life expectancy, he had been losing brothers and sisters. His mother was distraught. 

Being in the police force in a place like Kashmir wasn’t one of the safer occupations (how times haven’t changed) and hence my great-grandmother insisted with her motherly concerns that he drops his job for something safer as she could not take any more tragedies. They were 10 children who had become just 2. 

Kashmiri’s have usually been known to be professionals in the field of engineering and medicine and quite successfully so.

Entrepreneurship wasn’t very popular and was probably frowned upon during the Nehruvian Socialism era. 

However, Mr. ML Razdan took the plunge into entrepreneurship with Razdan Travel Services. 

A great explorer himself, he personally developed trekking routes in the valley, hence, opening up the world to Kashmir. 

Kashmir was a hard place to gauge, especially for foreigners.

Therein he saw the opportunity, of organizing a disjointed market into a specialized product with his own expertise and his vision of integrating professionalism even in one of the remotest areas of the world. 

He also made a huge contribution by bringing Bollywood to Kashmir. A lot of the movies shot in Kashmir between the 70s and 80s had been done under the care of Razdan Travel Service. Movies were the best advertisers for a destination in those times in India. Soon, Kashmir became very popular amongst domestic travellers as well. Srinagar, Gulmarg, and Pahalgam were on everyone’s lips in the summers in mainstream India. 

Razdan Travel Service’s impact in the region of Kashmir had been left for generations. Even today, Mr. ML Razdan is well known as the pioneer of tourism in Kashmir.

The story does not end there. Mr. ML Razdan also opened trekking routes in the region of Zanskar and Ladakh leading some of the first-ever trekking expeditions in the region. 

Gaining expertise in two of the hottest selling destinations in the world, Kashmir & Ladakh, was fundamental to the company’s success.

However, the oncoming man-made disaster in 1989, shook the company’s base. A once sprawling tourism industry of Kashmir was sent under a tsunami of insurgency and violence. 

Razdan Travel Service had to immediately cease operations. A budding business run by a Kashmiri Pandit immediately became one of the major targets and hence, he was threatened to shut shop. 

The company had to shift its base to Delhi in urgency but the hold in the region from far away had been lost. Kashmir also became notorious in the market for foreign destinations hitting the operations of the company hard.

Nevertheless, the drive to survive was still high and Razdan Travel Service took shape as Razdan Holidays under his son and my father Mr.Sanjay Razdan.

Now the company has expanded its expertise and operations to all over India, Nepal, Bhutan & Sri Lanka.

As I write this, our tourism industry in India is under a similar onslaught due to COVID, though a much larger pool is being affected. 

I sometimes wonder if this is the second coming in the company’s history. However, having survived 1989, I think we shall overcome.

It is an incredible privilege to be a part of this legacy and I hope more and more Kashmiri’s having found new homes around the world travel to not only Kashmir but also India and discover the country’s incredible offerings.  

Web: www.razdanholidays.com

IG:     @razdanholidays