Srinagar, Aug. 14 -- In villages, milk was poured by the eye, not the scale. The measure was trust, not precision. Bakers slipped an extra loaf into the bag of a struggling family without calling attention to it.

These were not acts of charity so much as the everyday rhythm of a society bound by an unspoken moral code.

For centuries, that code underpinned Kashmir's stability. It was not written in any statute, yet it governed life as surely as any law. Disputes rarely reached the courts. A handshake, a word of honour, or the counsel of an elder often settled them.

Families guarded these principles as carefully as they guarded property deeds. Prosperity was measured not only in saffron harvests or the shawl trade, but in the depth of co...