It has been four years since the government of India repealed Article 370 or the special status accorded to Kashmir soon after India’s independence. Kashmir is now split into two Union Territories — Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. This month, as the Supreme Court finally began hearing petitions challenging the decision, we thought it might be a good time to revisit Kashmir through a collection of books that chronicle both lived and personal experiences.
‘Munnu’ by Malik Sajid
The first graphic novel to come out of Kashmir, Munnu by Malik Sajid is a coming-of-age, semi-autobiographical account and a story of mid-1990s Kashmir — a Kashmir of curfews, crackdowns, disappearances, and mass graves, told through the protagonist Munnu. Born in Srinagar in a family of seven, Munnu doesn’t like going to school. When a boy in the neighbourhood is killed, Munnu gets nightmares. Munnu dreads his journey to school or the market as that always means passing through various army camps and barricades. He finds it threatening and intimidating. In a life full of uncertainties and entrenched with violence, where the personal and the political are inextricably intertwined, Munnu is a story about children and a childhood of conflict.
‘Rumours of Spring’ by Farah Bashir
This debut memoir by communication consultant and former photojournalist Farah Bashir begins with her grandmother’s death. The preparations for Bobeh’s ceremony, the protagonist’s beloved grandmother, is interspersed with multiple flashbacks where the author recounts growing up in Srinagar when militancy was at its peak. Interestingly, the chapters of Rumours of Spring follow the different phases of the day of Bobeh’s funeral — evening, night, early hours, dawn, morning, and after-life. Farah recounts a moment in 1989 when she was 12 and went out for a haircut. There was a shooting in the streets and her family thought she was dead. Since then, young Farah begins splitting her life into two — before 1989 and after. In 1993, like many others in Kashmir, Farah was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Filled with personal anecdotes, Farah's memoir moves away from newspaper images of guns and deaths and takes you into the insides of a Kashmir home.
‘The Greatest Kashmir Stories Ever Told’ translated by Neerja Mattoo
Did you know that the first Kashmiri short story to be written, with a proper record to prove its authorship, was by Dinanath Nadim in 1948? Before this, Kashmiri short stories existed only in the oral tradition, as dastans. The Greatest Kashmiri Stories Ever Told , a collection of 25 short stories curated and translated by veteran Kashmiri translator Neerja Mattoo begins with the story ‘Reply-paid Card’, also written in 1948, by Nadim. Other stories in the collection include ‘The Call’ by Roop Krishen Bhat, where an octogenarian Kashmiri Pandit woman, feeling alienated in Delhi’s heat, descends into hallucinations and eventually into a debilitating mental health condition. In another story, ‘The Enemy’ by AG Rather, we meet a man who tries to cross the border to assist his ailing brother on the other side of the fence but gets caught by the authorities and is labelled a spy. Militancy and psychological and physical alienation are some of the overarching themes found in the stories. The collection is thoughtfully curated and is a testament to the ability of Kashmiris to tell their own stories in their language, with nuance and subtlety for anyone who wants to know about Kashmir from Kashmiris themselves.
‘Our Moon has Blood Clots: An Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits’ by Rahul Pandita
Journalist Rahul Pandita’s memoir, Our Moon has Blood Clots recounts his family’s flight from the Muslim-dominated Kashmir Valley during the onset of violent insurgency in 1990. Steeped in oral history, Pandita writes evocatively about passing trucks filled with scared Pandits escaping to Jammu, the women “herded like cattle”, and a man showing the family his fist and wishing them death. This is also a tale about exile — exploitative landlords, unkind neighbours, severe hardship, xenophobia, and how Pandits became “nobody’s people”. The Pandits have been in exile for two decades now and Kashmir, for Pandita, remains “a memory, an overdose of nostalgia” and “homelessness is a permanent feeling”.
‘Love, Loss and Longing in Kashmir’ by Sahba Husain
In this personal account of the state and its people, researcher and activist Sahba Husain who has been working in Kashmir for two decades, documents her involvement with Kashmir’s politicised terrain. We join her as she meets and listens to people who carry all the anger, despair, and helplessness of a people caught in conflict and violence. Husain forms deep friendships through this process, which often forms the backdrop of this book and finds herself questioning her ‘Indian’ identity. Husain focuses on certain key areas — the health of a people, militancy and its changing meanings for local people and the state, impunity and the search for justice, migration and the longing for homes left behind, and women’s activism.
‘Tara and the Giant Chinar’ by Ayesha Kagal and Megha Punater
Written by Ayesha Kagal and illustrated by Megha Punater, Tara and the Giant Chinar is a picture book about a girl called Tara and her journey with a wire-tailed swallow bird to Kashmir, “the most beautiful place in the world.” Tara and the swallow fly past snowy mountain peaks, grassy slopes, blue rivers, and a zillion lotus flowers. In Kashmir, they visit Manasbal, the deepest lake in India, Jharokha Bagh, a Mughal garden, and meet Kashmiri children playing under Chinar trees. This richly illustrated book is a beautiful ode to the diverse natural landscape of Kashmir.
‘Noon Chai and a Story’ by Adithi Rao
Set in Gurez, a little town just inside the Line of Control in Kashmir, Noon Chai and a Story is about a little girl called Amiya who lives with her grandparents. Gurez has lots of snow but no books. So, when her uncle, who is on a visit, gifts Amiya a book, she falls in love with reading. Amiya now has a mission — she wants to set up a library in Gurez. But instead of getting books, she decides to write and chronicle the experiences and stories of the people around her and make them into books. Noon Chai and a Story is a sweet picture book for children that captures the daily lives of the people of Kashmir.
Champaca Bookstore, Café and Library is an independently-owned women-run bookstore and cafe in Bangalore. The team chooses books with care and tries to include diverse voices and stories, from across time, place and experience.