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Kashmir's
Narratives of Conflict Identity Lost in Space & Time A work devoted to the generational loss of identity among a people is prime material for an emotional treatment of the subject matter. It is to the writer’s credit that her work steers clear of pathos and, instead, focuses on the sociological and psychological underpinnings of the very vexed and complicated Kashmir issue.
The book is a product of a research fellowship at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS) in Shimla and the author's experiences as a journalist in Kashmir. Her writing, reflecting her journalistic roots and a doctorate in English literature is meticulous — notes and quotations are amply used, works are cited and the bibliography and index are in place.
The author points to the relative peace in the Valley these days, and labels it an ominous "silence of violence". Everything is seemingly underground, everything is grey, nothing is completely unequivocal. Kashmiriyat means nationalism to some, a synergetic "Indianness" to others, and an Islamic leitmotif to many. At one point, working backwards from the hanging of Afzal Guru in 2013 to that of Maqbool Bhat in the early 1970s, the author analyses how each event means so many different things to different to different communities, within communities, over time, and also to the Indian state. Violence, in its many forms, has become self-perpetuating. Stone throwing is an act of release. Identities have become warped, with Kashmiri nationalism becoming inextricably intertwined with Islamic extremism, Pandit aspirations, Pakistani intransigence and Indian inclusiveness. As Gangahar pithily says, "Regionalism and religion seem to perforate Kashmiri nationalism or even its possibility". The book uses examples from literature and films and drives home the point that though identities may be in conflict here, in many instances they seem to coexist too. At the end, there seem to be more questions than answers. Is the "new militancy", a quieter, deeper militancy and "another attempt to assert 'Kashmiriness"? Has the new generation lost direction or has the cause lost its validity? A place that was once the paradise... has been lost in space and time. What remains is conflict, within and outside."By this time the questions no longer seem like questions to the reader. There is a dawning of a new understanding and a more nuanced feeling for the problem. Almost like a "view from everywhere", opposed to a view from "somewhere", or "nowhere".
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The
reader will come away from the book with a realistic understanding of
the concept of Kashmiriyat and the troubled modern political
history of the state. Kashmir and Kashmiriyat have meant
different things to different people and communities down the ages.
From a mere geographic description to the fractured regional and
religious connotations they bring with them, the meaning of these
words have become more complicated in the recent past. The book
mirrors this spider web of conflicts in its structure and draws events
together from the past and present seemingly at random. The mere act
of reading the book conveys the fault lines in the subject matter.
Starting with the "Vocabulary of Violence",
"Negotiating" through "Identities",
"Capturing" the "Conflict" of this breathtakingly
beautiful land, and finally summarising the Kashmiri "Identity in
Flux", this work talks to the reader in a matter-of-fact style.
Gangahar speaks with the sensibility of a literary critic and brings
to her historical and political analysis a personal feel. The book is
not light reading. Witness her remarks in the author's note —
"My work, neither that of a political scientist nor a historian,
is from the position of a reader trying to make sense of various
points of view on Kashmir". This disguises the subtlety of her
analysis and thematic viewpoint. This depth leaves you a little
off-kilter at first, but soon you go with the flow.