Identity, Conflict and Violence in Kashmir

The insurgency in Kashmir has undergone many iterations through the almost two and a half decades of its existence. There have been ebbs and flows in the violence which has itself taken multiple forms and in people’s responses to the violence as they grapple with the multifarious ways in which the conflict has effected and changed their lives. Even as the political questions pertaining to the status of Kashmir remain unresolved on the ground and in the political arena, more recent scholarship on the Kashmir issue has turned to an exploration of the impact of violence on issues of identity and belonging on the post-insurgency generation of Kashmiris. This generation has attempted, in a variety of ways, to make sense of the overt and silent forms of violence that have overtaken their lives. While street protests and stone pelting have been part of this response, textual and visual media – encompassed in poetry, memoirs, novels and films – provide a powerful forum for protest and self-identification for Kashmiri youth.

Shifting Sands