Rooted in the Uprooted: Material Memories of Migration from Kashmir

Abstract

Studies that prioritize verbal sources of information over other nonverbal sources to retrieve the past often overlook the entirety of what transpired. Documents do not encompass the lives of people, particularly those who were victims of traumatic events such as the insurgency of 1989 in the Kashmir valley. Minority communities from Kashmir were then forced to flee as a result of violence and brutal killings, and mute artifacts became their loyal companions and the last tangible connection to the lost homeland. In looking at the discourse of these silent artifacts, this article focuses on the objects that were carried by internally displaced Kashmiris, to show how these people have preserved their lost home, endangered culture, and identity by carefully carrying away such Kashmiri artifacts. We also examine how different generations of survivors perceive these objects and the memories held within them. By focusing on these tangible objects and the material memory they invoke, we highlight how alternate sources become reservoirs of untold histories and preserve fragments of the past that were not narrated earlier due to the marginalization of communities and the politics of publishing in India.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are immensely thankful to Prof. Radhika Mohanram, Dr. Nyla Ali Khan and Dr. Ankur Datta for their time, suggestions, and assistance; and we are also grateful to Prof. Paul Hockings, for his kind support and assistance throughout the whole publication process. We also acknowledge that the paper forms a part of Prateeksha Pathak’s M.Phil. thesis, submitted at Cardiff University, UK, in April 2022.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. The ethnographic research, as discussed in this article, was conducted as a part of Prateeksha Pathak’s M.Phil. thesis with permission from the ethical committee at Cardiff University, UK. The theoretical framework as well as interventions in this article were developed by Goutam Karmakar.

Notes

1 While interacting with the internally displaced Kashmiri families and asking them about the objects they brought from Kashmir or created to establish a link to their lost homeland, the interactions began with this remark, stressing on how the closets were never opened, and nothing was carried.

2 The local militants and terrorist groups had drawn up a list of targets. This list would involve affluent and influential Kashmiri Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, and would be pasted in public areas to warn the “targets” to leave the land or sacrifice their lives.

3 A famous lake in Srinagar, for long the jewel of the local tourist industry.

4 Kashmiri—“bridges.”

5 Excerpt from a personal comm. with Pratush Koul for “Kashmir Untold.”

6 The name Samavar has been derived from the Russian word Samovar, “self-boiler.” A Samavar is a highly decorated utensil used for brewing tea in the Valley of Kashmir.

7 Earrings worn by Kashmiri women symbolize their marriage.

8 Pashmina shawl is made from Pashm wool, procured from the Capra hircus goat found at the elevation of 14,000 ft. The wool is woven into a fine fabric with intricate designs or embroidered on. The process could take any time between six months and three years, depending on the intricacy of the design.

9 A traditional Kashmiri hand-weaving technique. In Kashmiri, Kani means “small sticks.” Wooden spools are used to weave each color separately, thereby creating the famously meticulous patterns; it is a technique also known as interlocking twill tapestry, because the warps and wefts are set in a diagonal structure on the loom. As they proceed, the weavers follow an artistic sketch of the finished design along with precise, coded instructions set out on a grid.

10 Pheran is a long coat or cloak made of wool or tweed, worn both by women and men.

11 Article 370 of the Indian Constitution conferred partial autonomy on the state of Jammu and Kashmir. According to the article, the central government could not interfere within the administration of the state except in matters related to defense, foreign affairs and communications. Article 35A prohibited people who did not belong to Jammu and Kashmir from purchasing property within the state. These articles were repealed in 2019.

12 By filiation or filiative relationships, Edward Said means the natural and organic connections developed by the subject through their inherited location.

13 For a brief ethnographic sketch of the Kashmiri Pandits, written immediately after the insurgency of 1989, see Madan (1992).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Prateeksha Pathak

Prateeksha Pathak is a graduate student in the Department of Geography at York University, Ontario, Canada. Previously, she had graduated from Cardiff University with an MPhil in Critical and Cultural Theory. She has also been an Assistant Professor at Galgotias University in India. Her interests include material culture, visual arts, memory studies, geographies of violence, and South Asian studies. E-mail: [email protected]

Goutam Karmakar

Goutam Karmakar is an NRF Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of the Western Cape, in South Africa. His forthcoming and recently published edited volumes are Nation and Narration: Hindi Cinema and the Making and Remaking of National Consciousness (Routledge, forthcoming), The Poetry of Jibanananda Das: Aesthetics, Poetics, and Narratives (Routledge, forthcoming), Narratives of Trauma in South Asian Literature (Routledge, forthcoming), The City Speaks: Urban Spaces in Indian Literature (Routledge, 2022), and Religion in South Asian Anglophone Literature: Traversing Resistance, Margins and Extremism (Routledge, 2021). He has also published articles in over a dozen academic journals. E-mail: [email protected]