Bilal Handoo Inside her home overlooking the Chenab, the story started on a sad note. Dusk had long dimmed Doda town when she showed a bundle of nerves before narration. Everything had quietened. In that hush hour, she started with a sweater that her father wanted her young seamstress mother … Read more →
Kashmir’s Shimla Solidarity circa 1931
Khalid Bashir Ahmed The wounds of tyranny had been festering for long. The pent-up resentment against a highly repressive and hated regime that made no distinction between shooting a game bird and its subjects was only waiting to burst. The killing of 21 unarmed civilians on July 13 1931, sent … Read more →
History of Armed Struggles in Kashmir
Author Rao Farman Ali Reviewer Arshi Javed Publisher Jay Kay Books, Kashmir On 8 July – just about a month from now – it will be a year since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani, an event which plunged the Valley into one of its worst phases … Read more →
Cheeks Red Red
Safiya Mehraj Read this very interesting article to provide context to this drawing made by Safiya Mehraj. Follow link: http://withkashmir.org/2017/06/05/red-cheek-kashmiris-respond-savage-ways/
The Day of Sabzar’s Funeral
Sheikh Saqib On an exceptionally hot Saturday morning, I along with my friends was riding to a village, to explore the destined place and trek its mountains. We stopped a few kilometers back and bought some junk food and bottles of soft drink and mineral water. Everyone was excited about … Read more →
How riots changed J&K politics
The article first appeared on Kashmir Life Journalist Ved Bhasin has completed six decades in active journalism, but the editor of Kashmir Times has had an equal proximity to politics. Politics, in fact, was his first love, that eventually gave way to journalism. He has been close to players that mattered … Read more →
The Patriot, Ashfaq Majeed Wani
On the martyrdom anniversary of Ashfaq Majeed Wani, Salman Shah writes how Ashfaq became the inspiration to the youth of his time. When Ashfaq returned from Pakistan, he was greeted with flower petals, slogans and “Wanwun” in the Kashmir’s capital, Srinagar. Women and Men sat along roadside to get a … Read more →
Jaffna Street: Tales of Life, Death, Betrayal and Survival in Kashmir
Excerpt from “The Saint of Shalimar” With these armies comprising Pathans, Poonchis and Mirpuris knocking at his gates, the story—making the rounds of Srinagar street—goes that the Dogra monarch sought an audience with Meerak Shah so as to seek some divine intervention to ward off the looming cataclysmic scenario awaiting … Read more →
Why are People Protesting in Kashmir
A Citizen’s report on the violation of democratic rights in the Kashmir Valley in 2016 Following the alleged extrajudicial killing of 8 July, in the violence unleashed by state armed forces unarmed protests were met with sustained attack by the Indian Army, J&K police and paramilitary, including with the … Read more →
NaPoWriMo: April Poems
In the month of April which is dedicated to poetry Samia Meraj curates some poems for Kashmir Lit. The poets featured here are Inshah Malik, Omair Bhat, Sobia Bhat, and Samia herself. Scroll down to read: Inshah Malik 1 Heart aches for summer, And you aren’t around I had asked … Read more →
Historical Document: Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah’s Speech in the Constituent Assembly
Excerpts from the speech delivered on 5th November 1951. We must remember that our struggle for power has now reached its successful climax in the convening of this Constituent Assembly. It is for you to translate the vision of New Kashmir into a reality, and I would remind you of … Read more →
Army camps in Kashmir have succumbed to ‘Mandir’ culture: Parvez Imroz
A Civil Rights activist for decades and well-known lawyer, Parvez Imroz is the Patron and co-founder of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) and possesses a long-standing experience of human rights activism in Kashmir. He also represents ‘the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-administered … Read more →
Absolute
Jhilmil Breckenridge Does it serve you well? The white robes, giving sermons from high. Do you sleep well in the inky night? When your voice instigates rivers of red in valleys of peace? It is heard that God’s words were to be read and interpreted. You are the interpreter … Read more →
Sorry and other poems
Ruhan Madni Naqash Sorry Sorry for not being your “lovely handsome Kashmiri boy; beautiful Kashmiri babe”- I’ve been very busy dying on the roads with these polka dots you make on my body with your guns- I’ve been very busy crying Freedom. Freedom. Freedom for the walls for not being … Read more →
The Doomed Gravedigger
Munawar Hussain “Meesum, see! A deluge of ‘likes’ is hitting my facebook post. Hold this cigarette, I will show you a trick to gain more likes.” “Are you nuts, what if someone would spot me while holding the cigarette?” “Oh man! Oh man! See I have re-liked my own status. … Read more →
The Day of Indian Elections in Kashmir
Kashmir Lit Web Desk How does the day of Indian elections unfold in Kashmir? Here is a sampling of voices from social and print media.
Ammi
Rehmat Malik I wrote this poem about a year ago when I was visiting “Azad” Jammu-Kashmir, my mother’s homeland. I wanted to explore generational differences in understanding the Kashmiri struggle for Azadi (liberation) and solidarity across the Line of Control. I wanted to write about my mother, a Kashmiri who … Read more →
Saffron
“These infidels cannot insult us like this. If you have the courage, come and face us out in the open. You cannot tie down a speechless animal and think you have beaten us…” By Mirza Waheed She did not make much noise. But I knew, even in my sleep, something … Read more →
Kashmir from Orient to a State of Exception
[This essay has been published in The Funambulist Issue 8, Nov-Dec 2016] Ather Zia Kashmir, the Orient Historically the global imagination has often reflected on Kashmir, the erstwhile Himalayan kingdom through scenes of colonial idyll, wilderness, and romance. This imagery was fine tuned through works like “Lalla Rookh: An … Read more →
Glass Houses
Sumayya Syed “Nikita is again on a date tonight,” he types into WhatsApp From his lonely South Delhi bachelor pad On what is a thinly-veiled moonlit spring night in Kashmir Where loneliness is an A Almost an invitation To Resistance, Because what is Resistance If not the thyme and the … Read more →
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