in bits and pieces
A SearchKashmir production.
Rahul Wanchoo and Hempreet Kour team up to give us a mix of Dogri/Pahari folk song with an old Kashmiri sufi song. Together capturing a certain beauty of the two languages. The Dogri song was made famous by Malika Pukhraj ( and later by her daughter Tahira Syed), whose origins are in Jammu and the Kashmiri one is by Sufi poet Wahab Khar (19th century)
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| the charges |
Extract from “Eyewitness Kashmir: Teetering on Nuclear War” (2004) By Arun Joshi. It nicely lists outs how KPs were shaped as the perfect enemy by politicians of Kashmir. How KPs were seen as Nehru agents (today they are called Modi agents), how it was whispered that it was KPs who brought down Sheikh Abdullah, that they were Indira’s little soldiers, privileged powerful community that was eating into the KM privilege pie, subverting their politics, how they were also “presstitutes” selling wrong narrative about Kashmir, how they were enemies of Kashmir since forever.
We are never told how the community was living under such charges and what purpose the charges served. We are not told why Kashmiri Pandits may resent the article. While a lot is written on how Article 370 was gradually eroding the “autonomy”and how KM majority politics perceived these changes to the status of conflict, nothing is mentioned about what was happening in Kashmir under the so called “autonomy” for decades and how KP community time and again was saved by Indian Constitutional ingress, the interpretation of constitution by Supreme Court, the so-called weakening of the Article 370.
The idea that worship of Rama or Krishna or that the Vaishnav thought was alien to Kashmir is a unique thought that has taken root in Kashmir in the last few decades. Thus the thrust in Kashmir that Janamastami or Dussehra festival is an alien idea, or the temple of Rama or Krishna is a manifestation of foreign import. These ideas are driven by rather recent politics of Kashmir which is no more than 100 year old.
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| Krishna-Baldev etched on a rock in Chilas, Gilgit-Baltistan. Dated around 6th century AD. The left figure has a crown on his head but the right one has a crescent-topped headgear. Both of them are holding a club in their right hand. The left figure is holding a plough-topped banner in his left hand and the right figure is having a discus on his left hand. Left one is Balaram and the right figure in Krishna. Kharoshthi inscription in Scythian style accompanying the figures reads: “Of (Bala) Rama (and) Krishna, (erection) of Dhamaputa.’ Source: Chilas: The city of Nanga Parvat. By Ahmad Hasan Dani, Islamabad (1983). |
To get a broader perspective these thoughts must be analysed in context of Kashmir history. Ramayan is referenced in Rajatarangini as a narrative tool. The story of Hanuman bringing a goddesses from Lanka to Kashmir itself is told in Rajatarangini. Kalhana tells the tale with the humor usually associated with monkeys and Hanuman tales. We find Rama and Krishna their life stories narrated by 11th century poet Kshmendra. Earlier, King Lalitaditya the builder of Martand commissioned temples that were non-Shaivite. Under his rule only one Shiva temple was repaired (not built), that too because he took a loan from the temple trust for his military campaigns. In Rajatarangini we find a mention of an 8th century Island city built in Kashmir and named after Dwarka. Also, Kalhana tells us during Lalitaditya time two idols of Keshava [Vishnu] were excavated and inscriptions on them mentioned that they were dedicated by Rama and Lakshman. These idols were then installed in new temples at Parihaspora. We have Pradyumna Hill in Srinagar, named after the son of Krishna. The hill we now know as Hari Parbat. Alluding to Pancharatras concept popular in Kashmir back then, and out of which modern Krishna takes centre stage now. Much later in 14th one of the Shah Mir Dynasty King, father of Sultan Sikander, in a Sharda inscription is called “a scion of the house of Pandavas”.
A lot of Kashmiri Pandits are now running Youtube Channels where some great new content is coming up. The range of topics are as far and wide as: music, comedy, food, literature, language, culture, short films etc.
Given the small number of the community, I see a lot of them struggling for audience and reach. The insignificant number means it takes Youtube lot more time to start recognising and recommending the content to the right people for the community. Result: a lot of them get buried under the general Kashmir content produced in Kashmir. For algo. to recognize the sub-set data, there are some basic things that can be done, and that I see a lot of these channels not doing. Good ol’ – networking. Recognise each other, like, subscribe, comment and importantly create playlists. Overtime you will see discovery getting better. Algo. will understand this sub-cultural set better. It will understand this Kashmiri content is not coming from Kashmir. I am actually surprised most of these channels don’t subscribe to many Kashmiri channels! Guys, you don’t lose anything by subscribing, it just better contextualises your content. Creates a pool of viewers of “similar”.
[And for those who watch – download and whatsapp the content or FB upload to their own personal walls, all is not helping anyone. You may get to be star of your family whatsapp group for it, but this aping just discourages the new content producers. Just be nice and support them on Youtube.]
To help people discover such Kashmiri channels, I am creating a list of some channels which are actively generating content and treating Youtube seriously as a platform. Most of these channels have content primarily in Kashmiri or about Kashmir. This is not a definitive list, and in no order, if you believe you should be on the list, do write in:
Last month had a brief Q and A with Outlook Magazine on Kashmiri Pandit Literature and exile.
1. What’s the significance of Kashmiri culture for a Kashmiri Pandit? Is it any different to them from say, the significance of Malayali culture to a Malayali living elsewhere in the country? What strikes you the most when you observe Kashmiri Pandit families — I realise you are one yourself –, their way of living, their food habits, the conversations, etc.?
A: Since you mentioned Malayali and since I am in Kerala for last many years, I can tell you one thing I found common is that both really love the land and culture they belong to. Both think of it as unique and ancient. Both interestingly are mutli-lingual and open to other cultural influences also. However, one big difference is that in case of Malayalis they have a common traditional festival like Onam in which Malayalis from all religious backgrounds take part and it is mass celebrated. In case of Kashmiri culture, the commonality of a festival does not exist. While Kashmiri Pandits take pride in Kashmiri culture, they also emphasise the fact that within it, their own culture is a subset. A Malayali living elsewhere in the country may have personal fears of losing out on culture but the actual culture is only thriving in the land of birth. In case of Kashmiri Pandits, exodus from Kashmir has meant that most of their culture is now diasporic in nature and concerns as reflected in the literature and art produced by them. There is constant fear that the culture is dying, so all the activities eventually tend to be self-aware acts about preservation.
Prior to 1989, literature produced by Kashmiri Pandits had concerns similar to artists belonging to other places in India. Post 47 and till 60s…bulk of popular writing was part of Progressive movement influenced by the left movement. We have Poet Dina Nath Nadim and his concerns for the common people. In this period a lot of literature was about communal harmony also. By 1970s, we have short story writers like Hari Krishen Kaul, still writing in Kashmiri but inspired by Western writers like Kafka. In this period, the concern deals with modernity and how it was changing the old Kashmiri society. Also, all this while we have a lot of devotional songs and music getting produced by the community. Poet Master Zinda Kaul’s main theme was devotional and spiritual. The theme spiritual is probably most popular in Kashmir and is most common in Kashmiri Muslim culture also. So we have a lot of mystical poets, even till half a decade ago, and their works celebrated by both communities and publicly sung. AIR was the hub of culture and lot of Kashmiri Pandits like Pushkar Bhan and Pran Kishore were involved with radio. Meanwhile, we also had writers like Sarvanda Kaul Premi who apart from writing poetry in Kashmiri were also translating Tagore into Kashmir. By 1980s, we see a crop of Hindi poets and writers also active in cultural scene. Novelist Chandrakanta belongs to this era. Her concerns in early work also deals with modernity and how Kashmir was changing.
Post exodus, bulk of Kashmiri Pandit writing has been in languages other than Kashmiri and the major tone has been nostalgic and longing for home. Initially it was mostly Hindi but in the last few decades English has become the language for capturing the experiences. I think in a few years in the community we will see new writings on how the community was changing and how they adapted, carried multiple cultures. Writing from people who are either comfortable or struggling to be comfortable with the past and present.
In the 90s we do have a lot of Kashmiri Pandits writing in Kashmiri about the loss of home. There are writers who only a few years ago were writing in Kashmir and writing about other themes and now find themselves out of Kashmir and just remembering Kashmir. The reach of these writers was limited. So, now some work on translations is also happening. There are people working on preserving the Kashmiri language among the community. Latin script for writing Kashmiri is gaining acceptance for the simple ease of use. But, arriving at a standard remains a challenge.
4. Do you write yourself too? If yes, what do you write? Would you mind sharing something please?
I do write. Some of the pieces have been published on various online News portals. I am co-founder of Game studio in Kerala and for last 10 years I have been running a blog “SearchKashmir” that archives bits of Kashmiri Culture. This involves telling stories that I have heard, personal stories of other people, folktale, history, old photographs of Kashmir, music, films, books, arts and artists. It is basically a collection of personal discoveries as I try to dig into the past. It started with a family visit to Kashmir in about 2008. I realized I knew very little about the place I belonged to and the kind of things about the place that interested me were not there online. So I went about cataloguing. Overtime, more people started sharing their own stories too.
3. Which poet/writer’s work do you relate to the most? What’s so profound about them?
Strangely, or not so strangely, like most Kashmiri Pandits of my generation my introduction to Kashmiri literature was quite late. In my teenage years, work of Ritwik Ghatak spoke to me. His understood exile like few in India could and successfully captured it on screen. Manto resonated. The violence, the odd-balls caught in history and the occasional wry humor. It was only much later, as often happens, I sought and found Kashmiri culture, or rather parts of it. There is Arvid Gigoo and his sardonic tone. There are poems of Prem Nath “Shaad” and Brij Nath Betaab in Kashmir capturing the violence of 89-90 and experience of exile in Kashmiri.
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Guest post by Rekha Wazir. She recalls how her Grandfather, Tara Chand Wazir came to be the first Kashmiri to fly in an aeroplane in 1921.
Continue reading ““The Intrepid Kashmiri in the Flying Machine” by Rekha Wazir”
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| used in Quint |
Continue reading “Portrait of Mahrattas, KP family, Brariangan, 1950s”
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| Hari Parbat Hill Map, Drawn on a Shawl, 1850s. |
Information that is easily available online:
Info. not often mentioned (however recalled by poet Zareef Ahmed Zareef):
