Abstract
Kashmir, once called the ‘paradise on earth’ is going through a conflict over the last three decades. Often seen by many as merely a territorial dispute between South Asian nuclear rivals, India and Pakistan, Kashmir in the last 29 years has been reduced to a land of pain and misery with thousands dead and disappeared.
When an anti-India insurgency began in 1989, the mighty forces that India deployed here crushed the rebellion. Since then, more than 90,000 people have died and 8,000 have disappeared.
With more than half a million Indian troops stationed in the region, Kashmir has the distinction of being the most heavily militarised zone in the world. Indian armed forces enjoy special powers under laws such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act that gives them immunity and impunity to arrest or kill anyone on mere suspicion without the fear of facing legal action taken against them.
I was born in Srinagar, the summer capital of the valley. The images that I capture are in a way a reflection of my childhood experiences as well as what I see on a daily basis in my immediate surroundings.
Through the photographs presented here, I want to document the daily lives of Kashmiri people, and the impact the conflict has on them. The conflict has subjected them to unimaginable levels of injustice on a routine basis. The main theme that runs through these photographs deals with the different facets of turmoil and anxiety that have devastated an entire generation. In times to come, would like to travel across the valley and document the stories of great struggle that people have gone through. From pellet victims to killings, from rape survivors to people who have been tortured, I want to document the small snippets from the lives of ordinary Kashmiri people. The 12 photographs presented here are among my initial attempts towards this longer journey.
I think a deep identity crisis, and a yearning to live a life of peace and dignity can be seen on the face of every Kashmiri in times of relative calm as well as in times of heighted anxiety.
These photographs were taken in different parts of the Kashmir Valley in 2017–2018.
A Kashmiri woman rows a canoe locally known as ‘Shikara’ early morning in the famous Dal Lake. The State of Jammu and Kashmir, a former princely state has remained a contested piece of land between the two subcontinental nuclear powers, India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars over this territorial dispute. Kashmir witnessed some of the deadliest anti-India protests in the history of 28 years of the conflict in 2018. More than 100 children and teenagers have died in the year 2016 alone.
Indian government forces fire teargas smoke shells to disperse mourners during the funeral procession of the local rebel Zubair Turray in Shopian district of South Kashmir in 2018.
Kashmiri women pray at Dargah Shrine to celebrate Eid-I-Milad, the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad. Dargah Shrine, located on the banks of Dal Lake, is highly revered by Muslims and is visited by tourists from all over the world. Locals believe that the shrine houses a hair of the Prophet Muhammad that is displayed to the public on religious occasions, usually accompanied by fairs. Apart from these occasions, congregational prayers are offered every Friday at the shrine, which sees many people coming from the length and breadth of the valley.
Indian security personnel patrolling a street where protestors had burnt rubber tyres during a protest in Srinagar in 2018. They were protesting against the recent civilian killings in Kashmir Valley.
A Kashmiri Muslim protester waves a flag inside the compound of historic Grand Mosque during the clashes between Indian paramilitary troops and Kashmiri youth after Friday prayers in Srinagar in 2017.
Kashmiri women shout pro-freedom slogans during the funeral procession of a local rebel in Shopian district of South Kashmir. Indian forces shot dead 13 militants in April 2018 in separate gunfights in Shopian and Anantnag districts of South Kashmir. Four Kashmiri Muslim civilians were also shot dead and over 100 others were also injured in 2018 as local residents clashed with state forces. Three Indian army troopers were also killed by the rebels in the gun battle. The news of the militant’s killings triggered civilian protests and clashes between state forces and Kashmiri youth at several places in the disputed Himalayan region. Pro-independence leadership called for two-day shutdown against the killings. Large number of Indian police and paramilitary forces have been deployed in the length and breadth of Kashmir to thwart further protests. Authorities also suspended internet services across the valley in 2018.
Young Kashmiri Shia Muslim women take part in Ashura. The day marks the death of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, the revered Imam Hussein in Karbala, Iraq in 680 AD (for more information, see note 10).
A young Kashmiri girl walks in front of a war-ravaged house, where rebels had taken refuge. It was destroyed in a gun battle between Indian armed forces and Kashmiri rebels in 2018. From his neighbour’s house, Ghulam Muhammad Bhat, 52, a poet, watched his house turn into ashes. His three decades of poetic works were consumed by the flames during a 24-hour long gun battle in Balhama village of Indian-administered Kashmir. He is still in grief as a lifetime of his work, most of it unpublished, was destroyed in the inferno.
Kashmiri women crossing a barbed wire barricade set up by Indian armed forces during restrictions in the downtown area of Srinagar City in 2017. The state enforces curfew-like restrictions across many areas of Srinagar to contain protests that erupt day in, day out against state rule, which locals believe is illegal in the context of the atrocities committed by state forces against the local population.
Kashmiri Shiite mourners beat their chests during Ashura, the day that marks the death of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, the revered Imam Hussein in Karbala, Iraq in 680 AD. Restrictions were imposed by state authorities in Srinagar in 2017 to prevent mourners from taking out a procession on the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, who was martyred in the Battle of Karbala in the year 680 AD by the Umayyad Caliph Yazid. Every year, Muslims across the globe mourn over the events that happened in Karbala. For many years now, state authorities in Kashmir do not allow mourning processions as they fear of sectarian clashes and anti-state protests that might emanate from these processions. Often, mourners are bundled into police vans and taken into custody.
Indian army troopers stand alert at the snow-cleared Srinagar–Leh highway in Zojila, 108 km from summer capital of state of Jammu and Kashmir in April 2018. The Srinagar–Leh highway was opened for vehicles by Indian Border Roads Organisation. State forces are omnipresent in Kashmir Valley. There are more than half a million state forces personnel stationed in the state Jammu and Kashmir which includes Indian army, Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force and Jammu and Kashmir Police. With a population of 12.5 million (according to the government census) there is one member of armed forces for every six civilians in the state. With the increase in anti-state protests across the valley, authorities in New Delhi have sent more forces to Kashmir to curb the dissent.
Kashmiri women walk on a street strewn with stones thrown by protestors at Indian government forces during a protest in Srinagar against the recent civilian killings in Kashmir valley and the rape and murder of an 8-year-old Muslim girl in Kathua district in 2018.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.