In Srinagarโs media and academic circles, Meha Dixit is no random researcher. The erudite and eloquent lady with Indic features is an old fixture in the city of seven bridges where she first arrived as a rookie on the heels of the 2010 upheaval. A decade later, Dixit has come of age, with her Piece…
Hunt has done an enormous service to Kashmir by preserving the representations, which often swing like a pendulum between a heavenly abode and a place ravaged by strife. By the time the seething summer of 2010 thawed, 118 people had lost their lives across the valley. Years later, the telling number would become an index…
The book does not tell us anything a common Kashmiri doesnโt know and it doesnโt tell it in a captivating way that might grab a reader from start to finish. Set in the seething summer of 2008 when streets exploded with rage over the controversial Amarnath land deal in Kashmir, scribe Shakoor Ratherโs debut novel…
Hanna Alkafโs The Girl and the Ghost is an unapologetic Malaysian story with memorable characters, thought-provoking concepts, flawless writing and intertwining of culture. When an old witch dies, her pelesitโa dark spirit or ghost (the Malay word hantu is used interchangeably for both), usually commanded by a woman, that can transform into a grasshopperโis passed…
MISQUOTING MUHAMMAD: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet’s Legacy Jonathan A.C. Brown Simon and Schuster, 2014ย – 384 pages Few things provoke controversy in the modern world like the religion brought by Prophet Muhammad. Modern media are replete with alarm over jihad, underage marriage and the threat of amputation or stoning under Shariah…
Two books released in autumn 2020 dedicate chapters that look at foreign policy effect on Kashmir and elements that caused chaos. The fire that consumed Kashmir after the Partition rages on today. Who incensed it? There is no one answer to this question, but it is scattered among bureaucratic decisions and wars โ both internal…
Despite its selective take on Abdullah, the book makes a good, informative read and creates a good base for someone who wants to delve into the history of the place and unearth the truth. Nyla Ali Khanโs Islam, Women and Violence in Kashmir: Between India and Pakistan is primarily a non-fictional recollection of memories and…
From almost the very beginning of this incredibly insightful book into the political meanings of the hijab/niqab (condensed into a veil for ease), we are told by Dr Sahar Ghumkhor:โI refuse to answer the question.โ [p.viii] What is the question she is refusing to answer? The one that is perhaps most obviously asked a Muslim…
As people often wake up to the news of a new teenโs โdebut novelโ release in town, the valleyโs literary scene only becomes poorer with the addition of the hastily-written, poorly-edited and badly-treated manuscripts. Self-publishing words in the name of aspiring authorship is only creating a rat race among young boys and girls in the…
Munnu is a deeply personal tale of the loss of innocence of a young boy, echoing the loss of peace and paradise in a valley that was once called heaven on earth. Munnu is a beautifully drawn graphic novel that illuminates the conflicted land of Kashmir, through a young boyโs childhood. Those who already relished…