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Journalism of Courage
In Kashmir of the 1990s, longing was expressed through the fragrance of love letters. But that fragrance often faded into the void, for those letters were destined to what Agha Shahid Ali so hauntingly called “doomed addresses”. Like thousands of disappeared men, letters too vanished — leaving all confessions and commitments forever in limbo. In Kashmir, love is victim to a conflict that preys on the basic thread of any relationship — communication. A debut collection of non-fiction stories, Loal Kashmir: Love and Longing in a Torn Land, by Kashmiri filmmaker and writer Mehak Jamal, is a poignant account of human suffering in the region.
In Kashmiri, loal is a more affectionate word for love and maey is an evocative expression of longing. The book delves into the personal toll of political unrest and urges the reader to bear witness. What keeps the collection vivid and compelling is Jamal’s eye for the textures of daily life. When war, hartals and lockdowns penetrate Kashmiri society, lovers find it difficult to communicate. A young man, Javed, wants to show off his love letter to a friend but ends up in a crackdown and is forced to read his soulful confessions to a group of soldiers. A Pandit boy wears multiple identities to evade identification after starting an affair with a Muslim girl. Laila, a studious Kashmiri girl, goes to Aligarh Muslim University to escape an insurgency back home and falls in love with a Palestinian man. Newly engaged Khawar and Iqra have to exchange letters when a draconian communication blackout follows the abrogation of the region’s autonomous status in 2019. Zara is prevented from reuniting with her husband in America because her visa application is delayed indefinitely for being a Kashmiri.
Jamal’s book showcases the resilience that ordinary people can show in the face of repression and deception. Her characters turn love into an act of quiet defiance that thrives in longing glances across forbidden boundaries. Jamal breathes dignity into her characters by placing them at the very heart of any understanding of Kashmir and its political aspirations. Through evocative prose and an unflinching gaze, Loal Kashmir offers a deeply human perspective on a region too often reduced to headlines and statistics.
The writer teaches Politics at Government Degree College Beerwah, Jammu and Kashmir
