The silence of Kashmiris?

Book: This our paradise

Author: Karan Mujoo

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Pages: 240 

Reviewer: inam ul rehman

It is never, never easy for any deracinated writer to have a sympathetic look at the place where there community was forced to live a life of exile. Then to expect them to rationally find answers why things happened is not possible from mere mortals.  

Karan Mujoo’s novel, set in the Kashmir Valley, sweeps away stereotypes with his characters. A fictional book where the author juxtaposes two communities of Kashmir to explore what went wrong.

We have Shahid, living in a distant land where life has remained fossilised, refuse to take up a government job, believing he is destined for extraordinary things that will shape history. Our protagonist is 8-years-old when the novel commences. He is deeply attached to his uncle, Vicky, a Marxist in the making. The premonition of things to come starts right when our protagonist moves to his new home in Bagh-i-Mehtab in 1986. A year when the Valley witnesses riots against Pandits in Anantnag district. In this civil lines area they are startled to hear whispers about the Pandit community not staying long in the Valley. Like all rational human beings, they initially reject it, refuse to pay heed, and ignore these talks as fables. 

A 100 kms away Shahid lives in the fictional village of Zogam, with his farmer father. Like all farmers, his family is at the mercy of the weather. In rural areas rabble rousers stir up religious pot of the ignorant and innocent masses for their petty gains. Shahid’s life takes a turn when his father sends him to Srinagar city to find a government job, but instead, he becomes a political worker of the Jamaat-i-Islami, which alters his life forever.    

 

While Vicky goes to downtrodden families of Srinagar to teach them for free, Shahid smarting under election rigging decides to take a path of revenge.  “The Tehreek needed him,” writes Karan. Like etiquetted middle class family Vicky’s mother uses the word Watal to shame her grandson, while her son is adamant to uplift this discriminated community from the darkness. It is these types of nuances where Karan sets his novel apart.  

The author does not portray Shahid as a coward, fighting for the money, glory or power, instead, he has shown him a person of conviction.  When Shahid and companions decide to venture apor for arms training, here Karan briefly brings the racist nature of Kashmiris to the fore. Indignant at their guide, a gujjar, asking them to follow him, the boys refuse to cooperate with him. Kashmiris have usually considered gujjars outside their zone. An infamous saying about gujjars here is: If you find a snake and a gujjar, kill the gujjar first. The author delicately brings it into play when the guide, prodded by the colts to say he will work for his religious brethren to
which he quips: we are stuck in the middle of your war. 

There is a poignant chapter on the killing of his uncle. The struggle of the family to cremate him with religious honour. I haven’ yet come across any Pandit writer who has written on the challenges of last rites in the Valley when insurgency started. Exiled people of the Valley have written about life in the cramped camps of Jammu, but not about how difficult it was to cremate their relatives during the early phase of insurgency.  Even at this grieving time the author keeps up the tension when two young boys come out of the foliage and say: “what are you doing here? Don’t you know the militants have ordered a curfew? Leave this mukhbir’s body and run to your homes.” 

As an author, Karan does not ignore societal talk. When Shahid is not seen for many months, neighbours visit his home, expressing mixed opinions about him joining the Tehreek. He beautifully captures the distance that Shahid’s absence had on his father and mother: “Shahid’s loss stole from them one topic that required sentences.”   

Like many new novel writers, Karan also does not believe in giving a visual frame to his readers. We don’t know how Vicky looks like, what Shahid wears, how other characters look. The thing that makes novels interesting is visual imagery, Karan, it seems, does not think it is important.  

Image courtesy: Author's X handle