What Does it Mean to Love in Kashmir

We often hear about Kashmir through news reports and the political unrest that has shaped the valley for decades. However, the everyday lives of its people remain a largely neglected perspective. Filmmaker and writer, Mehak Jamal, brings these narratives of love, loss and connection to light in her upcoming book, Loal Kashmir. The title, which means love and longing in Kashmiri, encapsulates the stories that have persisted through the region’s many upheavals, featuring a range of narratives from a place where love is often hidden within a conservative society as well as overshadowed by more pressing survival issues. It aims to offer a nuanced understanding of life in Kashmir for anyone willing to engage with its complexities.

‘When I set out to collect these stories, I thought of it as a memory project’. Initially unsure of the format—be it a film anthology or a book—she found the overwhelming response from over sixty interviewees nudged her toward the latter, since ‘it is harder to pitch such stories for film and do justice to them all’. Through the written word, she created a unique anthology that captures the lived experiences of individuals in the region, through their narratives.

Her filmmaking skills influenced her writing style, though not without challenges. ‘The language of my writing is very screenplay-like, but scripts are blueprints, not final outputs. I found that this hindered me more than it helped’. Nevertheless, screenwriting teaches you to visualise while writing, which enhances my prose and shapes how I conduct interviews and ask questions. I write all the stories like it’s a film because it has a beginning, middle and end.’ This perspective helped her make sense of the nonlinear way people often recount their experiences.

The selection of stories was another complex aspect of her project. ‘I received many stories from recent times, but also from the 90s and 2000s, however, stories from the older generations were harder to collect due to my project call reaching lesser people from that generation.’ In her efforts to represent the diverse experiences of Kashmiris. She felt it was crucial to include the perspectives of Kashmiri Pandits from the 90s, believing that ‘any representation of Kashmir during that time was incomplete without them’. Additionally, she explored lesser-known stories, like those of women from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. ‘It was hard to sift through so many responses. I wanted to keep the stories diverse and also avoid repetitiveness, especially around the abrogation time.’ This careful curation resulted in a chronological anthology that captures the varied and often poignant experiences of those affected by the region’s tumultuous history.