Postcard from Kashmir

Walking around Naya Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370

Desolation

It all began with deconstruction. In 2022, the roads in Lal Chowk in Srinagar were demolished. The doors of the Press Club remained shut. JCBs blocked the way to the Ghanta Ghar (clock tower). A large area bounded with asbestos near the Ghanta Ghar was surrounded and guarded by armed forces. The construction of Naya Kashmir had begun under the Bharatiya Janata Party’s government at the Centre that had abrogated Article 370 in August 2019. All of a sudden.

Back then, the enclosure was barren except for a few dogs that occupied it. A tiny sapling stood upright amid the rubble. An outsider or a tourist never noticed it, but we, the Kashmiris, did.

This reconstruction work around the Ghanta Ghar culminated before August 15, 2023, and grand celebrations occurred on Independence Day.

On the 77th Independence Day celebrations at the Lal Chowk, while I tried to talk to two boys—the only local youths watching the celebrations from a distance—one of the journos warned me that there were spies among the crowd.

Hundreds of tourists attended the event, swirling flags and chanting ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogans.

There was a new clock tower. No Kashmiris stood underneath it that day. Shops remained shut.

Erasure