A Message for Peace in Kashmir that Must be Read: City as a Memory by Sadaf Wani

It is a hostile situation in India. India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ on Wednesday morning as retaliation for the Pahalgam attack that took place on April 22. Meanwhile, there is unrest in Kashmir, especially in the capital, Srinagar, with a drop in tourists, a rise in protests, and a demand for justice to be brought to the tourists and their families. It is hard to anticipate peace in the valley. But City as Memory by Baramullah-based Sadaf Wani is exactly that – a quest for peace. 

An Aleph Book Company publication, the book is nonfiction that dives extensively into the various topographies of Srinagar to bring readers unique insights through an analytical overview. The book’s folded title page states, “City of contradictions—where scenic views of the Dal Lake coexist with smoke from tear gas—is a testament to the fact that Wani has not just romanticised the otherwise beautiful city in the narration. 

There is no doubt that the epigraph, before the book, encapsulates attention with its colourful yet gloomy atmosphere created on the cover with the mountains fenced with wires, the Dal Lake in the display with a man on a shikara - about whom it is hard to guess whether he looks contented or dejected.

The book unfolds through the personal experiences of the author living in the valley. However, it is limited as the narration also includes other events that have less personal involvement, as Wani belongs to Baramullah and has mostly seen the city through her father’s eyes during her formative years. The book starts with Wani standing at the Malkha graveyard, located in Rainawari, Srinagar, and gradually takes into account the base over which Kashmir was formed, ruled, and devastated.

Throughout the narration that includes how Kashmir, particularly Srinagar, has evolved since the very beginning, Wani has not forgotten to draw parallel lines with the current events in the capital. In the initial pages of the book, she writes her observations of contrasting scenes — “As the cavalry passed by, several brightly-coloured posters with PM Narendra Modi’s face peeked at me from the vehicles,” as she talks about the G20 event being hosted in Srinagar in May 2023 to indicate “Kashmir’s return to normalcy”.  

As much as Wani takes satirical jibes at Srinagar’s tourism, and talks about the history in detail, from the rulers of the sixteenth century to how the name ‘Srinagar’ is derived from ‘Sirinagar’- she keeps stressing the ever-dreary state of the city. She writes — “The story of Srinagar has been punctuated by formidable adversaries, brought about by both natural disasters and man-made catastrophes.”

Wani has also captured the transformation that took place in Srinagar during the 1980s and 1990s and has also taken into account the debate of the old guard versus young turks with the context of the abrogation of Article 370. However, she has also put forth other authors’ documentation of Srinagar, like that of Walter R. Lawrence.

While the documentation of Srinagar’s history and culture has not been new, and various authors have explored it well in the past, what makes Wani’s book stand out is the coverage of the discrimination based on caste in the Muslim communities - a topic not scrutinised so much when talking about Kashmir.

Moreover, there is a detailed chapter about women of Kashmir navigating their lives through the changes that have been taking place in the valley over time and again. The experiences of women exploring the public spaces of Srinagar and figuring out their accessibility to it is both heart-wrenching and moving to read and acknowledge. Wani has also explored love stories set when the city was ablaze, maintaining her style of putting contrasting realities at once.

Detailing the catastrophes, social structures and the inequalities, however, Wani has excluded the population of Christians, Sikhs, and even the Tibetan migrant communities that form an essential part of Srinagar. Additionally, from the stories mentioned in the book, there is not a single voice of an individual or a family that might have been directly affected by the violence that Wani has talked about. However, it is another moral quandary to ascertain whether or not to count it as a limitation!

The book follows a flair writing that directly connects with the readers, and, perhaps, much essential in the times where the message for peace must reach the ears in as simplistic a manner as possible.