Gardens of Solitude and Moons of Blood: Representations of Loss and Longing in Kashmiri Pandit Literature

Abstract

The mass departure of the Kashmiri Pandits in 1990 reflects a profound rupture in the cultural and historical heritage of an indigenous community, while simultaneously leaving its members with the harrowing and lasting effects of displacement, trauma, and identity crisis. The present paper is an exploration of how the Kashmiri Pandit writers use literature to depict the memory of an indigenous culture and the loss of that culture as a result of forced migration. Memoirs, dairies, and fictional works by Kashmiri Pandit authors recall the lost homeland as a place of memory. In these works, memory functions as a repository for cultural practices, emotional ties, and shared histories. This paper analyses and critiques how a group of writers' experiences and interpretations are shared through their narratives and keep the Kashmiri Pandit community's sense of self alive, thereby writing them back into history and politics. It is an attempt to see how the memory, as expressed through Kashmiri Pandit narratives, creates a basis for developing a post-exilic identity and provides a means of addressing nostalgia, grief and, and the yearning for the home. By highlighting the significance of the memory of the indigenous culture, Kashmiri Pandit authors record not only the disruption of the Pandit community's physical existence, but also the decay of the Pandits' languages, customs, and social ties.