Rooted in the Uprooted: Material Memories of Migration from Kashmir

Abstract

Studies that prioritize verbal sources of information over other nonverbal sources to retrieve the past often overlook the entirety of what transpired. Documents do not encompass the lives of people, particularly those who were victims of traumatic events such as the insurgency of 1989 in the Kashmir valley. Minority communities from Kashmir were then forced to flee as a result of violence and brutal killings, and mute artifacts became their loyal companions and the last tangible connection to the lost homeland. In looking at the discourse of these silent artifacts, this article focuses on the objects that were carried by internally displaced Kashmiris, to show how these people have preserved their lost home, endangered culture, and identity by carefully carrying away such Kashmiri artifacts. We also examine how different generations of survivors perceive these objects and the memories held within them. By focusing on these tangible objects and the material memory they invoke, we highlight how alternate sources become reservoirs of untold histories and preserve fragments of the past that were not narrated earlier due to the marginalization of communities and the politics of publishing in India.