Ananya Jahanara Kabir - Territory of Desire: Representing the Valley of Kashmir

Representing the Valley of Kashmir

Ananya Jahanara Kabir

tumhaare chashm-e-karam ho to kaam ho jaaye adaa se dckh to-gissa tamaam ho jaaye

Your benevolent gaze would render this work complete Glance but once with desire-the story would be complete

and to

Ayaz Muhamed Ali and Lara Portia Kabir Jennings

ostro hander bashona bholatey oruno oruuragey udilo robi-neerob keno kobi

O Poet, why forlorn? As the moon's desires fade, a new sun is born.

ix

Part I The Making of Paradise

Hinge Toward Unmaking

Part II Poetics of Dispossession

I would like to acknowledge, first, Mrinal Dasgupta, Khairanara Kabir, and Zuglul Kabir, who put aside legitimate concerns about my safety to support my convictions. Certain people have exerted a talismanic influence. Naila Kabeer, Khushi Kabir, and Leila Kabir Fernandes gave me the courage I solicited to embark on the new path. Emma AlexanderMudaliar, Urvashi Butalia, Huma Dar, Antara Dev Sen, Shireen Huq, Ayesha Jalal, Ato Quayson, Girish Shahane, Samira Sheikh, and Inder Tikku all triggered the most fortuitous connections, both intellectual and interpersonal. Nilima Sheikh is at the heart of the book. Sugata Bose generously encouraged its emergence, and Joya Chatterji its completion. Emma Rothschild and Amartya Sen have been intellectual guardians and role models extraordinaire. To them all, boundless thanks.

From August 2003 onward I have enjoyed the hospitality of Abdul Rahman and Zooni Ratta of the HB Holiday Inn, Srinagar. Javed and Abroo Ratta have been friends whose love I cannot ever repay; Uwais Ratta called shikaras and kept the Kashmiri chai going. Together, they gave me a Srinagar home. Agha Ashraf Ali is a beacon of modernity in the darkness of a conflict zone; fortunate are those who experience his beautiful home and garden, his splendid soirees, and his joie de vivre. Irfan Hasan smoothed my research path with level-headed sanity. The acuity and cynicism of my first Kashmiri interlocutors, Gowhar Fazili and Idrees Kanth, cleared many a naive mist. The Fazilis' hospitality introduced me to Kashmiri domesticity. Gowhar, your will to live has been my most valuable lesson from Kashmir. Others who most generously gave me time in Srinagar are Afzal Abdullah, Farida Abdullah, Nusrat Andrabi, Hameeda Bano, Shakeel Bakshi, Abir Bazaz, Ifat Hamid, Muzamil Jaleel, Qulub Hussain, Jagdish Mehta, Farooq Nazki, Mohammed Shafi Lone, Abdal Mahjoor, Atif Mahjoor and Nayeema Ahmad,Yasin Malik, Bashir Manzar, Neerja Mattoo, Ghulam Majrooh, Shabbir Mirza, Parvez Imroz, Khurram Parvez, Rahman Rahi, Naseem Shifaie, Jyoti Singh, Shujah Sultan, and G. M.Var. Masood Hussain's charm, friendship, and art are precious gifts. In Jammu, Bimla Raina, Pandit Agnishekhar, and Sanjana Kaul shared difficult memories, while Rajendar and Neelam Tiku offered incredible hospitality and spiritual succor. Thank you all for trusting me enough to let me into your world.

This book was officially born with my move to the School of English, University of Leeds. It is a real pleasure to thank the flexible and inspiring Postcolonial team: Samuel Durrant, Graham Huggan, my "mentor" John McLeod, Stuart Murray, and Brendon Nicholls. Fiona Douglas, David Fairer,Vivien Jones, Edward Larrissy, and David Lindley gave valuable support and advice at different moments. John Whale, Anthea Fraser Gupta, and Robert Jones made the house rock after 5 P.M. The machine's smooth functioning owes to its administrative staff, in particular, Sue Baker and Pam Rhodes aided my research through efficiency and good humor. I cherish and benefited from Shirley Chew's affection and guidance, Alfred Hiatt's intellectual companionship, and Jay Prosser's uniquely cerebral intuition. Three cohorts of M.A. students in "Representing Kashmir" made me think harder. Richard Brock, the manuscript's first reader; Jayshree Kewalramani, who keeps me pedagogically accountable; Varun Zaiwalla, who led me to unexpected sources; Erik Peeters, heroic compiler of the bibliography; and my Ph.D. students Nukhbah Langah and Cathy Lean, who put up with my travels and saved me from last-minute scrapes, all assisted and challenged me in different ways-a heartfelt thank you.

Research for this book was funded by the British Academy through a British Academy South Asian Society Research Grant (2003) and two Small Research Grants (2004 and 2005). Writing during 2006 was facilitated by a semester-long study leave awarded by the School of English, University of Leeds, and a second semester of leave funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, United Kingdom. I am extremely grateful to these institutions. I am deeply and proudly indebted to the Centre for History and Economics, Kings College, Cambridge, which since 2002 has enabled me to continue thinking of Cambridge as home. Crucially, I thank the Centre's Foundations of Democracy program, directed by Amartya Sen, for a travel grant in 2005; Emma Rothschild, for her sustained interest in my projects; and Inga Huld Markan and William O'Reilly, who make things happen.

For help with primary resources, I thank: in Delhi, Rahaab Allana and the Alkazi Collection of Photography, Sushobha Barve, Sheba Chacchi, Ashok Jaitly, Jaya Jaitly, Hemant Mehta and Sanjeev Saith, M. K. Raina, and Inder Tiku; in Bombay, Cawas Bharucha, Madhusree Dutta and the staff at Majlis, Beena Sarkar Ellias, Shireen Gandhy of Chemould Gallery, Simeen Oshidar, and Hansa Thaphyal; in London, Stephanie Roy of the Alkazi Collection of Photography and Ainslee Cameron at the British Library. A special thanks to the brilliantly informed staff at Bahri and Sons Bookshop, Delhi, for helping me locate excellent secondary material. Territory of Desire has gained much from invitations to speak at Sarai (Delhi), SOAS, the universities of Winnipeg and Manitoba, the Centre for History and Economics seminar at Cambridge, the Commonwealth and Postcolonial Seminar at the University of Stirling, the Centre for the Study of the Social Sciences, Kolkata, and the South Asia Seminar, Leeds, and I thank their respective facilitators Abir Bazaz, Subir Sen, Emma Rothschild, Emma Alexander-Mudaliar, Rosinka Chaudhuri, James Proctor, and William Gould.

Others who have combined friendship and scholarship are Emma Alexander-Mudaliar and Samira Sheikh, historians who buttress my literary flights of fancy; Shomikho Raba, for most stimulating conversations about the Indian State (and for photocopy rescue); Ato Quayson, whose energy, vision, and advice always clarify the larger picture; Girish Shahane, my guide through contemporary Indian art; Kaushik Bhaumik, myVirgil in Filmistan; and Deanne Williams and Alfred Hiatt for witty and elegant prose. I remain very grateful to Jason Weidemann and Adam Brunner of the University of Minnesota Press, and Rukun Advani and Anuradha Roy of Permanent Black, for so expertly and patiently aiding the production process. Special thanks to Chitralekha Zutshi, the unanonymous reader, for enthusiastic support and robust critique. I completed the final revisions with you as imagined ideal reader in mind.