[dropcap]A[/dropcap] city reflects the soul of a society—its triumphs, turmoil, and transformations etched into every stone and shadow. In a bold new book, Sadaf Wani revives the story of a city marked by the rise and fall of empires, the flowering of civilizations, and the specter of an enduring nuclearized conflict. Wani’s work unveils the tale of a city as both witness and keeper of histories, weaving the echoes of its past into the pulse of its present.

Set in the political turmoil of 1990s Kashmir, the book is reflective of a conflict’s aggressive intrusion into the social sphere and the dehumanization of human life. The ceaseless brutality and lawlessness of the protracted conflict had left behind a bruised and persecuted mass of people whose stories became chronicles of hurt, agony and traumatized lives.

Sadaf Wani’s City as Memory: A Short Biography of Srinagar (Aleph Book Company, 2024), with its discursive narrative, brings alive the horrors of a period that still haunts us like a hydra-headed monster. This book places us in Kashmir with an open heart. Steeped in history and deeply emotional, City as Memory is a painful portrayal of Srinagar, a city testament to Kashmir's glorious past and its desolate present.

In the opening chapter, the author draws a disturbing sketch of Srinagar, pronounced as ‘Sirinagar’, through a docu-memoir of her childhood and upbringing amidst the conflict-torn city. Founded in 250 BCE by emperor Ashoka, Srinagar has been a seat of empires and a cradle of civilizations. From a key trade and cultural hub along the Silk Route to the centre of Buddhism, from a global centre of the Kashmiri shawl industry to the epicenter of Kashmiri resistance movement, Srinagar’s journey intertwines deeply with the history of Kashmir, symbolizing resilience, cultural richness, and the complexities of political change.

The author's inability to locate her great-grandmother's grave in the Malakha area of Downtown Srinagar intimately led her to uncover an intricate history of the city. In the graveyard, her eyes catch view of a hill fort—Haer Parbat and through its magnificent view, the author beautifully portrays not only the political and military significance of the fort but also brings to fore the significance of Srinagar as a centre of socio-cultural and religious life in Kashmir.

The outbreak of popular insurgency against the Indian state's military approach in late 80s and early 90s had blurred the distinctions between the personal and political. In that period, the conflict pervaded every aspect of life as violence started encompassing everyone and everything. The swift response to the brutality and repression of Kashmiri lives began in Downtown Srinagar, also known as “Old City” and “Shehr-e-Khas”.

For centuries, and before Kashmir's accession to Indian Union, Downtown had been an epitome of political resistance against the mighty Mughals, the Afghans and the Dogras. It was also an epicenter of an intra-power struggle between populist Sheikh Abdullah-supported Sher (Lion) and hardliner Mirwaiz-backed Bakra (Shepherd). The author masterfully paints a vivid portrait of Downtown as the architectural backbone of popular resistance against the injustices and brutality of the incursionists through the ordeals of her father's experience in her Matamaal (maternal home). Downtown is Buenos Aires and Sarajevo, as it carries the scars of siege yet persists—an enduring testament to survival. Though an outsider to the city, the author symbolizes the power of memory as a timeless emblem of resilience and resistance. How her own understanding of the decaying city is different from her father's description reminds us that memory is the best descriptor of our glorious and cherished pasts.

In the third chapter titled “(Un)belonging in The Shahr” the author paints a grim picture of the neglect from the successive regimes that Srinagar has endured throughout its history. The frequent occurrence of epidemics due to indifferent rulers and harsh tax systems is devastating for the population. Much like Immanuel Wallerstein's tripartite division, Kashmiri society has its own political hierarchy of core (Srinagar), periphery (villages) and semi-periphery (Srinagar's adjoining areas). The migration of people from the periphery to the semi-periphery was partly due to the promise of a good life and partly because Srinagar became a refuge for those seeking respite from the chaos of the conflict in the periphery. Belonging is subjective and multifaceted, varying from person to person, based on their 'lifeworlds’ (Lebenswelt). The Lebenswelt of the people from the periphery are their different lived experiences as conscious beings and their failure to incorporate the life of the Shahr.

Writing the biography of a city is a fairly bewildering experience. A question that naturally arises in the process is: do you want your city to feel vast and intricate or personal and intimate? The writers are worldbuilding a city for their stories but their dilemma is always what to include and what to leave out. Sadaf Wani's City as Memory falters on being too political. Srinagar has been a remarkable corridor of ancient globalization because of its close proximity to the Silk Road, a center of learning where the ancient world's largest religion, Buddhism, got accentuated and flourished and was at the confluence of cultures between the East and the West.

The author's particular emphasis on the political identity of Srinagar has overshadowed the multifaceted identity of the city encompassing its history, culture, architecture, arts and countless other facets that make it rare and unique across centuries. Despite these minor detours on account of that quintessential dilemma of what to focus on and what to leave out, the book is a valuable addition to the existing literature on conflict, memory and above all a story of love for Kashmir and its people.

About the Book

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Sirinagar (as it’s pronounced in Kashmiri), the capital of Paradise on Earth, is known for its lush green valley and picturesque lakes, but also for its troubled past and unsettled present. Founded in 250 BCE by the Buddhist king Ashoka, Srinagar’s chequered history is one of conquest and centuries of foreign rule, characterized by both indulgence and neglect. In independent India, the state’s troubled geopolitics, the growth of tehreek (armed insurgency) since 1989, and the tumultuous quest for azaadi have turned Srinagar into one of the most heavily militarized regions in the world. In City as Memory, Sadaf Wani draws from her childhood experiences in the mid-90s amidst a waning insurgency movement and increasing militarization, as well as her adolescence in the early 2000s during deadly cycles of violence in the wake of civilian protests, to explore how Kashmir’s turbulent history deeply intertwines with memories of home for its people. Wani explores the beating heart of the city through stories of personal remembrance and scholarship, examining questions of identity and belonging to craft an intimate portrait of Srinagar. Her portrayal illuminates the deep wounds on the spatial, temporal, and emotional landscape of this city of contradictions—where scenic views of the Dal Lake coexist with smoke from tear gas.

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Sadaf Wani

Sadaf Wani is a Kashmiri writer and a senior communications professional. Her writings, both fiction and non-fiction, have been published extensively, including in Himal Southasian, Scroll.in, and Inverse Journal, among others. Her short stories have been featured in two critically acclaimed anthologies published by Aleph Book Company: The Greatest Indian Stories Ever Told (2023) and A Case of Indian Marvels: Dazzling Stories from the Country’s Finest New Writers (2022). This is her first book.

Relevant Links

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Vitasha Kaul
Frontline

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Karan Mujoo
The Tribune

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Shahruk Ahmed Mazumdar
Voice of Ladakh

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Swapna Peri
Storizen

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Anahita Mir
The Book Review India

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The Editors
Himal Mag

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Sadaf Wani
Scroll.in

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