“Older people talk about Srinagar with nostalgia, a hopeful sensibility, despite having seen very bad times. They are better able to trace these changes,” author Sadaf Wani told Frontline at the launch of her book City as Memory: A Short Biography of Srinagar at the India International Centre, New Delhi, on July 24. “In contrast, for those who grew up in conflict, talking about a time before conflict is not possible; that is their only reality. Younger generations carry that pessimism in the personality, believing that things may not change, having never seen good times in the valley.”
In conversation with feminist researcher and artist Mariyeh Mushtaq, Wani expressed her initial concerns about her authority to write about Srinagar, being from Baramullah and not living in Kashmir recently. She noted a gap in Kashmir studies: the tendency to offer macro-level analyses of “what Kashmir is”, “what Kashmiris do”, and “how should we think about Kashmir” without an interpersonal touch. “When it came to the question of my positionality, I had to explore my interests, seeing how people experienced these historical events.”
Wani’s interest in examining Kashmir through a different lens was influenced by her experiences as a woman. Her curiosity about previously inaccessible people and spaces grew with age and increased agency. “Having learned my own history through my father’s stories, I found that the lifeworld or phenomenological framework allowed a certain flexibility for people to share their experiences. As a biographer of the city, it also helped me evade some responsibility.” Wani added that her book maps an alternative, nostalgic Srinagar by employing the lifeworld concept to avoid impersonal descriptions.
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When asked about her book’s themes, she told Frontline: “Each chapter has a different structure, mostly from the memory framework.” She said that the book explores public spaces, cultural shifts in the idea of “downtown”, and urban versus rural identities. A chapter focuses specifically on Kashmiri women’s experiences in navigating public spaces through time. “I spoke with various women who live in Srinagar about how they commute from one place to another place, how if they want to go out with their friends do they go, and what obstacles they face,” Wani said. She found that often women self-surveil their public interactions, noting that class-caste positions can make accessing public spaces more difficult for some women. “I have tried to speak to different sets of women and explore what are the challenges specific to them.”
Cover of City as Memory: A Short Biography of Srinagar. | Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement
Mushtaq appreciated Wani’s narrative for humanising Srinagar and restoring the city’s dignity. She believed the book read like a conversation, assuming the reader’s familiarity with the context. Wani confirmed that her goal was not to write for outsiders. “I needed a more internal-facing conversation with people who have seen different things but just haven’t spoken to each other about it. My target audience became people with a shared understanding of the context, allowing me to have more interpersonal experiences in the book. She further remarked, “I hope Kashmiri readers find they don’t have to explain much. It’s time for us to talk about how did you experience it, what stood out for you, and how did you navigate it.”
“I needed a more internal-facing conversation with people who have seen different things but just haven’t spoken to each other about it.”
Wani also discussed moving away from traditional historical storytelling: “The Kashmiri experience of time is not linear. Curfews and turbulence disrupt the concept of time; time doesn’t flow as it does for people in “normal cities”. Significant years such as 2019, 2016, 2013 and the insurgency stand out irrespective of who you talk to. These spikes damage the idea of the mundane: no one wants to talk or remember the years when nothing happened. That’s a tragedy for Kashmir.”
Addressing the fundamental space Kashmiri Pandits occupy in the story of Srinagar, Wani compared her generational perspectives with her parents’ narratives. “While my parents shared stories of Kashmiri Pandits coexisting, my generation experienced a concrete “self versus other” dissonance, lacking the sense of Kashmiriyat they described. I was curious about the syncretism they fondly recalled. Growing up with conflicting narratives—some saying it was very bad, others claiming “kuch nahi hua tha” (“nothing happened“)—left me questioning why people would leave their homes if nothing significant had happened.”
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Wani’s personal encounters deepened her exploration. “My interactions revealed that despite differences, language is a sweet binding force and the intimacy of having a shared language with someone is inexplicable. That was the first time it revealed to me that the “other” was not so different,” she said, adding, “This book legitimised my intrusion into the lives of people I found interesting and allowed me to ask “how was it?” Speaking to Neerja Mattoo, author and chief editor of the Kashmiri journal Miraas, I realised how cosmopolitan Srinagar once was. Every identity links to the story in so many ways; when you lose a community, there is a loss to the spirit of the city, which can’t be quantified,” she concluded.
Wani acknowledged the book’s limitations, particularly the exclusion of narratives from those directly affected by violence. “This book is a passive musing on a city, musings that people with their everyday sorted can afford to have. It felt unethical to include those who’ve seen the worst.”
She told Frontline that, given more time and resources, she would’ve included more diverse accounts. “There are no Sikh and queer narratives. Intergenerational accounts would add nuance, as older and younger people have different insights.”
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