Kashmir Stories

While the cause of Kashmiri freedom has been alive ever since the 1947 accession of the state of Kashmir to India, it has been more or less politically dead for at least the last decade. Despite consistent nonviolent action calling for independence, or autonomy, or even international oversight, the question of the future of Kashmir has become a non-issue in the world of realpolitik. How might those outside the valley see Kashmir anew? A young artist has recently given us one answer. In Munnu: A Boy from Kashmir, life in the valley is etched into black-and-white cartoon boxes, and Kashmiris—reimagined as hangul, an endangered species of deer native to the region—fill the pages.