India: A journey to the centre of Kashmir's heart
Sunday, 30 November 2008
Ashima Kaul of WFS from Srinagar
CINEMA has emerged as an important medium to tell narratives of people, explore the depths of the human mind, depict struggles and relationships, and pose questions about existing conflicts and issues that touch the daily lives of millions. It is also a means through which people can talk about the future they envision for themselves and their communities.
For this writer to capture, through cinematic language, the creative processes that Kashmiri women experience in their lives was an overriding urge. And that is how the film 'Athwaas -- The Journey' was conceived. It is a 30-minute documentary in English, Urdu, Hindi and Kashmiri, with English subtitles. The commentary is in English. The film has been structured so as to engage viewers and encourage them to go beyond the realm of rhetoric and see how women express their politics. For them, the personal is also the political.
In 2001, 'Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace', a Delhi-based initiative of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility, brought together a few Kashmiri women from diverse backgrounds who had experienced conflict in different ways. The idea was to enable them to listen to each other. They called themselves 'Athwaas', a Kashmiri word meaning 'handshake'. The core group of Athwaas later travelled to different parts of the Valley and also to the camps of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu, listening to the stories of pain, suffering and, also, of resilience.
'Athwaas -- The Journey', produced by Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT), traces the emotional and physical journey of each woman in Athwaas, beginning from this writer's own personal narrative of the time when she first visited the Valley after having left it in the 1980s, to the time when the group was formed. Thereafter, the film traces the collective journey of Athwaas and how it further expanded the constituency of peace by initiating similar spaces at the grassroots called Samanbals, a Kashmiri word meaning 'a meeting place'.
The making of this film has been challenging for various reasons. Even while this writer was the narrator and this was really a personal journey, she needed to broaden the canvas to reflect Kashmir's multiple realties. Therefore, she had to merge the personal into the collective journey of Athwaas -- narrating the experiences of each member and documenting the forces that shaped mindsets and political positions.
The soul of my film, this writer believes, is its capturing of the richness of Kashmir's pluralistic past: the 'azaan' from the Jamia Masjid merges with the temple bells and Mir Munir, a poet and singer eloquently sings Lalla's (Kashmiri woman saint-poetess, Lal Ded) 'vaak' (verse) that implores the Kashmiri to remember that Shiva lives in all beings, both Hindus and Muslims. This writer, therefore, treats this syncretism as a central narrative of the film, for it is this 'connecting force' that urges Athwaas members to listen to each other and slowly start acknowledging each other's hurt, pain and position.
To achieve this, this writer had to establish that even though Kashmiris were being politically mobilised along lines of faith, Athwaas members -- while remaining rooted to their faiths -- reached out to each other in the true spirit of the state's cultural ethos. Her purpose was also to convey that for women their spiritual spaces essentially are informed by their lived-in experiences and the feminine principle of working to unify rather than divide people. In doing so, this writer not only wanted to stress upon Kashmir's multi culturalism but also the fact that even though our identities have many boundaries - ethnic, religious and geographical - we need not threaten each other's identities through a process of assimilation. Instead, people need to dialogue, and express their anxieties, fears, apprehensions and aspirations; learn to know each other and build common ground. The film depicts how Athwaas members, by constantly reaching out to each other, dispel myths and stereotypes and accommodate each other's points of view and the worldview.
Yet another aspect this writer wanted to highlight in 'Athwas: The Journey' was the shift in women's lives from being victims to survivors. That is how we had expanded our horizons and spaces and that's what she wanted to depict in the film. Her voiceover puts it this way: "Healed and free from prejudices and fears, Athwaas as a nipple effect so as to create more spaces for healing and sharing". This is the connecting thread linking the journey from her personal endeavour to Athwaas's collective mission. With Munira Bashir at the Kashmir Samanbal and Teja Pandit Kaw at the Jammu Samanbal sharing their newfound confidence and economic strength, the film attempts to widen the horizons of peace.
Ultimately, the film shows that the women in Kashmir, in spite of the barbed wire fringing their existence, in spite of living in fractured times and amidst loud political rhetoric, wish to walk the less travelled path of peace and uphold the spirit of humanity.
Courtesy: Women's Feature Service/NewsNetwork
CINEMA has emerged as an important medium to tell narratives of people, explore the depths of the human mind, depict struggles and relationships, and pose questions about existing conflicts and issues that touch the daily lives of millions. It is also a means through which people can talk about the future they envision for themselves and their communities.
For this writer to capture, through cinematic language, the creative processes that Kashmiri women experience in their lives was an overriding urge. And that is how the film 'Athwaas -- The Journey' was conceived. It is a 30-minute documentary in English, Urdu, Hindi and Kashmiri, with English subtitles. The commentary is in English. The film has been structured so as to engage viewers and encourage them to go beyond the realm of rhetoric and see how women express their politics. For them, the personal is also the political.
In 2001, 'Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace', a Delhi-based initiative of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility, brought together a few Kashmiri women from diverse backgrounds who had experienced conflict in different ways. The idea was to enable them to listen to each other. They called themselves 'Athwaas', a Kashmiri word meaning 'handshake'. The core group of Athwaas later travelled to different parts of the Valley and also to the camps of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu, listening to the stories of pain, suffering and, also, of resilience.
'Athwaas -- The Journey', produced by Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT), traces the emotional and physical journey of each woman in Athwaas, beginning from this writer's own personal narrative of the time when she first visited the Valley after having left it in the 1980s, to the time when the group was formed. Thereafter, the film traces the collective journey of Athwaas and how it further expanded the constituency of peace by initiating similar spaces at the grassroots called Samanbals, a Kashmiri word meaning 'a meeting place'.
The making of this film has been challenging for various reasons. Even while this writer was the narrator and this was really a personal journey, she needed to broaden the canvas to reflect Kashmir's multiple realties. Therefore, she had to merge the personal into the collective journey of Athwaas -- narrating the experiences of each member and documenting the forces that shaped mindsets and political positions.
The soul of my film, this writer believes, is its capturing of the richness of Kashmir's pluralistic past: the 'azaan' from the Jamia Masjid merges with the temple bells and Mir Munir, a poet and singer eloquently sings Lalla's (Kashmiri woman saint-poetess, Lal Ded) 'vaak' (verse) that implores the Kashmiri to remember that Shiva lives in all beings, both Hindus and Muslims. This writer, therefore, treats this syncretism as a central narrative of the film, for it is this 'connecting force' that urges Athwaas members to listen to each other and slowly start acknowledging each other's hurt, pain and position.
To achieve this, this writer had to establish that even though Kashmiris were being politically mobilised along lines of faith, Athwaas members -- while remaining rooted to their faiths -- reached out to each other in the true spirit of the state's cultural ethos. Her purpose was also to convey that for women their spiritual spaces essentially are informed by their lived-in experiences and the feminine principle of working to unify rather than divide people. In doing so, this writer not only wanted to stress upon Kashmir's multi culturalism but also the fact that even though our identities have many boundaries - ethnic, religious and geographical - we need not threaten each other's identities through a process of assimilation. Instead, people need to dialogue, and express their anxieties, fears, apprehensions and aspirations; learn to know each other and build common ground. The film depicts how Athwaas members, by constantly reaching out to each other, dispel myths and stereotypes and accommodate each other's points of view and the worldview.
Yet another aspect this writer wanted to highlight in 'Athwas: The Journey' was the shift in women's lives from being victims to survivors. That is how we had expanded our horizons and spaces and that's what she wanted to depict in the film. Her voiceover puts it this way: "Healed and free from prejudices and fears, Athwaas as a nipple effect so as to create more spaces for healing and sharing". This is the connecting thread linking the journey from her personal endeavour to Athwaas's collective mission. With Munira Bashir at the Kashmir Samanbal and Teja Pandit Kaw at the Jammu Samanbal sharing their newfound confidence and economic strength, the film attempts to widen the horizons of peace.
Ultimately, the film shows that the women in Kashmir, in spite of the barbed wire fringing their existence, in spite of living in fractured times and amidst loud political rhetoric, wish to walk the less travelled path of peace and uphold the spirit of humanity.
Courtesy: Women's Feature Service/NewsNetwork