'To make them undeniable': Why Mehak Jamal wrote stories of romantic love set in Kashmir

Lōal Kashmir: Love and Longing in a Torn Land by Mehak Jamal is unlike any book I’ve read about Kashmir. It does not directly document war, resistance, or politics, but instead, it lingers in the quiet, often unspoken world of love. Love as longing, as resistance, as something fragile yet fiercely persistent. The book has rightly been talked about widely: for its emotional candour, its archival urgency, and its refusal to separate the political from the personal.

But beyond the praise, I found myself wanting to ask questions that were more intimate, more complicated, questions that, since the publication of the book, have become even more relevant to the times we live in.

This conversation with Mehak Jamal is an attempt to address this urgent need, the tension, the tenderness, and the unsayable spaces that Lōal Kashmir so beautifully brings to light. Excerpts:

As someone who grew up in Kashmir, I’ve often found it almost impossible to explain to friends outside the Valley what a “relationship” means here. Romantic connections in Kashmir rarely resemble the ones depicted in popular media: there’s often no physical contact, no overt expressions, sometimes not even regular meetings. It can be as simple and sacred as a phone call or a shared silence (I have...

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