Kashmir-based artist brings the plight of Pandits on the canvas
SRINAGAR: In the politicallycharged landscape of the Valley, an artist has taken to canvas to portray some deeply sensitive themes and is carving out a space for himself.
Kunwar Aamir Hameed Wani’s pursuit to become an artist, however, has not been an easy one. From rigid parents who wanted him to do MBBS or engineering to sceptical relatives and friends who never supported his choices, he had to fight from the very beginning.
His oil and acrylic artworks on canvas and paper are mostly focused on contemporary and abstract forms.
His main works centre around the pain of migration of Kashmiri Pandits and how it left a devastating effect on the society in J&K. He has also given a life to the Russian Revolution and has worked on a collection on Jerusalem, a city which has been important to Jews, Christian and Muslims throughout history.
“I have been painting the life and exodus of Hindus from Kashmir, which left a devastatneighbours ing effect on both Hindus and Muslims here,” he says.
“The attempt is to show how the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus overnight caused a huge cultural void in the history of the Valley. There may have been some elements that fanned that fire, but it is also a fact that no ordinary Kashmiri Muslim was in favour of this,” he added.
“There was no wholesale hatred as a recent film would want us to believe. There are more examples and stories of love and brotherhood between the two communities. Even now, many Kashmiri Muslims go to Jammu with walnuts and lotus roots for their Pandit and friends,” he says.
Wani, 39, started his art journey at a very early age. Born in the northern town of Pattan in 1984, his family migrated to Srinagar, the capital of the picturesque Himalayan valley, as his school in his Goshbug village in Pattan closed owing to the violence which engulfed the valley from early 1990s and triggered the migration of Kashmir’s minority Pandit community.
He was affected by the plight of Pandits early in his life when his kindergarten teacher left his village in early 1990s and when his father took him to Jammu in his teenage years in 2000 to meet her, the visit was life changing.
“We both cried. They were living in Baribrahmana in two rooms in abject conditions in contrast to the palatial house and vast land they had here,” he says.
“After that I visited the camps and accommodations in Jammu multiple times,” he says.
Wani has also painted about the life of ordinary Kashmiri Muslims and the trauma they faced in the strife torn valley.