In Srinagar, fallen chinar on campus becomes platform for artistes
Young students who thought of taking up guns in desperation are using art as a medium to express their rage and dissent.
On Kashmir University’s picturesque Naseem Bagh campus, a fallen chinar has become the venue of young students meeting up and planning artistic pursuits to overcome their mental agony accrued from months of unrest.
Three scholars from KU’s Media Education Research Centre—Ali Saifuddin with his guitar, Syed Shariyar with his still camera, and Mu’azzam Bhat with his collection of raps—used to sit beside the fallen chinar, discussing Kashmir’s situation. They pondered how to express their dissent and rage through literature and music. The meetings frequented as more students joined in.
Mu’azzam, who has a taste for poetry, would compose poems recounting dreams he harboured as a child and fears that punctuated those dreams. “My personal tragedies found resonance in other students who had similar experiences,” Mu’azzam told The Sunday Guardian, as he briefed this correspondent about how their activities spurred forward.
Their determination grew stronger when they met live musicians in the university including Ali Saifuddin, their classmate. What followed was instant fame with one of Mu’azzam’s raps, Nobody believed in me nobody to trust me. It feels like every single cop is here out to bust me, going viral.
Shariyar used his skills as a photographer to capture street battles between youngsters and security forces, certainly a grim image that has haunted hundreds of young men like him who have grown up in years of turmoil. Many of his photographs, including moving pictures of funeral processions, have been published by newspapers and magazines of international repute.
Saifuddin told this correspondent that over a meeting by the fallen chinar, they chanced to meet two young film directors, Fazil N.C. and Shawn Sebastain, who had come to make a film on the spiritual journey of Kashmir. But their (the KUs tudents’ group) determination to use art as a medium to express rage motivated the duo to make a 16 minute film titled In The Shade of the Fallen Chinar.
The film talked about the lack of space for students and young artists in Kashmir to voice their grievances. In a state where student unions are banned and holding student seminars with a political theme is discouraged, the film became a symbol of struggle. Its success motivated these students to work on future projects.
Saifuddin, who is currently working to revive old Kashmiri folk songs, said, “Moved by the bloodshed, we students at times would think of picking up the gun. All of us were mentally disturbed but we decided to show our sentiments by various form of art.” “I am keeping the soul of Kashmiri music intact and infusing only contemporary touches to make it popular for the young generation,” he added. His songs, Ek Aur Dafah Meri Watan Ki Galiyon Se and Suraj ki tarah dooba hain toh ubrain ge bhi have already become household songs eu- logising the resilience of the Kashmiris.
His friend Owais Ahmed, who is a musician and script writer, is giving final touches to his documentary film that captures the unrest of 2016. Saifuddin said that this documentary will focus on people who were forced to sit idle at home for four months because of curfew and violence. The film will highlight how difficult it was for the youth to maintain their sanity in such trying circumstances. “I remember going alone with my guitar hidden in my bag to this fallen chinar, singing loudly my own compositions after dismissal of classes. Slowly, my loneliness was broken by other friends and finally it led to a kind of student movement where everyone shares the aim to express themselves in times of conflict,” Saifuddin summed up.