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"Review of a Book written on Kashmir
The Divide-Brij Khar(July 2007)

I have neither heard of nor read many books written on Kashmir, as far as works of fiction are concerned. Today, Kashmir evokes a sense of tragedy that has befallen the paradise on earth. Therefore it is a given that any fiction, with Kashmir as the backdrop on theatre, must narrate the tale of a paradise violated. A contemporary narrative on Kashmir will naturally adhere to this rule.

And it is presumably the good fortune for any literary work on Kashmir today, that a precious little is written as fiction. An abundance of published fiction will certainly reduce the fertile landscape, which Kashmir offers for literary fiction, to cliches. Cliches can grow as weeds in literature and thus undermine the genuine sobs that a good and just work might produce because of its rightness.

There are 2 works that I have read recently. I will speak of the two. And there is a third as well. However we will find that apart from apparent resemblance Shalimar The Clown and The Divide are quite apart in their genre and messege as well.
The Divide by Brij Khar shares a lot more, in terms of equivalence, with Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner".

Here we go.

The Divide and Shalimar the Clown walk through the garden that is Kashmir, the militancy, and prior to the militancy the unique blend of Islamic and Native religious traditions. Both works seek to provide a pciture of the once multi-religious society existing as one. Rushdie's surrealism describes the awe and wonder of Kashmir of the past, the river Muskadoon flows in the backdrop and its stream suffers just as Kashmir suffers its loss of innocence and in the transforming identities of people. And Rushdie, conscious of this age of globalisation of lives and issues, weaves a colourful story with characters from Europe, America & Philipines-all playing along expected roles.

The Divide narrates the story of a Kashmir and seeks to walk and breathe the soil of Kashmir very closely. The perspective of the narrator is real, distinct from Rushdie's surreal style. As a result it offers a view that is quite honest and frank, without ever embracing a political manner of thought. It is one of an ordinary Kashmiri conscious of his region's culture and history, moving, and above all, articulate of the little-understood Kashmiri pessimism.

The Divide offers the reader a gifted insight that is rare, an insight into the concept of Kashmiriyat, before it was gunned, blasted, vilified and repressed. Even in the fashion of a novella, it is inclusive in providing a picture of many entities. It is an account, impassioned and yet quite complex, akin to the paean of love to a destroyed homeland, as in the words of Natasha Walters in her review of Rushdie's book.

Hosseini's the Kite Runner is very close to The Divide in the individual nature of the plot. Both narrate of animosities developed out of a new religiousity. The Kashmiri rebel 'Bota' continues to be confused on what it means to fight a war on the basis of beliefs. Yet he knows that if someone is inimical to the cause, he must kill him in cold blood and with the hatred of a warm heart. Both authors, one Kashmiri, the other an Afghani, understand their subject matter and the culture they write about in the richest detail possible.

Both share in common the lament of the loss of a Paradise that was one's home.

The Divide is a Novella. An elaborate on some of the background described in mere passing and possibly, even going back to the watershed year of 1947 is required. This is a very important subject. And since not much fiction has been written before on Kashmir, it is all the more imperative that a greater and elaborate narration of the story of Kashmir, as it actually happened, be told. The Divide, I am positive, will be the pre-cursor to a greater work, that goes back and offers Kashmir what Hosseini's the Kite Runner has given to Afghanistan."

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