Kashmiri arts are bringing Muslims and Hindu together
In
the early 1990s, a lot of Kashmiri Pandits had to leave their hometown after
receiving threats from the rising Muslim militancy which had been opposing the
Indian rule in the state. An estimated 200,000 Kashmiri Hindus were displaced
due to rising terror and they made their homes in other parts of India.
But
a unique art exhibition is trying to bridge the gap between those who left and
those who remain. Bringing both Hindu and Muslim artists together has struck an
emotional chord with the Kashmiris.
In
one of the paintings by an artist named Chushool Mahaldar shows a naked man who
is bound by barbed wires. He is having a smile on his face and wearing the
sacred Hindu thread on his body. The thread is the only indication of the man’s
religion. The painting is aptly tilted a struggling smile.
Another
painting at the entrance of the exhibition is a 30ft artwork by Mamoon Ahmed, a
Kashmiri Muslim. The painting is of a forest with bones and trees. It is
referenced as the life and death.
Art
promoter Mujtaba Rizvi and artist Veer Munshi came up with the novel idea to
showcase the terrorized façade of Kashmir in an exhibition showing the
atrocities faced by both Muslims and Hindus. They are showcasing art pieces
showing the life of Kashmir as Kashmiris know it.
Rizvi
shared a particularly emotional tale of Avtar Krishan Raina, who had fled from
his home in Kashmir with nothing during the 90s and settled in Madhya Pradesh
where he works as a painter now.
Although
he has no plans of shifting back to Kashmir, he returned to his hometown for
the first time since he fled to attend the exhibition. He met an old friend
Mohammed Ashraf after arriving in the state who showed him one of the paintings
that Raina had painted in 1986. Ashraf told Raina that during the 2014 floods,
he saved only this painting of his friend’s from his ravaged home. Raina was
teary-eyed as he saw his own painting after 3 decades.
Rizvi
hopes that the exhibition is able to bridge many such gaps and bring the
Kashmiri community together.
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