An Exploration of Liminality via the Kashmiri Identity in 'Short Stories of Akhtar Mohiuddin Translated by Syed Taffazul Hussain'

Abstract

This paper seeks to represent the Kashmiri identity as trans-local, independent of geographic or religious attachments, and present Kashmir itself as a liminal space that allows for a continuous transmigration of the fundamental principles that Kashmiri's draw their identities from. This is attempted through a subjective re-interpretation of epochal events in Kashmir's historicity via Akhtar Mohiuddin's translated anthology. The short story format was adopted by Kashmiri writers as a recognition of its rich mythological and oral tradition. But it also enabled them to drastically widen the contours of language to fit the grief, pain, and mayhem that was the cause of its inception as a narrative form, during the 'Partition of India'. This paper attempts to underscore the ability of the short story form to record human conditions both semantic and specially the Kristevan semiotic. By defining Kashmir as a liminal space and the Kashmiri identity as trans-local this paper attempts to elucidate some of the more complex hurdles as understood by the ethnic Kashmiri in subverting its collective identity under the Indian or Pakistani super-identities.