As Kashmir rains abate, images of abandoned Pandit houses that may be lost
The deluge has most likely damaged the state's built heritage.
As rains abated in Kashmir, the state might finally be able to begin to take stock of the full extent of the disaster. In addition to the tragic deaths, there is likely to be a great loss of the Valley's built heritage, among it the crumbling and abandoned houses of Kashmiri Pandits.
Photographs of some of those homes formed part of a poignant exhibition mounted in 2009 by artist Veer Munshi and curator Ranjit Hoskote called Shrapnel, which documented the aftermath of the mass exodus of Pandits from the state a decade earlier after threats from extremists. One part of this exhibition was Pandit Houses, containing images that Munshi has been taking over several years.
“Nature does not polarise,” said Munshi about the devastating flood. “It does not differentiate between religions. I can only say that my sympathies are with the people who are suffering.” Like others with relatives and friends in Kashmir, he has not been able to contact anybody he knows in the state as phones have stopped functioning.
Munshi was among those who left the state in 1990. He returned to Srinagar 15 years later, only to find that his home had been burnt down down. His cousins’ home, however, was still standing. So too were several other Pandit homes, though they had either been abandoned altogether or occupied by squatters.
Munshi is primarily a painter, so he first thought he would paint the abandoned houses and began taking photographs for research. But in 2007, he met Hoskote in a Srinagar hotel. Hoskote saw his photographs and convinced him to exhibit those instead.
“Every medium has its limitations,” said Munshi, on his decision to work with photographs for the first time. “With painting, I might put my own thoughts to it – underplay or overplay certain aspects. But photography is a more direct medium. It can speak of its own stories by itself.”
Munshi began with the neighbourhood where he grew up in. All his cousins and relatives, he said, had lived within walking distance of each other. Gradually, he worked his way outward through the city, and then to villages across the state.
The houses are massive wooden structures that are not very different from others around them, Munshi said. They do not, for instance, have distinct religious markers on the outside. But as many Pandits were affluent, their houses tended to be the larger ones.
“Since I knew the city, I could make out which houses belonged to the Pandits,” said Munshi. “They are the large, silent, abandoned houses.”
“Srinagar is one of the most beautiful medieval cities in South Asia,” said Hoskote. “Tourists don’t see it because they go to tourist spots, but there is a lot of wooden architecture in the city, as you see these in these pictures. It is architecture that has evolved with respect to local culture.”
Added Munshi, “These houses are a part of a heritage that speaks of that civilisation of that time. They have an archival value that might otherwise be eroded.”
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Photographs of some of those homes formed part of a poignant exhibition mounted in 2009 by artist Veer Munshi and curator Ranjit Hoskote called Shrapnel, which documented the aftermath of the mass exodus of Pandits from the state a decade earlier after threats from extremists. One part of this exhibition was Pandit Houses, containing images that Munshi has been taking over several years.
Photo credit: Veer Munshi
Photo credit: Veer Munshi
“Nature does not polarise,” said Munshi about the devastating flood. “It does not differentiate between religions. I can only say that my sympathies are with the people who are suffering.” Like others with relatives and friends in Kashmir, he has not been able to contact anybody he knows in the state as phones have stopped functioning.
Munshi was among those who left the state in 1990. He returned to Srinagar 15 years later, only to find that his home had been burnt down down. His cousins’ home, however, was still standing. So too were several other Pandit homes, though they had either been abandoned altogether or occupied by squatters.
Photo credit: Veer Munshi
Photo credit: Veer Munshi
Munshi is primarily a painter, so he first thought he would paint the abandoned houses and began taking photographs for research. But in 2007, he met Hoskote in a Srinagar hotel. Hoskote saw his photographs and convinced him to exhibit those instead.
“Every medium has its limitations,” said Munshi, on his decision to work with photographs for the first time. “With painting, I might put my own thoughts to it – underplay or overplay certain aspects. But photography is a more direct medium. It can speak of its own stories by itself.”
Munshi began with the neighbourhood where he grew up in. All his cousins and relatives, he said, had lived within walking distance of each other. Gradually, he worked his way outward through the city, and then to villages across the state.
Photo credit: Veer Munshi
Photo credit: Veer Munshi
The houses are massive wooden structures that are not very different from others around them, Munshi said. They do not, for instance, have distinct religious markers on the outside. But as many Pandits were affluent, their houses tended to be the larger ones.
“Since I knew the city, I could make out which houses belonged to the Pandits,” said Munshi. “They are the large, silent, abandoned houses.”
Photo credit: Veer Munshi
Photo credit: Veer Munshi
“Srinagar is one of the most beautiful medieval cities in South Asia,” said Hoskote. “Tourists don’t see it because they go to tourist spots, but there is a lot of wooden architecture in the city, as you see these in these pictures. It is architecture that has evolved with respect to local culture.”
Added Munshi, “These houses are a part of a heritage that speaks of that civilisation of that time. They have an archival value that might otherwise be eroded.”
Photo credit: Veer Munshi
Photo credit: Veer Munshi
