In the shade of the chinars, the poetry of dissent

A student event in Kashmir University gave voice to the tragedies of living in a conflict zone

The slam poetry session at Kashmir University was an attempt to revive freedom of expression.

On the Kashmir University campus, where student unions have been banned since 2010, a slam poetry session under the chinar trees used art to push the boundaries of dissent. Slam poetry, simplistically put, is verse meant to be performed rather than read off the page. Slam events are far more free-form than, say, traditional ‘mushairas’.

On the campus’s Naseem Bagh, students from varied educational streams sat together under the trees, in what Faakirah Irfan, a law student, called “an attempt to revive freedom of expression on the campus, where student unions remain banned.” Ms. Irfan read her own poems, ‘Scavengers’ and ‘Women martyrs,’ highlighting the plight of youth and women in the ongoing conflict. “It’s a rare space where students were able to open up their wounds,” she said. Some poets took jibes at the current dispensation, others expressed despair. “My poetry was invoked by a response on Instagram to my American accent,” said one student, whose poem was about how Srinagar’s flyover is taking ages to complete and how the possibility of a solution to Kashmir’s issue remains bleak.

The session saw students like Alia, from the engineering stream, reciting Kamala Das’s poems, while a Fine Arts student sang Sir Muhammad Iqbal’s poetry, accompanying himself on the guitar. “This was a poetry session, where there was no censorship,” said Zeeshan Jaipuri.

It wasn’t just about the pain of being born and growing up in a conflict zone and tragedies witnessed and experienced, though. Many poems were about themes young people anywhere would relate to, like romance and young love.

Scores of students cheered a student, Faiza, who performed ‘ Socha hota khwaab dekhne se pehe ’ [Had I thought before dreaming about you].

Aside from the poems, there were art installations too, and some art students offered instant portraits.

A faculty member, who asked not to be named, said, “We need to welcome spaces like this in a choked society like ours. This should not threaten anyone.”

Buoyed by the success of the session, students want to do more.

On the agenda is opening up spaces for working women on the campus, especially those from suppressed sections of society, like members of the fishing communities and the sanitation staff.

“We will get them to tell their tales very soon,” Ms. Irfan says. “They are a suppressed lot. They need to speak up too. We need to create space for them.”