Kashmir has been famous for its captivating landscapes and cultural heritage for a long time and tradition has been the cornerstone of Kashmir’s identity for centuries. Consequently, the region-with the globe in commotion- has begun to lose some of its unique tapestry of culture to globalization and urbanization.
The actual plethora of business practices, art forms, and ways of life with which individuals express their creativity are gradually being wiped with time to leave a blank space in the collective memory. Among all the important elements of art, language, cuisine, spirituality, and sartorial with which Kashmir used to trace its distinctiveness; the very best would have to be traditions.
To see the disappearance of such traditions to go-away is not just being a glum cultural loss and another unbelievable human loss. We neglected interfacing with crafts like Pashmina weaving, wood carving, and Kani shawl-making, along with Kashmiri festivals and dialects left behind with the rest after centuries of existence.
The biggest threat emerges from the usage of their mother tongue by the younger generation, who prefers English, Hindi, or Urdu over Kashmiri.
Another is the sad loss of Kashmir-based handicrafts and the spiritual bond they once had with their respective artisans. Kashmir’s artistry goes far beyond embroidering; it lies in hand-crafted Pashmina shawls; it thinks of their craft as being a meditative one, their spirit lending to it undiluted, generation after generation.
Can Kashmiri traditions be revived or will their demise be inevitable? Obviously, a conscious and concerted effort will need to be made to consider vernacular culture as a living and evolving entity rather than a relic itself.
It is not that all progress is bad; indeed, it is the harmonizing of old ‘vivacity’ with a built urge to flaunt a future. One should be prepared to invest voluntarily from the culture itself. Many activities may follow culturally insensitive and/or careless constructs of a commitment to a plan. For the preservation of Kashmiri history, oral accounts should be collected, folk arts should be digitized, and the Kashmiri language should be taught.
To allow these festivals to be taken up by younger folks, they must be rebranded without diluting their essence-a task playing judiciously with the available media and brands could achieve-and craftspeople.
