Cultural Syncretism in Kashmir

Abstract

Kashmiris have taken pride in inhabiting a cultural space between Vedic Hinduism and Sufi Islam. The traditional communal harmony in Kashmir enabled the peaceful coexistence of Muslims and Hindus, highlighted by mutual respect for their places of worship and an ability to synthesize not just cultural but religious practices as well (for conceptualizations of “Kashmiriyat,” see Kaw 2004; Razdan 1999; Rushdie 2005; Whitehead 2004: 335–40). Deep reverence for each other’s shrines and the relics housed in those shrines is a well-entrenched aspect of the culture. Salman Rushdie (2005: 57) describes this sentiment of “Kashmiriyat” succinctly in his fictionalized account of the history of J & K, Shalimar the Clown: “The words Hindu and Muslim had no place in their story.…In the Valley these words were merely descriptions, not divisions. The frontiers between the words, their hard edges, had grown smudged and blurred.”

Shiv chuy thali thali rozaan

Mav Zaan Hyound ta Mussalman

Trukhay chukh ta panunuy paan parzaan

Ada Chay Saahibas Zaani Zaan

(Lalla-Ded, quoted in Mattoo 2007)

Shiva abides in all that is everywhere

Then do not discriminate between a Hindu and a Muslim

If you are wise seek the Absolute within yourself

That is true knowledge of the Lord

(from “Lalla-Ded’s Vaakhs”)