WRITE-UPS

Prerna Bhat As the relentless monsoon of September 2025 finally begins to recede, satellite images paint a stark picture of north India. Vast swathes of land, once vibrant with the green of impending harvest, now lie as a monochrome canvas of brown and grey. Rivers that for centuries sustained these fertile plains have turned into instruments of destruction, their swollen currents rewriting landscapes and destinies with unforgiving force. The national conversation, primetime debates, trending hashtags, and appeals for aid, has rightly centered on Punjab, where highways have become canals, tractors are submerged, and farmers, the backbone of the nation’s food security, watch helplessly as a year’s labour and a lifetime of hope vanish underwater. Aid convoys have been flagged off from capi...

Raqif Makhdoomi I came across Umar Khalid’s article late at night. I wanted to skip it, but my eyes caught the line “Umar Khalid writes from jail,” and I couldn’t resist myself. I clicked on the link and started reading it. His choice of topic made me recall the hope I had when I was in prison. The words “Nurturing Hope” made me remember how I used to pray and wait for every “Mulakat” [Meet-up with family], because that used to be the only way of knowing the progress in the case. The buzz in the Mulakat Room [Meeting Room] was always about the case progress and when they were expecting to be bailed out. The eagerness of the family and the hope of the prisoners are the only two emotions that fill the meeting room. No family member wants to leave, and no prisoner wants to go back to th...

Javed Ahmed During the turbulent decade of the 1980s, after the fallout of the Indira–Sheikh accord in 1975, several new faces began to emerge in Kashmir’s political landscape. Among them was a lean, shaven man, barely five feet four inches tall. Early murmurs about him were almost dismissive, they say he is a teacher, but with an intellectual genius. That teacher was Professor Abdul Gani Bhat, a man who would go on to redefine parts of separatist politics, and at the same time, question its very foundations. When Jagmohan was brought in as Governor of Jammu Kashmir during his first term in 1984, he imposed a string of policies that many Kashmiris believed were directed against the majority community. One decision shook Kashmir to its core: in the summer of 1986, dozens of government...

On July 9, 2022, thousands of Sri Lankans stormed the presidential residence in Colombo. They swam in the pool, reclined on the gilded chairs, and, most tellingly, cooked in the presidential kitchen. The images were consumed as spectacle around the world, but their meaning ran far deeper than theater. Citizens who had endured months of empty shelves and endless fuel queues were reclaiming the most ordinary sites of survival. The kitchen, usually a private corner of family life, had been transformed into the first battleground of politics. That occupation was not only about the Rajapaksas. It marked the unraveling of a system that treated the poor as disposable while insulating elites from the consequences of their decisions. This drama in Colombo did not stand alone. Across Asia and Afr...

Daishwar Hameed The Lidder river of Pahalgam rushes by as it always has, fast and clear, yet something about it unsettles the people who live by its banks. For Jumma Khan, a 71-year-old shepherd from Aru, the river is no longer the same. He has spent most of his life under the shade of tall pine trees in these hills, but today, he sits under an almost bare sky. “The trees fell one by one,” he says, pointing at the slopes where only a few patches of green remain. “Nobody came to plant new ones. It feels like the mountains themselves have changed. They were once our guardians, but now they no longer welcome us.” Jumma remembers a time when the Lidder was always calm despite its fast current. But on September 2, 2025, at Batkot, the river flowed above the danger mark. “This river never swe...

Joy spread in Srinagar on Wednesday afternoon as patches of sunshine broke through the clouds, with many residents taking to social media to share relief at a pause in the downpour. Yet beneath the calm skies, experts warned that the city’s flood fate was being written far away in south Kashmir, where swollen rivers and tributaries continued to swell dangerously after relentless rain. The situation grew more alarming by afternoon as water levels in the Jhelum and its tributaries surged sharply, with some already flowing above danger marks. Authorities and locals in south Kashmir reported inundations, damaged bridges, and livestock being moved to safety, amid fears of worsening conditions with another spell of rain forecast in the next 4–8 hours. According to the Irrigation and Flood ...

Sabahat Fida I was recently transferred to a remote and deeper rural community. While the hardships here are many, the silver lining has been unexpected yet profound: I found myself drawn closer to the region’s rich cultural heritage. It was here that I first learned about Pir-e-Khear (Khairat), a festival I had never known before. This celebration marks the moment when rice crops begin to bloom, the first visible signs of grain emerging. It’s a deeply symbolic and joyous occasion, stretching over eight to ten days, filled with the sounds of reviving folklore music, traditional rituals, and vibrant communal gatherings. One of the most touching customs is the calling back of daughters to their parental homes, reinforcing family bonds and honouring shared roots. Fish dishes are painsta...

Danishwar Hameed It is 9:10 a.m. in Srinagar’s lower court. A few sweepers move about the corridors as a young woman waits near a lawyer’s chamber on a cloudy morning. Among them sits 20-year-old Asiya Jan, who married only in March this year. She waits nervously outside the family court chamber, her hands clasped tightly in her lap. Her voice is quiet yet firm: “I thought marriage meant companionship, but I found myself lonelier inside my home than before. I can’t spend the rest of my life like this." Asiya’s story is not an exception. Data from the Jammu Kashmir judiciary shows that the number of divorce petitions has steadily increased over the past decade. In 2019 alone, official figures recorded nearly 3,500 petitions, with more than 60% of them filed by women under the age of 30. P...

Shabir Ali/ Meer Irfan On a damp morning in Srinagar’s bustling meat market, the smell of fresh cuts blends with the metallic tang of blood, filling the air with a familiar heaviness. Customers bargain with butchers, unaware of what may lurk unseen inside the very mince they are about to carry home. Beyond the visible cleanliness of neatly displayed meat counters lies a disturbing reality: ground meat in Kashmir, often imported from outside the region, could be laced with filth, adulterants, and industrial waste that no one ever signed up to eat. For years, whispers about “rotten meat” have circulated in hushed tones. But our weeks-long investigation, based on insider testimonies, official records, and recent raids, reveals an industry riddled with malpractice, where public health ta...

On the night of 8–9 August 1953, the political architecture of Jammu Kashmir and with it, the Indian Union’s compact with the state shifted decisively. Dr. Karan Singh, the Sadr-i-Riyasat (constitutional head of state), dismissed Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah as Prime Minister and swore in Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad. The dismissal order is typically dated 8 August, with Abdullah’s arrest in the early hours of 9 August, a sequencing borne out by contemporary accounts and document collections. ALSO READ: The Indira-Sheikh Accord: A step-by-step historical breakdown The text of Karan Singh's order read: “Whereas I am satisfied that Shri Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, has lost the confidence of his colleagues in the Cabinet; Now, therefore, in exercise of th...