In her biography of the city, the Kashmiri writer highlights the complications of Srinagar’s identity and recentres the everyday lives of its people, particularly women.

https://www.himalmag.com/podcast/srinagar-kashmir-identity-women-memory-tourism-history-sadaf-wani

Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast from Himal Southasian, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan speaks to the Kashmiri writer Sadaf Wani about her new book City as Memory: A Short Biography of Srinagar (Aleph Book Company, June 2024). 

Srinagar, in its changing forms, has been the centre of political and cultural activity in Kashmir for centuries. The city has a rich history that has been overshadowed by its turbulent political past and present, which  has shaped all readings and accounts of the place. 

Without losing sight of the ongoing political conflict and militarisation in India-administered Kashmir, Wani offers a corrective. In her biography of the city, she explores the collective historical, cultural and personal memories of Srinagar. From its cultures of leisure to the manufactured “normalcy” of life in Srinagar today, Wani unpacks how the city’s people, and its women in particular, are reclaiming their narratives.  

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