There is resistance and hope in Kashmir: Sanna Irshad Mattoo

January 18, 2020

Najiya O, Twocircles.net

It has been more than five months since the revoking of the Article 370 and the bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. Kashmiri journalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo spoke to TwoCircles.net about Kashmir, working as a journalist there and other things in a recent conversation.

Sanna hails from Srinagar and is a postgraduate in Convergent Journalism from the Central University of Kashmir. As a freelance journalist, she has been documenting life in Kashmir through her visual stories for nearly three years. Her works have been published in national and international media publications such as the Al Jazeera, The Nation, TIME, TRT World, Pakistan Today, South China Morning Post, Caravan Magazine etc. She was featured on the Al Jazeera in a story detailing the hardships faced by journalists after the revoking of the Article 370 and the restrictions that followed. She has also contributed to ZUMA press agency based in California and worked as multimedia producer with the local media outlet The Kashmir Walla. Her photographs have been displayed in several exhibitions nationally and internationally.“That is resistance,” said Sanna when asked about the way the Kashmiris have been responding to the situations, especially the power in the words of the common Kashmiri women seen on media during the protests. ‘It has not been that problems began with the revoking of Article 370. It’s been going on for some 70 years. There is this hope and resistance. This can be said as a kind of bleeding stage, surviving. At the same time we are also resisting, because there is no other option. We resist, we exist. We exist, we resist.’

Kashmir has been suffering for a long time, and now after the revoking of the Article 370, life is all the more difficult there. ‘Kashmir is a conflict region. So you can’t say things are normal. And then this (revoking of the Article 370) happened. People were in shock, they still are-what happened, how it happened.. It is too difficult, there is that depression in the air,” says Sanna.

‘There is no internet, which is a basic fundamental right. Everything is shattered. We are trying our level best to cope with the situation, to do our part.. without any communication, without any network. Even our movement was restricted. But I think we coped up with the situation. (And) we did our best to document the situation too.” She added that even without internet and communication facilities, Kashmiri journalists have tried one way or the other to bring the news out. ‘There is no life. Kashmir has been turned into a detention centre. We don’t know what is happening, what is going to happen. India’s treatment of Kashmir is different. It is not humanistic at all.’

However, internet shutdown is nothing new for Kashmir. It has been there whenever there was an unrest, only that this is the first time that the shutdown is continuing for more than five months.

Working in the troubled atmosphere surrounded by the armed forces and conflict is not an easy task. But how was the Muslim woman photojournalist received by the people? “It all depends on how you approach, the sensitivity with (which) you approach the people. People do acknowledge, though this might be a new thing. They respect your work. (And) in some cases, there is more accessibility especially when related to women.”

Known as one of the most beautiful places on earth, Kashmir attracts a lot of tourists. Sanna had, in a programme she attended recently, pointed towards the glorification of Kashmir’s natural beauty in Bollywood and media while ignoring the life of Kashmiris. While speaking to TCN, Sanna pointed out that when the Article 370 was revoked, it was the peak tourist season in Kashmir; tourists and Amarnath pilgrims were asked to vacate, but without considering the people associated with tourism.

Sanna also resented the argument that all this was for the development of Kashmir. ‘What development? Blocking the internet, they have weakened us.. Whatever they call development, it is dis empowerment. We should have power at least, which is a basic human need and which is produced in Kashmir itself. When we had the season’s first snowfall after August 5, the whole of Kashmir was under darkness… And you are saying this is digital India. What is digital India without internet?Even when the mainstream national media did not cover, the international media such as the BBC and the Al Jazeera etc had broadcasted huge protests in different parts of Kashmir after August 5. Protests are still going on, says Sanna. ‘People do not keep their shops open for the whole day; they open for half a day or for some time only. This is a sign of protest. There is civil disobedience. People have not accepted what they have done.’

When the Article 370 was revoked, there weren’t many protests outside Kashmir. But now protests are going on all over the country against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register. When asked how she saw the new developments, Sanna said, ‘This was only the fight of Kashmir earlier. But now their approach in other states is also the same. So the people of India should understand what Kashmir is going through, what the Kashmiris have been going through and since how long. (Actually), they should have understood it quite before, now it’s too late.” And how does she see the future of the largest democracy in the world? “That’s dark. I pray for the people of India.’

Sanna has been very much interested in photography since a young age, and chose the field of journalism when she grew up. In her own words, she “saw what was happening around and realized what things mattered” which helped her make up her mind when she grew up. ‘I always felt that words fail to communicate, but pictures have that potential (to communicate).’ However, Sanna also used to write poems but “not very often”.

She had a specialization in AV production during her time at the university. ‘The Lake Town’, a documentary that she directed as part of her post-graduation project was screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival in 2018. It was awarded the prize for the best film at the Kashmir World Film Festival in 2017. Another documentary by her on the trauma of a grave-digger was one of the 14 art forms from Kashmir screened at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in December 2018 in Kerala.