Malik Sajad's graphic novel Munnu: A Boy from Kashmir (2015) "de-familiarises" the hegemonic story about the geopolitical conflict in South Asia (Sarkar 2018). By focusing on the experience of a child growing up in Kashmir and not-yet-remembered histories from the below, the narrative intersects with various forms of convergences – ecological, political discursive and historical.
While acknowledging the 'misty' and malleable nature of the memory, Sajad makes a conscious choice of portraying all Kashmiri characters in the work as Hangul deer, a species of Kashmiri stag nearing extinction due to the conflict's impact on its natural habitat. Here, I would like to examine, as to how intertwined stories of human and non-human actors in a conflict sheds light upon the ecological convergence. The author sidesteps the inherent power equations and locates Kashmir through the agency of everyday life of the people. The black-and-white woodcut panels of Munnu raise other pertinent questions about the transnational framework of memories, as the author declines suggestion to use 'Intifada' in the title as a way of sharing vocabulary of the Palestinian struggle with Kashmir. Instead, he decides to render the universal elements of the human condition in the narrative. It would be interesting to explore the possibilities of transnational mnemonic interaction that this choice engenders.
Lastly, the paper would also engage with the question, as to what kind of memory politics comes forth, where the militarisation by a post-colonial state and the ensuing resistance lock a region in the never-ending spiral of violence and trauma and leave scars on the people.
