Lost spectacle: Media consumption by Kashmiri youth in the absence of cinema halls

Abstract

Hardline militants forced the cinema halls in Kashmir into closure in 1989. As heavy militarization ensued, several spaces, including cinema halls, were transformed into structures where people, especially young men, were detained and tortured by soldiers and militia. The generations born after the 1980s, therefore, grew up in a cinema-less, militarized world. In the absence of functional cinema halls, they, for years, relied on the state broadcaster for movies and media. Later – although under tremendous threat from extremists – a network of local cable TV operators, who functioned without licences, provided some succour. They were followed by pirate video-cassette and compact-disk parlours that provided people with a means to stay connected to movie culture. And, while the scene changed with the arrival of satellite TV, computers and later the internet, which connected the youth of the region to the larger global media culture, the absence of cinema persists. This article aims to explore how youth, born after the 1980s, associate with cinema halls of Kashmir and what the loss of the cinema viewing culture means to them. To this end, I intend to look into cinema culture before the 1990s and the politics around the closure of cinema halls. The article will also put into perspective the arrival of satellite TV and the circulation of pirated video cassettes, compact disks and videos of the funerals of rebels that were filmed and circulated by rental shops. These practices and processes, which shaped the childhood and youth of several generations in Kashmir, offer insights into the media consumption and the role the state and its apparatuses have in shaping the youth in a conflict-ridden and militarized region of the Global South.