Nation, Nationalism, and Womanhood in Farah Bashir’s Rumours of Spring: A Girlhood in Kashmir

Abstract

Nationalism as a concept gives rise to dogmatic notions of loyalty and allegiance to one’s nation. Ever since the consolidation of the idea of nation-states, the issue of allegiance to the nation has played out differently for men and women. Traditionally, men are responsible for defending the borders of the nation, while women look after the home and the hearth and propagate the prescribed ideals of the nation-state. Consequently, the importance placed on going out to war and the sacrifices made for the sovereignty of the nation and nationhood frames the discourse surrounding the conditions and effects on masculinity and the idea of manhood in general. However, a study of this nexus of religion, nationhood, and identity in allegiance to one’s nation-state from the perspective of femininity and its effects on womanhood in general could showcase how women living in a contested land suffer both direct and indirect effects of the conflict. The autobiographical text by Farah Bashir, Rumours of Spring (New Delhi: Fourth Estate, 2021), showcases the strategies and tools through which women navigate such restrictive spaces. This coming-of-age story in the conflict-torn sociocultural fabric of Kashmir negotiates with varying definitions of nation-states, lending the narrator the scope to negotiate the multiple threads of gender, religion, and identity sewn into the fabric of the macrocosmic nation.