Shalimar the Clown and the Politics of “Worlding” the Kashmir Conflict

Abstract

This article analyzes Salman Rushdie’s novel Shalimar the Clown and argues that while Rushdie’s strategies of “worlding” produce a compelling “political elegy” (Mondal 31) of Kashmir and powerfully confront post-9/11 Islamophobia across the world, the problem lies in Shalimar’s memorializing Kashmir as a tragic story of loss and violence. This elides the many ongoing, complex, stories of Kashmir – stories of conflict and suffering, but also people’s struggles to survive, to rebuild, to heal homes and communities.