The Shahbad Review
The Shahbad Review is a Kashmir based literary journal founded with the purpose of bringing to the limelight writers and artists belonging to 'ghettoised' communities and otherised identities.
In the Preface to Frantz Fanon's "The Wretched of the Earth," Sartre, deliberating on the violence of the oppressed on each other argues:
"In order to free themselves they even massacre each other. The different tribes fight between themselves since they cannot face the real enemy— and you can count on colonial policy to keep up their rivalries."
The violence he talks about when extending into intellectual spaces creates the oft-used pejorative 'distinction' of centre and periphery.
Conscious of the fractured and disfigured collective identity of Kashmir and its fragile identitarian fabric, the journal seeks to forge the idea of a Kashmiri literary culture above categorical binarisms and banal identity politics. It is a desire to reconcile through revolt.
The divide deafens the centre to the music of the periphery, and induces what Sartre calls the "suppressed fury" in the periphery against the centre.
The broader persuasion behind the journal then is to cast aside all identitarian politics and bridge the gap that exists between centre and periphery.
“Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast
The little tyrant of his fields withstood;
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.”
—Thomas Gray
The inspiration behind the journal's name, doubtless, comes from the awareness of creatives and artists from rural and 'less-established' areas being subject to the prejudice of being considered inferior in creative prowess or intelligence.
Being denied opportunities as a result of their more urban peers being prioritised simply because the latter comes with the identity of being from a more 'polished' background.
Our aim is to cast light on the unjustly cast out, ignored, and the remote, becoming a space for creatives to both reveal and foster their talent.
"Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre:"
—Thomas Gray
Editorial Board:
Bayed Mubarak, Editor-in-Chief
In charge of the ‘Music’ and ‘Photography & Film’ sections.
Saima Bashir, Managing Editor
In charge of the ‘Literature’ section.
Mohammad Azharulhaq, Associate Editor
In charge of the ‘Philosophy’ section.