Curfewed Night

The author grew up in Kashmir and was a schoolboy when the insurgency demanding independence broke out in the late 80s. As he grows up things go from bad to worse and eventually he is lucky enough to go to Dehli and take up journalism. But his bond with his homeland remains and eventually he returns to report from there and grapple with his own experiences by writing a book. A powerful and poignant book and one of the best reads of the year for me so far made all the more topical by the recent discovery by human rights activists of mass graves holding the corpses of thousands of the 'disappeared' in this forgotten conflict.

This book served as an excellent counterpart to The Collaborator, Mirza Waheed's novel about the crisis in Kashmir in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the narrator of that novel and the author of this book are of similar ages and backgrounds. Peer, a studious young man whose father is a respected government official in Srinagar, the summertime capital of Kashmir, shares his personal experiences as his village, like others throughout the region, experience great hardship and tragedy during the Indian Army crackdown against separatist militants and those who support them. In contrast to the narrator of Waheed's novel, who seeks to travel to Pakistan to join his childhood friends and become a freedom fighter, Peer, with the help of his show more family, moves to Delhi to finish secondary school and attend law school. While working as a newspaper journalist there, he is assigned to write stories about the growing crisis in Kashmir. He travels back to his home village, and encounters former friends and neighbors, Hindu and Muslim, there and in Srinagar and Jammu. Deeply disturbed by what he sees there, and facing discrimination as a Muslim Kashmiri in Delhi, he decides to abandon his career as a journalist and write a book about the people he knew, those Kashmiris of different backgrounds he encounters, and the troubled past and recent history of the region.

Curfewed Night succeeds as a personal and an 'on the scene' account of life in Kashmir during the crisis, and in its hopeful aftermath following the peace resolution between India and Pakistan in 2004. However, a more detailed history of the region and the origins of the recent crisis would have made this a much better book, in my opinion, although I would strongly recommend this book for anyone who is unfamiliar with Kashmir or its people. show less

If you hear about the Kashmir Conflict these days you think of the Indian Army, Indian Paramilitary Forces and their encounters with armed intruders from Pakistan and how the Indian Forces harass the local people. This completely ignores that everyday ordinary life in Kashmir has to go on. But how can life be ordinary in these circumstances? With their attempt to escape the omnipresent violence people who have no choice but to stay where they are, are caught 'between a rock and a hard place'. The Kashmir Conflict has turned the region into a war zone where nobody can say he gains any advantage over the so called "enemy". Luckily one has to acknowledge that things have changed, that the author is looking back at the past but is a very show more recent past and the scars have hardly healed. It is an excellent account of the Kashmir Conflict from an too often neglected angle. show less

Review: Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer.

The book was about a place not many people have heard or read about. Kashmirs territory is surrounded by Afghanistan, China, India, and Pakistan. Because of where Kashmir is located should indicate some knowledge of what it promises for it‘s people. It was written by Basharat Peer, someone who spent his formative years during the conflicts of war and the immense suffering that Kashmiris endured during the 90’s and still continue to suffer the wider demonstration of the power between different militant groups.

The first half of the book was fragile when it came to keeping my interest but Basharat Peer made up for it in the second half. The stories he wrote were about arrest, disappearances, show more custodial killings, kidnapping, assassinations, loss, massacres and how torture dominated Kashmir.

I have mixed feelings about the book because of the way it started off. At least I found out where Kashmir is and the story behind the curfews…. show less

A well written tome about the tragic state of affairs in the Author's home state of Kashmir. One thing that stands out is the plethora of opportunities available for personal advancement through education that a few like the Author himself scruplously avail of and redeem themselves from the clutches of violence and militancy.

Like a warm chocolate chip cookie, embedded in it's pages are choice tidbits of history.

A well written tome about the tragic state of affairs in the Author's home state of Kashmir. One thing that stands out is the plethora of opportunities available for personal advancement through education that a few like the Author himself scruplously avail of and redeem themselves from the clutches of violence and militancy.

Like a warm chocolate chip cookie, embedded in it's pages are choice tidbits of history.

Was a good read about things happening in Kashmir from a Kashmiri's point of view.

Started off quite slow for me. Then gathered speed and was quite interesting for some time. Then was a bit dragging towards the end.

An easy read. Even though I took a lot of time to read it.

A favourite for my father and brother but I give it 3 as it didn't keep me interested enough.