Examining the Trauma of Terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir: A Literary Study of Contemporary Select Indian Authors

Abstract

This paper explores how terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir has created deep layers of trauma—psychological, social, and cultural—and how these traumatic experiences are represented in contemporary Indian literature. It draws upon theoretical frameworks from trauma studies, particularly the works of Cathy Caruth, Dominick LaCapra, and Kai Erikson, to interpret the complexities of trauma as expressed in narratives. The study closely examines selected writings of Rahul Pandita, Basharat Peer, Arundhati Roy, and Sami Ahmad Khan, who, through memoirs, fiction, and other literary forms, articulate the lived realities of violence and displacement in the region.

The paper emphasizes that the trauma of terrorism is not limited to the individual but also extends to communities and even across generations, producing collective wounds and identity crises. These works of literature reveal how memory, exile, and the erosion of communal identity shape personal and communal experiences of survival and resilience. By including fictional, testimonial, and poetic representations, the study shows how literature not only documents and serves as testimony to suffering but also participates in the preservation of shared historical memory. At the same time, it provides readers with a way to engage with, reflect upon, and emotionally process the long history of violence and upheaval in Kashmir.

In this way, literature becomes more than an artistic medium—it turns into a vehicle for testimony, remembrance, and healing, capturing the interplay between trauma and identity in a politically volatile landscape.