Jahangir's "Paradise on Earth" (or The Kashmir Valley and why you should read Curfewed Night)

James Baldwin wrote that “People are trapped in history and history is trapped in people.”

I think we see that in a lot of ways in our own lives, but I also think there are a number of ways that we miss that truth. I would guess that my American and western roots have impacted me in ways that I cannot even recognize.

Culture, people, images, stories, words, geography have all contributed to making me who I am today. I recognize that this it true, but there are a probably a number of ways this plays itself out in my life that I am not aware of.

One of the ways that I can better see the history that is trapped in me is to be exposed to other people and cultures. Exposed to other histories.

Let me recommend to you Basharat Peer’s Curfewed Night. It is a Kashmiri journalist’s account of the conflict in Kashmir. Bill Clinton once believed that Kashmir was ”the most dangerous place on earth.” It is a heart-wrenching story of an oppressed people that are longing for freedom. It is, in some ways, similar to reading a true story version of The Kite Runner. Reading the book has been an eye-opening experience for me as it has given names and images and faces to the pain and suffering abroad that I often think about in purely categorical terms.

It is also a cultural experience just to read it. It is well-written, but clearly not written by an American. Check it out. It is a worthwhile read and it will get your mind turning on all sorts of things… Islam, freedom, American isolationism, conflict resolution, death and sin, man’s ability to adapt and survive, the importance of friendship, the inhumanity of many humans, the aspects of humanity that pervade all cultures, the role of literature in shaping history, terrorism, the ethics of torture, hope, the right to free speech, democracy, the power of poetry, God’s providence, poverty, and the persistence of the human will.