All hail Shahida the tribal girl from Bandipora who helped build the first tribal museum in Bandipora district. She is emerging as a beacon of hope for preserving the rich culture of Kashmir’s highland tribals. The Gujjar community has been at the forefront of an extreme life as the pastoral community depending on climate-specific metrics moves from mountains to warmer valleys. This community is always on the move, but that does not take away the fact they are deeply rooted in their culture and way of life, just that they are rooted to a particular geography and do not have permanent homes like us.
Apart from preserving traditional things in her museum she also offers a formal training of Sozni, embroidery, knitting, tailoring, designing and creating traditional jewelry to local women of her community. Not only does this help preserve their culture but also in giving vocational courses to the local inhabitants which can help them earn a livelihood for themselves. Gujjar community is indeed the most hard-working community of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and they have to perennially face the vagaries of weather and of late wild animals too. Due to unbridled concretisation and over-tourism it remains to be seen how long the great pastures would be available for grazing and how long they can retain their culture in the most unadulterated form.
This tribal museum should get all monetary support from the government. This will go a long way in showcasing our cultural diversity. It can also become a part of the cultural tourism thing that the current establishment is pursuing tirelessly. Apart from organising tours of picturesque Bandipora the establishment can help organise tours for this museum as well so that tourists also get a feel of our rich cultural diversity.
Young women like Shahids are the pride of our society. By almost single-handedly coming forward to organise this museum is indeed a great feat. The state establishment must recognise her efforts and remember her at the time of giving away state awards – a great effort by Shahid indeed.
