ABSTRACT
In tracing the literary traditions of Kashmir, this chapter points out that in the ongoing separatist movement, the role of Kashmiri linguistic identity has been minimal in most of the political discourse. Urdu, the language of the Muslim political elite in late nineteenth-century India, served not only as the main language of political expression, it was also the language of solidarity with neighbouring Pakistan with which the Kashmiri Muslims were emotionally and, to a great extent politically, affiliated. Changes in the social and political scenario of Kashmir were reflected in the use of signs, slogans and terminology symbolic of the Muslim political identity.
