ABSTRACT
This chapter is an attempt to synthesise cultural phenomenon and study it in its socio-political and cultural context within which it unfolded. It aims to establish thus far is that in the second decade of the 21st century, Kashmir’s political landscape underwent a distinctive transformation whose cultural constituents are the keys to Kashmiri consciousness. In the modern history of Kashmir, the revolt served as a precursor and a powerfully memorialised symbol of resistance rooted in culture. The memory and lived history began to shape the political reality on the streets in the uprising that replaced armed rebels with civilians throwing stones. When MC Kash burst onto the scene, a two-decade-long war had pushed Kashmir into a cultural hiatus. It was not that there was no tradition of protest songs before, but because they were mostly written in Kashmiri or Urdu languages, their reach was limited to the Valley only.
