Dr. Damuluri Venkateswar Rao

Salman Rushdie’s eighth novel, ‘Shalimar the Clown,’ is not merely a novel of words; it portrays social, cultural, and economic struggles of Kashmiri common citizens.

Abstract: The beautiful lake city Kashmir is a rose in between thorns. There are hundreds of thousands of human agonies, poverty, and political, social and religious commotions in and around Kashmir. The twin Asian countries India and Pakistan were divided on 14 August midnight of 1947 without removing the thorns of a beautiful flower Kashmir. The issue became a huge controversy. Salman Rushdie is the only Indo-Anglian writer who used the controversial Kashmir issue for his major classic fiction writings, particularly Shalimar the Clown. He did focus not only on historical incidents but the lives and day-to-day struggles of Kashmiri people. As Abraham Lincoln clearly stated that ‘Democracy is for the people, by the people and to the people’. In the reality of Kashmir and Kashmiri people this statement is untrue. Rushdie balances both shades of Kashmir ‘the beautic scenes of the valley as well as struggles of the commoners, glories one side and miseries other side. Pleasures are a few to count as well as pains are a lot to uncounted.

Salman Rushdie’s eighth novel, ‘Shalimar the Clown,’ is not merely a novel of words; it portrays social, cultural, and economic struggles of Kashmiri common citizens.

The beautiful lake city Kashmir is a rose in between thorns. There are hundreds of thousands of human agonies, poverty, and political, social and religious commotions in and around Kashmir. The twin Asian countries India and Pakistan were divided on 14 August midnight of 1947 without removing the thorns of a beautiful flower Kashmir. The issue became a huge controversy. Salman Rushdie is the only Indo-Anglian writer who used the controversial Kashmir issue for his major classic fiction writings, particularly Shalimar the Clown. He did focus not only on historical incidents but the lives and day-to-day struggles of Kashmiri people. As Abraham Lincoln clearly stated that ‘Democracy is for the people, by the people and to the people’. In the reality of Kashmir and Kashmiri people this statement is untrue. Rushdie balances both shades of Kashmir ‘the beautiful scenes of the valley as well as struggles of the commoners, glories one side and miseries other side. Pleasures are a few to count as well as pains are a lot to uncounted.