The traditional approach to history has been primarily focused on studying texts, historical documents, or archaeological artifacts like pottery. However, for many groups that have been impacted by sudden and unpredictable geopolitical changes (e.g. refugees), their best way to access history has long been through remembrance.
In the example of the Kashmiri Pandit community who had been living in the Kashmir Valley for hundreds of years until the exodus of tens of thousands of individuals from that area in 1990, history was not only found in libraries; it was also preserved as part of the dynamic living tradition of the oral archive.
An outcome of this event, which occurred in 1990 when hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits fled from their traditional homeland due to violence against them, was that they all left behind the material remnants of their life (homes, temples, and landscape); however, their physical departure was only one piece of what they brought with them into their new lives; in addition, they carried with them a legacy that could not be touched or seen but rather was made up of stories, folklore, language and memory.
For younger generations, oral histories provide a bridge between coldly recorded facts in the annals of history and rich realities based on lived experiences. Textbooks tell the chronology of the expulsion from Kashmir, while oral histories recount the experience of being in Kashmir before 1990; these peoples tell you what the Valley smells like when kehwa is being prepared, how the Valley looks with its traditional architecture, and how there was a mixture of different cultures living together peacefully.
Their oral histories also preserve for us traditional folk songs, such as Wanvun, as well as the mystical poetry of ancient sages like Lal Ded. When there is no longer a geographical centre to return to, oral history becomes the homeland.
Beyond simply preserving a history that is now removed from daily life, oral history is an important way to resist cultural assimilation or loss.
For a displaced community, the gradual loss of dialect, rituals, and collective memory poses an existential threat. The recording of verbal testimony affirms the continuing relevance of the legacy and historical trauma experienced by the Kashmiri Pandit community before it is lost to the passage of time or altered by external sources.
For young people today, engaging with this oral archive is both a privilege and a heavy burden of responsibility. By listening to, documenting and interpreting these inter-generational testaments of history, youth today are not just learning about the past, they are actively contributing to the preservation of a vibrant and enduring cultural identity for future generations.
Sources:
https://nehu.ac.in/public/downloads/Journals/JournalVolXIII_Jan_June%202015_Art4.pdf https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/understand-india-listen-pandits-kashmir