Source :NEWS18 NEWS
Last Updated:May 14, 2025, 09:36 IST
War lives on quietly in the body in the tension of a clenched jaw, in the sudden flinch at loud sounds, or in dreams that turn restless and sharp.
Indian troops on the move in Kashmir against militant forces during the second war over Kashmir, on September 6, 1965. (AP/File)
War remains confined to the pages of history books or fleeting news headlines. However, for others, it persists as a visceral reality – a lingering sound, a haunting smell, a recurring memory that plays relentlessly. Sometimes, war lives on quietly in the body in the tension of a clenched jaw, in the sudden flinch at loud sounds, or in dreams that turn restless and sharp. Trauma, especially the kind born from conflict, doesn’t always look like chaos. It often hides in stillness. And for many in regions like Kashmir and Kutch, this hidden war continues long after the world stops watching.
Living with the aftershocks of violence isn’t about dramatics. It can be as quiet as avoiding crowded spaces, or as constant as scanning every room for exits. It can feel like grief, or guilt, or a fatigue that sleep can’t touch. When war lives in your head, healing isn’t about forgetting. It’s about finding ways to carry your story without letting it carry you.
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A Brief History of Conflict
Kashmir has suffered decades of turmoil ever since the Partition of India in 1947, trapped in an ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan. Armed conflicts, military occupation, and political tension have had profound emotional leaving an indelible mark on generations of Kashmiris.
In Kutch, the conflict took a different shape. As a border region in Gujarat, it witnessed fighting during the 1965 war between India and Pakistan. Later, the devastating earthquake in 2001 brought another kind of trauma one rooted in loss, fear, and displacement.
Though their histories differ, both regions carry the emotional weight of conflict. And in both places, people have developed quiet, powerful ways of coping through art, community, culture, and resilience.
What Healing Looks Like from Kashmir to Kutch
From the snow-laced valleys of Kashmir to the parched salt plains of Kutch, people have found ways to cope not just survive, but to adapt, to resist, to heal. These regions may be miles apart in terrain and culture, but what connects them is resilience shaped by hardship.
In Kashmir, poetry and art have long been tools of survival. Young people sketch pain into pages; older generations write verses that make sense of chaos. Pain becomes prose, and silence becomes storytelling. Community circles, shared prayers, music, and long conversations over cups of kahwa offer soft places in a hard world. They are not cures but they are comfort. They remind people they’re not alone, even when the world feels distant.
In Kutch, healing takes on other shapes. The trauma may not come from war in the traditional sense, but it is no less deep. Here, embroidery isn’t just craft, it is therapy. Women stitch their stories into fabric, passing on strength through patterns. Singing folk songs, preparing food with ancestral care, or sitting in open courtyards under the stars these are everyday acts of healing. After the earthquake, rebuilding was not just about structures but about spirit. Entire villages came together in rituals of resilience.
Healing in these places often doesn’t come from clinics or prescriptions. It comes from culture, connection, and continuity. It lives in the way elders share stories with children, in how communities lean on each other when systems fail, and in how people reclaim joy even when grief sits nearby.
There is no universal fix for trauma. But in Kashmir and Kutch, people have created spaces small, sacred spaces to breathe, to grieve, and to begin again.
And if you’re looking for support on your own path to healing, Merlin Health is here to walk with you; offering expert, compassionate care tailored to your journey.
- First Published:
May 14, 2025, 09:36 IST
SOURCE : NEWS 18
