Kashmir’s social and cultural life has witnessed profound disruptions over the past several decades. Amid conflict, uncertainty, and displacement, the region faced a quieter yet equally devastating threat — the erosion of its cultural and linguistic continuity. Cultural institutions weakened, performance spaces disappeared, and artistic expression retreated into private spaces. In this atmosphere, Kashmir’s vocalists, composers, and musicians emerged as silent custodians of the Valley’s artistic soul.

Music in Kashmir has never been merely a form of entertainment. It has always been a carrier of language, spiritual philosophy, memory, and identity. Kashmiri folk, Sufi, traditional, and light classical music are inseparable from the Kashmiri language itself. When formal cultural structures faltered, music became one of the few living........

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