How does Kashmir support a Motif of Terrorism, Globalization and the Postcolonial Reality in Rushdie’s Shalimar The Clown?

Kashmir supports as motif of terrorism, globalization, and postcolonial reality in Shalimar the Clown because of the way that Rushdie describes it.

Rushdie describes Kashmir as "heaven on earth."  It was a place where harmony reigned supreme. Kashmir was tucked away amidst "lush descriptions of the fertile valleys and formidable mountains." Within this, is life of the Pachigam villagers where people love and respect one another.  It is here where Noman embraces his identity as...

Kashmir supports as motif of terrorism, globalization, and postcolonial reality in Shalimar the Clown because of the way that Rushdie describes it.

Rushdie describes Kashmir as "heaven on earth."  It was a place where harmony reigned supreme. Kashmir was tucked away amidst "lush descriptions of the fertile valleys and formidable mountains." Within this, is life of the Pachigam villagers where people love and respect one another.  It is here where Noman embraces his identity as Shalimar the Clown.  He loves who he is and what he does in the same selfless way as the people of Kashmir respect other people. Rushdie depicts Kashmir as principled and ordered.

Rushdie writes that "Everywhere was now a part of everywhere else,” and “Everyone’s story was a part of everyone else’s."  This intersection of culture and identity makes Kashmir a postcolonial reality.  Once Kashmir succumbs to outside intervention, it loses its principled and ordered condition. The troops that occupy it change it culturally.  People like Max corrupt it both symbolically and literally in terms of what he does to Boonyi.  This corruption takes place on a global scale, with people and forces from other parts of the world intruding and destroying the purity that once defined it.  Outside influences ensure that Kashmir's flowers have become replaced with explosive devices.  Its pure sky has been blocked out by the air fighters that drop bombs from above.  Kashmir becomes a postmodern world where its story is no longer its own because it belongs to other people and other forces.

From this, Rushdie is able to draw out the terrorism motif.  As Kashmir becomes corrupted, the people in it respond with anger and violence.  They are not able to transcend the wrongs done to them.  Firdaus's last words are curses on the Indian soldiers that ruined her land and life.  Shalimar the Clown becomes a committed terrorist.  He embraces violence as a means to soothe his own personal pain, believing that his mission will assuage his feelings of betrayal.  Rushdie suggests that the roots of terrorism are personal.  When people experience the intensity of personal hurt, they are more likely to embrace terrorism, thereby confusing the political for the personal.  Kashmir represents this.  Rushdie suggests that Kashmir gives birth to terrorism out of a personal hurt in seeing something so beautiful be reduced to something so ugly.