Artist, Nilima Sheikh: The series Home, Land is a response to, at a personal level, my travels in Kashmir over the years. And my understanding of the communities like the Gujjars and Bakarwals in Kashmir, in the northwestern Himalayas.
These pastoralists have, for centuries, traversed the mountains and forests in search of fresh fodder for their animals—cattle or sheep and goats. Their very dependency on nature have made them exceptionally respectful of the ecological needs of forest lands.
But their pasturelands are now coveted, which renders their livelihood vulnerable. Also, they are culturally and linguistically distinct from the settled dwellers of the plain and the lower mountains, and their nomadic lifestyle marks them as “others.”
Their voice deserves to be heard, and that is the reason that I included the quotation about living in the forest for hundreds of years and now being termed as illegal occupants [located in the top right corner of Home, Land 4].
But more specifically, and more painfully, the reason for starting these paintings was the gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old Bakarwal girl, which not only was sent as a threat to the community; it also shook up the consciousness of those who heard about it.
I felt I had to mark my anguish by inscribing her into my rendering of lands that were home to her. I think as painters, while we work, we are looking to understand. In that sense, it becomes, then, not only one's right to witness the past and the present, but also to share that understanding.