{"id":37157,"date":"2025-09-13T11:20:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T11:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/young-influencers-chronicle-their-lives-and-culture-online\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T11:20:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T11:20:11","slug":"young-influencers-chronicle-their-lives-and-culture-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/young-influencers-chronicle-their-lives-and-culture-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Young influencers chronicle their lives and culture online"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Bisma Farooq Bhat and Adil Amin Akhoon<\/span>BBC News, Srinagar<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"MuneerMuneer Speaks\/Facebook<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Muneer Ahmad Dar makes videos on the history and culture of Indian-administered Kashmir<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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On a quiet summer afternoon in 2020, a calendar at a mosque in Indian-administered Kashmir caught Muneer Ahmad Dar’s attention. It featured a poem written in Kashmiri, the language spoken in the region.<\/p>\n

To his surprise, he struggled to read it. <\/p>\n

It made him wonder how his generation had slowly drifted away from their mother tongue, as other languages like English, Urdu and Hindi became more widespread.<\/p>\n

With that realisation, he launched a social media page – called Muneer Speaks – to preserve and promote Kashmiri culture.<\/p>\n

Five years on, his profile has garnered over 500 million impressions across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.<\/p>\n

“I want to tell stories about our places and histories, our proverbs, folklore and poetry,” he says. “It’s about capturing the way we have lived, laughed, cooked and remembered.”<\/p>\n

Mr Dar is among an emerging group of young content creators using digital platforms to preserve fragments of Kashmir’s heritage. <\/p>\n

The region, divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both, has been scarred by decades of conflict, and has lost thousands of lives to insurgency.<\/p>\n

In recent years, many young people have left Kashmir – some to escape violence, others in search of better opportunities.<\/p>\n

But now, a new generation is changing the narrative – highlighting art, tradition, and daily life, beyond the unrest and violence. <\/p>\n

When Mr Dar started his social media page, the focus was on Kashmiri language. But over the past five years, his work has expanded into a mix of content, featuring photographs of old architecture, cultural lore and stories behind local delicacies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Creators say they want to reclaim Kashmir’s rich history and heritage from the narrative of violence<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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In one of his popular videos, Mr Dar shares surprising facts about the area’s architecture – like how people once used eggs to help hold buildings together.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Instagram page, Museum of Kashmir, is taking a broader approach to archiving.<\/p>\n

The page is run by 33-year-old journalist Muhammad Faysal, who, with a team of curators and oral historians, documents Kashmir’s overlooked artefacts and traditions. <\/p>\n

Videos of vibrant mosque ceilings and poetry recitals feature alongside captions that offer quick, insightful context.<\/p>\n

Followers say the page helps them see Kashmir’s history in a new light.<\/p>\n

“Heritage isn’t just about grand monuments”, one follower commented, “but about the things people carried when they left their homes, books, shawls and family recipes”. <\/p>\n

Experts say content creators must stay accurate, especially with oral histories that can lose detail over time.<\/p>\n

The rise in Kashmiri storytelling offers a “vital counter-narrative”, but rushed documentation can blur nuances, according to author and researcher Khalid Bashir Ahmad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"SheikhSheikh Adnan<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Sheikh Adnan’s Instagram page focuses on the history and beauty of the famed wool scarves<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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To ensure authenticity, creators say they rely on researchers who cross-check their content with published sources, while preserving the original context.<\/p>\n

On Instagram, 31-year-old filmmaker Sheikh Adnan runs ‘Shawlwala’, a page dedicated to Kashmir’s iconic Pashmina scarves (called shawls) – handwoven from the fine wool of Himalayan goats and celebrated as both heritage and luxury.<\/p>\n

“Our shawls are not just fabric,” he says, emphasising that most of his subjects are elderly artisans who spin, dye and weave each thread.<\/p>\n

His goal is to shift the narrative by “taking the scarves beyond fashion and tourism” and presenting them as “examples of Kashmir’s history and resilience”.<\/p>\n

“They are maps of touch, skill and generations. Every thread carries a story.”<\/p>\n

One widely shared video shows a woman spinning yarn on a traditional hand spindle as a Kashmiri folk song plays in the background. “I want people to see the story of an unsung Kashmiri woman spinning thread with love,” Mr Adnan says.<\/p>\n

Not all preservation work is serious. Some young artists are creating content with a dash of sarcasm. <\/p>\n

For 22-year-old Seerat Hafiz, known online as Yikvot or Nun Chai with Jiya, satire and humour are her tools of choice. Her videos are a mix of wordplay and cultural commentary and cover a range of topics from local literature to Kashmiri translations of English classics. <\/p>\n

In one post, she uses viral memes to show “why reading native literature helps save the language”. In another, an illustration of a man and woman appears with a Kashmiri translation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights playing in the background.<\/p>\n

“In a way, I’m documenting the thoughts and emotions of young Kashmiris,” Ms Hafiz says.<\/p>\n

“We are constantly switching languages, identities, platforms but we still carry the grief of our history, even in our humour.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The pashmina shawl, made from high-quality wool, is synonymous with Kashmiri luxury<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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But preserving a language online is only part of the battle – Mr Dar says platforms still don’t recognise Kashmiri as a regional language, affecting visibility and reach.<\/p>\n

“I’m forced to choose the ‘other language’ option because Kashmiri isn’t listed on Meta platforms like Facebook and Instagram,” Mr Dar says. ” It treats it like a language that’s been forgotten.” The BBC has reached out to Meta for comment.<\/p>\n

Since 2023, literary group Adbi Markaz Kamraz has been campaigning to add Kashmiri to Google Translate.<\/p>\n

They’ve sent formal requests and thousands of emails, says its president Mohammed Amin Bhat, who remains hopeful.<\/p>\n

The BBC has contacted Google for comment and will update the story when they respond.<\/p>\n

Despite the challenges, this young group is determined to keep up their work. <\/p>\n

From Mr Dar to Ms Hafiz, they insist their work proves that Kashmiri culture is not fading but fighting to be remembered on its own terms.<\/p>\n

“Maybe one day people will forget my name”, says Mr Dar, “but if they remember a single Kashmiri story, I helped keep alive, then my work will have meaning”.<\/p>\n

Follow BBC News India on <\/i>Instagram<\/i><\/a>, <\/i>YouTube,<\/i><\/a> <\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/a> and <\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n