Preview – Journal of Apples
‘Kashmiri Apples – A Weapon of Resistance’
In many regions of the world, certain trees are seen as the symbol of their national identity. Over the past few decades in Indian-administered Kashmir, apples have seemingly become the main embodiment of this restive territory’s economic and political identity.
The Apples & People exhibition programme has been about celebrating the positive relationship between the apple and humanity around the world, as manifested in stories across different times and continents. In this article, Kashmiri academics Haris Zargar and Mehroosh Tak highlight a different narrative, where the seemingly benign apple becomes a weapon of resistance. In Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, where apple growing is interwoven into all aspects of society, they argue that safeguarding the apple has become synonymous with preserving the Kashmir identity.
The article includes photographs provided by the authors as well as from MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA of the moment that a bullet hits an apple, captured by Harold Edgerton. Kashmiri artist Ghazal Qadri was also commissioned by Apples & People to provide a unique record of apples from Kashmir’s perspective in her illustration ‘Apples Behind Barbed Wire’.
