The Shield of Achilles and the Kashmir Conflict: Panorama of a territory through a poem

Abstract

This paper attempts to read the past exclusively in terms of the present and takes an interdisciplinary approach by fitting W. H Auden’s poem, ‘The Shield of Achilles’ into the ongoing subjugation and dominance of Kashmir by Indian despotism which uses the most inhuman and forcible means at hand. This occupation has not only created a humanitarian crisis in Kashmir by subjugating the people and trampling their dignity but also kept the global peace in general and the subcontinental stability in particular under threat due to the involvement of three nuclear powers, India, Pakistan and China. Hence, presenting the poem in the status quo of Kashmir is quiet apt so far it helps illuminate the growing political uncertainties, horrible oppression, heinous acts of violence, mass murdering and other grave acts of human rights violation in Kashmir, under the Indian regime. The reader is taken for an expedition to the occupied Kashmir while the poem acts as a boat and print media its rudder.

Keywords: Interdisciplinary studies, Presentism, Modern poetry, Media, Presently colonised territory, Indian-occupation of Kashmir