History as a tragic hall of mirrors

Shabir Ahmad Mir's new novel, The Last Knot, is set in Kashmir under the Dogra rule, but the overall mood it conjures up isn't a million miles away from the state of darkness and despair that the region has found itself plunged into over the last several decades.

- Somak Ghoshal

The main actors of his story are the Muslim carpet weavers from the state, who, in the 19th century, had to pay exorbitant taxes under the rule of the Dogra kings.

Although their craftsmanship was highly valued, these carpet weavers could not save themselves from persecution by the ruling elite. The price of defection from their profession could be lethal, including death, so running away wasn't a solution. The community was kept under a strict watch, tethered to weaving carpets all their lives, their thumbs bound to the loom, as the narrator puts it towards the end of the novel. The outcome of their hard labour—the precious things of beauty they produced—bore no trace of their inhuman toil, all the blood, sweat and suffering that it exacted from the weavers.

Living under this oppressive regime, the protagonist of Mir's story is not any ordinary weaver. He dreams of creating a magic carpet, one that is able to fly unfettered over the vast hills and dales of his homeland. Like those who live in subjugation and conflict zones, his wish is to find freedom from a life preordained to a state of servitude. Exasperated by his ambition, his wusteh, or master, sends off his apprentice to seek out Abli Bab, the thumbless weaver, who lives in a secret cave in the mythical Haer Parbat.