Locating Kashmir in Lal Ded: Communicating Identity and Meaning Through Narrative

The fourteenth century Kashmiri saint Lal Ded, also known as Lalla, has had a profound effect on the people of Kashmir. To this day, her sayings are an everyday occurrence, and have been passed down through the generations orally, revered by all Kashmiris. Many say Lalla is synonymous with Kashmir. Her legends, lore, and her vaks (the oral sayings) have become an integral part of all things Kashmiri – so much so, that as we move into the twenty-first century, and identities are shifting and changing faster than one can imagine, so too are the identities of Kashmiris spread all over the globe, and along with them, Lalla is changing too. How she changes and how Kashmiri identity changes is reflected in her narratives told by Kashmiris to each other, to friends, written in books and on the internet, told in stories, sung in songs, enacted in films and portrayed in media. These narratives form a bond not only between Kashmiris as a cultural group, but also between Lalla and identity as a Kashmiri. This thesis explores the nature of narrative by utilizing the works of Peter Gottschalk and Jordan Peterson to form a framework of analysis, and apply said framework to the narratives of Lalla’s story. In doing so, a multi-layered form of communication and identity is revealed – a communication that can speak both literally and figuratively of the multiple layers of identity all human beings navigate