For generations, nomadic tribes in Kashmir and Tibet have shepherded the goats that provide cashmere and pashmina fibers for local weavers. In recent decades, these areas have become militarized zones—China occupies Tibet, and Kashmir has a bleak record of human rights violations, with some 70,000 killed in the last 20 years. By definition, nomads have no fixed address, but their borderless existence is increasingly endangered by these conflicts.
Praveen Chaudhry, an associate professor of political science at FIT, researches social movements and human displacements. The recipient of a SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Scholarship and Creative Activities, he became concerned that the plight of the nomads was receiving insufficient attention. So, for the last five years, he has spent considerable time in the region studying nomad communities, and taking photographs that document, in his words, “the process of urbanization, population pressure, growing conflict in the state, environmental degradation, and globalization.” Early on, he decided to avoid obvious emblems of war and suffering, and instead capture images of civil society, which persists despite existential threats.
The images have been displayed in galleries in the United States, India, and Mexico; a selection will be on display in the lobby of the Marvin Feldman Center through February 26.
Chaudhry has focused on two groups of nomads, one predominantly Muslim, the other Buddhist. Both groups, unfortunately, are vulnerable to the military as well as terrorists, who steal their money, goats, and sometimes, young women and boys. The nomads migrate at least twice a year, and Chaudhry has journeyed thousands of miles with them, both in blazing heat and 20-degree-below-zero winters. Once, after an avalanche, he got stuck in a location for several days. Occasionally, he heard gunshots. The weavers, he says, have a lifestyle based in meditation and work calmly despite the danger. Chaudhry marvels at some of the ironies he’s witnessed—for example, a soldier climbing out of a menacing tank to ask a weaver for a glass of water.
Some of Chaudhry’s students, curious about the project, have joined him on his travels. One has since enrolled in a PhD program in Sociology at Yale. Another, Trupal Pandya, Photography ’16, has begun a career depicting global politics. Over the years, the FIT community has proved beneficial in other ways as well. Chaudhry didn’t have experience in photography, for example, so he took a class at the college.
Chaudhry plans to eventually publish a book of the images. In the meantime, he says he’s discovered another purpose for the work. “As the project developed, I started asking myself, ‘Why am I doing this?’ I was giving a talk at FIT, to about 400 people, and the room was totally silent. Here I was, thousands of miles from the community I was talking about. I realized that sometimes, it’s just about the human connection.”
Chaudhry will give a talk and slide presentation of his images on Wednesday, February 24 at 6 PM in the Katie Murphy Amphitheater.