Fluid Commons: Toward Infrastructures of Production and Care in the Kashmir Valley

Nestled in the Northern Himalayas, the Kashmir valley holds a strategically important location in the Indus River basin. Geological readings reveal a complex palimpsest of wet and dry landscapes that have shaped settlement patterns as well as cultural imaginaries of its inhabitants through history. For the people of the Valley, water has always held a sacred place, evident in ancient cartography, folklore, festivals, and everyday life. This intimate relationship with water, embedded in tacit knowledge practices and self-organizational production systems, undergirds the region’s socioeconomic and cultural landscape and has shaped its urbanization patterns throughout history.