Social media has transformed the way Kashmiri is written, spoken and circulated. Facebook pages, Instagram reels, YouTube videos and memes have created new spaces for a Kashmiri to flourish. This expansion of the language online is worth celebrating. But it also raises an uncomfortable question: what happens when disability becomes a source of humour, insult and ridicule in Kashmiri digital content?

One does not have to look far to encounter disability-related language being used casually to describe stupidity, incompetence or irrational behaviour. A recent qualitative study on derogatory labels used against persons with disabilities in Kashmir documents terms such as zor for a deaf person, kol/chouer for someone who has speech disability, oun for a blind person and koen for someone blind in one eye. It also documents the use of pagal in reference to people experiencing mental-health difficulties and other labels associated with physical impairments.

The issue is not simply whether these words exist in Kashmiri. Languages everywhere contain words and expressions that emerge from social attitudes. The more important question is what these words come to mean when they are used as insults or jokes.Consider the familiar expression “Kacxetember chiya?”—roughly, “Are you blind?”—used when someone fails to notice something obvious. On the surface, it may appear harmless. Nobody is necessarily talking about a blind person. Yet the expression derives its force from an underlying assumption: not seeing something is associated with foolishness or incompetence. Blindness becomes a metaphor for deficiency.

The same pattern appears when........

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