A few days back, a distinguished writer and author friend shared on Facebook a video of Malkhah taken from the cable car. Seen from above, the vast burial ground was both moving and disturbing. I commented there, wondering whether we, as a society, could not do better for those who have departed from this world and now rest there.

That image has stayed with me.Perhaps distance gives us a perspective that proximity sometimes takes away. From above, one does not see family plots or recognise individual graves. One sees a vast expanse of earth holding generations of Srinagar’s dead—saints and scholars, traders and artisans, teachers and labourers, the affluent and the poor—all ultimately reduced to the same few feet of earth.

And therein lies the profound message of Malkhah.Historical accounts associate this ancient burial ground with Hazrat Mir Syed Muhammad Hamadani (RA), the illustrious son of Hazrat Mir Syed Ali Hamadani (RA), who acquired a vast tract of land and dedicated it for the burial of Muslims. What remarkable foresight—to set aside land not for oneself or one’s family, but for generations yet unborn, irrespective of family, caste, class or social standing.

Death was to make everyone equal.Yet, somewhere along the passage of centuries, we seem to have carried some of our worldly distinctions even into the resting place of our dead.Published accounts differ on the precise original extent of Malkhah, but there is little doubt that it once extended far beyond what is identifiable as the cemetery today. A personal memory has always made me wonder just how far.

One of my father’s first cousins, then heading a government department dealing, among other things, with Waqf properties, once visited us at our Hawal residence. During conversation, he told my father that according to old revenue records, even the land beneath our house formed part of Malkhah. If the contemplated retrieval of encroached land went ahead, he said, our house too could come within its ambit.My father laughed and replied: “Kenh tchunna parvai; yieiv tohi Nawit’te petha prat’tan, assi travav panai”—“Never mind; start demolishing from the Nowhatta side. By the time you reach us, we will vacate ourselves.”

The humour of that exchange has........

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