The Bridge Between Two Generations With Context Of “The Kashmiri Shawl” By Rosie Thomas

Abstract

The Kashmiri Shawl follows a parallel storyline that alternates between modern-day Wales and British colonial-era Kashmir in the 1940s. Through the lives of two women from different generations—Mair Ellis, a Welsh woman from the present who sets out on a quest to unearth long-kept family secrets, and her grandmother Nerys Watkins, whose enigmatic and turbulent past in the far-flung and politically complex region of Kashmir gradually comes to light—the story is able to be told thanks to this narrative technique. The novel travels fluidly back and forth in time as Mair delves further into her family's past, demonstrating how Nerys's decisions and experiences in colonial India still have relevance today. The novel's emotional depth is enhanced by its intergenerational storytelling style, which also emphasizes the timeless heritage of love, grief, and unspoken truths.