Paper txt msgs from Kashmir began in December 2009 as a low-tech participatory intervention initiated by Alana Hunt as a kind of tongue-in-cheek response to the Indian government’s ban on all pre-paid mobile phone services in Indian controlled Kashmir on the basis of “security”. Virtually overnight hundreds of thousands of mobile phone users – people conducting business, college students, families, distanced lovers were left without means of telecommunication. There was little more than a whisper from the media; it was not an isolated incident. At this time around one thousand “paper txt msgs” were distributed throughout the Kashmir valley, inviting dejected pre-paid subscribers to write a “paper txt msg” about anything they would like to write in a txt msg but were suddenly unable to do so.

 

The monitoring, blocking and banning of phone services is just one of the many ways in which India’s military occupation attempts to break the rhythms of daily life in Kashmir. Today, almost fifteen years later, reports state that more than a fifth of the world’s internet and telecommunications blackouts take place in Kashmir. These paper txt msgs are still as urgent as event.