Childhood with a Difference:
Growing up in the Socio- Political Conflict of Kashmir

Abstract: This paper examines childhood in conflict-ridden Kashmir through an interdisciplinary lens. Drawing on three autobiographical texts—Curfewed Night, Munnu: A Boy from Kashmir, and Our Moon Has Blood Clots—it highlights how violence, insecurity, displacement, and disrupted schooling reshape everyday life, producing denormativised childhoods that challenge the conventional notions of growing up.