Sadam Hussain

Centered on the re-emergence of Muharram processions in Kashmir after decades of restriction, this dissertation hopes to examine how religious sound shapes ethical life, social relations, and public space. Drawing on ethnographic research in Srinagar and Budgam, it follows lament, recitation, rhythm, and silence across processions, neighborhood gatherings, and everyday listening practices. Combining sound recording, listening interviews, sketching, poetry and collaborative mapping, the project traces how mourning travels through streets, homes, and memory. It also attends to the practical conditions that shape public audibility, including permissions, route management, and changing forms of surveillance. By treating sound not simply as expression but as something that organizes attention, movement, and relation, the dissertation hopes to offer an account of how listening becomes an ethical practice and how religious life remakes social, sensory, and political worlds in contemporary Kashmir.