As major road and rail projects expand across Kashmir, agricultural land is increasingly caught between acquisition and restriction. The Srinagar Semi Ring Road has introduced construction-free buffer zones that prevent farmers from building, selling, or investing — without fully acquiring their land.

In this episode of The Witness, we walk alongside Saqib, a young farmer observing the quiet transformation of his village. As buffer zones reshape ownership and planning policies redefine value, agricultural land becomes something suspended — cultivated, yet shadowed.

Through farmer testimonies and insights from a Kashmiri political anthropologist, this episode examines how infrastructure projects reorganize not just geography, but livelihoods, law, and memory.

🎧 Produced as part of the Bertha Challenge Fellowship.

Further reading: https://sajadrasool.com/land-farmers-and-futures-in-kashmir/

In this episode of The Witness, I travel through Kashmir’s farmlands — tracing how land acquisition, climate change, and unchecked infrastructure projects are transforming the valley’s agrarian heart. Through voices of farmers, environmentalists, and old irrigation canals now running dry, this story explores how the idea of “development” collides with memory, belonging, and survival.

🎧 Produced as part of the Bertha Challenge Fellowship.

Further reading: https://sajadrasool.com/land-farmers-and-futures-in-kashmir/

In this powerful episode of The Witness, I sit down with acclaimed academic and writer David Maughan Brown to explore his lived experiences under apartheid in South Africa. Drawing from his compelling memoir Despite the Darkness, David shares personal stories of resistance, resilience, and the relentless pursuit of justice in the face of systemic oppression. Together, we unpack the parallels between apartheid-era struggles and contemporary challenges to human rights worldwide. This episode offers a gripping narrative of courage and hope, making it a must-listen for anyone seeking inspiration in dark times.