The relationship between literature and society has been ever-evolving in the history of critical studies of literature. In modern times, literature is often seen as a self-enclosed body of writing having no direct relationship with the society. The critical movements like New Criticism, Russian Formalism and Structuralism lend validity to this view by emphasising the self-sustaining inner structure of the literature. However, the relationship of literature with the lived experience of the people is significant. Though literature cannot reflect in an unsophisticated manner the growth of complex social structures, it does provide us insight into how people respond to social forces. In Kashmir, poetry can be considered the earliest creative expression of progressive sentiment that is found in Kashmiri poetry, for instance, the poetry of Azad and Mehjoor, much before the Indian Progressive Writers’ Association was formed. It gave rise to a distinct body of poetry which came to be known as “new poetry,” to differentiate it from the Sufi poetry that had dominated the Kashmiri literary domain. The “new poetry” embodied protest not only in content but also in the form of poetry. In 1947, following the independence of Kashmir from the Dogra reign, many poets and artists came together and formed a cultural front that later came to be known as “Cultural Congress.” The organisation had a progressive writers’ forum in Srinagar under which many writers nourished the socialist revolution in Kashmiri literature that focused mainly on the oppression of people. Kongposh (a journal) and Hamdard (a newspaper) provided important platforms for the dissemination of the progressive sentiment. The progressive poets of Kashmir fundamentally reflected the conditions of the excluded people whom Frank O’Connor aptly calls the “submerged populations.” Kashmiri poets like Dinanath Nadim, Abdul Satar Ranjur and Amin Kamil offer a unique insight into the conditions of “submerged” people of the Kashmiri society and their struggles of resistance and survival amidst the changing socio-political scenario of the world. The proposed chapter aims to trace the critical history of progressive elements in Kashmiri literature by focusing on the Kashmiri poetry produced in the twentieth century. The chapter further attempts to explore and analyse the techniques and complexity with which different Kashmiri poets responded to the challenges of the changing social and political forces under the influence of the communist ideas of the world.