India's Obsession with Kashmir

Democracy, Gender, (Anti-)Nationalism

Bibliographic Data

ID3947193
AuthorsNitasha Kaul (0000-0002-2245-0171, International Relations at the University of Westminster, Economics at the Bristol Business School., corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume119
Issue1
Pages126-143
Publication date2018-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0141-7789 • E-ISSN: 1466-4380
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1057/s41305-018-0123-x
OpenAlexW2770273575
LanguageEN
Citations received27
References cited32

This article attempts to make sense of India's obsession with Kashmir by way of a gendered analysis. I begin by drawing attention to the historical and continuing failure of Indian democracy in Kashmir that results in the violent and multifaceted dehumanisation of Kashmiris and, in turn, domesticates dissent on the question of Kashmir within India. This scenario has been enabled by the persuasive appeal of a gendered masculinist nationalist neoliberal state currently enhanced in its Hindutva avatar. I focus on understanding how the violence enacted upon Kashmiri bodies is connected to feminised understandings of the body of Kashmir in India's imagination of itself as a nation state. I argue that the gendered discourses of representation, cartography and possession are central to the way in which such nationalism works to legitimise and normalise the violence in Kashmir. I conclude with a few reflections on how Kashmir is a litmus test for the discourse on (anti-)nationalism in contemporary India

Democracy · Dissent · Hindutva · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science) · Gender Studies · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · South Asian Studies and Diaspora

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