Endangered (and Endangering) Species: Exploring the Animacy Hierarchy in Malik Sajad’s Munnu

Canine counterinsurgency in Indian-occupied Kashmir

“…As we describe later, Kashmiris continue to resist characterizations of their civilizational backwardness by drawing attention to their “dwindling quality of life and diminished humanity” through protests that showcase street dogs and simultaneously expose the differential valuation of humans versus dogs in Kashmir (Khan, 2014: 256). Kashmiris have appropriated canines as a metaphor for the brutality of the state as evidenced by the pervasiveness of urban graffiti demanding “Indian dogs return to India.” In such invocations, Amit Baishya (2018: 5) states, “the feral otherness of the colonial occupier is equated and rendered coextensive with a familiar example of feral animality.” Indian street dogs, in sum, acquire multiple meanings, simultaneously encompassing associations with militarized violence, a virulent version of neoliberalized Hinduism, and spirited resistance to the national security state.…”