Metaphors in the Political Narratives of Kashmiri Youth

The grid of indefinite incarceration: Everyday legality and paperwork warfare in Indian-controlled Kashmir

“…In August 2019, this territory was bifurcated into two federally ruled Union Territories: Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. For decades, Kashmiris have demanded a UN-administered plebiscite and resisted Indian control of the region through a long-standing popular movement for self-determination, which has taken the form of youth-led street uprisings and stone peltings since 2008 (Duschinski et al, 2018;Ganie, 2019;Sharma, 2020). The Indian military establishment views the situation in Kashmir as a sub-conventional, hybrid, or asymmetric war, which includes elements of insurgency, terrorism, proxy war, and border skirmishes (Indian Army, 2006; for critique see Navlakha, 2007).…”

Occupations in context – The cultural logics of occupation, settler violence, and resistance

“…Tobias Kelly (2008: 353) examines how what passes as “ordinary” in contexts of occupation is deeply shaped by and implicated in violence, while Lori Allen (2008) shows how resistance might mean “getting by” during prolonged periods of state violence and military abuse of power rather than totally succumbing to it. Focusing on the post-2008 unarmed resistance or intifada in Kashmir, Ganai (2019) analyzes the power of metaphors to shape political resistance narratives and forge political consciousness and identities. In her ethnography of everyday protest, Sharma (2020: 3) demonstrates how the “double interminability” of life under occupation “ordains that the inhabitants continue to perform an unending labour to assert a form of life where dying seems preferable to the idea of withdrawing from the struggle.” Through her focus on a working-class neighborhood, she shows how contributions to the resistance vary according to geography and location (Sharma, 2020).…”