Locating Jammu and Kashmir

Abstract

Jammu and Kashmir was formed as a state in the context of British colonialism as part of the colonial logic of securing frontiers through vassal states. But since 1947 the region, coveted by successor postcolonial nation-states of India and Pakistan, evolved into a potent symbol of competitive nationalisms and state sovereignty much to the chagrin of the indigenous peoples of J&K whose voices and aspirations remained overshadowed by dominant geo-political approaches that exclusively focus on India-Pakistan relationship. On the 75th anniversary of partition, this chapter recenters local actors and their agency to survey and locate Jammu and Kashmir from the time of its entanglement with modernity and colonialism (in the late nineteenth century) through five decades of complex political processes that ultimately culminated in the armed insurgency and violence in the late 1980s. The chapter concludes that conflict management may work in the short term but without a proper democratic vote that allows the people of the J&K to affirm their political aspirations there is always likelihood of the state relapsing into violence. A major challenge is to address and reconcile the divergent ethnic aspirations and competitive regionalisms that have undermined political unity regarding a consensus resolution framework.