Between Democracy & Nation:
Gender and militarisation in Kashmir
by Seema Kazi
Women Unlimited, 2009
To date, each and every one of the political initiatives undertaken to resolve the Kashmir issue have come unstuck, the spectre of secession having prompted knee-jerk and iron-fisted responses from New Delhi. Even as the Indian state today acknowledges that there can be no military solution alone for Kashmir, the Valley remains one of the most militarised in the region. In her new work, Seema Kazi refers to Kashmir's humanitarian tragedy, suggesting that militarisation has been unsuccessful, having failed to ensure security for either the Indian state or for the Kashmiris. She calls for "re-imagining Kashmir and India", with both India and Pakistan envisioning "a future based on Kashmiri aspiration rather than territorial obsession". With a "restored Kashmir", Kazi writes, "India and Pakistan can emerge from their mutual abyss of violence" and "overcome the principal source of militarisation in South Asia."
A work that began as the author's doctoral thesis, Between Democracy & Nation contextualises the past two decades of militarisation in Jammu & Kashmir, exploring the involvement of both Kashmiri militants and Indian military forces. In addition, however, it also critically highlights the conflict's largely overlooked gender dimensions. Kazi writes, "social relations of gender are a constituent rather than a consequence of militarization in Kashmir." Building upon personal narratives of people she has met and interviewed, the author explores Kashmiri women's political experience of militarisation, demonstrating how the struggle for azadi "centres on women's conventional role as mothers, wives and sisters", especially in the face of the "onslaught of the Indian state against Kashmiri men".