Social Roots of Insurgency in Kashmir

Khandy, Idreas (2019) Social Roots of Insurgency in Kashmir. In: Violence in South Asia : Contemporary Perspectives. Routledge, pp. 192-208. ISBN 9780367135119

Abstract

This chapter offers an approach grounded in social movements theory to analyse and understand the ongoing insurgency in Kashmir. The chapter takes insurgency as a society-wide social movement with multiple facets, with the majority of them being non-violent, seemingly docile and innocuous. By building on the works of Douglas McAdam and Charles Taylor, it argues that insurgency has become a core aspect of the Kashmiri “social imaginary”. While the chapter does not make a sweeping claim about the insurgency being inherently embedded in the micro-fabric of Kashmiri society - entwined with everyday experiences of people - it does suggest that society has gradually evolved into sharing an “insurgent consciousness”, which blossoms and thrives within its social imaginary.