initial research concepts:

the rough sketch of my research project is to frame kashmiri militarization (from india/pakistan) with other contemporary decolonial struggles, and to think through kashmir as an evolving indigenous model. traditionally/hystorically, kashmir is diagnosed as a "communal violence" of india/pakistan and hindus/muslims. however, i think that the forms of militarization, dispossession of land, gendered violence, and imperial cartographies relate kashmir more to a shifting face of coloniality. currently, i'm trying to historicize the conflict, and find points of comparison/conversation with other continuing struggles. this is also an attempt to connect ethnic studies theory to a location outside of the u.s., and look at forms of transnational solidarities.

"Kashmiriyat does not only mean simply a harmonious relationship cutting across religious and sectarian divisions or pluralistic tradition, but it is a far wider concept that has grown over centuries of historical processes that the region of Kashmir has embraced, both in peace and in turmoil. Kashmiriyat is not a mere concept, but an institution with societal, political, economic, and cultural currents and undercurrents. Kashmiriyat is only unique to Kashmir, and this specificity of Kashmir has evolved as a result of special circumstances rooted in Kashmir’s topography/geography, ecology, religious ethos, and cultural moorings. The immensity of distance has never restricted Kashmiris from traveling to distant lands. This region has always been surrounded by the world’s greatest civilizations such as China, Persia/Iran, Central Asia, and India. These civilizations always interacted with the region’s population and culture but did not and could not overwhelm the region’s character in any manner, irrespective of the small size of Kashmir and the number of people who migrated into Kashmir and inhabited it from time to time. All these forces facilitated the growth of an integral personality of Kashmir that imbibed varied socio-religious, politico-regional, and cultural trends that were assimilated and reworked by Kashmiris in evolving an indigenous model." -Ratthan Lal Hangloo