Militarisation

In conflict zones, the home–outside binary is often erased in practice as violence enters people’s lives and personal spaces, diluting any distinction between combatants and non-combatants, even as the international humanitarian law and Geneva Conventions highlight the distinction. In Kashmir, a popular armed rebellion against the state, since 1989, has been met with brutal force. Making use of militarised masculinity to inflict violence on bodies and psyches of the people considered to be the “other” has been a norm. In extending the understanding of the front line from the border to homes, actions, bodies, and the everyday trauma that women face, the victimhood narrative is problematised by placing women as frontliners as they witness, survive, and resist.

Despite reservations about the jurisdiction and value of plebiscites, the author argues that the only way for India to get out of the current stalemate on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir is to grab the bull by the horns and stop fighting a defensive battle on the issue of plebiscite. Instead of being blackmailed and terrorised at being reminded of this reneged commitment, India should be actively working towards a carefully redefined plebiscite.