This book examines the shifting, non-linear relationship between religion, nationalism and politics in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India. In the wake of the revocation of Article 370, the state’s plural and relatively harmonious society has come under multiple strains, with religion often informing day-to-day politics. The chapters in this volume: Trace the formation of the political entity of Jammu and Kashmir and the seemingly secular politics of its three regions Discuss the rise of militancy and resistance movements in the Kashmir Valley Highlight the intersection between everyday life, nationalism and resistance through a study of the literary traditions of Kashmir, contemporary resistance photography and everyday communalism located in the changing food practices of Hindu and Muslim communities Religion and Politics in Jammu and Kashmir will be an indispensable read for students and researchers of religion and politics, democratization and democracy, secularism, sociology, cultural studies and South Asian studies.

Disputed between India and Pakistan, Kashmir contains a large majority of Muslims subject to the laws of a predominantly Hindu and increasingly "Hinduized" India. How did religion and politics become so enmeshed in defining the protest of Kashmir's Muslims against Hindu rule? This book reaches beyond standard accounts that look to the 1947 partition of India for an explanation. Examining the 100-year period before that landmark event, during which Kashmir was ruled by Hindu Dogra kings under the aegis of the British, Mridu Rai highlights the collusion that shaped a decisively Hindu sovereignty over a subject Muslim populace. Focusing on authority, sovereignty, legitimacy, and community rights, she explains how Kashmir's modern Muslim identity emerged. Rai shows how the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was formed as the East India Company marched into India beginning in the late eighteenth century. After the 1857 rebellion, outright annexation was abandoned as the British Crown took over and princes were incorporated into the imperial framework as junior partners. But, Rai argues, scholarship on other regions of India has led to misconceptions about colonialism, not least that a "hollowing of the crown" occurred throughout as Brahman came to dominate over King. In Kashmir the Dogra kings maintained firm control. They rode roughshod over the interests of the vast majority of their Kashmiri Muslim subjects, planting the seeds of a political movement that remains in thrall to a religiosity thrust upon it for the past 150 years.

Kashmir remains one of the world's most militarized areas of dispute, having been in the grips of an armed insurgency against India since the late 1980s. In existing scholarship, ideas of territoriality, state sovereignty, and national security have dominated the discourses on the Kashmir conflict. This book, in contrast, places Kashmir and Kashmiris at the center of historical debate and investigates a broad range of sources to illuminate a century of political players and social structures on both sides of divided Kashmir and in the wider Kashmiri diaspora. In the process, it broadens the contours of Kashmir's postcolonial and resistance history, complicates the meaning of Kashmiri identity, and reveals Kashmiris' myriad imaginings of freedom. It asserts that 'Kashmir' has emerged as a political imaginary in postcolonial era, a vision that grounds Kashmiris in their negotiations for rights not only in India and Pakistan, but also in global political spaces.

This volume examines how religion is intrinsically related to politics in India. Based on studies from states across the length and breadth of India, it looks at political formations that inform political discourse on the national level and maps the trajectory of religion in politics. The chapters in this volume: discuss contemporary trends in Indian politics, including Hindutva, citizenship bills and mob violence; draw on fieldwork conducted across states and regions in India on critical themes, including the role of religion in electoral process, political campaigns and voting behaviour, political and ideological mobilization, and state politics vis-à-vis religion, among minorities; focus on the emerging politics of the 21st century. The book will be a key reference text for scholars and researchers of politics, religion, sociology, media and culture studies, and South Asian studies.

Since 1947-48, when India and Pakistan fought their first war over Kashmir, it has been reduced to an endlessly disputed territory. As a result, the people of this region and its rich history are often forgotten. This short introduction untangles the complex issue of Kashmir to help readers understand not just its past, present, and future, but also the sources of the existing misconceptions about it. In lucidly written prose, the author presents a range of ways in which Kashmir has been imagined by its inhabitants and outsiders over the centuries—a sacred space, homeland, nation, secular symbol, and a zone of conflict. Kashmir thus emerges in this account as a geographic entity as well as a composite of multiple ideas and shifting boundaries that were produced in specific historical and political contexts.

2008, 2010, and 2016—three important points in recent history when mass rage emerged in Kashmir. But the reasons that pushed Kashmir to the brink on these three occasions were different from each other—from a perceived threat to identity, to rage over the killing of innocents, to support for militancy. If one looks closely, one could spot another important change: by 2016, a new generation of millennials had replaced those who had pelted stones in 2008. And, in a matter of a mere decade, the hope that was slowly permeating Kashmir suddenly collapsed and gave way to a new round of militancy. In this book David Devadas, a respected authority on Kashmir, delves into his deep understanding of the region and its youth to offer a unique understanding of the Kashmir issue. He relates the increase in the generation of rage in Kashmir to the inability of those in power to declare the end of militancy at the right time. Exploring vital aspects of the conflict economy, murders for rewards, and terror acts by state-backed mercenaries, Devadas shows how simplistic black-and-white narratives suit both pro- and anti-state actors equally and lead the poor and marginal to their deaths.

On an occasion of an international conference in Switzerland in 2001, the Maulana heard an 80-year old Kashmiri participant viewing the beauty around her in awe: "Our Kashmir was as beautiful as Switzerland, but today it stands destroyed." Thinking of this he states that the blame for the destruction of Kashmir must be placed on the shoulders of those inept Kashmiri leaders who, with their emotionally-driven rhetoric, completely misled their people and pushed them on to the destructive path of militancy. Had they led them instead along the path of educational and economic advancement, Kashmir might today have been a model of progress and prosperity. But these incompetent leaders, with their completely unrealistic dreams and empty slogans, have caused such terrible damage to the Kashmiris that it cannot possibly be undone, not even in a hundred years. Now the time has come for the Kashmiris to completely and permanently abandon the path of militancy, and, instead, to adopt the path of peace and progress. Only then can the dream of Kashmir as 'heaven on earth' come true