Kashmir in Pictures: Militarization, Resistance and Everyday Life

The State of Jammu and Kashmir, a landscape with numerous mountains adorned with lust green alpine meadows and encircled by rivers like an elegant pearl necklace. Jammu and Kashmir, christened as the ‘paradise on earth’ by Moguls, is today the battleground for one of longstanding conflict between two sisters- India and Pakistan.

Kashmir lives a life in the realm of global politics as a contention between India and Pakistan, thus, becoming a site for so called insurgency and counter-insurgency. And in parlance of tourism, it lives as the ‘crown of India’ and ‘paradise on earth’. Struck between these two monologues, the everyday life in Kashmir is often reduced to the dictates of Indian state and it’s sponsored intellectual narratives.

Blinded by the cartographic nationalism and state sponsored narratives defined in the binaries of terrorism and counter terrorism, terrorists and military- the larger populace of mainland India wishes to  comfortably ignore the micro-narratives that defines and shapes the everyday life. How a normal life will be under a heavily militarized zone? Can something be ever called normal in a situation where every aspect of life is under constant military/ state surveillance?

The everyday life in Kashmir under militarization is something that makes the George Orwell’s 1984 come to life. If in Orwell’s work it was IngSoc; in Kashmir it is the Indian military and it’s Unified Command HQ. A bird’s eye view of Kashmir may look quite normal. People moves around, children playing, farmers cultivating in their field, tourists with their cameras and a bunch of paramilitary soldiers manning checkpoints almost every kilometre. Life moves around in a rhythmic fashion in Kashmir, but everything around the constant vigil of uniformed men, many with latest weapons imported from Israel.

On ground micro narratives, speaks about a different view. People in Kashmir are not moving on in their life ignoring the constant presence of paramilitary and military eyes out of choice, as choice is not a word that exists in the dictionary in Kashmir.

Explicit portrayal of the feeling of disliking towards Indian soldiers can invite anything from few bashing to awful torture to bullets, and a life lost without any question. Everything vanishes as if the person never even existed on this earth.

(Location: Srinagar, Srinagar- Downtown, Uri, Baramulla) 

(Special thanks to Amreeta Syam, without whom this photo documentation would have been incomplete. Amreeta did her Masters from TISS, Mumabi and her research is on Kashmir and Militarisation)

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are personal views and do not necessarily represent the views of Newsclick.