Agonistic Terms of Peace in Kashmir: Kashmiriyat, Distributive Politics and Islam

Abstract

Kashmiriyat as a peculiar secular formation posits Rishi tradition as central to Islam in Kashmir. However, the dialectical process of Islamic acculturation also led the Muslim identity in Kashmir to disentangle itself from any essential association with it. The article, thus, argues that Kashmiriyat alone cannot underpin any inclusive notion of democracy in Kashmir. In so far as Kashmiriyat is concerned with the religious orthodoxy implicated in subversion and violence, it is argued that religious orthodoxy, irrespective of its sociopolitical implications, being the only mode of social representation of religion cannot be eliminated in any ultimate sense. Nevertheless, it is the social antagonism that makes any religious orthodoxy to emerge, transform and ultimately face its own contingency. Thus, more than any narrative of harmony and co-existence surrounding Kashmiriyat, it is the democratic space reflective of the underlying sociopolitical antagonisms that can channelise orthodoxy in a socially productive manner. The article also highlights that the process of socio-economic development in Kashmir (referred to here as ‘distributive politics’) straddles different discourses and mainly enhances the discursive depth of the narrative in power.