Childhoods under military occupation: everyday experiences and ‘insistence on existence’ as resistance in Kashmir

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines the experiences of childhoods in the region of India occupied Kashmir. Building on the discourse on India’s occupation and settler colonial project in Kashmir, I discuss the centrality of violence and militarization in the everyday lives of children and young people in Kashmir. In particular, I examine streets and home as sites under occupation and focus on the everyday routines, and emotions of fear and fearlessness as experienced by the children and young people that are critical in understanding their politics of ‘insistence on existence’ as resistance. Their insistence on being seen is their assertion on their everyday and their refusal to be eliminated despite the various strategies of the Indian state to detain, maim, disappear or kill children and young people. Thereby the children and young people continue to participate in Kashmir’s movement for self-determination as political beings.