Everyday violence, institutional denial and struggles for justice in Kashmir

Abstract

In the summer of 2009, the apparent murder and rape of two young women in the small town of Shopian sparked a year of popular protest in heavily militarised Kashmir Valley expressing outrage at the everyday forms of violence that accompany Indian occupation in the contested region. Here, the authors analyse the case by drawing on ethnographic field research conducted via research visits in 2009—2010, to show how the state has exercised occupational authority through practices of denial and cover-up that are built into the legal systems that claim to protect the rights and interests of Kashmiris. They demonstrate how various local actors have worked to establish alternative forums to challenge state violence and the institutionalised denial of justice, illuminating the ways in which they have sought justice in this context of intense militarisation, characterised by routine state violence through legal and criminal justice processes. The event, and the responses to it, reshaped the interplay between legal authority, social protest and political power under conditions of occupation, with implications for future formations of popular resistance against Indian rule in Kashmir.