Rethinking “participation” in Women, Peace and Security discourses: engaging with “non-participant” women's movements in the Eastern borderlands of India

Abstract

ABSTRACT The contributions and experiences of women in conflict at the grassroots level in India are not well recognized by the Indian state. In this article, I examine women's engagement with conflict in the Darjeeling Hills and Nagaland in the Eastern regions of India, highlighting both the varied forms of conflict and women's experiences of them. I use these case studies to engage with the question of “participation” as envisioned by the Women, Peace and Security agenda, which has often been understood only in terms of the representation of women at the “high table” of peace negotiations. Restricting the idea of participation to representation alone not only constrains women's agency but also reproduces a binary of “participants” and “non-participants,” obscuring the different ways in which women actually participate in peace activism and conflict prevention. By examining women's experiences and engagement in these “hidden” conflicts, I provide a more nuanced account of women's agency and open up space for different conceptualizations of participation in the Women, Peace and Security agenda.