The Red Soil

Abstract

Ever since Ladakh separated from the erstwhile Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and became the youngest Indian Union Territory in August 2019, there is a lingering ambiguity about what it means for its people. This poem – Red Soil – is an expression of feelings of insecurity faced by the people of Ladakh, especially its youth, as an alternative expression of marginalized voices as resistance to statist voices. Ever since the 1800s, Ladakh has been subject to colonization, when it was first captured by the Dogra Dynasty. Contextualizing Ladakh’s past, the poem is titled, Red Soil, which is the English translation of the ancient name of Ladakh – Maryul (Mar means red and Yul means a country in Bhoti/Ladakhi/Tibetan language). This poem, first presented at Millennium’s 2021 conference, is also a response to calls to subvert traditional styles of academic writing within critical international relations and is situated in the autoethnographic method (Brigg and Bleiker 2010).