Women's movements and the construction of nationalist imaginaries: feminist narratives in Kashmir

This paper explores how women’s movements in Kashmir influence, justify, and challenge Indian and Kashmiri national identities. The conflicts between these identities arise from the disputed status of Kashmir’s accession to India in 1947. India’s efforts to integrate Kashmir into its national identity have resulted in widespread militarization and colonial-like forms of domination, including the suppression of civil rights and acts of violence. As I will argue, the way the conflict has been narrated has silenced women. As a consequence, there is little space for women in the storytelling that surrounds Kashmir, with their voices being silenced by militarization and colonial domination. The existing literature has mainly focused on the political struggle for self-determination by Kashmiris. However, this dissertation broadens that focus by exploring how feminist narratives—especially those of women involved in social movements—shape national identities in Kashmir and India. Here, feminist narratives refer to the stories that emerge from women’s organizations seeking to increase women’s agency in Kashmir.