Gendered Politics of Funerary Processions: Contesting Indian Sovereignty in Kashmir

Citation:

Malik, Inshah. 2018. “Gendered Politics of Funerary Processions: Contesting Indian Sovereignty in Kashmir.” Economic & Political Weekly 53 (47): 63-66.

Author: Inshah Malik

Abstract:

On 8 July 2016, Kashmiri militant Burhan Wani was killed by the Indian army, setting in motion unprecedented funerary processional grieving. Using accounts of funerals of militants and civilians, gendered funerary processions and the transformation of gendered cultures of grieving in Kashmir have been analysed. It is argued that women’s participation in the militant and civilian funerary processions is a feminist political formulation in the Kashmiri context. This is understood through a review of the politics of funeral attendance and two specific actions that women undertake: publicising grief by bringing the private out into the contested public realm, thus outdoing religious law, and resisting the state’s sovereignty by grieving for lives that the state deems “non-grievable.”

Topics: Armed Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Political Participation, Religion Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2018