Paper short abstract:

I propose rereading the gender relationship in Kashmir. Three factors define gender in Kashmir: British colonialism and coloniality of gender, Indian colonial rule, and the kinship patriarchy. On the other hand, Kashmiri women make their own meaning by resisting and negotiating with them.

Paper long abstract:

Kashmiri women’s activism is defined by the complexities of multiple oppressions. The paper redefines gender in Kashmir by locating the coloniality of gender in defining the hierarchies within. Kashmir is a traditionally patriarchal society, but colonialism deepens patriarchy through the coloniality of gender. The paper locates the coloniality of gender in Kashmir through the direct and indirect transfer of the British colonial strategies and the implementation of the Indian colonial strategies informed by the Brahmanical system. Like the former colonial power considered white European, Christian, heterosexual men as superior, Indian colonialism applies the idea that Brahmin heterosexual men are pure and superior and Brahmin women are their subordinates. Applying the colonial saviour approach in Kashmir, India takes it upon itself to save Kashmiri women from their ‘oppressive men’.

Between multiple oppressors, Kashmiri women form multiple subjectivities by meaning-making of their actions beyond the colonial and patriarchal definition of women’s roles. Women’s movements like the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) do not fit into roles defined by the colonial state or kinship patriarchy. They publicly resist the oppressive state apparatus by protesting the disappearance of their relatives while putting a familial image like wives of the disappeared. These women also negotiate with the kinship patriarchy by asking for their rights. While looking at the roles of APDP’s women activists within the society, they follow Saba Mahmood’s definition of agency by not going against the patriarchy but doing politics within the spaces of their oppression.