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Paper short abstract:

How often does it happen that the trauma of a collective identity no more haunts its present rather becomes a vehicle of emancipation for them and the process of ‘othering’ as evidence of their authenticity? The paper indulges in the thematics of trauma by bringing to fore the event of death.

Paper long abstract:

Trauma and suffering as subjects of psychic apprehension have changed the semantics of pain questioning the need to repair or fix the transitions that occur in the subliminal spaces of every day. The alterable composition of every day causes the ‘othered’ individual to endure a range of experiences leading to the ‘inexpressibility of pain.’ The social setting becomes violated by the crisis of their existence and the burial of their dead. Thus, the expression of grief manifests in a performative character by the marginalized subject. Can we, then, say that the process of mourning is transversal to the process of being granted acclamation to such suffering.

The second question seeks to discuss mourning during death. While Mbembe emphatically explains the exercise of sovereignty to dictate who may live and who must die, the proposed argument adjoins this very statement by further asking, who decides whether the dead are sacred or profane. Denying the ritualistic departure to the dead requires a careful approach in understanding the phenomena that facilitate the social for collectivities who are socially boycotted and alienated owing to their belief system. The proposed paper discusses a case study of Ahmadi Muslims in Kashmir, who are socially outcasted by the larger Muslim domain, by highlighting the patterned negotiations they make to be able to mourn and grieve over their dead. What happens when the victims refuse to be identified as victims instead they demand integrity and acknowledgment for their living as well as dead. Therefore, death, here, becomes a means of retribution as opposed to redemption.