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Short abstract:

This paper analyzes the well-thought-out and recurrent breakdowns of the Internet in Kashmir and puts such breakdowns into dialogue with existing ideas of ‘breaking down’ in infrastructure and science and technology studies.

Long abstract:

In the last six years, Indian-administered Kashmir has emerged as one of the most Internet-censored regions in the world. Here, the state controls and regulates technological and social components of the Internet, a key infrastructure of our contemporary times, thereby impacting almost all aspects of life. Internet blackouts, slowdowns and other curbs earn the region the title of ‘the internet shutdown capital of the world’ (Rafiq, 2019). While infrastructures are perceived to have the ability to blend in our lives and recede into the background, and breakdowns are seen as rare occasions when they draw attention, the Internet infrastructure in Kashmir turns perpetually visible due to clampdowns by the state. Unlike infrastructural failures or accidents, these breakdowns are a part of a well-thought-out process to deny people access to an infrastructure (here, the Internet) and practices that run on this infrastructure. Taking Kashmir as a case study, in this paper, I analyze the dynamics of these breakdowns and put them into dialogue with existing ideas of ‘breaking down’ in infrastructure studies. The paper explores the following: What do constant well-thought-out breakdowns of the internet infrastructure in Kashmir reveal about the working of infrastructures? How do these breakdowns align with or challenge the existing notions of the working of infrastructures? How does life unfold in the region amidst constant internet breakdowns and in the backdrop of an ongoing armed conflict spanning over three decades?