The half-widows of Kashmir
A discourse of enforced disappearance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/torture.v31i2.123624Keywords:
kashmir conflict, disappearance, detention, half-widow, psychological trauma, economic distressAbstract
Women all over the globe have to struggle for their sustenance as well as for justice. Most of such narratives are common in conflict zones, where women have to bear unfavourable circumstances, indifferent society, absence of laws, poor rehabilitation mechanism and unresponsive government machinery. Women whose husbands have been subjected to enforced ‘disappearances’ are often called ‘half widows’. Half widows illustrate one of the starkest forms of the general insecurity in Kashmir. The wives and mothers of men who have ‘disappeared’, who have been picked up and taken into custody by the authorities, or killed, remain in a tragic state of suspense. They are unaware of their true marital identity and in the complete absence of information on the fate of their loved ones. The half-widows do not get to know about their husbands, whether they are dead or alive and live in the hope that one day they may return home. However, they continue to live their lives, seeking livelihoods, supporting their children financially and emotionally. The absence of any assured rehabilitation measures renders them emotionally bruised, psychologically traumatized, economically disturbed and even physically crippled. These half-widows continue to suffer in silence, the lack of a structured database is painfully evident as no thorough record has been maintained or comprehensive survey conducted to measure the problem realistically. Therefore, in order to seek recognition, and thus redress, this paper documents the saga of such women in the context of liminality and exception.
References
References
Akhtar, S. (1991). Uprising in India-held Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan: Institute of
Regional Studies.
Ariate, Maria Ima Carmela L. (2014). National security laws & measures: Impacts on Indigenous. Thailand: Peoples Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) Foundation.
Arendt, H. (1966). The origins of totalitarianism. New York: Harvest.
Aretxaga, B. (2003). Maddening states. Annual Review of Anthropology. Vol. 32, 393-410.
Agamben, A. (2005). ‘State of exception’, trans. Kevin Attell Chicago: University of Chicago
Bazaz, P. N. (2005). Kashmir in crucible. Residency Road, Srinagar: Gulshan
Publishers.
Bhat, A. R. (2011). Plight of conflict-affected women in Kashmir. Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies: Alam-e-Niswan, Vol. 18 (2), 77-89.
Bhattacharya. D. (2016). Policy Report no.16, The Plight of Kashmiri Half-Widows. The Hindu Centre for Politics & Public Policy
Benjamin, W. (1978). Critiques of violence in reflections: essays, aphorisms, autobiographical writings, (ed.) Demetz, Peter New York: Schocken Books.
Chowdhary, R. (2014). India’s response to the Kashmir Insurgency: A holistic perspective. In (Ed) Yusuf, Moeed. (2014). Insurgency and counterinsurgency in South Asia through a peacebuilding lens. USIP: Washington DC.
D’Souza, P. (2016) Life-as-Lived Today: Perpetual (Undesired) Liminality of the Half-widows of Kashmir, Culture Unbound, Vol. 8, 26–42.
Dabla, B. A. (2012). Social impact of Militancy in Kashmir. India: Gyan Publishing House.
Duschinski, H. (2009). Destiny effects: militarization, state power, and punitive containment in Kashmir valley. Anthropological Quarterly. Vol. 82 (3), 691-717.
Dewan, P. (2011). The other Kashmir almost everything about. New Delhi: Manas
Publications.
Dewan, P. (2008). A history of Kashmir. New Delhi: Manas Publications.
Duschinski, H. (2010). Reproducing regimes of impunity, fake encounters and the informalization of every violence in Kashmir, Cultural studies. Vol. 24(1), 110-132.
Farasat, W. (2013). Understanding impunity in Jammu and Kashmir. Economic and Political Weekly, XLVIII (19), 15-18.
Fanon, F. (1963). The wretched of the earth (trans.). Sartre, J. P., & Farrington, C. New York: Grove Press.
Ganguly, S. (1996). Explaining the Kashmir insurgency: political mobilization and Institutional decay, International Security, 21(2), 76-107.
Ganguly, R. (2001). India, Pakistan and the Kashmir insurgency: causes, dynamics and prospects for resolution. Asian Studies Review, Vol. 25(3), 309-334.
Hussain, N & Arbor, A. (2003). The jurisprudence of emergency: colonialism and the rule of law. University of Michigan press, 1-33.
Haq, I. (2017). Enforced Disappearance: A Grave Concern. Kashmir Images, Retrieved from http://dailykashmirimages.com/Details/133576/enforced-disappearance-a-grave-concern.
Hussain, S. R. (2009). “Resolving the Kashmir dispute: blending realism with justice The Pakistan Development Review, Vol. 48 (4), 1007- 1035.
Jha, P. S. (1991). frustrated middle-class: roots of Kashmir’s alienation. In Ali, Asghar, Engineer. (Ed.), secular crown on fire: the Kashmir problem, Delhi: Ajanta Publications.
Kaldor, M. (2012). New and old wars: organized violence in a global era. Cambridge:
Polity Press.
Kazi, S. (2012). Law, Governance and Gender in Indian Administered Kashmir. Working paper series centre for the study of law and governance. New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Majid, A & Hussain, M. (2016). Kashmir: a conflict between India and Pakistan. South Asian Studies, Vol. 31 (1), 149-159.
Mbembe, J.A. & Meintjes, L. (2003). Necropolitics. Public Culture. Vol. 15 (1), 11-40.
Noorani, A G. (2003). Disappearances in Kashmir. Economic and Political Weekly. 2592- 2593.
Omar, W. (2014): Hamlet in Kashmir http://roadsandkingdoms.com/2014/hamlet-in-kashmir/.
Pandita, K N. (2003). Kashmir question. Kashmir Herald, Vol. 2 (9).
Puri, B. (1993). Kashmir insurgency and after. Hyderabad: Orient Black swan Private Limited.
Parry. J. T. (2007) Evil, law and the state: perspectives on state power and violence. New York: Amsterdam.
Qayoom, F. (2014). Women and armed conflict: widows in Kashmir. International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology,Vol. 6 (5), 161-168.
Schofield, V. (2003). Kashmir in conflict: India, Pakistan and the unending war. London: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd.
Singh, M. A. (2011). Conflict in Jammu and Kashmir. Bangalore: National Institute of
Advanced Studies.
Turner, Victor (1967): ‘Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage’, in The Forest of Symbols, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Thomassen, B. (2006): ‘Liminality’, in A. Harrington, B. Marshall and H.P. Müller (eds) Routledge Encyclopaedia of Social Theory, London: Routledge, 322-323.
Varsney, A. (1992). Three comprised nationalisms: why Kashmir has been a problem. In Thomas, Raju. (Ed.),Pperspective on Kashmir: the roots of conflict in South Asia. Boulder, co: Westview Press.
Zargar, A. M. (2017). Kashmir- enforced disappearance, retrieved from http://southasiajournal.net/kashmir-enforced-disappearances/
Annex - Reports
Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (2011): half widow, half wife, responding to gendered violence in Kashmir, Srinagar: APDP.
Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances Fact Sheet No. 6/Rev.3. United Nations Human Rights, Retrieved from http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/FactSheet6Rev3.pdf.
Indian People's Tribunal on Environment & Human Rights. Human Rights Law Network (New Delhi, India), & ANHAD (Organization). (2010). Report of Independent People's Tribunal on human rights violations in Kashmir, February 20-21, 2010, Srinagar, Kashmir. New Delhi: Human Rights Law Network.
Imroz, P. (2005). Kashmir: enforced disappearances in Jammu and Kashmir. Healing Wounds, Mending Scars: Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearance. Retrieved from https://www.afad-online.org/resources/books/healing-wounds-mending-scars/kashmir-enforced-disappearances-in-jammu-and-kashmir [10 May 2019].
International Commission of Jurists (August 2017). No more missing persons: the criminalization of enforced disappearance in South Asia. Geneva. Retrieved from https://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/South-Asia-Enforced-Disappearance-Publications-Reports-Thematic-Reports-2017-ENG.pdf [10 May 2019].
Jammu and Kashmir Civil Coalition Society. (2018). Terrorized: impact of violence on the children of Jammu and Kashmir. Srinagar:. Retrieved from kccs.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/2018-Impact-of-Violence-on-Children-of-JK-JKCCS.pdf.
Mental health illness in Kashmir: A community-based prevalence study of mental health issues in Kashmir. (2016). Srinagar: ActionAid India. Retrieved from https://www.actionaidindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Mental-Health-Illness-in-the-Valley-Final-Report-Web.pdf
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the University of Kashmir, Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS). (2016). Muntazar: Kashmir Mental Health Survey Report 2015. New Delhi: India.
A/HRC/13/42 (19 February 2010). Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development. Human Rights Council, Thirteenth Session Agenda Item 3: United Nations General Assembly.
Shimla agreement, July 02, 1972, Ministry of External Affairs: Government of India. Retrieved from http://www.mea.gov.in/in-focus-article.htm?19005/Simla+Agreement+July+2+1972.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Torture Journal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
We accept that some authors (e.g. government employees in some countries) are unable to transfer copyright. The Creative Commons Licence Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) covers both the Torture Journal and the IRCT web site. The publisher will not put any limitation on the personal freedom of the author to use material contained in the paper in other works which may be published, provided that acknowledgement is made to the original place of publication.
