Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Maps and Images
- Acknowledgements
- Map
- Introduction
- 1 Kashmir: The Idea and its Parts
- 2 Conceptualizing a Borderland Approach to Kashmir
- 3 Urban Areas Near the LoC (I)
- 4 Urban Areas Near the LoC (II): The ‘Kashmir Issue’ in Skardu and Kargil
- 5 The Line… the People
- Conclusion: The Politics of Belonging in the Kashmir Borderland
- Acronyms
- References
- Index
3 - Urban Areas Near the LoC (I)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Maps and Images
- Acknowledgements
- Map
- Introduction
- 1 Kashmir: The Idea and its Parts
- 2 Conceptualizing a Borderland Approach to Kashmir
- 3 Urban Areas Near the LoC (I)
- 4 Urban Areas Near the LoC (II): The ‘Kashmir Issue’ in Skardu and Kargil
- 5 The Line… the People
- Conclusion: The Politics of Belonging in the Kashmir Borderland
- Acronyms
- References
- Index
Summary
Abstract
The ‘Kashmir issue’ manifests differently in Srinagar and Muzaffarabad. The dispute demonstrates both spatial hierarchies and a centre-periphery organization. The disputed condition of Srinagar and Muzaffarabad is framed through the legal regime of exception. This is manifested in Srinagar by militarization, which is backed by a series of legal instruments that limit peoples’ basic rights, and also by the transformation and fragmentation of the urban space. Conflict in Muzaffarabad, a place of refuge for many Kashmiris from the Valley, is related to the display of Kashmiriness as an attachment to the conflict in the Valley, which in effect restricts the possibility of advocating for other political forms owing to the control of the territory by Pakistan and the restrictive political context.
Keywords: Kashmir issue, Srinagar, Muzaffarabad, military urbanism, production of space(s), mobility
Manifestations and understandings of the Kashmir dispute differ from place to place. In the Kashmir Valley there is a context of open violence, while in AJK there is a question of freedom of expression. Moreover, proximity to the LoC enforces separation and militarization, with various consequences for the populations living in the area. The next two chapters explore these consequences in four urban areas on either side of the LoC by examining what it means for their inhabitants to be part of the dispute. The locations chosen are the Muzaffarabad and Srinagar municipalities in AJK and the Kashmir Valley, respectively, and Skardu, Baltistan and Kargil, Ladakh. For practical purposes I refer to these urban areas as ‘cities’, although not all of them qualify as such. While Srinagar has more than one million inhabitants, Kargil can be considered a small town with a population of a little over 15,000. Muzaffarabad's municipality is the home of around half a million people (Muzaffarabad district has 650,000 inhabitants), while Skardu, pending the publication of official data from the 2017 census, can be estimated to have a population of around 131,000. Fieldwork has been conducted mainly in these locations of significant human agglomeration and therefore the findings cannot necessary be extended to other locations or to rural contexts. Their condition as ‘border cities’ can also be called into question, because their distance from the LoC ranges from 10 kilometres in the case of Kargil to some 120 kilometres in the case of Srinagar.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Kashmir as a BorderlandThe Politics of Space and Belonging across the Line of Control, pp. 91 - 118Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019