Understanding the Kashmir Conflict: A Complex Multiplicity Perspective

This paper examines conflict in Kashmir from the lens of ‘desiring-production’ and looks at how class processes were over-determined by regional (and religious) factors during the socio-political developments in Kashmir from the 1940s up to the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990. The concept of ‘over-determination’ is used to avoid a deterministic theory of conflict in Kashmir. Over-determination is used to understand how at any one moment of historical trajectory, there is not always a sole influencing factor but rather multiple factors that may overlap in determining the outcome of events. To enunciate this concept, the philosophy of Felix Guattari and Giles Deleuze is utilized wherein the metaphor of the rhizome as a methodological tool to understand history, society, politics and culture is posited. Thus, Kashmiri history is seen from the perspective of ‘desiring-production’ where the desire for liberation and freedom for Kashmiri is rooted in political economy and extends everywhere in its history. Kashmiri political consciousness is examined along many vectors and axes including the colonial legacy in a postcolonial nation state. How the lens of political economy itself (Marxian or other heterodox schools) is not sufficient enough to unpack the political consciousness of Kashmiris during this period is illustrated. Such a framework permits us to analyse various segmentations in the Kashmiri society beyond the binary lenses of secular/communal; to look at class relations coupled with desiring relations and eventually helps us to explain the alienation of Bhattas (Kashmiri Pandits) from the politics of Azadi.