Abstract
Situated at the interplay between ethnic politics, law, diversity governance, and security studies, the paper analyzes processes of securitization in the disputed border area of the erstwhile Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir (SJK). In 2019, the Indian government abolished the SJK’s autonomy altogether and divided the State into two union territories (i.e. “Jammu and Kashmir” and “Ladakh”) that are controlled by the central government. The area of the erstwhile SJK remains today a contested borderland characterized by civil unrest, insurgency, state violence and human rights abuses within a context of unsolved inter-state conflicts.
We apply the concept of securitization to provide an innovative analysis of the tensions in the SJK. We trace securitization processes vis-à-vis the SJK in discourses and practices, to explore how segments of its population have been perceived as a threat and how such processes interacted with the institutional developments of the special autonomy status and affected intercommunity relations within the former SJK and those between the autonomous state and the central government. In this way, the paper brings to light a vicious circle of securitization processes. Fear of separatism and short-sighted political strategies led Indian political elites to undermine the legal-institutional framework of the self-governance system and the democratic political processes of SJK. This, in turn, led to an increasing dissatisfaction among communities and, in time, to strong religious polarization, intra-community violence and the rise of radical Islamic militant groups seeking separation of the SJK from India.