The Settler Colonial Imagination: Hindutva, Neoliberal Interests, and Coming to Grips with Collective Trauma and Genocide in Kashmir
Institutional Affiliation
University of North Carolina Greensboro
Start Date
2-11-2023 1:30 PM
End Date
2-11-2023 3:00 PM
Proposal Type
Presentation
Proposal Format
On-campus
Proposal Description
Abstract:
Despite a growing literature on the role of narrative testimony and public storytelling as democratic, legal, and therapeutic resource for survivors of mass political violence and marginalization (see Jovanovic, 2012; Kirmayer, Gone, & Moses, 2014, and; Wexler, 1995, among many others), there is little empirical understanding of the importance of creating socio-legal mechanisms for testimony and storytelling in overcoming the historical legacies of colonialism and collective trauma in the world’s most protracted social conflicts (Azar, 1984). Indian administered Kashmir is a case in point. Stuck in the settler colonial imagination of a country now ruled by Hindutva forces, the December 2021 Russell Tribunal on Kashmir took as one of its four key goals to look at the Kashmir conflict through the lens of settler colonialism. In the context of neoliberal and Hindutva hegemonic forces, is such a reframing of this protracted social conflict even possible? What role can transitional justice mechanisms play in treating decades of collective historical trauma brought on by settler colonial interests and their attenuate dominant assumptions about hierarchy and religiously sanctioned exceptionalism? Combining narrative analysis, transitional justice theories of change, and emerging research on collective trauma, this paper argues a public peace process (Saunders, 1999) is not only welcome, but required for peace in the region.
Exploring Hindutva as a form of religious exceptionalism, neoliberalism as a form of neocolonialism, and centering Kashmir as a decolonial struggle, this paper explores the intersections of systems of power and trauma as important drivers of protracted conflict. Trauma here is not the individual trauma that we often associate with cognitive sequalae after violence, but rather a collective cognitive impasse that infects the body politic of a region or nation for years, decades, and even centuries after violence has ceased. This type of collective historical trauma drives much contemporary conflict (Rinker & Lawler, 2018), and provides an apt description of the Kashmir impasse.
Key Words:
Kashmir Conflict; Neoliberalism; Collective Trauma; Decolonization; Settler Colonialism; Transitional Justice; Public Dialogue Processes; Narrative testimony.
Preliminary Bibliography:
Appadurai, Arjun. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1996).
Azar, Edward & Burton, John. International Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1986).
Azar, Edward. The theory of protracted social conflict and the challenge of transforming conflict situations. In D. A. Zinnes (Ed.), Conflict Processes and the breakdown of international systems (Denver, CO: Graduate School of International Systems, University of Denver, 1984, p. 81-99).
Cobb, Sara. Speaking of Violence: The Politics and Poetics of Narrative Dynamics in Conflict Resolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).
Embree, Ainslie. "The Function of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh: To Define the Hindu Nation," in Marty, Martin and Appleby Scott eds. Accounting for Fundamentalisms (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994),
Frank, Arthur. Letting Stories Breathe: A Socio-Narratology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010).
Giroux, Henry. Neoliberalism’s war on higher education (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2014).
Harvey, David. A Brief History of Neoliberalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).
Jovanovic, Spoma. Democracy, Dialogue, and Community Action: Truth and Reconciliation (Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, 2012).
Judge, P.S. Mapping Social Exclusion in India: Caste, Religion, and Borderlands (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
Kirmayer, L., Gone, J., & Moses, J. “Rethinking Historical Trauma” Transcultural Psychiatry, 51:3, 2014, pp. 299-319.
Lederach, J.P., Neufeldt, R., & Culbertson, H. Reflective peacebuilding: A planning, monitoring, and learning toolkit. Notre Dame, IN: Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, 2007. Available at: http://kroc.nd.edu/sites/default/files/reflective_peacebuilding.pdf
Mani, Braj. Debrahmanising History: Dominance and Resistance in India Society (New Delhi: Manohar, 2005).
Meckfessel, Shon. Nonviolence Ain’t What It Used to Be: Unarmed Insurrection and the Rhetoric of Resistance (Chico, CA: AK Press, 2016).
Montville, Joseph. “Reconciliation as Realpolitik: Facing the Burdens of History in Political Conflict Resolution” in Rothbart & Korostelina, eds. Identity, Morality, Threat: Studies in Violent Conflict (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006).
Montville, Joseph. “Justice and the Burdens of History” in Reconciliation, Justice, and Coexistence, ed. M. Abu Nimer (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2001).
Polletta, Francesca. It Was Like a Fever: Storytelling in Protest and Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006).
Ram Prasad, Chakravarthi. "Being Hindu and/or Governing India? Religion, Social Change and the State" in Haar, G. and Busuttil, J. eds. The Freedom to Do God's Will: Religious Fundamentalism and Social Change (New York: Routledge, 2003),
Rinker Jeremy & Lawler, Jerry. Trauma as a collective disease and root cause of protracted social conflict. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology. 24(2), 2018, 150-164. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pac0000311
Saunders, Harold. A Public Peace Process: Sustained Dialogue to Transform Racial and Ethnic Conflicts (New York: Palgrave Macmillan,1999)
Scott, James C. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990).
Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, Second Edition (New York: Zed Books, 2012).
Varshney, Ashutosh. Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India (Boston, Yale University Press, 2003).
Volkan, Vamik. Bloodlines: From Ethnic Pride to Ethnic Terrorism (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997).
Wexler, David B. and Winick, Bruce J., Therapeutic Jurisprudence. “Therapeutic Jurisprudence” Principles of Addiction Medicine, 4th Edition, 2008, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1101507
Wexler, David. Reflections on the scope of therapeutic jurisprudence. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. 1(1), 1995, 220-236.
The Settler Colonial Imagination: Hindutva, Neoliberal Interests, and Coming to Grips with Collective Trauma and Genocide in Kashmir
Abstract:
Despite a growing literature on the role of narrative testimony and public storytelling as democratic, legal, and therapeutic resource for survivors of mass political violence and marginalization (see Jovanovic, 2012; Kirmayer, Gone, & Moses, 2014, and; Wexler, 1995, among many others), there is little empirical understanding of the importance of creating socio-legal mechanisms for testimony and storytelling in overcoming the historical legacies of colonialism and collective trauma in the world’s most protracted social conflicts (Azar, 1984). Indian administered Kashmir is a case in point. Stuck in the settler colonial imagination of a country now ruled by Hindutva forces, the December 2021 Russell Tribunal on Kashmir took as one of its four key goals to look at the Kashmir conflict through the lens of settler colonialism. In the context of neoliberal and Hindutva hegemonic forces, is such a reframing of this protracted social conflict even possible? What role can transitional justice mechanisms play in treating decades of collective historical trauma brought on by settler colonial interests and their attenuate dominant assumptions about hierarchy and religiously sanctioned exceptionalism? Combining narrative analysis, transitional justice theories of change, and emerging research on collective trauma, this paper argues a public peace process (Saunders, 1999) is not only welcome, but required for peace in the region.
Exploring Hindutva as a form of religious exceptionalism, neoliberalism as a form of neocolonialism, and centering Kashmir as a decolonial struggle, this paper explores the intersections of systems of power and trauma as important drivers of protracted conflict. Trauma here is not the individual trauma that we often associate with cognitive sequalae after violence, but rather a collective cognitive impasse that infects the body politic of a region or nation for years, decades, and even centuries after violence has ceased. This type of collective historical trauma drives much contemporary conflict (Rinker & Lawler, 2018), and provides an apt description of the Kashmir impasse.
Key Words:
Kashmir Conflict; Neoliberalism; Collective Trauma; Decolonization; Settler Colonialism; Transitional Justice; Public Dialogue Processes; Narrative testimony.
Preliminary Bibliography:
Appadurai, Arjun. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1996).
Azar, Edward & Burton, John. International Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1986).
Azar, Edward. The theory of protracted social conflict and the challenge of transforming conflict situations. In D. A. Zinnes (Ed.), Conflict Processes and the breakdown of international systems (Denver, CO: Graduate School of International Systems, University of Denver, 1984, p. 81-99).
Cobb, Sara. Speaking of Violence: The Politics and Poetics of Narrative Dynamics in Conflict Resolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).
Embree, Ainslie. "The Function of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh: To Define the Hindu Nation," in Marty, Martin and Appleby Scott eds. Accounting for Fundamentalisms (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994),
Frank, Arthur. Letting Stories Breathe: A Socio-Narratology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010).
Giroux, Henry. Neoliberalism’s war on higher education (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2014).
Harvey, David. A Brief History of Neoliberalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).
Jovanovic, Spoma. Democracy, Dialogue, and Community Action: Truth and Reconciliation (Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, 2012).
Judge, P.S. Mapping Social Exclusion in India: Caste, Religion, and Borderlands (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
Kirmayer, L., Gone, J., & Moses, J. “Rethinking Historical Trauma” Transcultural Psychiatry, 51:3, 2014, pp. 299-319.
Lederach, J.P., Neufeldt, R., & Culbertson, H. Reflective peacebuilding: A planning, monitoring, and learning toolkit. Notre Dame, IN: Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, 2007. Available at: http://kroc.nd.edu/sites/default/files/reflective_peacebuilding.pdf
Mani, Braj. Debrahmanising History: Dominance and Resistance in India Society (New Delhi: Manohar, 2005).
Meckfessel, Shon. Nonviolence Ain’t What It Used to Be: Unarmed Insurrection and the Rhetoric of Resistance (Chico, CA: AK Press, 2016).
Montville, Joseph. “Reconciliation as Realpolitik: Facing the Burdens of History in Political Conflict Resolution” in Rothbart & Korostelina, eds. Identity, Morality, Threat: Studies in Violent Conflict (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006).
Montville, Joseph. “Justice and the Burdens of History” in Reconciliation, Justice, and Coexistence, ed. M. Abu Nimer (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2001).
Polletta, Francesca. It Was Like a Fever: Storytelling in Protest and Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006).
Ram Prasad, Chakravarthi. "Being Hindu and/or Governing India? Religion, Social Change and the State" in Haar, G. and Busuttil, J. eds. The Freedom to Do God's Will: Religious Fundamentalism and Social Change (New York: Routledge, 2003),
Rinker Jeremy & Lawler, Jerry. Trauma as a collective disease and root cause of protracted social conflict. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology. 24(2), 2018, 150-164. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pac0000311
Saunders, Harold. A Public Peace Process: Sustained Dialogue to Transform Racial and Ethnic Conflicts (New York: Palgrave Macmillan,1999)
Scott, James C. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990).
Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, Second Edition (New York: Zed Books, 2012).
Varshney, Ashutosh. Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India (Boston, Yale University Press, 2003).
Volkan, Vamik. Bloodlines: From Ethnic Pride to Ethnic Terrorism (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997).
Wexler, David B. and Winick, Bruce J., Therapeutic Jurisprudence. “Therapeutic Jurisprudence” Principles of Addiction Medicine, 4th Edition, 2008, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1101507
Wexler, David. Reflections on the scope of therapeutic jurisprudence. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. 1(1), 1995, 220-236.
Additional Comments
Happy to present in any format required by organizers.
Vegetarian food options.