Blinding Kashmiris: The Right to Maim and the Indian Military Occupation in Kashmir

Abstract

Since July 2016, Indian-administered Kashmir has again raged with mass protests favouring self-determination and freedom from India. In the protests more than ninety-eight people have been killed, over eleven thousand wounded, and more than eight hundred Kashmiris injured in the eyes or blinded by Indian troops using force against protestors and non-protestors alike. Since 1947, when the region was temporarily bifurcated between India and Pakistan, Indian-administered Kashmir has clamoured for a plebiscite, which the United Nations mandated so that the Kashmiri people could choose their own fate. The original options in the plebiscite were mergers with either of the two countries, but Kashmiris have increasingly demanded that a third option for an independent Kashmiri nation-state be added. While the majority of the Kashmiris seek independence, a small faction favours merger with Pakistan. Despite continuing demands for an independent nationhood–one that preceded the creation of India and Pakistan–Kashmir continues to be perceived simplistically as a bilateral dispute between the two nation-states. Using the analytic of “right to maim,” this essay illustrates how the Indian state “blinds” Kashmiri subjects by perfecting a technology of punishment that produces bodies incapable of physical resistance and as a representational threat to the rest of society. By making maiming as a punishment central, this essay will examine India's control of the Kashmir valley as a de facto military occupation.