Freedom in Captivity

Negotiations of Belonging along Kashmir's Frontier

Radhika Gupta (Leiden University, The Netherlands)

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English

Cambridge University Press
11 May 2023

Religion & politics; Cultural studies; Religious groups: social & cultural aspects; Social & cultural anthropology; Politics & government

Series: South Asia in the Social Sciences

How do borderland dwellers living along militarised frontiers negotiate regimes of state security and their geopolitical location in everyday life? What might 'freedom' mean to those who do not resist captivity engendered by borders? Focusing on the predicaments of a double-minority, Freedom in Captivity examines the affective attachments, political imaginaries, and ethical claims-making among the Shia Muslims of Kargil. In contrast to calls for freedom in the Kashmir Valley, Shias on the frontiers of Kashmir have sought belonging to India. Yet they do not entirely succumb to its hegemonic ideological boundaries. Departing from the dominant focus on physical cross-border mobility, this book is an invitation to reimagine borderlands as cartographies of ideas, cutting across spatial scales. Based on original ethnographic research conducted between 2008 and 2021, this monograph offers a unique long durée insight into the lives of people residing at the intersections of the biggest states in Asia.

By: Radhika Gupta (Leiden University The Netherlands)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 236mm, Width: 159mm, Spine: 19mm
Weight: 440g
ISBN: 9781009201612
ISBN 10: 1009201611
Series: South Asia in the Social Sciences
Pages: 290
Publication Date: 11 May 2023
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Acknowledgments; List of Figures; List of Acronyms; Introduction: Freedom in Captivity; 1. Genealogies of Political Consciousness; 2. Reforming Self and Society; 3. Fighting for Justice; 4. Talking about Culture; 5. Living on the Edge; Epilogue; Bibliography; Glossary; Index.

Radhika Gupta is assistant professor at Leiden Institute for Area Studies in Lieden University, The Netherlands. Her research interests include anthropology of religion (especially Islam), borderlands, post-colonial politics, urban anthropology, environmental humanities and critical theory.

Reviews for Freedom in Captivity: Negotiations of Belonging along Kashmir's Frontier

'A path-breaking study of one of the great flashpoints of the Kashmir struggle, which for the first time breaks out of conventional narratives about treason, terrorism and the territorial conflict between India and Pakistan. Radhika Gupta's brilliant ethnography gives us a wholly new and highly pluralistic vision of Kashmir set within a strikingly original global imaginary.' Faisal Devji, University of Oxford 'Radhika Gupta's fine-grained ethnography and analytically sophisticated account of contemporary Shi'i lives and practices in Kargil is a major contribution to scholarship on borderland communities and takes studies on Muslims in the Trans-Himalayan borderlands to a new level. It shows how Kargili Shi'as draw on multiple networks of belonging and flows of ideas and ideologies to craft a self-confident future in their negotiation of regional and national projects of encapsulation. I hope that this eloquent and empathic account will reach the wide readership it deserves.' Martijn van Beek, Aarhus University