Kashmir is a site of contestation not only for India, Pakistan and the peoples of Jammu and Kashmir, but also for the competing narratives around sovereignty, nationalism, security, religion and rights. How these contemporary contestations over narratives and practices impact upon the lives of Kashmiris, and further, how the transformation of Kashmir has become central to the Hindutva radical project in India?
A move away from the discourses of competing victimhoods is required for an ethics of solidarity to be built upon the recognition of, and respect for, the rights of all.

Nitasha Kaul is Associate Professor at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster. Over the last two decades, she has published on themes relating to identity, democracy, political economy, Hindu nationalism, Kashmir, and Bhutan. She is the author of books including Imagining Economics Otherwise: encounters with identity/difference (Routledge, 2007) and a Man Asian Literary Prize shortlisted novel Residue (Rainlight, 2014).

Discussant: Julie Billaud, Associate Professor in Anthropology & Sociology, the Graduate Institute, Geneva

Moderated by :

• Fabienne Engler, Master Candidate in Development Studies
• Surya Ghildiyal, Master Candidate in Anthropology & Sociology

This Lecture is organised with the support of the Yves Oltramare Chair “Religion and Politics in the Contemporary World”.

The mission of the Yves Oltramare Chair “Religion and Politics in the Contemporary World” is to bring a major scientific contribution to the analysis of the impact of the relationships between religion and politics on the evolution of societies and the international system.