Identity, Dispossession and Resilience of the Subaltern : a study of marginalised communities in kashmir

Hassan, Khalid Wasim, Mohan, Deepanshu, Wani, Ishfaq Ahmad and Us Saqib, Najam (2025) Identity, Dispossession and Resilience of the Subaltern : a study of marginalised communities in kashmir. Routledge, pp. 17-36.

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Abstract

Pashtuns in Kashmir (Kashmiri Pathans) have settled in the Kashmir Valley since the 1930s after immigrating from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region of present-day Pakistan. However, strict adherence to the basic tenets of Pashtunwali made this minority group culturally and linguistically distinct vis-à-vis the majority Kashmiri population; the Pashtuns, as a collective, experience social and spatial marginalisation. Subjected to forces of modernity, state legal institutions and pressures of assimilation, Pashtuns are experiencing disruption in traditional social, cultural and economic practices. Terming their traditional institutions, such as ‘Jirga’, as primordial, state institutions declare their customary practices null and void. Sharing the spaces and everyday business transactions with the Kashmiri-speaking populace and political discourse of self-determination pressurises the Pashto community to identify with a more significant ‘Kashmiri Muslim identity’, which in turn prey upon their ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage. To resist cultural assimilation, the Pashtun community uses intergenerational identity by transferring the rich history, folklore, linguistic traditions and traditional knowledge of medicinal herbs to the younger generation. While negotiating with modernity, Pashtuns in Kashmir have managed to preserve their linguistic and cultural traditions by redefining and reinventing their cultural institutions. Through the ethnography of a small settlement in the Pashto community in the Ganderbal district of the Kashmir Valley, this chapter examines how the community retained ‘Pashto cultural habits’ such as language, dress and food while negotiating social spaces and everyday economic activities with the Kashmiri-speaking population. Ultimately, this chapter argues that despite pressures of cultural assimilation, which endangers their cultural and linguistic heritage, the Pashtun of Kashmir are resilient in preserving their traditions by reinventing cultural institutions.

Item Type: Book
Subjects: Social Sciences and humanities > Arts and Humanities > History
Social Sciences and humanities > Arts and Humanities > Language and Linguistics
Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > Anthropology
Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > Cultural Studies
JGU School/Centre: IDEAS
Depositing User: Mr. Gautam Kumar
Date Deposited: 05 Jul 2025 07:13
Last Modified: 05 Jul 2025 10:04
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003620754
URI: https://pure.jgu.edu.in/id/eprint/9758

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