Kashmir's Secessionist Movement Resurfaces: Ethnic Identity, Community Competition, and the State

Abstract

The May 2008 Jammu & Kashmir government's decision to transfer 99 acres of land to a Hindu shrine reignited the Kashmiri nationalist movement. This essay argues that Kashmiri ethnonationalist aspirations remain entrenched among the Valley's Muslim population and that electoral participation is no guarantee of attenuated ethnonationalist demands.