ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the research that involved open ended interviews and interactions with women in Kashmir and Sri Lanka who supported militancy and political violence against the state as the enemy 'other' and who also directly participated in the armed militancy. The research topic was marked by an emotional response to the context of having lived through the violent and angst-filled period of the 1990s in India when communal riots, militant attacks, political assassinations and Kargil war between India and Pakistan caused a great deal of anger, outrage and public mourning that disrupted daily lives. With the military defeat of the LTTE in 2009 when most of its top leadership including the chief, Prabhakaran, were either killed or arrested, uncertainties prevail. The fate of women cadres is not known and still do not have precise data on the number of Tamil women militants who may have survived this war and who are in government custody, participating in rehabilitation programmes.
