ABSTRACT
This chapter lays a theoretical foundation for the book and foregrounds the broader secularism debate, in global as well as South Asian contexts. It calls for expanding the debate to critique not just the secular–religious binaries but also to come to grips with the many subtle ways in which secular politics makes use of religious symbols as well as to develop an understanding of the religious spaces themselves, in order to help pave the way for possible secular dialogues. It points out South Asian specificities and demonstrates theoretically the performances of secular practices in interaction with the categories of caste, class, religion, and gender. The chapter argues for locating Jammu and Kashmir’s politics in a South Asian framework to enable analyzing the complex secularization trajectory of Kashmiri politics and its usage of religious signs and symbols.
