ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the idea of everyday communalism, in the specific context of the Muslim-majority Doda district of Jammu. As a result of rising militancy in Doda in the early 2000s, the dynamics of inter-communal relations have changed in the region. The shift in inter-communal relations and everyday communalism is located in the changing food practices of communities: with the rise of everyday communalism in the shadow of severe identity politics, food practices of both the Hindus and Muslims have become even more exclusive signifying disruptive potential of chronic conflict. Yet, the complex realities of mixed living help in blunting the religious ideology that defies everyday communalism. In other words, the processes of secularization and de-secularization co-exist.