ABSTRACT
Public spaces in ‘Indian Administered’ Kashmir (IAK) have been transformed in the last three decades. The post-1987 period witnessed the Azaadi movement when political and militant groups challenged the legitimacy of Indian rule in Kashmir. Seeing this movement as null and void, the Indian State further asserted a state of exception by enforcing its legitimacy through heavy militarisation. The restrictions on public gatherings through curfews and laws, which gave impunity to Indian armed forces, transformed public spaces into gendered ones. The public sphere in the form of coffee shops and public parks started disappearing. As a response to this, people in Indian Administered Kashmir (IAK) have utilised and subverted the public space resulting in new forms of everyday resistance and existence under occupation. Thus, the gendering of spaces under ‘administration’ has been met by gendered forms of resistance under ‘occupation’ which have re-produced and subverted the use of public spaces. This article will explore the relationship between public space, resistance, and the hegemonic Indian State in Kashmir by using the works of Giorgio Agamben and Henri Lefebvre.
