Life in a Conflict Zone

Abstract

In protracted conflict zones, like Kashmir, everyday life operates under contexts of pervasive armed violence. The study was aimed at understanding and describing people s experiences of this violence, as well as their attempts at survival. The objective was to probe everyday life as the most intimate and lived site of this conflict. The focus was on the familiar and mundane of daily life; a banal life of routines, rhythms and daily experiences. The study contended that a description of everyday life will give deeper insights into life in a conflict zone, and sought to answer questions like, What is the nature of everyday life in a conflict zone? The study was based in a qualitative design, and sought to describe lived lives in the conflict. Based in an inductive frame, the analysis sought to uncover meanings and interpretations in the natural setting of the conflict in Kashmir. The field sites were selected in the Srinagar city, the capital city of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The principal method of enquiry was the interview method, and more than 50 in-depth narrative interviews were conducted. These interviews were conducted in three research visits from 2013 to 2014. Based on field data, the study observed that the socio-cultural reality of violence appeared as the most discerning marker of everyday life in Kashmir. It appeared not just as the sketchor the outline of life, rather it becomes the canvas of life itself. This violence emerged as a symbolic, repetitive, ritualistic, and performative attack on the population s humanness and it took root in the everyday quotidian. Life in such a context was explained as one, where there was no option but to live . However, the idea that violence and its associated suffering is the most visible marker of life in Kashmir, is not to explain this life only in terms of violence. Moving beyond the visibilities of violence, the field data brought into light a world which tried to adjust and negotiate with violence and its associated sufferings. There was no complete em