A geopolitics of intimacy and anxiety: Religion, territory, and fertility in Jammu and Kashmir

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" A geopolitics of intimacy and anxiety: Religion, territory, and fertility in Jammu and Kashmir "
Sara Hollingsworth Smith S. A. Marston

Document Type	:	Latin Dissertation
Language of Document	:	English
Record Number	:	54819
Doc. No	:	TL24773
Call number	:	‭3354964‬
Main Entry	:	Sara Hollingsworth Smith
Title & Author	:	A geopolitics of intimacy and anxiety: Religion, territory, and fertility in Jammu and Kashmir\ Sara Hollingsworth Smith
College	:	The University of Arizona
Date	:	2009
Degree	:	Ph.D.
student score	:	2009
Page No	:	205
Abstract	:	What happens when bodies are the territory through which geopolitical strategies play out? In the Leh district of India's contested Jammu and Kashmir State, religious identity has become politicized and Buddhist/Muslim conflict is being articulated at the site of the body. This dissertation contributes to political geography by exploring intimacy and fertility as geopolitical practice. In Leh, political conflict between Buddhists and Muslims is being enacted through women's bodies. Activist members of the Buddhist majority are encouraging Buddhist women to maximize fertility and avoid marrying Muslim men in order to maintain Buddhist electoral control. When women's bodies are instrumentalized and geopolitical strategy seeks to control desire, how do women cope with or resist these pressures? Can the body be an effective site of resistance against the politicization of religion and intimacy? My dissertation research consists of over 200 interviews and surveys of Buddhist and Muslim women in Leh district, as well as a participatory oral history project that engaged students in Leh with these difficult questions. The research explores how the politicization of marriage and fertility is affecting decision-making, how women negotiate religious and political pressures to participate in pro-natal territorial struggles, and how emergent geopolitical religious identities shape visions of the future.
Subject	:	Social sciences; Feminist geography; Geopolitics; India; Ladakh; Political geography; Religion; Territory; Fertility; Jammu; Kashmir; Cultural anthropology; History; Geography; 0326:Cultural anthropology; 0366:Geography; 0332:History
Added Entry	:	S. A. Marston
Added Entry	:	The University of Arizona