Political Economy of Occupied Spaces

The Indian occupied region of Jammu and Kashmir was annexed on 5th August 2019, leading to a lockdown and communications ban. It has been estimated that over USD2.4 billion have been lost between August and December 2019 due to internet communication blockade that accompanied the military lockdown. Consequences of the annexation include demographic change, increasing chronic poverty due to loss of livelihoods through accumulation by dispossession and political & socio-cultural sovereignty.

The project aims to set a political economy research agenda for Critical Kashmir Studies scholarship through collection actions with Kashmiri civil society, human rights groups and Critical Kashmir scholars. New theoretical approaches will be explored to better understand how the occupation in J&K of Indian state has conducts activities of economic development accumulation by dispossession in relation to occupied spaces.  

This project will go beyond physical forms of human rights violations to make a case for economic self-determination of the occupied people through the use political economy theories of state formation, theories of public and private investments during “uncertain times” and power structures in protracted crisis. Who invests in protracted conflict economies and why? How are these investments and state led projects used to justify occupations under the guise of economic development through the use of technoeconomic language?  

As normalisation of occupied territories through neoliberal policies occurs globally from Palestine to West Papua to Kashmir, such questions serve not only academic value but also hope to support arguments for people living in occupied spaces.