Keeping it in the family:Understanding Kashmir as an ancestral property dispute

This chapter theorises the tensions between India and Pakistan over the territories of Kashmir, re-examining the seemingly intractable Kashmir conflict as a process akin to a typical large South Asian joint family dividing its lands and assets. Categorising India and Pakistan as two segments of a joint family, quarrelling over their ancestral land, focuses on psychological, socio-economic and local elements in these conflicts. This approach does not remain unaware of other, larger pushes and pulls that have significantly shaped the relationship between the partitioning members of this joint family. Arguing for the centrality of family relations in this context made increasing sense to explain the intensity of local emotions involved in the complex Kashmir conflict, which includes on closer analysis several other stakeholders apart from India and Pakistan.