The Politics of “Postconflict”: On the Ground in South Asia

Photo by Sara Shneiderman.

The last decade has marked the purported end of several conflicts in South Asia: the 2003 ceasefire along the Indian–Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir, the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Agreement ending the civil war between Maoist insurgents and state forces in Nepal, the 2009 defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, and the imminent withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. This series explores the implications of “postconflict” as an analytical and political category by situating recent South Asian experiences within broader anthropological debates over social, political, and economic transformation. As anthropologists, we go beyond the evaluative assessments of peacebuilding and human rights reports to reveal the complexities of life and politics in the gray areas between war and peace. In so doing, these essays acknowledge the everyday effects of the postconflict label beyond the technocratic mechanisms that seek to declare resolution, yielding important insights for policymakers and development actors as well as scholars from a range of policy-engaged disciplines.

Two brief introductory essays frame the series. The first, “Framing the Issues: The Politics of Postconflict,” provides a contextual overview of how the term postconflict developed, its undergirding categorical assumptions, and its resulting limitations. The second, “Situating Political Transformation in South Asia,” provides a brief overview of each conflict, highlighting key sociopolitical events and historical moments that the essays in this series reference. These two pieces are followed by twelve essays, grouped into four sections by area:

  • Afghanistan: Noah Coburn, Anila Daulatzai
  • Kashmir: Mona Bhan, Cabeiri Robinson, Saiba Varma
  • Nepal: Heather Hindman, Dan Hirslund, Lauren Leve, Sarah Shepherd-Manandhar
  • Sri Lanka: Vivian Choi, Thushara Hewage, Dhana Hughes

At the end, we have also provided an area-specific list of suggested readings from scholarly, policy, and media domains that have influenced the authors’ analysis.

Posts in This Series

Framing the Issues: The Politics of “Postconflict”

Framing the Issues: The Politics of “Postconflict”

The last decade has marked the purported end of several conflicts in South Asia: the 2003 ceasefire along the India–Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir, the 20... More

Situating Political Transformation in South Asia

Situating Political Transformation in South Asia

Addressing the conflicts in this series under the regional rubric of South Asia expands the parameters for disciplinary discussions of the afterlives of conflic... More

Conflict, Postconflict, Preconflict: Afghan Fears about 2014

Conflict, Postconflict, Preconflict: Afghan Fears about 2014

On a hot, dusty afternoon in the summer of 2013, I watched from the steps of a mosque as a group of U.S. soldiers emerged from an alley made of concrete barrier... More

What Comes after the After? Notes on a “Postconflict” Afghanistan

What Comes after the After? Notes on a “Postconflict” Afghanistan

The past twelve years for Afghanistan have been labeled postconflict, beginning with the removal of the Taliban regime from Kabul immediately after the internat... More

“Aryan Valley” and the Politics of Race and Religion in Kashmir

“Aryan Valley” and the Politics of Race and Religion in Kashmir

In 2003, India and Pakistan declared a ceasefire to stop years of cross-border shelling across the disputed Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. Declared five ... More

The Dangerous Allure of Tourism Promotion as a Postconflict Policy in Disputed Azad Jammu and Kashmir

The Dangerous Allure of Tourism Promotion as a Postconflict Policy in Disputed Azad Jammu and Kashmir

In October 2005, an earthquake altered the landscape of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, a region administered by Pakistan and claimed by India. As efforts shifted from ... More

Interrogating the “Postconflict” in Indian-Occupied Kashmir

Interrogating the “Postconflict” in Indian-Occupied Kashmir

On November 26, 2003, the Indian state accepted Pakistan’s offer of a ceasefire along the Line of Control, the de facto border separating Indian- and Pakistani-... More

Postpolitical in the Postconflict: DIY Capitalism, Anarcho-Neoliberalism, and Nepal’s Ungovernable Mountains

Postpolitical in the Postconflict: DIY Capitalism, Anarcho-Neoliberalism, and Nepal’s Ungovernable Mountains

A recent blog post by a young Nepali expresses an attitude toward the condition of the country that can be heard among many in the capital: “We are not failing.... More

The Politics of Postconflict Democratization: Justice and Insurgency after the War

The Politics of Postconflict Democratization: Justice and Insurgency after the War

Nepal is now entering its seventh year of transition from war to peace, with few concrete signs of a redrawn and strengthened democratic society. Despite the re... More

Cruel Optimism, Christianity, and the Postconflict Optic

Cruel Optimism, Christianity, and the Postconflict Optic

It is Saturday morning in Gorkha Bazaar, an administrative town in the rural mid-hills of Nepal. In a small cinder-block building on the edge of town, seventy-s... More

Conceptualizing Combatants: The Reintegration of Female Soldiers as a Postconflict Population

Conceptualizing Combatants: The Reintegration of Female Soldiers as a Postconflict Population

Problematizing the concept of postconflict requires that we consider who applies the category and to what period. We must also consider how postconflict as a te... More

Still War, by Other Means

Still War, by Other Means

“Who told you the war was over?” asked Fawzi. Following the Sri Lankan government’s formal declaration ending the decades-long civil war with the Liberation Tig... More

Ideology, Ethnicity, and the Critique of Postconflict in Sri Lanka

Ideology, Ethnicity, and the Critique of Postconflict in Sri Lanka

Failure to resolve the so-called national question of the political rights of minorities to education, employment, land, and representation has long constituted... More

Educated Unemployed Youth in Postwar Sri Lanka: Saman’s Story

Educated Unemployed Youth in Postwar Sri Lanka: Saman’s Story

In 2009, the nearly thirty-year-old war between the Sri Lankan state and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended with the defeat of the LTTE. Many you... More

Suggested Readings on Afghanistan, Kashmir, Nepal, and Sri Lanka

Suggested Readings on Afghanistan, Kashmir, Nepal, and Sri Lanka

Afghanistan Biehl, João, and Ramah McKay. 2012. “Ethnography as Political Critique.” Anthropological Quarterly 85, no. 4: 1209–1227. Coburn, Noah. 2011. Bazaar... More