‘Staging “small, small incidents”: Dissent, gender, and militarization among young people in Kashmir Thomas van der Molen and Ellen Bal Abstract: In this article, we reflect on the gendered contours of young Kashmiris’ dissident practices against the Indian military occupation of the Kashmir Valley. It is largely based on ethnographic research that coincided with the launch of an ongoing, predominantly nonviolent people’s movement in which youth have played a prominent role. The article shows how university students’ and young professionals’ “small activism” is entangled in the gendered dynamics of milita- rization and dissent, while underlining the threat posed by “security forces” to women’s “honor” and “dignity.” In the context of widespread societal anxiety about “dishonor,” young Kashmiris’ urge to reclaim dignity at once motivates them to practice dissent and narrows the scope for female dissidents’ capacity to act upon this drive overtly. The present case suggests that recent anthropological interest in global youth cultural practices may be supplemented with a recognition of local constraints on young people’s public opposition that arise in circumstances of (gendered) state oppression. Keywords: dissent, gender, Kashmir, militarization, youth It’s still there In the midst of a wild longing Looking with empty eyes At exiled horizons Sinking with every drop of that rain They call junoon of worthlessness —Mumtaz 1 Dissent for dignity Despite the junoon—the “madness”—of facing a life of perpetual military occupation by Indian “security forces,” young Kashmiris still have a sense of dignity. From January 1989 to Septem- ber 2010, this situation has involved the deaths of more than ninety thousand people and the rape of nearly ten thousand women (Kashmir Media Service 2010). Still, against the odds of feeling exiled in her besieged Kashmir Valley, in the northwestern Himalayan region of the In- Focaal—Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology 60 (2011): 93–107 doi:10.3167/fcl.2011.600108 s8_fcl600108]_s1_fcl570101 5/23/11 2:07 PM Page 93