Description
The paper focusses on specific ways in which the imagined alternatives of cooperation are enacted with a shared vision for the future in conflict situations. While some of these performances and practices are concrete and easily discernable, however, there are others that are much more nuanced and implicit. The discussion entailed in this chapter highlights the temporal proximities in resistance movements resulting out of shared pain, everyday lived experiences of oppression and marginalization. Such bonds of pain create an envisioned alternative that is not a part of the superimposed and practical imaginations but a utopia devoid of pain and oppression. To elaborate this, the chapter explores the act of motherhood in resistance movements of Kashmir and Palestine, to understand how the circulation of ideas, imaginaries and cooperative practices transcends the local boundaries in conflict. The performative role of motherhood in funerals and mourning practices point towards the discovery of parallels in their respective lived experiences. Such alternative cooperative practices that move beyond borders and an explicit motive are simply sustained through pain and loss; and provide significant entry points for theorizing cooperation differently. Visual representations such as graffiti, poetry on graves and folk songs are used as significant references to highlight the invisible bonds of shared pain.
