Description
The abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A from the Indian Constitution in August 2019 marked a decisive rupture in Kashmir's political landscape. The removal of the region's semi-autonomous status, accompanied by a communications blackout and ban on protests, changed the conditions under which civil society organisations could operate. This paper examines how the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), a women-led organisation representing families of the forcibly disappeared in Kashmir since 1994, maintains its internal cohesion in this severely restricted environment.
Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 23 APDP members across urban and rural Kashmir, the paper argues that APDP's cohesion after 2019 rests on four interconnected parameters. These parameters are: a shared identity forged through collective suffering (museebatuk rishteh); the emotional companionship that sustained members when monthly public protests were banned; a system of mutual authentication and publicity that continues despite the organisation's deliberate policy of remaining unnoticed (nan chini neraan); and financial interdependence between the organisation and its working-class members. These parameters show how, in the face of intensified state surveillance and repression, a grassroots women's organisation transforms personal grief into a durable form of political endurance. They also offer broader lessons for civil society resilience under authoritarian conditions.