PhD defence H. (Haris) Zargar

Below is a brief summary of the dissertation:

Political insurrections and peasant uprisings have historically compelled post-colonial states to implement agrarian reforms, notably redistributive land programs – but can such transformative agrarian reorganisations also backfire and catalyse anti-state movements? This thesis aims to analyse this possible dialectical relationship between state-led land reforms – intended to pacify rural unrest – and agrarian restructuring that creates new social formations with a revolutionary consciousness rooted in religious thought. This study examines these dynamics in the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) by investigating changes in land tenure systems resulting in the emergence of new rural classes, the rise of Political Islam in the form of Jamaat-e-Islami (Party of Islam), and the eruption of armed insurgency in the late 1980s. In so doing, this thesis challenges some of the conventional assumptions about the stabilising effects of redistributive policies. Specifically, I analyse the connection between agrarian transformation and the emergence of Sunni Islamism in Kashmir's countryside, and how this Muslim revivalist movement subsequently triggered a counter-revolution against the (Indian) state and its clientelist regime in the territory. Additionally, the study examines how the Indian state operationalised land legislation and pre-existing colonial revenue structures as mechanisms of territorial governance and control, facilitating what scholars have conceptualised as a settler colonial project in Kashmir