On 20 April 2026, Haris Zargar successfully defended his thesis examining the dynamics of state-led reforms and agrarian restructuring in in the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir.
In his research, Zargar investigated changes in land tenure systems which resulted 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.
Zargar's thesis challenges some of the conventional assumptions about the stabilizing effects of redistributive policies, specifically examining 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.
His study also examined how the Indian state operationalized land legislation and pre-existing colonial revenue structures as mechanisms of territorial governance and control, facilitating what has been described as a settler colonial project in Kashmir.
Rewatch Haris Zargar's defence introduction
- Researcher