Intimate Geopolitics

Since 2004, my research has engaged with the politics of marriage and fertility in Ladakh’s Leh District. As residents of Jammu and Kashmir State, Ladakhis have experienced the politicization of religious identity over the course of the twentieth century as the colonial logics linking population and territory unfolded during and after partition.  Ladakhis struggle to make their political demands heard in the context of geopolitical conflict and territorial uncertainty. Since the 1980s, increasing tension between Leh’s Buddhist majority and its Shia and Sunni minorities has entangled decisions about marriage and babies in disciplinary political narratives. This research explores the territorial logic manifest in a pro-natal campaign and a ban on religious intermarriage, as well as the ways that people cope with such territorial logic. My research has included survey work and interviews, as well as oral history and photography projects with Ladakhi youth. The research has been funded by Fulbright-Hays, the Social Science Research Council, and the Society of Women Geographers.