Strong Military and Weak Statehood: The Case of Self?Governance Through Rasookh in Kashmir

The article focuses its gaze on the Indian-controlled valley of Kashmir to highlight how militarily strong state resonates with weak statehood in Kashmir. Being faced popular contentious politics, is argued survive through militarised authoritarian control leading pervading social condition fear and insecurity. Thus, rather than a provider security, situation marked by least expectations security from state. highlights rasookh as means self-governance popularly employed socially navigate prevalent precarious circumstances, especially drawing virtue informal connections. becomes significant firstly, political structures inform individual behaviour, secondly, examine way different individuals develop institutionalised responses an experience those structures. case portrays predominantly informs insecurity under compensating for precarity. draws neo-institutionalist literature understanding ensemble formal institutions, mainly institutions Lauthian perspective ordered patterns behaviour. From that perspective, made sense institution—an “uncodified but accepted pattern behaviour”. provides original contributions highlighting under-researched societal aspect analysing (an institution) everyday, dynamics underpin it.