This dissertation examines the ‘failed’ forced migration of the Kashmiri Sikh community after they became targets of an attack carried out by unknown perpetrators on March 20th, 2000, in Chittisinghpora, a quiet Sikh village hidden away in the mountains of South Kashmir. Claiming the lives of thirty-five Sikh men from the village, the attack was a first for Sikhs who by all accounts had been ‘spared’ the violence of the Kashmir conflict and had been living peacefully in Kashmir Valley for generations. Although no one knows who perpetrated the attack or why, speculation runs rife that its foremost purpose was to trigger a mass displacement of Sikhs from the region. Yet, after days of contemplating whether they should move, the Sikhs stayed. If indeed the aim of the violence was to trigger a mass displacement, then what explains why the Kashmiri Sikhs were not displaced? Using Chittisinghpora as an entry point, my dissertation aims to interrogate displacement as a response to violence. I use the term ‘rootedness’, which Myron Weiner describes as a sort of territorial ethnicity with which people make claims to a space, to describe the Sikh decision to stay and argue the ability (and desire) of people to continue living in a place of violence may be construed as an act of resistance not only to the intended consequence of violence, in this case displacement, but to the violence itself. Examining a failed forced migration, therefore, allows us to understand not only the circumstances under which a community resists getting displaced despite experiencing violence but also how people continue to live in the place of violence. To understand Sikh rootedness in Kashmir, I conducted ethnographic research in Kashmir over a period of eight months in 2018 and follow up visits in March 2019 and 2021, during which I collected over 100 interviews with Sikhs and Muslims in North, South and central Kashmir, and completed several hours of observation every week. Additionally, I collected data from newspaper archives located in Punjab and historical archives located in New Delhi. I explain Sikh rootedness as a function of two main factors: 1) the precarity that comes with being a group that is neither considered the ally of the Indian state nor of the Muslims, which allows Sikhs to negotiate safety and 2) the landedness of Kashmiri Sikhs, and to a lesser extent, their employment in government which are economic anchors. Together, both factors allow Sikhs to assert social and economic agency and maintain a peaceful ‘coexistence’ with Muslims, enough to justify remaining rooted. Although the focus on displacement in migration studies is certainly warranted given the massive numbers of people displaced due to conflict, the fact is that not everyone can, or wants to, leave. Given this, a focus on what keeps people rooted is urgently needed. In the scholarship on Kashmir, displacement has been a predominant theme, given the large-scale exodus of the Kashmiri Hindus (Pandits) following an escalation of violence in the state in the 1990s. This has led to an unfortunate communalization of much of the discourse that comes out of Kashmir, and also sometimes reduced it to a ‘Hindu-Muslim’ or ‘India-Pakistan’ conflict. Sikhs are predominantly absent from this scholarship. Even in the discipline of Critical Kashmir Studies which has sought to focus on the people’s experiences of conflict rather than a religious or statist narratives, Sikhs experiences in and of conflict, remain missing. Understanding their lived experience in Kashmir, therefore, attempts to correct this erasure and also disrupts binary discourses. / Geography

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La province du Jammu et Cachemire, partagée entre l’Union Indienne et le Pakistan en 1947, est l’une des pommes de discorde qui a engendré une relation très conflictuelle entre les deux voisins, et qui a fait l’objet de crises diplomatiques et militaires récurrentes entre les deux pays, entrecoupées de rounds de négociation n’ayant pas abouti au règlement du conflit.Ce conflit au Cachemire va être passé au crible de deux théories des relations internationales, la théorie de la prise de décision modélisée par Graham Allison et la théorie de la perception développée par Robert Jervis. L’analyse de ce conflit va mettre en évidence la rationalité dans le processus de prise de décision au sein des deux pays, mais cette rationalité est néanmoins soumise à des perceptions de chaque côté de la frontière qui renvoient à la culture, aux mentalités, aux religions de chacun des deux pays. Ces perceptions peuvent amener un analyste occidental à croire à une certaine irrationalité de la part des deux pays. Il n’en est rien, car si l’on se place d’un point de vue indien ou pakistanais, leur mentalité, leur réflexion, leur culture respectives les amènent à une cohérence d’ensemble de chacune de leur politique.Cette analyse du conflit du Cachemire sous un angle particulier présente des limites, au premier rang desquelles la recherche bibliographique, qui mériterait d’être enrichie par des références hindies ou ourdoues. Néanmoins, la littérature en langue anglaise d’auteurs originaires du sous-continent indien autorise à utiliser la théorie de la perception avec une certaine précision et permet ainsi d’affiner l’analyse au plus près de la réalité. / My thesis is pertaining to the political and military relations between India and Pakistan, especially towards the Kashmir province. I decided to focus on Kashmir province because relations of the countries are strifen by a lot of fracture lines in fields like economics, water, defence and so on… The core issue of my thesis is to compare the way of behaving of the two countries towards the Kashmir province and to draw conclusions about this complicated relationship. Moreover, I choose to work on the late 20 years in order to narrow the study, because since 1947 and the partition of British India, 3 disputes have opposed both of them. For the late 20 years, a crisis in 1999 and several rounds of negotiations are the main part of my subject. The issue of my work is related to two political theories, namely the decision making process developed by Graham Allison, and the theory of perception and misperception emphasized in Robert Jervis book. From these two theories, we can deduce that the decision making process in both countries are rational. This rationality can be submitted to criticism. Nevertheless, both countries have taken several decisions towards Kashmir province in accordance with their respective politics. What will be the future for this province? It can be guessed that one day progress will be made towards peace in this part of the world. Keywords: Kashmir; India; Pakistan; Decision Making Process; Perception; Misperception.

India’s pledge towards universalization of elementary education by 2015 is a desirable goal. Having achieved progress towards universal accessibility to schooling, the problem of providing quality schooling through a necessary paradigm shift, is still a major challenge. This qualitative research study seeks to portray the nature of pedagogy in four elementary classrooms in Srinagar, Kashmir and understand its shifting nature with reference to the National Curriculum Framework (2005). Specifically, this study examines teachers’ classroom pedagogical practices, their understandings of pedagogy, the ways they encourage and manage student participation in classroom and the level of support and training they receive from government agencies. The findings of this study will have implications for both teachers and students, their specific roles, their understanding of pedagogy, classroom practices and more importantly students. This study recommends ‘contextually suitable’ pedagogical methods, informing teachers about effective teaching strategies, and outlining specific classroom participation strategies for students.

India’s pledge towards universalization of elementary education by 2015 is a desirable goal. Having achieved progress towards universal accessibility to schooling, the problem of providing quality schooling through a necessary paradigm shift, is still a major challenge. This qualitative research study seeks to portray the nature of pedagogy in four elementary classrooms in Srinagar, Kashmir and understand its shifting nature with reference to the National Curriculum Framework (2005). Specifically, this study examines teachers’ classroom pedagogical practices, their understandings of pedagogy, the ways they encourage and manage student participation in classroom and the level of support and training they receive from government agencies. The findings of this study will have implications for both teachers and students, their specific roles, their understanding of pedagogy, classroom practices and more importantly students. This study recommends ‘contextually suitable’ pedagogical methods, informing teachers about effective teaching strategies, and outlining specific classroom participation strategies for students.

La sculpture d’Himachal Pradesh connaît entre le septième et le quatorzième siècle un grand développement, dû à un bouleversement des conditions religieuses et politiques en Inde du Nord. Des souverains locaux légitiment alors leur pouvoir sur les vallées qui constituent cet état montagneux du nord de l’Inde en utilisant, entre autres procédés, la construction de temples et la dédicace d’images. Ces dernières révèlent, par leur iconographie et par leur style, certaines des conditions historiques et politiques dans lesquelles elles ont été créées. Grâce à une observation des oeuvres, regroupées en quatre grands ensembles spatio-temporels, nous avons tenté, dans cette thèse, de mettre à jour les transferts d’influences artistiques à la fois entre l’Himachal et les régions voisines et en Himachal même. Cette observation nous a également permis de proposer des hypothèses sur l’histoire des dynasties locales et sur leurs pratiques religieuses. / Changes in the political and religious situation in Northern India at the beginning of the medieval period caused new developments in the sculpture of Himachal Pradesh between the 7th and the 14th centuries. By using, among other means, the construction of temples and the consecration of images, local kings seeked to legitimize their power. Thus, the sculptures, through their iconography and their style, reveal some of the historical and political conditions in which they were created. By means of a strict observation of those works, classified in four groups by their localisation and datation, we tried, in this thesis, to distinguish some of the processes of artistic influences, between Himachal and neighboring regions, as well as in Himachal itself. This careful examination allowed us then to speculate about the history of local dynasties and about their religious practices.

The purpose of this thesis is to study and analyse the development of the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan, the effect of their respective outlooks upon the various proposals for settlement brought forward by the United Nations or their own leaders, and the reasons for each subsequent failure to resolve the eighteen year deadlock. Twelve years ago, Michael Brecher concluded in The Struggle for Kashmir that both India and Pakistan had economic, strategic and political interests in the State; and of the three, those brought about by the two-nation theory and the conflicting religious and secular policies were deemed to be the most important. While one cannot disagree with Brecher's general conclusions, this writer feels that the specific importance of Kashmir to either India or Pakistan at any given time is not a constant factor but instead has been influenced by contemporary foreign and domestic events and has been in a perpetual state of change. What was considered of primary importance in 1947, therefore, does not necessarily hold the same position today. Indeed, to single out one factor as the reason for the continuation of the dispute would not only be inopportune, but incorrect. Because of the very nature of the dispute and its international and domestic.characteristics, one is faced by a plethora of material - including White Papers on correspondence; over one hundred Security Council debates; many pamphlets and some thousands of diplomatic newsletters. It has been necessary, therefore, to sift through all available evidence and to extract only that which is pertinent to the topic. It must be realized that because of the importance of Kashmir to both India and Pakistan;, all the information from governmental sources or written by their nationals contains the type of material calculated to present their case in the best possible light. Thus it becomes necessary in many cases - the Pathan incursions in October 1947, the Jinnah-Mountbatten talks and the Mohammed All-Nehru discussions, and the essence of the Nehru-Sheikh Abdullah proposals for federation - to read between the lines in order to trace developments. In the early stages of the dispute, one can sympathize with Pakistan's claim to Kashmir and her efforts to obtain a "free and impartial plebiscite." Unlike India, she accepted every practical proposal brought forward to settle the dispute. Although neither India nor Pakistan produced a statesman capable of resolving the deadlock, the former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, must be singled out as the major contributor to the continuation of the dispute. It was not that his actions were incomparable with his Pakistani counterparts; but rather that as a statesman of such magnitude, willing to solve the world's problems - with or without invitation he could adopt a self-righteous "Babu" attitude when dealing with the State. Indeed, Nehru appears to have become emotionally incapable of treating Pakistan as an equal; hence the dispute continued in deadlock. India's intransigence has continued in open defiance of the United Nations and in complete contradiction to her earlier promises for self-determination in Kashmir. Notwithstanding the fact that Pakistan, in her effort to gain international support for her Kashmir policy, has virtually talked - herself out of any claim to the State, one can now sympathize with the Indian position. It is not that India is more right today than eighteen years ago, but rather that her interest in the State - originally a prestige issue - has now degenerated to the point where a plebiscite could possibly mean her internal collapse through the onslaught of communalism. She accepted and held Kashmir as a showplace for secularism and for the prestige offered by its geographic location; today she controls a monster within which could lie the seeds of her own destruction. The point of view taken in this thesis, therefore, is that the existing stalemate appears to be the only practical solution to the Kashmir dilemma, and that history may prove Nehru's negative attitude towards Kashmir to have been correct. Nevertheless, it is significant to note that the voice of Kashmiri nationalism has yet to be taken into account. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

This thesis studies the variation of sovereignty in the international order by analysing how the general model of sovereignty is localised in the political practice of two major non-Western rising powers - China and India. I argue that their sovereignty should be understood as liquid despite the fact that these two countries are very often seen as strong defenders of 'conservative', 'absolutist' or 'Westphalian' sovereignty. The empirical core of the thesis investigates China's approach to sovereignty in relation to Hong Kong and Taiwan and India's approach to sovereignty in relation to Bhutan and Kashmir. Based on theoretical eclecticism and pluralism, I develop a theoretical and analytical framework that accounts for constitution (construction) of the sovereignty of China and India but that also have potential for being applied more broadly. It is calibrated to elucidate that sovereignty is a liquid and fluid phenomenon. It is based on the debate between Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt and analytically enhanced by including the perspective of scaling (derived from Human Geography) and temporal positioning (inspired by International Relations debates on the role of time). I propose three key argument. First, I show that each of the analysed states simultaneously pursues two different modes of...

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