Punishment in Post-Colonial India: Views from Families of Prisoners in Kashmir

• In Event: Race, Culture, and the Colonial Dimensions of Familial Punishment

Abstract

Based on 23 in-depth interviews conducted with families of prisoners in Kashmir, this paper focuses upon reconceptualising the impact of state punishment on families in the context of Kashmir where families of political prisoners are severely marginalised due to the criminalisation of political dissent. This paper explores the intersection of colonial legacies, political repression, and the penal system's impact on families of prisoners. This will highlight the cultural and gendered dynamics as the families navigate emotional turmoil, financial hardship, and social ostracisation. This will provide a new understanding of the intersection of family dynamics with the penal system, especially in postcolonial contexts like Kashmir and how cultural, religious, and political factors shape the experiences of prisoners' families. Using a postcolonial lens, the paper situates Kashmir’s carceral realities within global discussions on state punishment and penal governance in this contested region. It further contributes to scholarship on family-penal system intersections by illustrating how penal policies consciously extend beyond prisoners to impact kin networks. The findings offer insights into the need for legal and social reforms that acknowledge and address the invisibilised harms of imprisonment on prisoners’ families in conflict zones.

Authors

• ROONAQ UN NISA, N/A

• Rachel Condry, Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford