“This is a such a relevant point, written by Preetika:
“According to my very brief research, from 2011 to 2018 around 94 members of the Indian armed forces committed suicide in Kashmir and 22 soldiers were killed in fratricide incidents. The logic of selective grievability works here as well. It does not matter, that they too left behind their home and families, and chose to be a part of the much revered armed forces. Those who die in hyper-visible violent incidents demand a national mourning, others do not.
This colossal loss remains at the margins of the nation’s archive, it is invisible in studios of mainstream media. These dead bodies do not serve the cause of the macho hyper-militaristic ultra-nationalist state but emasculates it. Weakness not valor is appended to the soldiers who chose to end their lives overwhelmed by a macabre theater of war, they are mere statistics not revered martyrs.
“If death of soldiers was a concern, the resolution of Kashmir conflict would have been a priority for the political class but it isn’t. Instead a spectacle of death fulfills their nefarious designs and agendas: national mourning re-inscribes feelings of loss, pain and anger on one hand while on the other it reaffirms support to far-right hindutva national security state.”
–via Heba Ahmed