Mapping children’s play and violence in Kashmir

Abstract

In Kashmir, the entrenchment of political violence in the everyday has marked a shift from understanding Kashmiris as passive receivers of violence to agentic beings; however, much attention has not been paid to the experiences of children. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in one of the downtown neighbourhoods in Srinagar, this article would look at the everyday of children by focusing on their game playing. Analysing two games, that is, Military-Mujahid and PUBG (Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds), the article highlights how playing blurs the lines between spectacular and everyday, and actual and virtual/imaginary, establishing itself as a part of children’s everyday reality.