Lived Realities Beyond Media Narratives: Examining Violence Against Kashmiri Shawl Sellers in Mainland India

Abstract

Seasonal mobility and informal trade constitute a significant yet insufficiently examined aspect of India's internal social and economic dynamics. Kashmiri shawl sellers have a unique place in this landscape because they travel every year to towns and cities all over mainland India. In recent years, there has been more than enough media lens on incidents that involved these traders. And the media often paints them as proof that people in Kashmir are hostile to them. This study investigates the disparity between media driven representations and the actual experiences that the shawl sellers from Kashmir face. The study utilizes multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Delhi, relying on participant observation, informal group discussions, and in-depth interviews with sixty shawl sellers from various occupational roles. The findings from the study show that the daily interactions are mostly routine, collaborative, and rooted in social and economic relationships. Although participants spoke about instances of harassment, however these occurrences were rare, unevenly distributed, and mostly ascribed to individual perpetrators rather than to larger communities. Local responses to these types of events often included comfort, reassurance and support system, which made it harder to tell a story of widespread hostility. The study differentiates between actual violence and reported violence, illustrating how episodic events are often exaggerated through media reportage and are often disconnected from the day-to-day social realities. The findings contribute to the debates on nationalism, migration, and belonging by providing an empirically grounded narrative of how insecurity is navigated in practice.