Psychological Impact of Militancy in Kashmir

There is a lot of empirical evidence that processes of militancy and subsequent militarization have deeper, larger and wholistic impact on the society of Kashmir. In fact, it engulfed the entire societal dynamics in its inferno and made its impact felt in all sectors and on all sections of society. These implications were deeper because all social institutions, inter-relationships, processes, and all fields of life got involved and were affected directly and indirectly. Militancy resulted in the breakdown of normal life and stigmatized the individual and social growth of the people of Kashmir. It made people functionally defunct, badly affected their mental well-being and wrought havoc on their collective psyche by increasing depression and anxiety to ever highest mark. The number of widows and orphans in pathetic and miserable living conditions increased manifold due to militancy. They faced mass depression and other psychological problems as the feeling of helplessness and insecurity prevailed all walks of their life. This paper aims at focusing on the psychological impact of militancy in Kashmir.