State Repression in Kashmir Shifts Minority Identity Toward Irredentism

🧭 What Was Studied

This article examines when peripheral minorities choose to identify with the state, their ethnic group, or a neighboring country. The focus is on how exposure to violence, psychological distance from the nation, and perceived national status shape tendencies toward separatism and irredentism.

📊 How the Evidence Was Collected

• A novel survey experiment randomized short videos of actual violence within a large, representative survey of the Kashmir Valley in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, a long-standing site of separatist and irredentist conflict.
• The design measures changes in perceived distance from the nation and shifts in attachments to the state, region, and neighboring countries.

🔑 Key Findings

• A strong regional identity acts as a counterweight to irredentist identification.
• Violent repression by the state can push members of the minority to identify with an irredentist neighbor rather than with the nation.
• Exposure to violence increases perceived psychological distance from the nation and reduces national identification.
• Suggestive evidence indicates these effects are concentrated among individuals who, absent violence, would otherwise show higher levels of state identification.
• Providing information about integrative institutions or raising national status through economic growth is insufficient to induce national identification when psychological distance is large.

📌 Why It Matters

These results link micro-level psychological processes—how violence changes perceived distance and attachment—to broader dynamics of separatism and irredentism. The findings suggest that state repression can unintentionally fuel cross-border identification, and that institutional or economic signals alone may not repair national ties once psychological distance has widened.