The Occupied Clinic: Militarism and Care in Kashmir

by Saiba Varma

Overview

In The Occupied Clinic, Saiba Varma explores the psychological, ontological, and political entanglements between medicine and violence in Indian-controlled Kashmir-the world's most densely militarized place. Into a long history of occupations, insurgencies, suppressions, natural disasters, and a crisis of public health infrastructure come interventions in human distress, especially those of doctors and humanitarians, who struggle against an epidemic: more than sixty percent of the civilian population suffers from depression, anxiety, PTSD, or acute stress. Drawing on encounters between medical providers and patients in an array of settings, Varma reveals how colonization is embodied and how overlapping state practices of care and violence create disorienting worlds for doctors and patients alike. Varma shows how occupation creates worlds of disrupted meaning in which clinical life is connected to political disorder, subverting biomedical neutrality, ethics, and processes of care in profound ways. By highlighting the imbrications between humanitarianism and militarism and between care and violence, Varma theorizes care not as a redemptive practice, but as a fraught sphere of action that is never quite what it seems.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478010982
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	10/02/2020
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.64(d)

About the Author

Saiba Varma is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego.

Table of Contents

Map  viii
Note on Transliteration  ix
Acknowledgments  xi
Letter to No One  xv
Introduction. Care  1
1. Siege  32
2. A Disturbed Area  67
Interlude. The Disappeared  101
3. Shock  114
4. Debrief  144
5. Gratitude  167
Notes  201
Bibliography  253
Index  273

Editorial Reviews

"Weaving together ethnographic narratives with poetry, the book offers a compelling analysis that at once contributes to conversations in medical anthropology, feminist studies of care, and the anthropology of humanitarianism and violence."--Victoria Sheldon "Journal of Asian Studies" (5/1/2022 12:00:00 AM)

"A book crafted with professional care. . . . Even as Varma displaces the meanings of lazily deployed words like Care, Siege, Disturbed Area, Disappeared, Shock, Disbelief, Gratitude and Duty by imbuing them with varied local senses, she comes into her own while she dwells on the vernacular used by her informants. She labours to translate the meanings of dense words they invoke and theorises on some of them at length. At times I liked the train of her thought so much that I wished for more."--Gowhar Fazili "The Wire" (3/31/2022 12:00:00 AM)

"Varma's rich ethnographic insights demonstrate how militarism and care are not distinct but rather closely bounded. . . . Clinicians, undergraduate students, and anyone curious about the fraught translation between biomedical psychiatry and local contexts of suffering will greatly appreciate Varma's dexterous and generous ethnography. Varma's beautiful writing, interspersed with vibrant images and artwork and haunting poetry, will be greatly appreciated. . . ."--David Ansari "Anthropology and Humanism" (4/5/2022 12:00:00 AM)

"Packed with many narratives and experiences, Varma's book is deeply disturbing and incisive. It turns many assumptions, inferences and even the concept of care as a redemptive practice, on its head or inside out. It needs to be debated and discussed far more thoroughly for its content."--Freny Manecksha "Indian Journal of Medical Ethics" (2/16/2022 12:00:00 AM)

"The book is a deeply moving work from a committed medical anthropologist. It will be of great help to anyone who wants to understand the cost of living in a highly and densely militarized zone of the world."--Khalid Bashir Gura "Kashmir Life" (2/23/2022 12:00:00 AM)

"The Occupied Clinic could hardly be any timelier.... A thought-provoking and rigorously crafted ethnography that advances the growing discussions of care and its paradoxes in anthropology.... A must-read for scholars interested in the transdisciplinary discussions of clinical, governmental, nongovernmental, and communitarian modes of care."--Tankut Atuk "Anthropology Book Forum" (4/5/2021 12:00:00 AM)

"The Occupied Clinic is a chilling, thought provoking, and beautifully written work that is likely to garner a great deal of attention for its arguments and intellectual generosity. Saiba Varma's astute and incisive portrayal of life, survival, and care in conditions of occupation is original and valuable."--Sarah Pinto, author of "The Doctor and Mrs. A.: Ethics and Counter-Ethics in an Indian Dream Analysis"

"The Occupied Clinic situates psychiatry as humanitarian state strategy in Kashmir. Saiba Varma offers us a beautifully crafted ethnography, providing political insight without objectifying the recipients of care as victims or sufferers. She articulates the place of mental health and the nuances and difficulties of everyday psychiatric practice in a state of exception that has come to be normalized over decades of military occupation. The need for such an analysis, at once poignant and nonpolemical, cannot be overstated."--Kaushik Sunder Rajan, author of "Pharmocracy: Value, Politics and Knowledge in Global Biomedicine"

From the Publisher

"The Occupied Clinic could hardly be any timelier.… A thought-provoking and rigorously crafted ethnography that advances the growing discussions of care and its paradoxes in anthropology.… A must-read for scholars interested in the transdisciplinary discussions of clinical, governmental, nongovernmental, and communitarian modes of care."

Anthropology Book Forum - Tankut Atuk

The Occupied Clinic situates psychiatry as humanitarian state strategy in Kashmir. Saiba Varma offers us a beautifully crafted ethnography, providing political insight without objectifying the recipients of care as victims or sufferers. She articulates the place of mental health and the nuances and difficulties of everyday psychiatric practice in a state of exception that has come to be normalized over decades of military occupation. The need for such an analysis, at once poignant and nonpolemical, cannot be overstated.

Pharmocracy: Value, Politics and Knowledge in Global Biomedicine - Kaushik Sunder Rajan

"Packed with many narratives and experiences, Varma's book is deeply disturbing and incisive. It turns many assumptions, inferences and even the concept of care as a redemptive practice, on its head or inside out. It needs to be debated and discussed far more thoroughly for its content."

Indian Journal of Medical Ethics - Freny Manecksha

"The book is a deeply moving work from a committed medical anthropologist. It will be of great help to anyone who wants to understand the cost of living in a highly and densely militarized zone of the world."

Kashmir Life - Khalid Bashir Gura

The Occupied Clinic is a chilling, thought provoking, and beautifully written work that is likely to garner a great deal of attention for its arguments and intellectual generosity. Saiba Varma's astute and incisive portrayal of life, survival, and care in conditions of occupation is original and valuable.

The Doctor and Mrs. A.: Ethics and Counter-Ethics in an Indian Dream Analysis - Sarah Pinto

"A book crafted with professional care. . . . Even as Varma displaces the meanings of lazily deployed words like Care, Siege, Disturbed Area, Disappeared, Shock, Disbelief, Gratitude and Duty by imbuing them with varied local senses, she comes into her own while she dwells on the vernacular used by her informants. She labours to translate the meanings of dense words they invoke and theorises on some of them at length. At times I liked the train of her thought so much that I wished for more."

The Wire - Gowhar Fazili

"Weaving together ethnographic narratives with poetry, the book offers a compelling analysis that at once contributes to conversations in medical anthropology, feminist studies of care, and the anthropology of humanitarianism and violence."

Journal of Asian Studies - Victoria Sheldon

"Varma’s rich ethnographic insights demonstrate how militarism and care are not distinct but rather closely bounded. . . . Clinicians, undergraduate students, and anyone curious about the fraught translation between biomedical psychiatry and local contexts of suffering will greatly appreciate Varma's dexterous and generous ethnography. Varma’s beautiful writing, interspersed with vibrant images and artwork and haunting poetry, will be greatly appreciated. . . ."

Anthropology and Humanism - David Ansari