“Boot Power, Butt Power, Bullet Power! – Gendering Violence (against Men) in the ‘Disturbed Areas’ of India”

Writings from the conflict zones of India – the “Disturbed” Areas – are writings that unfold untold violence committed against the people by the armed forces. In the face of censure and denials by (anti) state forces, writers from these regions represent the terror enacted upon people’s lives. Based on a gendered critical perspective, this article analyses how in these narratives the violence (by state security forces) against men aims to incapacitate and emasculate (civilian) men. This article establishes that civilian bodies (both living and dead) are often appropriated by state forces as sites for deploying counter-terroristic measures –effectively turning them into “sites for counterterrorism” on the one hand, and, on the other hand, as “sight of retribution” to discipline errant and dissenting masculinities. Finally, it argues how, amid the extreme and violent forms of masculinities of military and militant groups, civilian men reconfigure a new form of masculinity – “lesser” but more humanistic.