Religious and Political Control Over Interfaith Couples of Leh and Ladakh

Abstract

The physical, emotional, and human aspects that are frequently left out of conventional geopolitical discourse are highlighted by feminist viewpoints, which rethink geopolitical analysis. In particular, it uses the Leh District in India's Jammu and Kashmir as a focus point to investigate how love and want operate as potent but underappreciated factors within geopolitical strategy. Religious tensions between Muslims and Buddhists in this area are manifested not only in territorial and political disputes but also in the control of women's bodies, especially through the regulation of interfaith marriages. In this situation, love has the subversive capacity to subvert prevailing political narratives and sectarian bounds. Community-imposed limitations, such as the forced separation of interfaith couples or their deportation from the area, limit this possibility. By means of surveys, interviews, and interactive oral histories, the study demonstrates how women in Leh manage, oppose, or even strengthen these embodied geopolitical control tactics. The study highlights the intensely personal, affective processes through which power functions in war zones and challenges the detached, masculinized gaze of traditional geopolitics by centering the analysis around the wanting and wanted body.