The 'subaltern speak': can we, the experts, listen?

The article examines the disconnect in peace and conflict research between expert-driven knowledge production and the lived realities of affected populations, attributing this gap to epistemic erasures rooted in colonial modernity and the privileging of state-centric political authority over social institutions. Using the Kashmir conflict of the early 1990s as a case study, it argues that subaltern voices have always been present but remain unheard due to dominant academic and governmental frameworks that marginalize everyday experiences. The article advocates for historicizing and decolonizing peace and conflict studies by incorporating subaltern perspectives and developing new research tools that enable experts to genuinely listen to marginalized populations. It highlights how ordinary Kashmiris' everyday acts of resistance and social practices provide critical insights often overlooked by mainstream analyses, thereby challenging prevailing metanarratives shaped by state-centric and Western epistemologies.