A couple of thoughts about the issues raised by @Settler_Scholar on research done in Kashmir and other militarized areas. Yes absolutely, a researcher needs to reveal their background. I am from an army family and never once did I think of not mentioning it to people I spoke to.
In my experience in militarized areas that is always an awkward conversation, but I have always found that once the truths are tabled, people just connect on a very human basis and that awkward conversation can become the basis of trust and honesty.
However, I also think that some of the criticism that came in that thread took the tone of making a woman responsible for the actions of her father. I find that unsettling. But certainly scholars are responsible for their own actions.
Disclosures of this sort are necessary because people need to be able to trust the researcher. And researchers need to have empathy with people in the spaces they are researching. A lot of it.
When asked how I was able to get interviews with army personnel my answer is always, "I am from an army background". I would be lying if I said anything else. And yes, access was easier for me as opposed to someone else who did not have the same background.
This does not mean that one's work necessarily reflects the statist narrative. That's where the empathy comes in. Can I fairly and honestly represent the point of view of people in the spaces I am researching? That's often a huge learning curve
Many people who join academia already come with massive privilege. That privilege allows them access to spaces which are hard to negotiate, like Kashmir. And not all of them follow basic human decency and kindness while in the field. I don't want to name names.
When Ph.D's are churned out by the bucket and everyone is trying to compete and get ahead and publish and get on that tenure clock, of course you're going to have ethical breaches. The issues raised by @Settler_Scholar are important because the other side of that conversation
is the structure of academia itself and what it expects from people engaged in research.
Unfortunately, I know far too many people amongst South Asian academics who literally hide their background and privilege. I saw this first in JNU when one realized that many preaching radical leftism often had really huge hereditary wealth. This became evident when
many ended up in plum teaching positions. Then in the non-profit space people who talk about how privilege must be broken down often don't say how much privilege they themselves have. I always found this unsettling and would say to them 'why can't you just be honest about your
class position. One doesn't become a more authentic marxist by pretending to be poor".
What I'm trying to say is there is a very high level of this sort of behavior especially amongst Indian academics. It's not one case or two cases, if one looks harder it is everywhere.
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