The Invisible Survivors of Terror

“The Invisible Survivors of Terror”, draws from terrorism, critical terrorism and trauma studies to illustrate the marginalization of terror survivors. Using secondary datasets such as the Global Terrorism Database and the South Asia Terrorism Portal, the chapter underlines the significance of engaging with terrorism and its impact in the Global South, particularly in the Indian and Mumbai contexts. It further establishes the civilian victims and survivors as the most impacted category globally, as well as in India, and problematizes their marginalization. The chapter identifies the skewed focus on terrorist narratives, victim statistics, terror events and the traumatic nature of these events encapsulated within PTSD as the key factors contributing to the marginalization of terror survivors. The chapter highlights the disciplinary issues of definition and worldviews that further this marginalization within research, with implications for policy and praxis. To address the above challenges in our understanding, the chapter draws from an alternative ontological and epistemological position that challenges the ontological dualism of mind vs world and that of the linear conception of time in the sense of pre–during-post event chronology. Thus, in the study that informs the book, memory and lived and felt experiences serve as the foundation and approach respectively, for the concepts explored within this study. The study chooses to engage with memory, hope/hopelessness, aspirations and lived and felt experiences as the epistemological conduits to understand the situated trauma and the injuries experienced and felt by terror survivors. The chapter emphasizes the importance of understanding the injustices and suffering faced by survivors, influenced not only by the terror event but also by systemic failures and policy environments. It stresses the need to shift the focus from the traumatic event itself to the lives and experiences of the survivors to understand and address their demands for justice.