There’s a genocide alert on for Kashmir. Nothing should deter us from building a #BoycottIndia movement for the thousands of products India exports to at least 200 countries. They are ubiquitous in health food stores, supermarkets, specialty stores, gift shops, Amazon. They include skin care oils & lotions, Ayurvedic goods, pharmaceuticals, vitamins & supplements, scarves & clothing of all kinds, foodstuffs of all kinds (especially rice & grains), jewelry, leather goods, textiles, electronics, Bollywood films, tourism.
A boycott would reinforce #StandWithKashmir protests with direct economic & political pressure on India to withdraw the troops, release political prisoners, halt the use of pellet guns, forcible disappearances, rape as a weapon of war, indiscriminate shooting of unarmed protesters, hunt to kill operations. It would also tangentially, or maybe not so tangentially, fortify the Palestinian BDS movement because of India’s political & military ties to Israel, especially in their occupation & colonialism strategies.
We shouldn’t just stop buying the products but should notify the enterprises that we are refusing to buy Indian goods to support the Kashmiri struggle. (You might not want to say that directly to an Indian shopkeeper who could be a Hindutva nutcase, but notify them by letter.) For those who say this will hurt Indian workers, our response is that nothing hurts Indian workers more than Indian militarism. A boycott has the best interests of both Indian & Kashmiri workers at heart. Those primarily hurt by a boycott would be Indian capitalists. Try not to cry me a river.
I love many Indian products & buy & use them all the time. Or at least, did. But the issue of genocide preempts everything. It is a matter of solidarity with one of the most important freedom struggles of our times.
#BoycottIndia