Someone has asked me why I write so much about Kashmir since I am not Kashmiri. When Kashmiri activists first asked me to study & write about their struggle, I didn’t know one thing about it, including where Kashmir was on a map. It became clear to me in studying that it was a monumentally important freedom struggle but when I began writing about it few other non-Kashmiris were & fewer knew anything about the struggle. Many probably thought it was our particular hobby horse, a way to stand out amidst all the causes on social media. But as human rights activists, we aren’t that venal or self-aggrandizing. We wrote about it because of its singular political importance & power.
Given the importance of India in international politics, the violence of its aggressions in Kashmir, & the power of Kashmiri resistance, the Kashmiri freedom struggle is now center stage in international politics & has become recognized as such. It is an anti-colonial struggle that resonates powerfully with the struggle of Palestinians & is part of the political struggle against the so-called ‘war on terror’ which involves all the issues of war & genocide. All of us must understand its complexities & find a way to stand in solidarity. That is the simple answer to why I write so much about Kashmir along with my commitment to building an international solidarity movement comparable to that for the Vietnamese. All the other hundreds of activists who campaign for Kashmir, Palestine, Syria, the Rohingya, Uyghur, & against wars know exactly where I’m coming from.