“I Protest” by MC Kash, Kashmiri rapper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9RetBax0mM

There is nothing a senior rebel likes more than seeing rebellion against injustice emerge among the young. It’s better than all the longevity elixirs combined. So I am delighted that Dorian Haqmoun & Rollie Mukherjee have introduced me & others to the marvelous Kashmiri rapper 26-year-old MC Kash–who has things to teach seniors about resistance to occupation & oppression.

I’ve now watched YouTube interviews with him & a documentary titled “Take It In Blood.” This video titled “I Protest” is about protests that began in June 2010 when tens of thousands of Kashmiris took to the streets to protest that Indian soldiers set up & murdered three young men in a staged encounter. Indian riot police responded to the protests with tear gas, rubber bullets, & live ammunition, killing 112 unarmed protesters, including teenagers & an 11-year-old boy.

Kash is a political rapper who said, “When you’re sad, you do nothing. You probably cry over it. When you’re angry, you try to make a difference.” He raps in English because “English is a universal language. Kashmiris know how they have suffered. So if I went on to rap about it in Kashmiri, that would be useless.”

He was inspired to write a work titled “Moment of Truth,” after watching a documentary about Gaza. In 2014, after the murderous Israeli bombing siege in Gaza, he said “”Gaza & Kashmir are related. A stone relates us. Humiliation relates us. Occupation relates us. Anger relates us. The human rights violations relate us. Intifada relates us.”