It’s always so heartening to see the response to posts about Kashmir because there’s long been a news blackout about India’s occupation & like most of us, I knew nothing about it. After being on Facebook, several Kashmiri friends badgered me to post about their freedom struggle. I had every intention but put them off for a long while. They’re a relentless crowd & they drove me nuts with the badgering. I would give them deadlines, fail to meet them, & they would start a new round of badgering. They won’t be faulted for persistence. India should take note.
Finally, I got to it &, as is common in US libraries on foreign conflicts, had a lot of trouble finding good sources of information or at least information not guided by US State Department-think. I am still working to grasp its dynamics & have found my Kashmiri friends, still persistent, an inexhaustible source of information. I have also found Indira Krishnamurti Pradhan a valuable source of understanding about India’s role.
So I’m no authority on Kashmir but am won over to supporting their struggle for freedom from Indian dominance & military occupation & am committed to explaining the politics of their movement which I have come to respect deeply.
I say all this not to defend myself against the rightwing Kashmiri who accused of a ‘white savior complex’ but to tip my hat to my Kashmiri friends for badgering so shamelessly & relentlessly & using social media to build international solidarity for their struggle.
{PS to my rightwing nemesis who supports the occupation: despite my pallid Irish face, I don’t have a white savior complex. What I have is 71 years of adrenalin overload from living under capitalism. If you get to my age & don’t have it, you might be dead. Check your pulse.}