A brilliant artistic tribute to the Palestinian & Kashmiri struggles against colonial occupation & genocide by Rollie Mukherjee:
“. I was born in a village that doesn’t exist. It is ruins … . ” mahmoud Darwish (1941) #Gaza #kashmir..Title- ” The white shadow” Acrylic on canvas
Harvard University seminar on Kashmir: some of the speakers have Kashmiri names & may be well-known scholars but most of us do not know their politics when it comes to Kashmiri self-determination. Those Kashmiris & supporters of #azaadi attending Harvard or in the Boston-Cambridge area may want to attend the seminar to make sure that point of view is heard or at least supported.
A call to action, especially to those who live in Texas.
There’s now a discussion on whether India can continue to call itself a liberal democracy. Just like in the US & in several other countries, we really have to define, or redefine, the character of democracy. The Arab Spring uprisings best expressed the character of real democracy which is direct political rule by & for the people. That’s why they have been so ruthlessly & violently repressed using ‘war on terror’ ideology.
India, the US, & most other so-called democracies don’t come close to that kind of democracy. What we have behind a parliamentary facade is oligarchies, governments by & for capitalists, even feudalists. That’s one reason the majority of people choose not to participate in the charade by not voting or, as in the case of the Black community in the US & Muslims in India, are systematically disenfranchised.
Lightness of Being in a Heavily Militarised Zone
before they lay barbed wire
across our tongues
let’s sing of almond blossoms
before they hammer our heads to
harvest thoughts let’s think
what we want to think
before they wall our sleep
let’s whisper dreams
into cold cruel ears
before they blind us
with a burst of lead
let’s mirror our darkness
let’s engrave this story
with fingertips on palms
before they erase our words
–poem by Kashmiri poet Asiya Zahoor
Leeds, UK #StandWithKashmir rally, September 14th, 2019.
High-ranking Indian officials now claim the number of new Kashmiri political prisoners since August 5th may be 4,500, not the 2,000 to 4,000 reported by most media. This article from Indian media describes that they’re hauling in hundreds of ‘stone pelters’ which we can consider genocide language for young people, even little kids. Many of these children are picked up in nighttime home invasions. In other words, just as Israel does in the West Bank, the Indian Army is indiscriminately kidnapping children & justifying it by calling them stone pelters.
A report from Kashmir describes a living hell & says Kashmiri morale is low. Most probably believe they still stand alone against genocide which is the entire purpose of the telecommunications blockade: to demoralize, to isolate & hermetically seal Kashmiris from each other, their families outside Kashmir, & their supporters. It was a miscalculation on India’s part since according to reports, there are at least 20 protests within Kashmir every day & several protests every week for Kashmir all over the world.
“Kashmir has seen an average of nearly 20 protests per day against Indian rule over the last six weeks despite a security lockdown.”
India has a population of over 1.3 billion people, many of them sustaining brutal oppression. So are Modi & his policies as popular as media claims? Don’t say he was elected by a majority since modern elections have a million ways to undermine their democratic character, can be & are manipulated, & often the majority do not vote or are disenfranchised. Does he have any support other than from Brahmans & those who’ve lost their marbles?