#StandWithKashmir rally at Indian Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, August 15, 2019.
(Photo by Asif Mushtaq)
The scary thing about this article is that it reports 800 political leaders & activists in Kashmir have been arrested. India still does not name who they are or where they have been imprisoned. It’s likely far more have been arrested. The political prisoners we’re concerned about do not include Mufti, Abdullah, or Faesal who are collaborators acting out a drama to emerge as champions of #azaadi. We’re concerned about Parveena Ahangar, Parvez Imroz, Khurram Parvez, investigators from JKCCS, activists from the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, journalists, well-known bloggers & commentators on social media, political cartoonists, working class stone pelters, feminists who exposed Kunan Poshpora.
Demanding the release of all Kashmiri political prisoners must be a central demand of our campaigns.
“India’s illegal power grab is turning Kashmir into a colony” by Kashmiri writer Mirza Waheed:
“Years from now, Barkha Dutt’s work will be taught as an example of… comforting a mass-murdering occupier, and afflicting the terrified women and children of Kashmir.”
–tweeted by Asad Rahim Khan about Dutt who is an Indian journalist more aptly called a propagandist for the Modi regime
Chanting #Azaadi, “The Sikh Community in 🇦🇺 showed solidarity with people of Kashmir. Kashmir is bleeding since 72 years under occupation.”
–tweeted by Kashmir @Kaifyjaaan with a video of rally
A powerful piece by Arundhati Roy opposing India’s onslaught in Kashmir & standing–not for the first time–with Kashmiri self-determination.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/opinion/sunday/kashmir-siege-modi.html?
Not that I’m anti-intellectual–because I believe political theory & method are very important–but if anyone were to ask my advice to young people who want to make this world a better place for human beings, I would say ‘start with the oppressed’. Start with those standing against war, occupation, persecution, genocide. Start with those fighting injustice & inequality. If you are part of the struggles against oppression, theoretical questions will confront you, the problems of political method will confront you & you will come to respect the importance of theoretical study. But if you ignore oppression & try to wing it by reading the latest trendy gurus or the old hacks, you will end up indifferent to the suffering of humanity & be nothing more than a political vegetable sucking off the body politic for oxygen. Take my word on that.
If it weren’t for social media, I wouldn’t realize how apolitical most of the left is. They post about Jeffrey Epstein, Bernie Sanders, obscure textual analyses of Kautsky vs Lenin, Sanders vs Warren, more on the 2020 US elections, more obscure textual analyses of God-knows-what-&-who gives-a-damn, & a lot of other boring crap. Under their tenure, capitalism can thank its lucky stars even as it avalanches into barbarism.
When India puts on an extravaganza tomorrow to celebrate 72 years of independence from British colonialism, remember Kashmiris have been fighting all that time for their independence from Indian colonialism.
#StandWithKashmir
(Photo from August 8th, 2019 by Atul Loke for the NY Times)
Whatever Russia did or did not do regarding the US elections, it’s small potatoes compared to its endorsement of India’s abrogation of Article 370 & military siege of Kashmir. But of course Russian endorsement for Modi & Hindutva nationalism in Kashmir is of a piece with carpet bombing Syrian civilians for nearly four years & arming the Rohingya genocide.