Kashmir: Strengthening and Gilding the Cage of Occupation on June 13, 2023“They make a desolation and call it peace.” -Kashmiri poet Agha Shahi Scholars of political resistance have argued that domination by a settler-colonial hegemon requires not only silencing the colonized but also continuous buttressing and entrenchment through displaying and enacting power through legal, structural, and militaristic means, and ceremonial symbolization. “The powerful,” writes James C. […]
Revocation of articles 370 and 35 A: prolonging Kashmir’s agony on August 4, 2020For decades, Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution have been the only remaining signifiers of Kashmir’s occupation by India. For decades, these constitutional guarantees tethered a dangling Kashmir to India through corruptible proxies. Together these two legal provisions granted the people of the occupied state an autonomous status, which allowed for a separate […]
Modi’s Chanakya neeti: deception, deflection and disinformation on July 6, 2020The hallmarks of India’s recent muscular assertiveness have been high doses of spin-mastery in both domestic and international matters. Whether it is suppressing the truth of resistance against occupation in Kashmir, the persecution of Muslims by Hindutva brigades, or brutal sparring with China, Chanakya neeti is the order of the day. This art of deception, […]
Securitising Kashmir is dangerous for South Asia on June 4, 2020An unholy nexus of various securitising actors in India–politicians, bureaucrats, retired and serving police and military personnel, politicised judiciary, corporate media outlets, implanted security analysts and surveillance geeks–have collectively cultivated a national psyche that legitimises repression in Kashmir. The underlying motivation is to grab or keep power, gain promotions, score ratings, or make a recurring […]
Digital blockade in Kashmir: Another tool in the tyranny’s toolbox on April 29, 2020Among the many great ideas that have changed the world, the information revolution occupies a preeminent position. Initially, the information superhighway or the Internet promised to transform time-and-space dimensions as never before. It inspired disruption of the traditional social, cultural, and political barriers, presaging the democratization of even those societies that do not possess an […]
Diasporic donors enable repression of minorities in India on April 22, 2020Since his rise to power, Narendra Modi has propelled India into the throes of venomous Hindu nationalism that had remained submerged for decades. The ongoing Hindutva crusade is deviously bankrolled by wealthy expatriates in the West and elsewhere. Madhav Golwalkar and Vinayak Savarkar were the most preeminent fountainheads of Hindutva project. While the former de-emphasized […]