How Kashmir became 'integral' to India

A new book examines India's colonial project in the valley.

Hello everyone,

There have been a wave of developments between India and Israel over the past month.

Here are some quick updates:

• India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) will be working together to build a 400km long-range missile, also known Long-Range Surface Air Missile system (LRSAM). Read more here.

• Last week, Bollywood film Bawaal - which told a story about a school teacher who takes his wife to Europe to both salvage their relationship as well as his teaching career - was accused of trivializing the Holocaust. The film is a stunning example of a Bollywood’s attempt to dip into the zeitgeist of deepening cultural kinship between Jews and Hindus (which is a story in itself). In this case, it backfired.

Censorship

There have been several developments in Indian-occupied Kashmir. The poetry of Agha Shahid Ali and the award winning memoir Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer have been removed from the university curriculum. Ali’s The Country Without a Post Office is considered a masterpiece.

Meanwhile, journalists like Irfan Mehraj and activists like Khurram Parvez are still in jail even as Narendra Modi is paraded in Washington as an ally of democracy.

Then there has been the rise of vigilante Hindu militias in Kashmir.

Colonizing Kashmir

This week marks the NYC-launch of Dr. Hafsa Kanjwal’s much anticipated book Colonizing Kashmir: State Building under Indian occupation.

The book historicizes India’s occupation in Kashmir and looks at the ways in which ‘development’, ‘democracy’ and ‘secularism’ served as vehicles to entrench India’s colonial project in Kashmir.

Moreover, the book examines India’s use of client regimes in this project.

The book, then, doesn’t merely examine India’s occupation of Kashmir, but challenges several myths about Indian democracy itself.

Colonizing Kashmir has already received great endorsements and reviews.

There will be a series of book events throughout the next six months across the US and the UK. You can follow updates on Dr. Kanjwal’s website or via Instagram.

You can RSVP for the NYC event here.

Hostile Homelands: updates on the book

When I started examining burgeoning India-Israel ties some years ago, I was convinced that it would draw interest from activists, academics and journalists and the general public at large - given the scarcity of resources on the topic.

Of course, one of the arguments for tracking this relationship was based on how the ties between the countries would further facilitate anti-democratic and genocidal practices in both countries.

But the scale in which both countries are marching towards full on fascist states is quickly catching the attention of the world.

Six months after Hostile Homelands was released, the book has traveled to 30 venues across six countries, including the US, Turkey, UK, Germany, the Netherlands and South Africa.

This doesn’t mean that the book has been received with the same enthusiasm across the board.

It has been ignored by the mainstream press in the US and the UK (with the exception of Foreign Policy which rubbished it).

You can read the review by Sumit Ganguly here.

In India, I was thrilled to see The Hindu review it.

However, The Hindu’s Stanly Johnly also battled to move beyond the gaze of Indian nationalism in evaluating the book.

You can read Stanly Johnly’s review here.

Both Ganguly and Johnly overestimate India’s anti-colonial and secular credentials so much so they consider these ideas “facts”.

In so doing, the fail to engage with a central thrust of the book’s argument that calls for a rethinking of those precise myths.

And you would think that as India and Israel becomes increasingly vicious to Muslims, Kashmiris, Palestinians, analysts would see recognize how this relationship is antithetical to justice, equality and democracy. Alas.

Both Somdeep Sen and Goldie Osuri took exception to Ganguly’s characterization of the book.

Johannesburg launch of Hostile Homelands at Book Circle Capital

Meanwhile, in my native South Africa, though we had several events across the country, The Post’s decision to publish an extract about Hindutva in India elicited a wave of outrage from readers of Indian origin.

Here is an example of one letter to the newspaper:

I am not entirely surprised by the response of Hindu nationalists in South Africa.

It exemplifies the global reach of this network of Hindu supremacists and their inability to meaningfully engage on this issue.

Meanwhile, there have been some deeply thoughtful reviews in Jacobin by Goldie Suri; in The Contrapuntal by Abdulla Moaswes; in The Byline Supplement by Amrit Wilson ; in The Daily Maverick by Zeenat Adam, in Mondoweiss by Nida Arif, among others.

My sincere thanks for their close reading of the book.

If you are interested in buying the book, Pluto Press currently has a 50% sale on ALL of its books, including Hostile Homelands. The sale ends tonight.

My next event is scheduled at the Socialism Conference in Chicago on September 3.

Other work

Over the past few months, I have worked on several other stories, including a long essay on Indian-American lawmaker Ro Khanna.

Khanna is seen in several circles as a pro-labour, pro-union, anti-war politician.

However, his record on Palestine and India isn’t just poor.

They are, as several observers have told me, extremely dangerous, because he is seen as ‘progressive’ politician.

You can read this essay here.

I also spoke with Jewish Currents about Hindu nationalists in the US, and worked on this short op-ed video on the story behind Netanyahu and Modi’s relationship.

You can watch this below:

Thanks for reading (and watching!)

As always, please share with friends and colleagues who may find this newsletter interesting.

And feel free to get in touch if you want to discuss a story idea.

until next time!

Azad