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Reclaiming Azad Jammu Kashmir For Her People
The Evolution of AJK Public Agency
Citizen’s Opinion + Citizen’s Resources
=
Citizen’s Control of Public Policy
The most important aspect of modern-day governance is a consensus...
FEATURED
- All
- 'Azad' Jammu Kashmir
- British Politics
- British-Paharis
- Contentions
- Cultural Memories
- Democracy for AJK
- Dispossession
- Featured
- Global Muslim Perspectives
- Health & Fitness
- Identity Conundrum
- Identity Crisis
- Identity DIS
- Imagined Identities
- Indian-Administered-Kashmir
- Kids Corner
- Life Stories
- Lifestyle
- Pahari
- Paharis
- Pakistan
- Poems
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More
Fake News, False Narratives and Identity Politics, Silencing Dissent through Digital...
I’ve said on this site, at various places, that Digital Media particularly through interactive platforms like Wikipedia and Social Media, are vehicles of disinformation...
Protected: Fleeing poverty and becoming poorer; the truth of dispossession
Recently, given my father’s imminent demise, he is terminally ill with leukaemia, I started to ask him about his life in the land of...
Protected: Who taught Pakistanis to hate themselves?
Nearly a decade and a half ago, I got married to a Canadian in Toronto. My mother's incessant demands, innuendoes, emotional breakdowns, insults and...
Asking the questions, having the discussions!
Identity DIS Podcasts
Google Search Results; "Mirpuris"
Twitter Search Results "Mirpuris"
Race fallacy and social relationships
Steven Garner, author of "Racism, an Introduction" said,
"'Race' is a fiction that we turn into a social reality every day of our lives. It...
India, Pakistan, and “Kashmir” – the Economist explains…!
This is how the Economist explains the "Kashmir" conflict using the colonial label of 'Hindus' and 'Muslims' - these are 'constructed labels' however common-sense...
What exactly is “cultural heritage”?
What do we mean by the term ‘cultural heritage’?
For my British-Pahari readers, I have compiled a series of short posts to educate them about...
Are Azad Kashmiris the same people as Valley Kashmiris?
Competing ‘State Identities’ & Ethnic Ambiguities
In the absence of a genuine Pakistani state or nation-state identity what are Azad Kashmiris?
It is at this point...
A Message from Kashmir
Dear British Paharis
I speak to you through this medium as a brother from Indian Occupied Kashmir. I speak to you for our shared homeland,...
The Governance Dilemma in so-called “Azad” Jammu Kashmir
This footage makes an attempt to summarise the effort of Mahmood Ahmed Musafir in light of his herculean effort to address the near absence...
TOPICAL
Protected: Who taught Pakistanis to hate themselves?
Nearly a decade and a half ago, I got married to a Canadian in Toronto. My mother's incessant demands, innuendoes, emotional breakdowns, insults and...
Preserving our ‘mother tongue’
Language is a miraculous ability unique to humanity, conveying culture and identity as a means of communication, among kith and kin as well as...
Race fallacy and social relationships
Steven Garner, author of "Racism, an Introduction" said,
"'Race' is a fiction that we turn into a social reality every day of our lives. It...
MOST COMMENTED
Fake News, False Narratives and Identity Politics, Silencing Dissent through Digital Media and Search Engine Manipulation
I’ve said on this site, at various places, that Digital Media particularly through interactive platforms like Wikipedia and Social Media, are vehicles of disinformation and political propaganda. Whatever the nature of an online conversation, be it a family’s travel vlogs, pictures, fashion tips, food...
Ethnic tokenism in electoral politics and the laws of unintended consequences
There was a time when you could walk into any local Labour Party branch meeting in the densely populated Pakistani constituency wards of England, and you would realise that something was breathtakingly afoot. The room would be overcrowded. Almost entirely male-dominated with the usual...
Propaganda and Digital Media; the curious case of Authoritarianism and Online Bullshit
Don't trust everything you read online.
You'll be duped into believing utter tosh. This holds true for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Had it not been for authoritarianism and control freaks, these spaces would have been wonderful places to learn facts and create vibrant friendships. Sadly,...
The curious case of the anecdote becoming narrative
Internalising the negative perceptions of out-group members is not proof that there’s something inherently wrong with your in-group identity. This has happened to lots of people who have been ‘othered’ through a combination of factors that include inaccurate media portrayals, native informants and unjust social...
Appraising Mirpur’s documented history, the story of Kashmir before and after 1846
Mirpur was the name of an historical settlement in the Princely State of Jammu & Kashmir (1846 – 1947), variably known as Kashmir State, Jammu Kingdom and/or the Dogra Raj. The name Mirpur postdates the principality’s alleged founding in the 1600s. Centuries later, the...
Pakistan’s Article 370 Delusions; the “Azad” State that is not “Free”!
It’s ‘Azad’ - 'Free'.
"Okay!?" "It's Azad!" "Free!"
This is Pakistan’s official stance on 'Azad' Jammu & Kashmir.
But what is Azad Kashmir ‘free’ of?
According to the Pakistani state-enforced narrative, Azad Kashmiris are free from Indian tyranny. Women aren’t being raped by Indian soldiers, and by ‘Indian’ they mean non-Muslim...
Understanding Disinformation and Propaganda on Kashmir
Those who argue that Kashmir is the Valley of Kashmir and that Kashmiris are the ethnic Kashmiris of the Valley are engaged in deliberate disinformation. These sinister interests want you to think that they are making ethnolinguistic claims about the people we call Kashmiris, but...
Whose Kashmir is it? Conflict & Territorial Claims; the abuse of myths
As in my earlier post on Israel and competing myths of exclusive origin, Kashmir serves as a good example of national myths and territorial claims. But unlike Israel, Kashmir has a special place for us. It is the place from where our forebears originated,...
Why do anti-Semites say “Israeli Jews are not real Jews?”
You must have heard the claim that modern-day Israel is a country with another people’s language and religion?
If you haven’t, antisemitism has become so common these days (I’m speaking of hatred against Jews, and not criticism against Israel), that you’ve probably come across multiple...
The Feudalism of the Western Himalaya; Patronage, Caste Myths and Colonialism
A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting with some local guys as they consumed copious amounts of alcohol to the backdrop of a varied playlist, and it dawned upon me that my opposite number were unaware of the ‘caste-titles’ they were fondly using...
Muslim Ummah Syndrome and Identity Politics
Some years ago, Saudi Arabia proscribed its male citizens from marrying the citizens of four nationalities. Pakistanis were included on this list. The Monarchy had its reasons, no doubt, good or bad; the preponderance of such marriages was given as the primary reason. Apparently, marriages...
Protected: The Mirpuri “Villain” of the Pakistani Imagination
There comes a point for members of any community to stand up and be heard. And that time has come for members of my community, the British-Pahari community otherwise known incorrectly as the ‘Mirpuris’. For far too long, our absence from the discourse on...
The Solitary Journeyman
The needle has struck, the hour has come,
and the open road unwinds.
With a heavy heart,
I place my soul’s keeping
into nature’s lair for the journey ahead.
Of human depredation, her foibles,
her impatience,
I know her...
Social media is destroying young people’s lives
Meedi Mydi Media Mo...!
Meedi Mydi Media Mo
I scour the pages of friends and foe
Night and day, a restless soul
I cascade into a virtual hole
Betwixt my Egyptian sheets
My body aches, my eyes bulge
Fingers scaling, skin peeling
My head vibrates, ping pong po
I voyageur into a universe...
Call them “Mirpuris” please! A Case Study of Interminority Racism
I can recall quite vividly my first foray into the world of “anti-Mirpuri” racist dribble-dribble that still goes on in the world of social media.
It began like this...
People everywhere want to learn something about their past. I did too. I was born in the UK. The...
The Birth of ‘A’JK Public Agency
This is our first attempt at making a documentary in 'A'JK with 'bells and whistles'. Many thanks to all my co-citizens for taking part. Some of the background music was borrowed from Shigeru Umebayashi: Yumeji's Theme (In The Mood for Love) Courtesy of Emotion...
Are Azad Kashmiris bonafide Pakistanis?
What's the difference between 'Azad Kashmir' and Pakistan?
Mainland Pakistanis
By the term, ‘mainland Pakistanis’, I am strictly referring to Pakistanis from areas that constitutionally make up the territory of Pakistan. I am not speaking of nationality laws that apply to the citizens of Pakistan, but...
