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's the place from where our forebears originated, before...

EXCERPT from "The Evolution of AJK Public Agency" "Before arriving here, I can confidently assert that I was neither a patriot, nor a nationalist or even a democrat. I was a journalist working in various conflict hotspots around the globe (Iraq and Afghanistan), had regular...

I've included the following account to give an idea of how skewed international representations of the Princely State of Jammu & Kashmir's are, not least because they almost all entirely rely on a small pool of 'native' actors committed to extolling the history and political priorities...

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...

Pakistan we are told was created for Muslims in 1947. The chap credited for the creation of Pakistan, Mr Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was the grandson of a Hindu convert to a heterodox sect of Islam, not considered Muslim by mainstream Sunnis and Shias. We...

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 lies at the heart of the complex, historical and multifaceted sets of social relationships to which we attach the label...

This footage makes an attempt to summarise the effort of Mahmood Ahmed Musafir in light of his herculean effort to address the near absence of governance in AJK. #ajk #AjkMagayAzadi DAY 53 Quote of the Day “I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my...

From Mahmood Ahmed Musafir's search for modern-day governance in 2018 to the Maharajah's dream of a neutral state in 1947. How can we connect the sham democracy of AJK with our diaspora living in a mature democracy in the UK. DAY 47 #ajk #AjkMagayAzadi Quote of the Day “It...

And here lived, beneath the receding waters of Kashmir, my forebears, once upon a time As her waters recede and the green grass shimmers in the full glory of the sun We are taken back to the memories of our ancestors, only just buried...

The term ‘cultural sphere‘ can be used in different contexts. At the core of the idea is the notion that a culture can be shared between people living in a clearly demarcated territory. There are three ingredients that I would like to explore in this...