The Indian film industry is globally one of the largest and most significant movie-making industries, releasing about 1000 films each year. Perceived broadly with elements like romance, melodrama, and song-dance sequences, the Indian film form has been an effective...
The educational structure of Indian-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir has been contested for a long time as it is at the center of the entwinement of cultural, political, and militaristic discourse. From censorship to military-occupied restrictions for education, the...
The recent elections held in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir have been viewed as part of India's broader strategy to perpetuate its control over the contested region. These elections, while being presented as a democratic exercise, have drawn significant scrutiny...
The arms deal between India and Israel, in which Adani Group stands as a pivotal player, is reshaping the future of Kashmir and Palestine. With far reaching impacts that go beyond politics and military strategy—this partnership has transformed the very fabric of...
Since India revoked the special status of the Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi has primarily focused on asserting its authority by increasing the installation of new technologies for monitoring and surveillance. The heightened surveillance by security and...
Kashmir has a complex and deeply troubled history characterized by oppression and geopolitical conflict. In 1846, the British sold Kashmir to the Hindu Maharaja, a transaction that laid the groundwork for future disputes. When India gained independence in 1947, the...
Kashmir is an ecological wonder. The watershed is the home of the Indus River, one of the world’s most important rivers. Kashmir is also home to the Ravi, Chenab, Jhelum, and Sutlej Rivers - rivers vital to Kashmir’s food production. The region sits at the foothills...
India goes to the polls in 2024 and the message that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP want the world to know is that there is nothing wrong in Kashmir. With his heavy-handed leadership, he has “stabilized” the region, and there is a so-called booming sector of...
For decades, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has had one singular goal: To seize Jammu and Kashmir and forcibly integrate it into India and erase its unique cultural, ethnic, and religious heritage. In 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi succeeded in abrogating...
The people of Palestine have suffered extensively for the crime of simply trying to exist freely and with dignity in their homeland. The brazen Israeli settler colonialism eroded the West Bank, and blockaded the Gaza Strip which has turned it into a de-facto prison...
Contemporary journalism is a difficult, thankless, and often dangerous job. Globally, the number of journalists unlawfully killed has increased. In 2022, 67 reporters were killed – most in Russia, Ukraine, and Haiti as a result of war and unrest. The number of...
On paper, the rise of India as a global power should be a good thing. As the world’s largest, multi-ethnic democracy, it holds a unique and diverse presence in international affairs. It is a sentiment shared in the halls of power the world over. And yet, the rise of...
The modern state of Kashmir has never known freedom – its people and its culture are always a pawn sacrificed in the chess game of the world powers. In our last blog, we explored the partition of India and the violence and genocide that erupted from a divided...
Kashmir is not a free state. Its dreams of self-determination and even autonomy have been torn asunder by the Indian government. With each year that passes, those dreams seem further out of reach, but they should never be forgotten. Forgetting is what the Modi...
WKA – News roundup – April 2023 The world watched in horror this month as the Civil War renewed in Sudan, shutting down the Capital City of Khartoum and the specter of another genocide on the African continent only two years removed from the Tigray War in neighboring...
Economic repression is an insidious form of repression. It seldom garners outrage from the outside world, especially in the West where poverty is often viewed as a personal choice, although as we know, that is not always the case. Yet, economic repression can be as...
WKA – News Round Up – March 2023 As India prepares to open itself up to the world for the G-20 summit, it is desperate to keep the ghosts of Kashmir hidden away and the graves covered up. Truth has a way of making itself known, it rises like a fire and it won’t be...
Dictators and autocrats constantly seek legitimacy for their human rights abuses and all too often, they find an eager world waiting to look away. That is because they don’t want to confront them. The rotating presidency of the G-20 allows a member state to organize...
WKA News Roundup – February 2023 February is a short month, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t big stories coming out of Kashmir. From ongoing protests against the eviction drive to Modi’s continuing war on the press, here are the biggest stories for February 2023....
Since the beginning of February, hundreds of people have been forcibly evicted from their homes by the settler-colonialist government abetted by the callousness and ineptitude of the local politicians and their followers. The evictions have also targeted and removed...
WKA News Round-Up – January 2023 There is nothing new under the sun, and 2023 is starting to live up to that expectation. The Indian settler-colonial project of Jammu and Kashmir is progressing to its fourth year. The region continues to look increasingly like a large...