What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
Exploring hard truths and the roots of middle eastern colonialism in Kashmir and the Indian subcontinent
It is important to understand where you came from, what your roots are, what the past was and what sort of conditioning you would have gone through since your birth.
We inevitably end up defending the religion and culture we were born into, with no objectivity whatsoever. It is important to distance oneself from one’s own environment and see it dispassionately and explore the possibility of inheriting a history and belief system that may have a lot of gaps, distortions, and untruths about it.
This occupation canard in Kashmir throughout the 80s, 90s and the new millennium is precisely the result of having never questioned one’s upbringing or conditioning since birth.
It takes courage to go over one’s family tree and realise that where the subcontinent is concerned today’s Muslims are all converts and almost every family has roots in the Indic civilisation. There is a new discourse gaining ground in academia, parallel to European colonialism and that is namely, Middle Eastern colonialism (MEC). It is imperative that one understands how the indigenous psyche has been conditioned into this MEC, that they are ready to give up not only their lives to maintain this but also take the lives of other indigenous groups too.
It is an established fact that India/Bharat/Hind was invaded countless times by Middle Eastern colonials from the north and Islam was spread through trade and commerce in the South of India. That the conquest of Sindh and subsequently parts of Hind was brutal is undoubtedly visible even today.
But negationism of these invasions and conquests in historiography, by Nehruvian-Marxist historians, post Partition deprived entire generations of these facts. What happens when the advent of technology and social media makes one face these hard truths that were concealed?
As is predictable in human nature, one doubles down on the “truths” taught to him or her by society and takes a defensive attitude because the shock of this attack on one’s identity is huge. Then follows obscurantism and practising mental gymnastics while dealing with the insecurity of knowing that what the opposition is saying has a lot of factual and logical punch to their arguments and ‘truths’.
In rare cases, does an individual or a group accept the hard truths and look for ways to reconcile this brutal past with the lived reality of today and come up with some sort of a working system wherein the acquired belief system does not clash with what was indigenous to one’s being, spirit and blood. Kashmir needs this acceptance; it needs to be weaned away from the canard of “occupation” and brought face to face with the hard truths of the past.
This can only happen when safe spaces are built into institutions where critical thinking is encouraged and appreciated. That the creation of Pakistan was Middle Eastern coloniality’s “long, troubled and continuing encounter/interaction with the Indic civilisation” must be accepted. This extends to the “unfinished business of Partition” that is the ‘Azadi’ of Kashmir from “occupation” which that very created Pakistan has adopted as its foreign policy to complete the MEC.
The history books don’t have this concept yet, the school textbooks do not touch upon this, the research and scholarship regarding this are non-existent in the whole country, Kashmiri academic institutions not being the exception. But today’s digital world provides the independence of content, access, and availability which individuals can use while applying their own reasoning and logic.
What is left is those minuscule safe spaces where then this growing consciousness would be expressed on platforms. Unless those safe spaces are provided and nurtured, this canard of “occupation” and the deconditioning of the mind will not happen.
The West was able to course correct its colonial past and abolish its institutions of slavery and racism because the age of its enlightenment produced those critical thinking spaces and nurtured individuals who boldly expressed contrarian views which emphasised individual rights and community rights.
The Middle East now is just awakening to this possibility to quieten the strife and discontent within their populations since the birth of Islam. Saudi Arabia and Iran are being forced to reverse their 40-year-old rivalry based on geopolitical, religious, and ideological differences, which engulfed even the Indian subcontinent in its “Black Wave” through Wahhabi and Salafi doctrines and continues to fuel tensions in the subcontinent.
The Indian subcontinent Muslims must observe these happenings and gain an understanding of the new digital colonialisms that are being practised both by the West (Europe, North America) and the Middle East (Saudi Arabia and Iran) by exploiting the permanent fault lines as a result of the creation of Pakistan and think about their future within the Indic Civilisation and that includes Kashmiris too. This includes recognising UP Muslims who voted for Pakistan and then stayed behind because the reality of the New Medina dawned on them; their progeny who foment insurgencies while covertly advocating for a state within a state.
It is easy to do so, those Muslims will espouse to speak for Muslims, will trace their lineage to the Middle East and spew rhetoric which is divisive and keeps preventing the Muslims from assimilating into the Indic Civilisation. That recognition can only come from deconditioning, critical thinking and owning hard truths.
Arshia Malik is a Delhi-based writer, blogger and social commentator
Disclaimer: Views expressed above are the author’s own
