(FINAL EPISODE SEASON ONE)
A question that most of us get asked is why do we do what we do? This is something I wanted to understand for myself and therefore I had a conversation with two Kashmiri academics, to understand why our experiences are central to what we become and why it is important to leave behind a collective understanding of events that have shaped the present in Kashmir . One of our guests is a historian in making and another one is an anthropologist. As Kashmiri researchers I hardly see us working on topics other than Kashmir and yet everytime we start this research process, it only feels like a beginning. In this conversation with Mohammad Junaid and Iffat Rashid, I realised how this is not the start. There have always been kashmiri historians, writers, ethnographers and journalists who have tried to document our past and our present. It's a different question altogether as to how much their voices were recognised. Mostly our story has been told through the colonial gaze. We have had people outside of Kashmir telling our stories, writing about us and some even exotifying or demonizing the people of Kashmir by saying things like Kashmiris have red cheeks, they have fair skin, they are incapable of ruling themselves or even worse - that kashmirs are  terrorists. Therefore, Kashmiri scholarship is important and it is the only way we not only write our own history and present but also collectively understand possibilities for our future. 

This episode features Iffat Rashid, a researcher at the Faculty of History, University of Oxford.  And Mohamad Junaid, an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

This episode features  Ather Zia, talking about the current situation in Kashmir,  the issue of settler colonialism, the myths of development after abrogation of article 370, the agency of Kashmiri women and also talks about Ather’s prose and poetry books. Ather Zia, Ph.D., is a political anthropologist, poet, short fiction writer, and a columnist. She is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Gender Studies at the University of Northern Colorado Greeley. Ather is the author of Resisting Disappearances: Military Occupation and Women’s Activism in Kashmir (June 2019) and co-editor of Can You Hear Kashmiri Women Speak (Women Unlimited 2020),  Resisting Occupation in Kashmir (Upenn 2018) and A Desolation called Peace (Harper Collins, May 2019). She has published a poetry collection “The Frame” (1999) and another collection is forthcoming in 2021. Ather’s ethnographic poetry on Kashmir has won an award from the Society for Humanistic Anthropology. She is the founder-editor of Kashmir Lit and is the co-founder of Critical Kashmir Studies Collective, an interdisciplinary network of scholars working on the Kashmir region.

November 2nd is the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, but what does it mean to journalists in Kashmir? A place where journalists are usual targets for police and cases like Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) are easily slapped against them. This episode draws light on the everyday struggles of Kashmiri journalists both male and female and features five Kashmiri journalists who spoke to us on the condition of complete anonymity.

Of late, there has been quite a debate on social media about the role of the Kashmir diaspora, who they are, and what they should be doing or not doing. Important questions have also been raised about whether they have a right to represent Kashmiris and what they can or must represent. In these conversations, sometimes the diaspora is treated as one singular entity. In this podcast, we speak to three Kashmiri Americans to understand the history and background of the Kashmir diaspora, as well as their activities, especially since August 5, 2019. We also speak to a young Kashmiri scholar to understand some of the critiques of diaspora engagement on the Kashmir issue. This important podcast sheds lights on questions of privilege, representation, and responsibility and attempts to address some of the concerns surrounding diaspora advocacy. 

Tune in to learn more.

Women in Kashmir have been portrayed as either being passive victims or lodged between the Indian state and local patriarchy. Here, four Kashmiri women move beyond these frames and speak of life under occupation, and their everyday acts of resistance and existence. Even as women have experienced the death and disappearances of their loved ones, sexual violence, and numerous other warcrimes and crimes against humanity, they are on the frontlines for the fight against occupation, dreaming ‘dreams of freedom’ and harboring hope for a better tomorrow. Their resistance knows no bounds- it is in their visible act of protest on the streets, the look of defiance as they cross a checkpoint, in their songs of freedom, and their prayers for those who have been martyred. For them, existence is resistance. 

Listen to this powerful conversation, where four Kashmiri women share their perspective about living and working under occupation. 

 How many of us know the meaning of the term, “political prisoner”? Maybe most of us. But how many of us know how this meaning translates into the everyday lives of not just the prisoners themselves  but those who they leave behind, their families, their children? Listen to our fourth episode to know more.
Featuring Ahmed Bin Qasim, a Kashmiri student of anthropology, a writer, spoken word poet and a vivid reader. Ahmed has been writing for different international news outlets from a very young age. He is  a podcaster and hosts the 'Koshur Musalman' podcast. Ahmed is a son of two political prisoners and his father being the longest serving political prisoner from Kashmir. 

It has been more than a year that kids in Kashmir have not been to school. Is pandemic more than a year old yet? The answer is no. So why have been Kashmiri kids deprived of that education even before the pandemic started?  Listen to this episode to find out. 

This is the second episode in the first series of the Kashmir Podcast. In this episode we will talk about the judicial processes, the Public Safety Act, illegal detentions, petitions at SHRC and their outcomes. Our guests for this episode are:

Habeel Iqbal is a lawyer based in Shopian, the Southern region of Kashmir. He has been practising law since 2009 and also works with Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP).

Farhana Latief is PhD scholar at JNU, New Delhi. She has worked on Juvenile detentions, disappearances and the overall illegal detentions in Kashmir.

Urfi Mir is a lawyer at Srinagar High Court. She has been practising law for the last 15 years and closely looks at cases related to Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Public Safety Act (PSA)

Welcome to the first episode in the first series of The Kashmir Podcast. Today’s episode will be an overview of not only what happened in the last one year in Kashmir after the autonomy was revoked but also what happened before that. We will speak to Kashmir’s one of the most senior human rights lawyers and a civil rights activist Parvez Imroz.  Imroz is a recipient of multiple international human rights awards  including the Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize for Human Rights in 2017.

He is also the founder of Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society. "JKCCS is a federation of human rights organizations and individuals working in Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir. JKCCS through its constituents seeks to speak truth to power whether through reports, programs, systematic documentation, litigation or other engagements in Jammu and Kashmir and outside." Follow their work at jkccs.net

Welcome to The Kashmir Podcast. This  Podcast takes you on a journey to the world’s most militarized land to delve into the everyday lives of Kashmiris, bringing you first-hand perspectives on their daily struggles & battles for justice, and stories of resistance and resilience in a fight against occupation and colonization.