Country without a post office

There are, at the moment, multiple rhetoric’s floating around internationally about the situation in occupied Kashmir. Pakistan is eagerly running about trying to create an international tension on the issue, and rightfully so, thereby attracting attention to Kashmir. Trump’s contrasting statements with both PMs add more confusion to an already perplexing situation. Other nations have issued statements against India claiming the situation as a violation of human rights while most the UN can do is hold an informal session. To much amusement and shame, currently, there is a ‘curfew clock’ van parked, facing the UN building in New York. On the one hand, we see Modi clasping onto Trump’s hands like a spoilt child receiving validation from a father, while on the other we see the US ever so slightly inching towards the removal on their troops from Afghanistan.

The relation between Pakistan and India at the moment seems to be somewhat confusing: on the one end, both have issued statements to refrain from talks while on the other the Kartarpur corridor meetings continue. From an international perspective, the situation as a whole is quite vexing and we remain scratching our head at all these different turns of events. Political possibilities seem to be at a deadlock. However, amidst the amalgamation of possibilities what remains absent is the Kashmiri voice.

When politics falls short of the target, other means of expression become indispensable. It is here that Kashmiris should resort to art, literature, film, architecture, etc. Like the poet Agha Shahid Ali who described Kashmir as “The country without a post office.” These forms of expressions have the ability to echo the voices of those that are oppressed, which is why they need to hold on to anything they can. The people of Kashmir need to indulge in different forms of expression and continuously fight against existing conditions because what should be necessary, but isn’t, are the voices of those people and not others.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2019.

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