Since his electoral victory in 2014, Narendra Modi’s Hindutva brigade has attempted to render Muslims invisible through hypervisibility. Mob-lynchings "don’t just happen” to Muslims. Thook Jihad is to be expected. By applying microscopic, misinformative attention to Muslim businesses, homes, and livelihoods throughout the country, the BJP has forced Indian Muslims to constantly create hideouts for their humanity. However, as Modi’s monumental loss in the recent Lok Sabha polls indicates, Muslims refusing to accept the social and psychological invisibilization are already leading the charge for a brighter electoral future. · FEATURES Opinion · Madhya Pradesh Since his electoral victory in 2014, Narendra Modi’s Hindutva brigade has attempted to render Muslims invisible through hypervisibility. Mob-lynchings "don’t just happen” to Muslims. Thook Jihad is to be expected. By applying microscopic, misinformative attention to Muslim businesses, homes, and livelihoods throughout the country, the BJP has forced Indian Muslims to constantly create hideouts for their humanity. However, as Modi’s monumental loss in the recent Lok Sabha polls indicates, Muslims refusing to accept the social and psychological invisibilization are already leading the charge for a brighter electoral future. Saara Nahar Play (2023) Watercolour on Paper 22 x 30 inches Bulldozing Democracy When I was a child I was fascinated by the bulldozer that visited my street everyday and picked up trash from a nearby dumpyard. Bulldozers served as a good spectacle for us kids. We were intrigued by its ability to pick tonnes of trash in a matter of minutes. If you look up the term, “JCB ki khudai” (Bulldozer digging) on YouTube , you'll find dozens of innocuous videos with millions of views. In recent years, however, that imagery has changed. Today, these bulldozers produce the most horrid spectacle for kids and adults alike. Many Indian Muslims see the bulldozer as akin to an armoured tank, a tool of terror, seeking to uproot what holds their families together and stores their tangible memories and artefacts—their home. In recent years, the bulldozer has transformed from a harmless machine to a super villain serving extrajudicial punishment to its victims without trial. What stands in the way of its unrelenting arm is “enemy” territory, and the bulldozer shows no mercy. A few months ago, a dozen Muslim homes were bulldozed in Madhya Pradesh for allegedly storing beef, and men were jailed under the NSA (National Security Act) in what many Muslims widely perceived as vengeful action by the state government. In July , a Muslim man committed suicide after his home was demolished in an anti-encroachment drive in Lucknow city in Uttar Pradesh, in which hundreds of homes were demolished in a Muslim majority neighborhood. The Indian state suggested that displaced people buy alternative housing, similar to their statements on resettlements in 2015 . Other adjoining posh neighbourhoods were also meant to be demolished but were spared after an intervention by leaders of the ruling BJP and protests by the locals. In August, a sprawling 20,000 square feet bungalow—that belonged to Haji Shahzad Ali, a Muslim and former leader of the Congress party in MP—was bulldozed after he was accused of violence. A 2024 estimate by the Housing and Land Rights Network ( HLRN ) shows that government at the local, state, and federal levels demolished 153,820 homes in 2022 and 2023, resulting in the forcible eviction of more than 738,438 people from rural and urban areas across the country. Muslims were among the worst victims of these bulldozer drives. Illegal housing is a prominent issue in India. Ghettoisation, socioeconomic inequality, and mass migration to metropolitan cities like Delhi and Mumbai adds to the problem of illegal housing. News outlets have reported between 55,000 and 65,000 illegal housing developments in India between 2016 and 2024. The issue becomes uniquely problematic when homes of Muslims are selectively targeted and are considered a fight against “ Land Jihad. ” Every now and then, there's news of a major demolition drive against the so-called “illegal homes” belonging to Muslims. Similar to the Haji Shahzad Ali case, the demolition is alleged to happen as a response to crime. Later, however, the public is informed that the demolition and the crime are unrelated, although the way it plays out is as explicit revenge. The mainstream media hails it as quick justice, all while the underlying principles of natural justice are openly violated. In November 2024, the Supreme Court of India finally passed a strong verdict against these arbitrary bulldozer drives putting an end to the retributive demolition drives, but by now much damage has already been wrought. What about those who’ve already fallen victims to this “lawlessness?” After every forced demolition and eviction, I used to wonder where these people are meant to disappear off to? They can't bury themselves underground or dive into the sea, but we hardly hear of them once the dust of the bulldozer's destruction settles. As much as this violence instils fear, it can never successfully lead to the psychological and physical retreat of an entire community. This may make you wonder—what is the best way to invisibilize over 200 million people? Bulldozing is only a symptom of the malaise that plagues India today—a cog in the larger machinery of violence. You cannot press a big red button and expect them to immediately disappear for once and all. You can’t erase them through force and violence. So, what do you do then? A real life solution to this rather troubling rhetorical question has been developed by the Hindutva nationalist forces, who relentlessly target Muslims throughout India. All while, encouraging non-Muslim citizens to distance themselves from the Muslims for their own safety. Let me demonstrate this with a recent example of the insidious way in which, through hypervisibility and violence, Muslims are forced to disappear from public life. A recent 'directive’ in the state of Uttar Pradesh asked eateries that were situated along the path of a Hindu pilgrimage to display their names. A move intended to make the “Muslim” identities of the servers, cooks, and owners clear to the buyers and discourage commerce. It started after an anti-Muslim boycott was called by a far-right Hindutva cleric, who accused Muslims of mixing meat in vegetarian food and thook jiha d —a conspiracy that Muslims spit in the food of Hindus to wage a holy war. Despite the dehumanising, absurd, and defamatory nature of this message, the state did nothing to counter the request and instead mandated shopkeepers to prominently display their names on their shops. Consequently, many Muslims were forced to shut down their shops to avoid conflict, police harassment, and mob attacks. Many faced economic losses. Some were fired by their employers after allegedly being pressured by the police. It's important to note that Uttar Pradesh is opposed to Halal food certification, which is limited to the nature of food (vegetarian or non-vegetarian) and not the identity of the person cooking, serving, or selling it. The government knows that most things that are Halal for Muslims are permissible for Hindus as well, and nobody can stop Hindus from selling them. Here, however, the state was adamant that merely displaying the religious identity of vendors and cooks can ensure the purity of food and protect the religious rights of Hindu devotees. The process is simple. First, a campaign is initiated to make Muslims seem impure, unhygienic, and Thook jihadists. Naturally, Muslims are compelled to refute these false narratives. Due to the meat sales facing on and off bans, many Muslim businesses already suffer without any compensation. To rub salt in the wound, Muslims who run vegetarian eateries get accused of mixing meat in the food. Subsequently, a demand for segregation is imposed, and Muslim businesses are singled out, marked as targets by the state—by the very state that falsely claims to be against mixing the rules of food with the rules of religion. Where's the escape from all this? It's a heads-you-lose and tails-I-win dynamic. If you’re a Muslim, you can't cook meat on holy days for Hindus. If you do then you are probably mocking someone. If you don't, then you are conspiring to pollute vegetarians. You’ll be targeted either way. While the order has faced backlash, and has now been stayed by the Supreme court, it's not a one-off instance. In the last decade, we have witnessed this strategy play out in real time with the spread of an all pervasive vitriol that targets every aspect of Muslim life in India—from the God they pray to, to the clothes they wear, the food they eat, the language they speak, and now their homes, jobs, and families. What is supposed to be an innocuous and essential activity for others becomes a malicious conspiracy for Muslims. Undoubtedly, this humiliation has been sustained through violence and victim blaming. In one month since the election results were declared on June 4 , at least 12 Muslim men were brutally lynched across India. Perhaps, even most Muslims with no knowledge of English now know the meaning of the rather complex English word ‘lynching’. It's something that worries all of them and yet it has gradually become so mundane that it outrages only a few of them. After the recent wave of attacks, many Muslims questioned the silence of a now significantly stronger opposition party and even forced them to raise their voice in Parliament. For the opposition parties, however, this silence was a matter of convenience. In the past, they sought Muslim votes by acknowledging the threat of Hindutva, but continued to do nothing. They gaslit Muslims into not saying a word. For their voices to be heard, Muslims need to make their votes count and use every platform to organise, speak, and negotiate. Modi's reduced numbers in the parliament in 2024 has already proven this. The growing menace that systematically works to erase Muslim voices from the national discourse through various forms of terror is comprehensive. Sometimes it is done through withholding online content and other times through threats and legal cases. This is what happened with the fact checker, Mohammad Zubair , who was arrested in six consecutive trumped up cases. He was recently booked under sedition for exposing a hate speech. Note here that the severity of action against the hatemonger is nothing compared to the charges against Zubair. In August 2024, two Muslim migrant workers from West Bengal were attacked by a mob of cow vigilantes in Haryana. One of them succumbed to his injuries. The other , however, managed to escape. Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said that "It is not right to call it mob lynching,” because beef is illegal in Haryana. We don't know how the CM assumed that the two men had consumed beef. Around the same time, an elderly man was assaulted in a moving train by a mob on accusations of eating beef. On July 6 2024, the police in Uttar Pradesh booked two Muslim journalists for calling the murder of a Muslim man a ‘mob-lynching’. They were charged for creating communal unrest through malicious misreportage. All they did was report the family's version of the event. This is not an isolated incident in which those reporting on violence against Muslims have been targeted. On one hand, the Indian government has stopped publishing data on lynchings after calling its own methodology unreliable and on the other it attacks and tries to discredit every voice that investigates it. The few voices reporting on the lynchings are facing threats and censorship, gradually forcing them into silence. Indian Muslims see meanings twisted out of context everyday. For instance, a lynching is not reported as a lynching. Instead, it’s reported as the response to or punishment for a “robbery,” “child kidnapping”, or something similar. At the same time, a group of prominent right-wing clerics openly calling for genocide is dismissed and those calling them out might be booked under criminal charges. Reporting on this type of speech is considered “disturbing the peace.” The mainstream media has also shown little interest in these cases. The last decade saw a wave of hateful attacks through the news, social media, films, poetry, and music, to further invisibilise Muslims. Hate speeches are not confined to obscure corners, they dominate public discourse and are amplified by TV anchors and prominent social media influencers. A recent Human Rights Watch report pointed out that 110 out of 173 poll speeches by PM Modi contained Islamophobic remarks. Modi referred to Muslims as infiltrators and people producing more children. He even alleged that if the opposition won power, they'll give away the gold of Hindu women including their Mangalsutras to Muslims. Throughout the polls, BJP constantly published cartoons depicting Muslims as evil people eyeing the resources that belonged to Hindus. The PM’s message trickled down into the abyss of the bottomless cesspit, leading to more unhinged commentary by other leaders. This kind of hate mongering during elections is a first for India. It's a culmination of years of propaganda by WhatsApp troll armies and TV anchors like Suresh Chavhanke who dehumanise Muslims on live TV, and clerics like Yati Narsinghanand Giri who openly support the idea of a genocide of Muslims. The combination of these tactics seeks to marginalise Muslims and to systematically erase their presence in public life. The burden of proof and the onus to act in an "acceptable" way disproportionately falls on the Muslims. If they protest or turn bitter, that would reinforce negative stereotypes. Muslims must stay aware of these traps and not become silent. Be it the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests or the biggest political upset of Mr Modi's career in the recent Lok Sabha polls–in which he lost the majority in the parliament–Muslims have played a great role in these pushbacks. They have displayed resilience and resistance on many occasions which proves that they haven't given up on their citizenship. So, silence should not be an option. As a strategy, it is suicidal. Instead, they need to make their presence felt and reclaim public space. They must seek accountability from both the ruling party, as well as the opposition they voted for in large numbers. It's hard to predict how Muslims can break this cycle of violence and propaganda but what is clear is that they'll have to firmly stand up for themselves first if they want others to join them. SUB-HEAD Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Opinion Madhya Pradesh Demolition Uttar Pradesh Hindu Extremism Hindu Fascism Hindutva Thook Jihad Halal Muslim invisibility hypervisibility Invisibilizing Muslims Citizenship Amendment Act mob-lynching Dehumanization Land jihad bulldozing bulldozers Ghettoisation Ghettoization illegal homes BJP National Security Act Religious Conflict religious divide Lok Sabha Archive of Absence Career Politicians Modi Civil Society Displacement Economy Vendors Construction Despotism Disappearance Dissent Enforced Disappearances Extrajudicial Killings Execution Forced Disappearance Ghost Workers Human Rights Violations India democratic backsliding nationalism democracy housing urban development Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. 10th Jan 2025 AUTHOR · AUTHOR Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. 1 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 On That Note:

In New Caledonia, a collectivity of the French Republic, a mainland political ploy to subvert the indigenous Kanak people’s right to self-determination faced waves of protest in the summer of 2024. With liberal international institutions failing to enforce meaningful solutions, the Melanesian island’s struggle for liberation parallels global indigenous movements for sovereignty and exposes the settler-colonial logic of displacement and democratic dilution. · FEATURES Essay · New Caledonia In New Caledonia, a collectivity of the French Republic, a mainland political ploy to subvert the indigenous Kanak people’s right to self-determination faced waves of protest in the summer of 2024. With liberal international institutions failing to enforce meaningful solutions, the Melanesian island’s struggle for liberation parallels global indigenous movements for sovereignty and exposes the settler-colonial logic of displacement and democratic dilution. Mahnoor Azeem, Untitled (2025). Digital illustration. Dissipated Self-Determination In 1853, the French established the Saint-Denis Church of Balade, the first Catholic church in the small archipelago of Kanaky, known more widely today by its colonial name, New Caledonia . Ten years later, France seized control of the land and began to subtly but substantially desecrate the identity of the indigenous Melanesian Kanak people for imperial gain. On September 10, 2024, more than 160 years later, the Church became the fifth Catholic mission to be burned in response to the ongoing political violence and electoral erasure waged against the Kanak people by the French government. “Some elements of the Catholic Church are regarded by some younger Kanak militants as being symbolic of French state repression,” said David Robie, a New Zealand author and founder of the Asia Pacific Media Network, in an interview with SAAG . He noted, however, that Protestant Christian denominations in the Pacific have been found to support Kanak freedom. This repression was never more evident in New Caledonia—so marked in its démodé political approach—than in May 2024, when the French government weakened the pro-Kanaky voter base beyond any point of electoral voice. A proposed constitutional amendment, approved by the French National Assembly that month, sought to alter voting rights in a way many indigenous Kanak people feared would further diminish their political representation. In response, mass demonstrations erupted in frustration and protest. The unrest resulted in a revised death toll of 14, alongside hundreds of injuries. Numerous businesses and vehicles were destroyed, with the looting and damage on May 16 alone amounting to at least 200 million euros . In response to the escalating violence, France declared a state of emergency in New Caledonia, laying the ground for a brutal deployment of additional police and military forces to restore order. Many movement leaders, including the notable Christian Tien, were extradited to France under charges of “ organized crime .” Ultimately, the French government postponed the provincial elections scheduled for December 2024 to December 2025, aiming to address the underlying issues and restore stability. But this was a clear act of democratic erasure, aimed at further denigrating the humanity of the island’s Kanak people. “Sadly, three decades of goodwill and apparent goodwill from Paris and all sides have dissipated unjustly,” Robie added, “flaunting the United Nations Decolonization Committee provisions.” This ideological reversion to the fundamentals of neoliberal democracy has enraged the indigenous Kanak people of New Caledonia. It also raises questions about whether France ever intended to grant them sovereignty. It has further highlighted the historical deception that undergirds the self-sustenance of settler-colonies in the modern world, perpetuating disappearance under the guise of citizenship and electoral democracy. Kanaky Remains A French Colony After nearly a century of French colonization, Kanak populations were granted citizenship and the right to vote after 1946. This granting is a turning point in every colonial enterprise’s teleology to clinch onto their sovereignty. Following a feigned investment in the population of the exploitee, a colonizer must decide what tools of population disappearance will be most palatable to the populations’ particular land and labor context. New Caledonia was essentially an autonomously governed territory for a generation after World War II—until another war spotlighted the strategic value of the archipelago’s nickel resources. The Vietnam War, an imperialist venture in its own right, brought the small island back into focus, and Charles De Gaulle decided the nickel profits were too lucrative an exploit to pass up. The Union Calédonienne lost its majority voter base in the years surrounding the Vietnam War, as an influx of mainland French citizens arrived to disenfranchise the Kanak by shifting the weight of the body politic towards mainland sympathy. In the company of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Western Sahara, Gibraltar, and other de jure-occupied “territories” throughout Oceania, New Caledonia remains one of the last standing administrative colonies in the world. It also shares with states like Algeria a history of exploitation characteristic of French colonial enterprises. The French overseas department-turned-collectivity is now at a political standstill, partially because the indigenous people people placed faith in France’s supposed goodwill efforts in the 1990s to pave the way for Kanak self-determination. The culmination of those efforts—the Nouméa Accord of 1998 —then enshrined into the French constitution a purportedly pragmatic approach to Kanak self-determination and the eventual establishment of New Caledonia as Kanaky. The accord stipulated that after 20 years, the people of New Caledonia would have three opportunities to vote for independence via referendum. David Chappell, a scholar on the modern revolutionary history of the Kanak people and Professor Emeritus at the University of Hawaii, told SAAG that while the Nouméa accord may be viewed as a successful negotiation following a period of intense Kanak rebellion, it was likely only ever an attempt to “delay decolonization.” In 2018 and 2020, the Kanak population, currently comprising around 40% of New Caledonia, fell just short of their goal. Between the first and the second referendums, their base grew by enough percentage points that movement leaders were optimistic about their imminent third chance at independence. “It was supposed to be held in 2022, but Macron moved it up [to 2021] at the last minute,” Chappell told SAAG . In response to concerns regarding a COVID-19 outbreak that had struck the island, particularly the Kanak community leading up to the vote, and given the mourning procedures of the Kanak people that often lasted up to a year, movement leaders demanded the referendum be postponed. None of these demands were taken seriously. An active Kanak boycott of the vote in tandem with many abstentions based on COVID-19 cautiousness thus manifested in low voter turnout. The election results, where only 43% of all voting-eligible New Caledonians participated and voted overwhelmingly in favor of staying with France, were immediately—and naturally—called into question. “The last [two and a half] decades had allowed pacification and progress on the path to decolonization,” French New Caledonian organizer Francis Sitel wrote to SAAG . “This is what was spoiled by the government's power grabs.” Beyond rejecting calls for a revote on the grounds of unfair voting circumstances, in May 2024, the French government decided the moment was opportune for a constitutional amendment granting voting rights to New Caledonians who arrived in the past two decades—in other words, those with weakest historical claim to the land. This decision, coming on the heels of the boycotted referendum that had already left the Kanak people scorned by France, has triggered a dramatic responsee—protests that have escalated to the brink of insurrection. This sequence of events has been entirely predictable and preventable,” Robie detailed. “However, the French state (under Macron) is completely tone-deaf and dogmatic in its responses to the indigenous Kanaks’ aspirations for independence.” New Leader, Same Strategy Today, New Caledonia remains one of the world’s top five nickel producers . The industry is crucial to the Kanak people’s future self-governance and sustenance, but it is clear that France is unwilling to relinquish control easily. According to Robie, Macron’s “rescue” initiative for the nickel industry was staunchly contested by the Kanak people, as it “favor[ed] the incumbent industry players and [did little] to spread the economy to support Kanaks.” However, South Africa has shown interest in reviving the nickel industry—what Robie called a “glimmer of hope—while France has seemingly taken the cue to venture for capital elsewhere. “France is interested in the 200-mile maritime Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ),” Robie explained. An EEZ grants a country exclusive rights to exploit natural resources within 200 miles of its shores. Due to the former empire’s vast ownership of islands territories globally, France possesses the world’s second-largest EEZ. The same colonial strategy of buying time endures. Former Prime Minister Michel Barnier behaved in the same fashion: on 1 October , he announced that elections in New Caledonia would be postponed for a year while also halting the progression of Macron’s controversial constitutional amendment, which sought to grant voting rights to newly resident French nationals in New Caledonia. Superficial gestures of good faith towards self-determination continue to be paired with the deliberate stalling of liberatory legal processes, inevitably leading to repression and violence. “France seems to be hellbent on a militarist and repressive response to the unrest in New Caledonia,” Robbie added, “instead of a negotiated, peaceful attempt to build a consensus.” He denounced the French government’s cruelty in deporting and jailing pro-independence leaders accused of incitement, forcing them to await trial in metropolitan France—over 10,000 miles away from the support of their families and communities. “It is reminiscent of some of the worst excesses of French 19th-century colonialism,” Robbie noted, “and has severely damaged French credibility in the South Pacific region at a time when it is pursuing an Indo-Pacific security strategy.” Are there any liberatory legal procedures in a settler colony that can legislate independence amicably, in something like an electoral handshake? Colonial Anachronism Robie called the state-sponsored violence a “colonial anachronism” of this day and age. Yet this reality persists across countless other regions of the world, where dispossessed peoples must overcome endless obstacles to prove their voices deserve legitimacy in the democratic process—even as they are actively erased from claiming authority over their indigenous identity. Perhaps most relevantly, Zionism stands as a prime example of a revisionist historical enterprise that simultaneously operates as a democratic ethnostate—one that, through violence and displacement, diminishes an indigenous population to render it democratically negligible. For there to be a Jewish democracy in the land of historic Palestine, the Palestinians there must cease to exist. The initial mechanisms of this disappearance were manifest in the atrocities of the Nakba. But later, throughout the 1950s and 1960s, a heavier emphasis was placed on the suppression of Palestinian political and social organizing. For example, Al-Ard , the first Palestinian party to attempt participation in the Israeli parliament (Knesset), was outlawed within years on fabricated and unfounded grounds. There could never be a fair playing field if democratically warranted self-determination is what one was after. It is even harder to accuse a state of engaging in the logic of elimination endemic to settler colonialism when it simply appears as though there are not enough indigenous people on this island in the Pacific—seldom making international headlines—for it to be a worthwhile pursuit. But proximity to the metropole should not be the criterion for concern over an indigenous group’s right to self-determination, or the pressure placed on the neocolonial state to secure that right—especially when it was, in effect, promised mere decades ago. As Dr. Chappell posed in conversation, “What if almost half the population of the United States, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand were indigenous? What kind of politics might result?” The logic of democracy—”one person, one vote”—negates the inviolable right of the colonized indigenous Kanak people to self-determination. Robie elaborates, “It merely ensures that the 'tyranny of the majority'—mostly imported French settlers—imposes its will over the Indigenous Kanak minority. French colonial policy has deliberately encouraged settlers from the metropole to migrate to New Caledonia to ensure the electoral disenfranchisement of the Kanaks.” Interestingly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, when it comes time to imagine solutions, few arise that are not at the behest of international institutions that have, in the context of the Kanaks, the Palestinians, and indigenous people around the world, fallen short in their ability to enforce international law or solidify paths towards self-determination. In Chappell’s words, “The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People gave them more ideas, but it allows only autonomy over resources and cultural rights for indigenous minorities—not independence from the territorial state.” Robie anticipated progress from a more localized approach of institutional action within the Pacific Island region. “The Pacific Islands Forum, Melanesian Spearhead Group, and the United Nations need to step up diplomatic and political pressure on France to change its course of action,” he said. "It is imperative," he argued, "for Paris to step back from its militarist approach and make a commitment to seeking a pathway for the Kanak self-determination aspirations.” The question remains: how much longer can France suppress Kanak self-determination before the façade of democracy collapses entirely?∎ SUB-HEAD Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Essay New Caledonia French Republic Indigenous Kanak Indigenous self-governance Protest Liberation Sovereignty Colonialism Displacement Kanaky Melanesia Imperialism Political Violence Violence Identity Catholicism Church Electoral Politics Erasure French State Erasure State Sanctioned Violence Repression Militarism Militant David Robie Freedom Civilian Unrest Mass Protests Organized Crime Movements Neoliberalism Disappearance Administrative Colony Exploitation Oceania Self-determination David Chappell Revolutionary Revolution 17th Century Decolonization Independence Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. 26th Mar 2025 AUTHOR · AUTHOR Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. 1 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 On That Note:

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SAAG is a dissident literary magazine of the internationalist left. THE VERTICAL The Vertical Books & Arts Spiritually Chic Torsa Ghosal Community Fiction & Poetry Features Interactive LIFE ON LINE Umar Altaf The Citizen's Vote Jeevan Ravindran Speaking Through the Subaltern Vamika Sinha The Captive Mind Sola Mahfouz Into the Sea Mai Ishizawa · Polly Barton After the March Zoya Rehman LATEST Spiritually Chic Torsa Ghosal JAIPUR LIFE ON LINE Umar Altaf MIZORAM The Citizen's Vote Jeevan Ravindran COLOMBO VOL 2. ISSUE 1 AYAH KUTMAH “Euphemisms and doublespeak concealed disappearance at an unprecedented transnational scope.” Resistance Until Return Vrinda Jagota For years, “The Urgent Call of Palestine,” a rallying cry from the 1970s by Zeinab Shaath, was a lost cultural artifact until it was recovered in 2017. In 2024, British-Palestinian label Majazz Project and LA-based Discostan released an EP with the titular song, sitting with startling ease alongside contemporary Palestinian music. Ahsan Butt · Sadieh Rifai Palestinian-American actor and playwright Sadieh Rifai confronts the mental toll of occupation, war, and the American dream in her world premiere, The Cave. Surina Venkat “Food organization at Columbia’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment began as the effort of just seven students organizing the chaotic assortment on the tarp, but it quickly evolved into a network attracting several student groups, professors, community members, and even other encampments, including the NYU and City College encampments.” Fugitive Ecologies Lima's Forsaken Jack Dodson Paean to Mother Nature Marissa Carruthers Cracks in Pernote Tauseef Ahmad · Mohammad Aatif Ammad Kanth Sinking the Body Politic Dipanjan Sinha During the general election, prominent Indian political parties vied for villagers' affection in the Sundarbans, albeit turning a blind eye to the ongoing climate catastrophe. As demands for climate-conscious infrastructure and humanitarian relief go unappraised, people in the region are reckoning with the logical consequences of that apathy. Gardening at the End of the World Ben Jacob Descendants of enslaved and indentured labourers cultivated life amidst the ruins of climate catastrophe in nineteenth-century Mauritius. Today, deforestation and the sugar industry have left a legacy of natural disasters and public health crises. What path forward remains for the unification of the political and scientific in service of the island’s labouring population? An internationalist, leftist literary magazine seeking an activist approach to representation. Colophon inspired by Rabindranath Tagore's "Head Study" Four Lives Aamer Hussein "How would Rafi Ajmeri have fared in the Progressive era that was dawning just then? Would his liberal attitudes have hardened into dogma, or would he have swung to conservatism in the Pakistan to which his brothers migrated as he too probably would have?" Alien of Extraordinary Ability Tarfia Faizullah "Go back to sleep Ms. Chowdhury, the American situation is strange" Six Poems Rajiv Mohabir "In Ayodhya’s sacked Mogul masjid / vultures scrawl Ram on new temple bricks. / Brother, from this mandir of burning" SAAG’s 2024 In Reading Fictions of Unknowability Chats Ep. 9 · On the Essay Collection “Southbound” Dalit Legacies in Mythology, Sci-Fi & Fantasy On Class & Character in Megha Majumdar's Debut Novel Experimentalism in the Face of Fascism “Welcome! Models politicians auto drivers butchers bankers accountants actors liars cheat saints masters slaves herpes gonorrhea HIV syphilis tops bottoms bottoms who top tops who bottom preferably top miserably bottom white black pink yellow brown blue high caste low caste no caste...” "There was no one else in the four-berth compartment. I was comfortable. Somewhere near the Andhra-Orissa border I woke up and found everything dark. The train wasn’t moving either. Pitch dark. You couldn’t see anything out of the window." A Premonition; Recollected Jamil Jan Kochai NEWSLETTER Subscribe to our newsletter to find out about events, submission calls, special columns, merch + more SUBSCRIBE Thanks for subscribing! EVENTS See Where You Can Join Us Next Rubble as Rule The Changing Landscape of Heritage Saranya Subramanian Fictions of Unknowability Torsa Ghosal Cracks in Pernote Tauseef Ahmad · Mohammad Aatif Ammad Kanth Kashmiri homes and livelihoods are disintegrating, with major infrastructural developments and mining projects inducing landslides, disrupting water and electrical channels, and destroying agricultural trade in the region–all in the name of increasing Kashmir's connectivity. Impractical in scope, these infrastructural projects defy all recommendations geological researchers have urged developers to consider for decades: and the government is content leaving Kashmiris in unlivable conditions, so long as the homes are not yet one with the earth. Bulldozing Democracy Alishan Jafri Since his electoral victory in 2014, Narendra Modi’s Hindutva brigade has attempted to render Muslims invisible through hypervisibility. Mob-lynchings "don’t just happen” to Muslims. Thook Jihad is to be expected. By applying microscopic, misinformative attention to Muslim businesses, homes, and livelihoods throughout the country, the BJP has forced Indian Muslims to constantly create hideouts for their humanity. However, as Modi’s monumental loss in the recent Lok Sabha polls indicates, Muslims refusing to accept the social and psychological invisibilization are already leading the charge for a brighter electoral future. “Not only has the neighborhood lost much of its middle-class transnational identity, but it is also being erased in the media and from the collective memory of Dubai. The livelihoods and lifestyles of Karama’s former inhabitants are threatened as the space for economic participation diminishes with the establishment of more exclusive, privatized, and upper-class modes of living and leisure in the area.” COMING SOON INTERVIEWS The Mind is a Theater of War Ahsan Butt · Sadieh Rifai The Craft of Writing in Occupied Kashmir Huzaifa Pandit Radical Rhetoric, Pedagogy & Academic Complicity Aneil Rallin A State of Perpetual War: Fiction & the Sri Lankan Civil War Shehan Karunatilaka Kashmiri ProgRock and Experimentation as Privilege Zeeshaan Nabi From Raags to Pitches Vrinda Jagota For years, “The Urgent Call of Palestine,” a rallying cry from the 1970s by Zeinab Shaath, was a lost cultural artifact until it was recovered in 2017. In 2024, British-Palestinian label Majazz Project and LA-based Discostan released an EP with the titular song, sitting with startling ease alongside contemporary Palestinian music. Vrinda Jagota KOKOKO!, an experimental music collective from the DRC, has navigated political censorship and the country’s struggles with energy exploitation to create a sound that electrifies the present. Using repurposed household materials as instruments and makeshift cables for amps, they fuse French and South African house with Congolese folk to produce innovative live and stereo listening experiences. Their latest album, BUTU— “the night”—calls on audiences to bear witness to the cacophony of Kinshasa after dusk as a commentary on the political state of Congo at large. Priya Darshini · Max ZT · Shahzad Ismaily · Moto Fukushima · Chris Sholar “Loneliest star, shining so brightly / For no one to see. / Loneliest star, tell me your secret / You shouldn't keep it.”

SAAG is a dissident literary magazine of the internationalist left. THE VERTICAL LATEST . . . . . . VOL 2. ISSUE 1 SHAH MAHMOUD HANIFI “GIS-based technologies, most notably involving drones, were instrumental to US imperial violence in Afghanistan.” THE SISTER STATES Arshad Ahmed · Chanchinmawia In Mizoram, new geopolitical and security measures are dismantling long-standing community bonds and obstructing essential trade in a region accustomed to fluid boundaries. These controls lay bare the disruptions to daily life wrought by political decisions on both sides of the Indo-Myanmar border. Joyona Medhi · Abhishek Basu Violent clashes along the Assam-Mizoram border have a 150-year-old history. The recent border flare-ups may appear most visibly in the superficial disputes of state parliaments, but they have, in truth, roots in both militarism and political economy—particularly the illicut trade of the areca nut—that undergird the construction of ethnic identities. Anonymous “Welcome! Models politicians auto drivers butchers bankers accountants actors liars cheat saints masters slaves herpes gonorrhea HIV syphilis tops bottoms bottoms who top tops who bottom preferably top miserably bottom white black pink yellow brown blue high caste low caste no caste...” THE LABOR BEAT The Artisan Labor Crisis of Ladakh Mir Seeneen Paean to Mother Nature Marissa Carruthers The Ambivalent Voter Jeevan Ravindran مادری زبانیں Sabika Abbas انداز الگ / 
تاریخ الگ
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 / باریک الگ India's Vector Capitalism Model Anumeha Yadav “The Indian government has been pushing for health IDs with people's biometric data (Aadhaar). It was supposedly voluntary, but it was also required for food subsidies. Health spending in India was less than one percent in 2020—now, the government is commercializing its citizens' health data. Workers are made to work for data without meaningful consent. Many are not even told what they're signing up for.” An internationalist, leftist literary magazine seeking an activist approach to representation. Colophon inspired by Rabindranath Tagore's "Head Study" Article Author Subtitle Article Author Subtitle Article Author Subtitle Article Article Article Article Article Article Article Article Article Author Article Author NEWSLETTER Subscribe to our newsletter to find out about events, submission calls, special columns, merch + more SUBSCRIBE Thanks for subscribing! THE AESTHETIC LIFE Fictions of Unknowability Torsa Ghosal Origins of Modernism & the Avant-Garde in India Amit Chaudhuri Returning to the Sundarbans Amitav Ghosh “The most central aspect of what we call literary modernity is that it's centered around humans: Western humans. It's not just that it excludes other kinds of beings, it also excludes most of the species we now call humanity. This doesn't change with post-1945 Western avant-gardism. If anything, that experimentalism resulted into the absolute withdrawal of the human into abstractions.” Chats Ep. 5 · Tamil translation & Perumal Murugan's “Poonachi” N Kalyan Raman There's really no shortage of Tamil works to translate, according to N Kalyan Raman, the acclaimed Tamil translator of Perumal Murugan's novel “Poonachi.” On the docket: plays, poems, and works by radical Modernist Tamil literary figures spanning much of the 20th century. Art historian Partha Mitter challenges the cultural purity predicated on nationalist myths: natural corollaries of the denial of both the existence of the avant-garde in colonial India. and the very real flow of politics and aesthetics that allowed for the emergence of global modernism. Indian avant-garde art was cosmopolitan, concentrated in Calcutta, Lahore, and Bombay, but it remains a challenge to art historiography nonetheless. INTERVIEWS The Pakistani Left, Separatism & Student Movements Ammar Ali Jan Bengali Nationalism & the Chittagong Hill Tracts Kabita Chakma Public Art Projects as Feminist Reclamation Tehani Ariyaratne Photo Kathmandu & Public History in Nepal NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati Romantic Literature and Colonialism Mani Samriti Chander The Vertical Books & Arts Spiritually Chic Torsa Ghosal Community Fiction & Poetry Features Interactive LIFE ON LINE Umar Altaf The Citizen's Vote Jeevan Ravindran Speaking Through the Subaltern Vamika Sinha The Captive Mind Sola Mahfouz Into the Sea Mai Ishizawa · Polly Barton After the March Zoya Rehman TROUBLING THE ANTHROPOCENE Ibrahim Buriro In the wake of the devastating effects of the monsoon season in 2022, villagers in Sindh contend with the loss of their livelihoods and the ecological disaster that’s become increasingly familiar. Sabu Khan Buriro was initially submerged, but the nearby Hamal Lake continued to overflow. Villagers, distrustful of the indifferent and lethargic Pakistani state, took it upon themselves to maintain and strengthen flood protection bunds. Furqan Jawed "Our priority is to meet the needs of people on this planet. Not just workers. Not workers at all." A multimedia short using video archival footage, this faux-advertisement is equal parts a history of advertising & the legacy of fossil fuel companies’ manipulation and a disturbing, singular dystopia from one aesthete's point of view. Aruna Chandrasekhar Information asymmetry, shadowy military operations, mining mafias, and the consent, or lack thereof, of the working class in how their information, labor, and presence are used are all tied to the production, distribution, and consumption of food, energy, and water in India. For climate journalist Aruna Chandrasekhar, this understanding, as well as the proximity of Operation Green Hunt to her hometown, led her to journalism. COMING SOON EVENTS See Where You Can Join Us Next

Sudan’s ongoing war, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has devastated the country, displacing millions and crippling public services. Civilian-led groups, particularly the Resistance Committees (RCs) and professional unions, continue to provide humanitarian aid despite severe repression, learning from the rich history of Sudanese unions active since the 20th century. Today, emergency committees and medical unions work tirelessly to support war victims, exemplifying resilience amid chaos. Their struggle highlights a stark contrast between civilian solidarity and military destruction. · THE VERTICAL Reportage · Sudan Sudan’s ongoing war, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has devastated the country, displacing millions and crippling public services. Civilian-led groups, particularly the Resistance Committees (RCs) and professional unions, continue to provide humanitarian aid despite severe repression, learning from the rich history of Sudanese unions active since the 20th century. Today, emergency committees and medical unions work tirelessly to support war victims, exemplifying resilience amid chaos. Their struggle highlights a stark contrast between civilian solidarity and military destruction. Hashim Nasr, Boxed (2022). Digital photograph. Through Thick and Thin On April 15, 2023, one of Sudan's most brutal wars erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). This signaled a collapse of the alliance between two-armed factions. Even before the April fallout and subsequent war, their armed alliance had brought nothing to the Sudanese people but bloodshed and death; the alliance staged the military coup in October 2021 that terminated the civilian-military power-sharing agreement known as the Transitional Government which was installed in the wake of the December Revolution in 2018 . The Transitional Government (2019-2021) was composed of both military and civilians, with a rotating presidency that started with the military. The December Revolution was primarily led by millions of youths, particularly women, called the “Resistance Committees” (RCs). Although lacking in direct organizational links with the existing civilian groups, the RCs coordinated their mass protest actions very closely with them, particularly the Sudanese Professional Association . Remnants of Sudan’s Islamist military dictatorship (1989-2019) comprised two factions that had each previously attempted to seize power in the country. Working together, on June 3rd 2019, they enacted the most heinous massacre . Hundreds of peaceful protesters were brutalized, raped, drowned, and killed. On June 30th, 2019, under the combined leadership of civilian groups, millions of Sudanese took to the streets, demanding accountability for the massacres and a full transfer of power to civilians. The military eventually relented, resulting in the civilian-military power sharing agreement in August 2019. This illegitimate and violent political transformation has led to the ongoing war which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, over 12 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), and over three million refugees in neighboring countries. As the war has intensified since April 2023, the total repression of civilian activism has destroyed health, education, municipal and other civilian infrastructure, and deepened the economic crisis. In immediate response to the war, Sudan’s Resistance Committees (RCs) have morphed into Emergency Committees (ECs), while abroad, Sudanese communities collectively mobilize resources to save lives and restore livelihoods destroyed by the war. There are now numerous humanitarian, educational, and professional activities, both inside and outside Sudan seeking to help those most affected by war. Although repression inside Sudan and the lack of formal status outside Sudan limits this organizing, the collectives nevertheless strive to implement what they can. They continue to play a major role in organizing assistance and representing the Sudanese people at humanitarian and ceasefire negotiations mediated by international entities. With unwavering determination, the humanitarian aid effort by Sudan’s civilian bodies shines amidst the darkness of this horrific war. With the disintegration of the state apparatus and the collapse of public services, the RCs face highly complex challenges. Attempting to regroup and organize their membership, they continue to provide services to millions of displaced Sudanese people. Thus, a stark contrast emerges. While the military forces continue their war against each other and on the country’s resources, civil forces race to save what can be saved. These civilian forces continue amidst severe repression, killing, forced disappearances, illegal detention, torture, rape, and ethnic cleansing. The History of Trade Unions in Sudan As a central organizing force, political parties, civil society organizations, professional associations, and trade unions draw upon a long tradition of highly active political engagement that started before Sudan’s independence in 1956. Sudan has had union organizations since the early 20th century. In 1908, forest workers under British-Egyptian colonial rule, announced a strike demanding better wages and working conditions. In 1947, the first union of railway workers was established. As a result of the pressure exerted by the union movement, colonial authorities conceded the right to union organization. A labor law was issued in 1948, granting the Sudanese union movement legal status. By becoming a primary force in resisting and changing authoritarian regimes, however, the movement became a target of colonial oppression. One of the earliest decisions in subsequent military coups was the dissolution of existing unions, confiscating their properties and funds. By mobilizing their members, the unions quickly regained their strength and ability to lead. The Front of Associations (a coalition of professional, labor, and farmers' unions) led the October 1964 revolution , dominating a seat majority in the first transitional government, before being overthrown by infighting. Led by the Union Alliance, unions played a prominent role in the April 1985 uprising and the downfall of the Jaafar Nimeiri dictatorship regime. Omer Al-Bashir’s regime in 1989 resisted workers’ attempts at unionization—seeking to dismantle and control them by dismissing employees through the Public Interest Law. The labor movements, however, were ceaseless. Following the successful Sudanese Doctors Union strike of November 1989 , several professional associations organized strikes and protests in 1994 and 1996. They also continued efforts with regional and international organizations to isolate the military regime and its façade of regime-friendly unions. Therefore, during the 30 years of the Islamist military dictatorship, trade unions and associations operated through professional bodies which were strategically founded to counter the regime’s compliant civilian bodies and trade unions. In 2005, following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the military dictatorship and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M), Sudan witnessed a relative expansion of political space and public sector workers showed increased interest in unionization. Medical bodies inside and outside Sudan organized networking and coordination. Lawyers' organizations confronted repressive laws and defended public freedoms. Journalists exposed and documented violations, defending freedom of expression. Teachers gathered to address wage issues and demanded educational reform. The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) served as the unifying platform leading the Revolution for the downfall of the Islamist dictatorship regime, especially when the-then SPA joined political and civil society organizations to create the opposition platform called Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) . The 2019 post-revolution transitional phase represented a glimmer of hope. Institutions were being rebuilt, preparing the country for a democratic transition . Most professional bodies sought to gain legitimacy by organizing member elections. Some of them, like the Sudanese Journalists' Union (SJU) and the Sudanese Doctors Union (SDU) succeeded in completing free and fair internal elections. Many believe that the October 2021 coup was staged by SAF and RSF precisely due to the rising tide of organized and elected professional associations and trade unions. The Birth of the Sudanese Professionals Association Actual collaboration among opposing union factions began with the rise of popular resistance against the Inqaz or the NCP regime, especially after South Sudan's secession and the 2010 election and following economic collapse. Professional and other civilian groups started organizing their bases to hold democratic grassroot union elections. They also worked to establish effective union alliances to challenge the regime's policies and its monopoly over power and political decisions. This culminated in the formation of what was then known as the Sudanese Professionals Union in 2012 (later called the Sudanese Professionals Association or SPA in 2013) through joint coordination between the Teachers' Committee, the Sudanese Journalists Network, the legitimate Sudanese Doctors' Union, and the Democratic Lawyers' Association. The SPA page on Facebook , which played a crucial role in the December 2018 Revolution, was created towards the end of 2012. Starting approximately in 2016, the professional forces that eventually formed the nucleus of the SPA continued expanding their coalition as an anti-Inqaz political front. They continued to link their presence to specific labor demands, gaining more support. Simultaneously, civilian unrest and discontent with the Inqaz regime was boiling under the surface until it exploded. First, in September 2013 (heavily repressed by the Inqaz/NCP regime) and then, more successfully, between 13 December 2018 and 6 April 2019. Importantly, these peaceful mass protests started by RCs in the city of Mayirno (Sennar State) spread to the RCs in Atbara (River Nile State), Damazin (Blue Nile State), before blazing across Sudan.This rising tide of protests was mutually-synergistic between the SPA and the RCs movements. The SPA and RCs quickly adjusted their demands from merely raising the minimum wage and protesting against the rising cost of living, to instead calling for continuous marches aiming to entirely overthrow the Inqaz/NCP regime. Taking the lead in the December Revolution, the SPA and the RCs participated in developing the charter of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) on 1 January 2019 which adopted the RCs and SPA slogan of “freedom, peace, and justice.” These efforts culminated in the fall of the tyrant Omar al-Bashir on 11 April 2019 and continued throughout the transitional period that followed. Unfortunately, when the SPA’s constituent bodies began union-building processes, their lack of recent practical experience in union work and managing political conflicts, led to the disintegration of the FFC, with disruptive impacts on the SPA and other civilian bodies. The political alliances represented by the FFC began disagreeing on priorities. The RCs wanted to prioritize the creation of the Transitional Legislative Assembly; however, other political parties and professional associations did not see it as a priority. These disagreements deepened and widened, negatively impacting the civilian front. On August 30, 2022, in a historic step, Sudanese Journalist Union announced the successful election of their first post-Inqaz committee, followed by the Sudanese Dramatists Union. The Sudanese Doctors Union was reestablished in March 2023—just weeks before the war broke out mid-April 2023. The Resistance Committees: An Inspiring Experience The initiation and driving force behind the December Revolution is attributed to the most recent type of civilian body in Sudanese politics the RCs which also included the Coordination Committees of IDP camps in Darfur. RCs are unique grassroots organizations formed at the neighborhood level, which expanded to cities and different Sudanese states. They deliberately retain their horizontal nature and firmly reject hierarchical leadership, in order to avoid infiltration by the authorities or political factions. The presence of RCs has played a decisive role in keeping the flame of the revolution alive. The RCs formulated a comprehensive political vision, embodied in the “ People's Power Charter .” The Charter’s first draft was released for discussion in January 2022, underwent public discussions, and was revised in March 2022. Despite prevailing political divisions among FFC’s political forces and the military coup's control of power, the RC’s People’s Power Charter generated a significant amount of debate. The RCs played a more significant role in the political scene, surpassing the leadership of traditional civilian bodies (parties and unions), by supporting but also holding accountable the transitional government, and working within local governance structures. Undermining Inqaz/NCP supporters at the state level, RCs took on the responsibility of monitoring the flow of commodities such as flour, gasoline, diesel, and cooking gas. They contributed to resolving the transportation crisis, power outages, and other artificially created crises. This led to defeating the Inqaz regime’s black marketeers. The War: Massive Responsibilities Throughout the transition period, a widespread civil movement spread—undeterred by the October 2021 coup. Instead, professional unions and RCs regarded themselves as a primary tool of people power in the civil-military conflict. The union bodies, led by the preparatory committee of the newly formed Sudanese Doctors Union (SDU), established Emergency Rooms, communal shelters for IDPs, communal kitchens, and neighborhood mutual aid under the leadership of the RCs. These Emergency Rooms continue to provide life-saving food, water, medicine, and urgent supplies to millions of war-affected people, as well as the millions of IDPs fleeing the war. Similarly, the SPA’s constituent professional unions have intensified their efforts towards denouncing the war, calling for peace, providing basic humanitarian aid, exposing and documenting gross human rights violations and war crimes, defending activists detained in war zones, and organizing campaigns to stop the war and aid those affected, both inside and outside Sudan. Some professional unions have also begun envisioning the required reconstruction, recovery, and reform needed in their respective sectors once the war stops. Civilian Testimonies Shedding light on the experiences of workers’ unionization and the efforts of the medical and humanitarian emergency, offered here are the accounts of two prominent contributors. They reflect the significant efforts exerted by civilian forces amidst the ongoing war. Activist Moez Elzein is a project manager at the Al-Ayam Center for Cultural Studies and Development and a founding contributor to the humanitarian Emergency Rooms (ERs). Elzein is currently based in Kampala, Uganda, where he recently sought refuge from the horrors of the war in Sudan. He explained that since the outbreak of the war and collapse of public services, groups of RC members, professionals, and young men and women, began establishing ERs in war zones across Sudan. Inspired by the concept of “Nafir” (a mobilization call to humanitarian action, significant in Sudanese culture as voluntary and cooperative work during humanitarian disasters), they vowed to keep their work free of political affiliations and biases, which helped the idea to evolve and attract more volunteers. Elzein pointed out that ERs began their work with the idea of mutual aid rather than humanitarian aid. The idea started spontaneously among Sudanese through financial transfers to support those affected by the war, followed by the idea of ERs. Moez's words reveal the organizational capacities and experience these young people possess, developing a Coordination Council for Grassroots Work of ERs which is the largest indigenous civilian coordinating body operating across Sudan since the war began. This Council was formed based on the local governance system of Khartoum State, the most populous state in the country, with approximately eight million inhabitants according to the latest census projections from 2018. Initially, seven central ERs were formed for the seven localities, along with grassroots rooms for residential neighborhoods under them to ensure coordination and networking based on the administrative structure between administrative units, grassroots rooms, local ERs, and central rooms. Elzein indicated that the Council would evolve into a national council after including Sennar, Darfur, and other regions, thereby linking humanitarian intervention to grassroots work and local governance. Elzein describes how the ERs in Khartoum consist of 130 grassroots rooms in neighborhoods, in addition to seven central rooms. In Sennar, there are 15 grassroots rooms in neighborhoods and around seven central rooms, as well as one room in El-Suki. He noted that women's emergency rooms have also started to appear in eastern Sudan, as is the case in Gedaref and Kassala States, and there are 200 grassroots ERs in different Darfur states. Regarding how these rooms fund their activities, Elzein says, “the rooms initially received support from Sudanese people through bank transfers as donations, in addition to support from some international organizations. However, after the decline in capabilities due to the ongoing war and the worsening conditions of millions of Sudanese, the primary reliance now is on donors like the Sudan Humanitarian Fund (SHF).” Sudanese national organizations in turn, distribute funding to ERs, alongside other international organizations. Currently, the ERs depend entirely on funding from foreign organizations. Elzein continues, “there is a disparity in the number of participants in the rooms, depending on the population size in different areas and the level of interaction, even within Khartoum. For example, there are differences in the ability to communicate with various parties. Some rooms can communicate with SAF or RSF commanders in their areas, such as Karari in Omdurman and East Nile, to ensure safe passage of some food supplies needed for central kitchens or to secure the release of detained activists or residents of neighborhoods, while some areas lack this capability due to the hostile nature of the forces in control or due to pre-conceived aversion by grassroot activists to any coordination with neither SAF nor RSF.” For Elzein, one of the most significant challenges facing ERs is the repressive targeting and human rights violations faced by their members at the hands of both RSF and SAF. He adds, “in areas controlled by SAF and RSF, youth workers in emergency rooms have faced repeated arrests and severe human rights violations such as torture and beatings. Three weeks ago, one of the key workers in the emergency rooms in Eastern Nile State was arrested and falsely accused of killing a member of RSF.” Dr Hiba Omar was interviewed within the context of writing this article, to better understand the role of the medical ERs. Omar is the elected President of SDU’s Preparatory Committee and one of the prominent leaders of SPA. She has been repeatedly arrested and displaced. She says, “When the war broke out, the SDU was only a month old, and the Preparatory Committee was elected to perform specific tasks, including drafting a constitution, compiling a membership register, calling for a full general assembly, and holding free and fair union elections. We found ourselves faced with the daunting task of providing medical services to thousands of war victims after many hospitals shut down and were attacked by airstrikes and indiscriminate military attacks on them.” She recounts the details of the first hours after the war broke out, “I went to East Nile Hospital in the Al-Haj Youssef neighborhood in Khartoum and worked there for three consecutive days due to the severe shortage of staff. While we were working inside the hospital, it was bombed by SAF aircraft and then it was evacuated. So, I moved to the Ban Jadeed Hospital in a nearby area, but found it had closed. This situation, along with reports of many hospitals being out of service, prompted us to think about establishing medical ERs. We called on the RCs to support and assist us, and then we formed the first ER at Ban Jadeed Hospital.” She continues, “The war was very intense and was raging in the center of Khartoum State. This war violated all international humanitarian conventions and laws of war, with no regard for the neutrality of medical services and facilities nor protection of health workers. In fact, they were specifically targeted by both sides of the war. The expansion and intensity of the war and the targeting of hospitals, and the use of some health facilities as military platforms led to the loss of the ER’s capacities and the inability of patients to reach them, in addition to the killing of many medical staff and emergency room workers, the evacuation of patients, and the destruction and looting of hospitals.” Omar adds, “There were great difficulties in getting medical staff to hospitals, so most resided inside the hospitals, and we worked to fill the shortage due to the inability of some doctors to reach hospitals by training volunteers from RCs in medical services. The RCs provided oxygen and intravenous fluids in dangerous areas under shelling and bombing, as well as meals for patients and staff, and also transferred patients and the injured to other hospitals.” In her testimony as a doctor who witnessed the horrors of this war, Omar indicates the importance of the civil society organizations to the medical aid effort, “as a union, we contributed alongside Sudanese medical diaspora bodies such as SAPA (Sudanese American Physicians Associations) to securing critical information for the Sudanese Medical Council amid the shelling and battles; first transferring it to Al-Jazirah State and then after clashes broke out there, transferring the equipment containing the information to the Northern State in order to protect the interests of more than 10,000 doctors. The Council is responsible for training, certificates, and appointments of doctors and their specializations.” This major collapse caused by the war led Pmar Hiba, and her SDU colleagues, to work with other union bodies to establish the “Union Front,” and to expand it to include all workers in various fields who have been facing difficult conditions since the outbreak of the war, primarily the suspension of their salaries by the state for over a year and a half. “Addressing all these issues is almost impossible without stopping the war and, therefore, besides our work on professional issues, we continued work with other union bodies to achieve our shared struggle to stop the war, demand accountability, restore the revolution, and collectively defend workers' rights. We represent a broad sector of the Sudanese people together, and our positions express a large base that rejects the war, stands against its crimes, seeks justice, redress for the victims, the restoration of professionals' roles, and the enhancement and improvement of their conditions.” Continuous Work Despite the War After nearly a year and a half of horrific war, amidst the destruction caused by the military and militias allied with warring parties in Sudan, civil revolutionary forces are rising. These forces are working inside the country’s conflict areas as well as outside Sudan, where millions of Sudanese have sought refuge. Many are working to build bridges of communication with similar unions in host countries. Some have successfully traced their members dispersed in different countries as well. Various groups have started organizing training courses to enhance their capacities to deal with the war and its aftermath, while some unions are preparing to assess the scale of the destruction and thinking of how to reestablish a peaceful transition to democracy. Others yet, have begun documenting the violations and war crimes committed against civilians—and legally classifying them. Meanwhile, most unions are quietly working to provide as much assistance and support to their members by facilitating financial donations from Sudanese people worldwide and communicating with organizations that help and support refugees and professional advocacy groups. They are also negotiating with authorities in some asylum countries to ensure their members’ welfare and safety. In conclusion, the Sudanese civilian bodies such as the SPA, Resistance Committees and professional unions continue their decades-old tradition of democratic grassroot organization and advocacy for democratic freedoms despite the war. The collective experience they accumulated during the December Revolution continues to drive their commitment and inform their decision-making. They remain resolute that wars and military coups will never dent their resolve to create a free, peaceful and just. The December Revolution’s slogan, “Freedom, Peace and Justice” remains a beacon of hope for Sudan.∎ SUB-HEAD Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Reportage Sudan Egypt Armed Forces Resistance Movement Resistance Resistance Committees Unions Medical Union Healthcare Community Civilian Solidarity War Sudanese Armed Forces Rapid Support Forces Military Coup Power-sharing Transitional Government December Revolution of 2018 Sudanese Professional Association Islamist Massacre Protest Political Dissidents Political Violence Violence Internally Displaced Persons Refugees Repression Civilian Activism Civil Society Infrastructure Dictatorship Emergency Committees Sudanese Diaspora Mobilization Humanitarian Aid Organizing Ceasefire Negotiations Trade Union Independence Colonialism 20th Century Railway Workers Colonial Oppression Front of Associations Coalition Labor Farmer Union Alliance Jaafar Nimeiri Omer Al-Bashir Public Interest Law Sudanese Doctors Union Strike Economy Grassroots Movements Inqaz NCP Regime South Sudan Secession Democracy Teachers Journalists Lawyers Doctors Facebook Social Media Civilian Unrest Sennar State River Nile State Blue Nile State Peoples Power Charter Flow of Commodities Monitoring Civilian Testimonies Cultural Studies Census Al-Ayam Center for Cultural Studies and Development Moez Elzein Activist Human Rights Violations Human Rights Youth Workers Torture Emergency Room SDU Preparatory Committee Hiba Omar Airstrike Khartoum State Sudanese Medical Council Al-Jazirah State Hope Conflict Revolution Advocacy Freedom Peace Justice Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. 23rd Feb 2025 AUTHOR · AUTHOR Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. 1 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 On That Note:

Kashmiri homes and livelihoods are disintegrating, with major infrastructural developments and mining projects inducing landslides, disrupting water and electrical channels, and destroying agricultural trade in the region–all in the name of increasing Kashmir's connectivity. Impractical in scope, these infrastructural projects defy all recommendations geological researchers have urged developers to consider for decades: and the government is content leaving Kashmiris in unlivable conditions, so long as the homes are not yet one with the earth. · THE VERTICAL Reportage · Ramban Kashmiri homes and livelihoods are disintegrating, with major infrastructural developments and mining projects inducing landslides, disrupting water and electrical channels, and destroying agricultural trade in the region–all in the name of increasing Kashmir's connectivity. Impractical in scope, these infrastructural projects defy all recommendations geological researchers have urged developers to consider for decades: and the government is content leaving Kashmiris in unlivable conditions, so long as the homes are not yet one with the earth. Asif in front of the ruins of his home (2024). Photograph courtesy of the authors. Cracks in Pernote When Aasif Katoch returned home from work in the evening of April 25, he heard a loud voice from his cousin’s house, just over 100 metres away. “They were calling us urgently,” he recalled. “When we arrived, we saw cracks had developed in their house.” But before Katoch could begin to do anything about it, his children began frantically calling out to him from his house. He rushed back, only to see cracks starting to appear there too. “Within minutes,” he said, recounting the scenes of his house sinking, “we watched in horror as our homes which we built with hard work were damaged in front of our own eyes.” Katoch’s family isn‘t alone. Pernote village, seven kilometres from Ramban district in Jammu and Kashmir, became a disaster zone in April when 28 houses, including Katoch’s, were destroyed completely by land subsidence, affecting around 500 people . The road linking to Pernote village was severely damaged, cutting off connectivity. Cracks stretched several kilometres, disrupted electricity and water supply, adding more difficulties to the affected residents. Unmitigated Development is to Blame Since 2010, there has been an unprecedented rise in land sinking incidents near the national highway and railway tracks in Kashmir. Many attribute this increase to the rise in large-scale developmental projects , such as railway construction , widening of roads like the National highway , which links Ramban with Banihal, tunnel digging in the mountains , and hydro power projects, all constructed without proper precautions. For instance, around 12 hydropower projects are either constructed or are under construction in the Chenab region of Jammu. “One of the main causes of the increasing landslides in the region is unregulated developmental activity,” G.M Bhat, a Kashmir-based geologist, explained to us. “While landslides due to natural conditions existed before, human activities like mining have accelerated the frequency and severity of these incidents. The fragile nature of these mountains demands careful handling, yet we are doing the exact opposite.” For Bhat, the collapse of an 800-metre tunnel in Ramban on 19 May 2022, in which ten people died, should raise serious concerns. Recent land sinkings, like those in Pernote , he reasoned, are clearly the result of human activities, specifically poorly planned developmental projects. “We have been raising these issues for the last 30 years,” Bhat said, “with reports filed repeatedly. I can’t understand why the government continues to ignore our warnings.” The portion of a road in Pernote damaged after land subsidence. Courtesy of the authors. He blamed authorities for not involving experts and ignoring their warnings before starting work, saying the region has now become vulnerable to disasters due to excessive constructions. The residents also blame the construction agencies for land sinkage. “Since we live in a hilly area, rainwater used to flow naturally through canals and streams, eventually reaching the river at the bottom of the hill,” said Akther, a local resident of Ramban. Moreover, he added, during the extensive drilling for the national highway and tunnels, agency workers dumped tunnel waste near Chenab river banks, blocking these natural water channels. Despite raising concerns with the authorities, the residents were ignored. “As the waste blocked the streams,” Akther shared, “water began accumulating, saturating the land, making it unstable and unable to bear the weight of the mountain, which led to the sinking.” The situation worsened with the frequent blasts carried out during tunnel construction. The explosions were so loud that residents’ houses would shake, resembling powerful earthquakes. “We often rushed outside in fear that our homes might collapse,” Akther said. “The blasts were terrifying, and our children were left crying, traumatised by the repeated tremors.” In response to these concerns, the residents wrote to the District Magistrate (DM) in 2014, 2022, and 2023, highlighting that the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) was violating environmental norms by improperly dumping waste, blocking canals, and having a poor drainage system. Despite assurances of action from the DM, no visible steps have been taken. Now, the residents are taking the matter to court. “We feel neglected and unheard,” Akther expressed. “We want the authorities to fully compensate us for our losses and provide immediate rehabilitation, but they continue to ignore us.” Why is unprecedented development happening? Jammu and Kashmir has long been viewed as a region in need of better infrastructure. Poor road connectivity, especially in mountain areas like Pir Panjal and Chenab, has hindered trade and access to services for decades. Both these regions have undergone several development projects over the last decade, which includes tunnelling, road widening of NH 44 , construction of bridges, dams and railway lines to improve connectivity with the rest of India. For example, the new Katra-Banihal railway line and the widening of National highway 244 from two to four lanes is expected to be a game changer for the region's economy, as it will reduce travel time from Jammu to Srinagar and improve transportation for both locals and businesses. In 1999, Bhat explained that the local government invited a team of experts––including geologists, geographers, and landslide specialists from various countries––to Kashmir to study the Himalayas. “They warned that large-scale projects in the region would be extremely dangerous,” he said. A collapsed transmission tower damaged after land sinkage in Pernote. Courtesy of the authors. Since then, however, “massive developmental projects have been undertaken,” Bhat added, “with post-1999 projects being far larger in scale compared to those before that time.” According to Dr. D.P Kanungo, engineering geologist and landslide expert from Delhi, the “lithotectonic setup, rocks, and tectonics of the Pir Panjal range are extremely sensitive.” Any development in this region, therefore, must follow proper technical and scientific guidelines. “While I’m not opposed to development,” he clarified, “it’s clear that projects in the Pir Panjal region have not been carried out in a technically sound or scientific manner.” “Disrupting its fragile ecosystems can have fatal consequences,” Dr. Kanungo added, explaining why the excessive blasting for tunnelling is dangerous, particularly in these areas where the mountain range is young, still rising, and undergoing significant neo-tectonic activity. “When I visited the area, I saw that the work was being done in an unplanned way,” he noted. “Incidents like the land sinking in Pernote and cracks in nearby village homes could have been avoided.” The Detailed Project Report (DPR) outlines the scientific and technical methods to be followed, including when and how to support a cut slope. It also specifies where and how to cut particular rocks. However, our investigation revealed that the DPR is frequently violated and scientific techniques are often not followed on the ground, especially in the Himalayan regions. The Dangers of Improving Road Connectivity to Cut Travel Time The challenging terrains of the ecologically sensitive Chenab and Pir Panjal regions make travel difficult on the Jammu-Srinagar Highway, especially in the harsh winter months when snow and landslides frequently block the road. With the aim to decrease travel time on the Jammu-Srinagar Highway and increase connectivity to the Kashmir region, the government has spent almost 16000 crore INR to widen the two lane highway into four lanes. To date, 210 kilometres, including 10 tunnels, have been finished. The project, which will decrease travel time from 8 hours to 4-5 hours, is set for completion by 2025. Between 2010 and 2020, around 1750 people have died and more than 12,000 people have been injured in over 8,000 accidents on Jammu-Srinagar highway. “The construction of a four-lane highway on the Srinagar-Jammu route, in fragile areas, would be dangerous in coming years,” according to Bhat. “A two-lane road in sensitive zones, with four lanes only in the plains, would have been far more appropriate. Instead, we’ve made the mistake of widening roads and toe-cutting mountains, which has triggered land sinking.” As Raja Muzaffar Bhat, a social activist, noted, “construction in the Himalayas is incredibly challenging, hazardous, and complex.” For him, “building large four-lane highways and similar projects in such mountainous regions might be impractical and could have serious long-term consequences.” “The extensive tunnelling and mountain cutting required could lead to more frequent landslides and sinkholes, as well as negatively impact water systems,” Muzaffar Bhat warned. “These areas have unique geological and ecological characteristics, with intricate rock formations and small water channels that are easily disrupted.” Additionally, constructing very high pillars for bridges in earthquake-prone regions poses significant risks of natural disasters. In the last 10 years, the pace of construction of four lane highways, bridges, and tunnels has increased which has also increased landslides on the Jammu-Srinagar highway. According to the last data available, over 4,200 people lost their lives on Jammu-Srinagar national highway from 2018-2022 in the Kashmir valley. Locals are Losing Both Homes and Work Opportunities As construction continues, it is the locals living in these terrains who are paying the price for this development. Tunnelling through the mountainous areas of Pir Panjal and blasting for road expansions has led to the increase in landslides and land subsidence in these areas. The land subsidence of villages like Pernote is attributable to excavation of highways and other developmental projects. For residents of Pernote and several other adjoining villages, this development has come at a great personal cost. Families who lived in these areas for generations are now forced to abandon their homes and move to safer ground where they pay rent. “Where are we supposed to go?” asked Beer Singh, a Pernote resident. “We don't have any other lands and the government has not given us any answers.” Many families have been forced to live in nearby government buildings, rent out temporary shelters, or move in with relatives. “Our homes were everything we worked for,” Singh stated. “My whole earning was in that house.” As families grapple with the loss of their homes, the emotional toll is palpable. “I do not sleep properly at night,” Singh shared. “I keep thinking the wall will crack again and we won’t be able to escape.” Cracks visible in the house damaged after land subsidence in Pernote. Courtesy of the authors. Beer Singh is one of five brothers, whose parents are no longer alive. “We were doing well in life,” he said, recalling his land where he and his brothers cultivated pomegranates, tomatoes, and peanuts. “Farming was our livelihood throughout the year, and we sold our produce at good prices.” Living in a hilly area with a favourable climate, their crops were of high quality. "In our village, only a few people had government jobs,” he noted. “The rest relied on farming because it was profitable.” However, since the tragedy, only two or three families remain, and they live far from Singh and his family. “Now, no one comes to my shop because hardly anyone is left,” he said. “I sit here all day, unable to make sense of what happened.” The biggest issue, for Singh, is his loan repayments. He no longer receives any income and doesn’t have the money to repay his loan. After the land sinkage, many officials visited the area and promised compensation to residents of Pernote. Till date, however, these people have gotten nothing. "We were denied the initial compensation of 1,30,000 INR that others received, with the reasoning that our house had only developed cracks and hadn't collapsed entirely,” Singh shared. “However, the cracks are so severe that it's unsafe to live in, as no one can predict when it might fall.” The authorities initially issued a notice stating that the villagers would be given 10 marlas each and compensated for all damages caused by the disaster. However, the order was later changed, and they were told they’d receive only 5 lakhs INR and 1 kanal of land. As of September this year, it has been five additional months, and they still haven't received any compensation. Land sinking and landslides are not new The land sinking and landslide in these regions is not new; several incidents have been reported in the last decade. On February 1, 2023, for instance, a landslide hit Nai Basit hamlet in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir, causing land subsidence that geologists attributed to the poor drainage system and continuous seepage from households and the movement of geological fault zones. The incident damaged 19 houses and caused a mosque with several structures to develop cracks. It forced many families to leave their homes and relocate to temporary shelters in a local government school. It also created panic in nearby villages of Ramban, where many houses had developed cracks. “It was all good until these projects started,” said Saqib, a local student. “We were living our life happily in these mountains. The government may increase the connectivity through these projects but it will make life miserable for thousands of villagers living in these mountains.” The unchecked development to increase connectivity within the Kashmir region has left residents like those in Pernote village devastated. With homes collapsing and lives uprooted, locals blame reckless infrastructure projects for these disasters. “I’m not opposed to developmental projects,” Bhat said, “but they must be carried out with proper environmental precautions and procedures.” For Muzaffar Bhat, too, it is necessary to follow sustainable development practices. “Unfortunately,” he noted, “recent political manifestos have largely ignored these environmental concerns.” Bhat suggested that if major development projects stop now, the Himalayas will likely stabilise in the next 50-60 years. “However, if these projects continue,” he warned, “the impending disaster will be unimaginable.” Specifically, the area falls in seismic zones 4 and 5, which are highly earthquake-prone. “If these projects continue and the mountains weaken further,” Bhat added, “even minor earthquakes could devastate the entire region, posing a severe threat to those living on the mountain slopes.” ∎ SUB-HEAD Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Reportage Ramban Demolition Kashmir Urbanization Development Connectivity Pir Panjal Infrastructure National highway Pernote village Pernote tunnel waste Border Roads Organization National Highway 44 National Highway 244 Katra-Banihal railway line Srinagar lithotectonic lithotectonic sensitivity Detailed Project Report Climate Change rock fracturing land subsidence Jammu-Srinagar Highway mountain toe-cutting forced migration forced displacement ecological displacement hill farming terrace farming Nai Basit Colonialism Colonization Gentrification Urban Development environmental decay environmental hazard Seismic zone 4 Seismic zone 5 earthquake Himalayas ecological disaster Cosmopolitanism Construction Colonial Boundaries Displacement Geology Mining Chenab River Chenab Valley Ramban District Jammu Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. 2nd Dec 2024 AUTHOR · AUTHOR Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. 1 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 On That Note:

Israeli aggression in Gaza has led to a ripple effect on Iraqi politics. The past year’s growth in proxy aggression between Iran and the US has unearthed sentiments in Iraq critical of both powers. Amidst the increasing influence of Iran-backed political and military forces in the region, citizens express heightened aversion to American policies. · THE VERTICAL Reportage · Iraq Israeli aggression in Gaza has led to a ripple effect on Iraqi politics. The past year’s growth in proxy aggression between Iran and the US has unearthed sentiments in Iraq critical of both powers. Amidst the increasing influence of Iran-backed political and military forces in the region, citizens express heightened aversion to American policies. Dia al-Azzawi Jenin (2002) Acrylic on paper Occupation and Osmosis In May 2024, a homemade bomb was lobbed into a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) restaurant in Baghdad. The next day, masked men stormed another KFC, trashing the American fast-food chain due to its perceived support for Israel. For months before this, mortars targeted the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, and American troops in the region faced over 160 attacks following October 7, 2023. And since that same date, over hundreds of miles of Iraqi roadways, enormous billboards have been erected featuring U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu splattered with blood. They are captioned: “Desecrators of Allah’s People.” In Iraq, disdain for anything associated with the U.S. is not new. But from recent attacks on Baghdad’s KFCs to the U.S. embassy, a new motivating factor seems to have emerged: the situation in the Gaza Strip , which has exacerbated tensions and changed regional dynamics. Gaza is hundreds of miles from Baghdad, but thanks to the war’s atrocities made visible by the internet, many Iraqis are outraged ; at the Israeli government for committing them, but also at the U.S. government for arming and funding them. “The Gaza war is having a significant impact on Iraqi politics,” says Lahib Higel, the Crisis Group’s Senior Analyst for Iraq. Higel notes that before Israel's war on Gaza, there had been a year-long truce during which Iran-backed militias, known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), agreed to stop attacking U.S. bases in Iraq to support the stabilization of the newly established Iraqi government. However, the truce was broken because of America's unconditional support for Israel, which led to a series of militia attacks against the U.S. military across Iraq. “The Gaza war was the ignition [of the attacks]. But these Iran-backed groups also used the escalation to revive the pressure on the Iraqi government to expedite a withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country.” Experts like Higel argue that the tiny Gaza Strip has become geopolitical tannerite. After a rocket attack against the American embassy earlier this year, a PMF leader issued a statement claiming that his militias wouldn’t stop as long as “Zionist crimes continue in Gaza and the American occupation continues in Iraq.” “My grandfather hated Iran. My father hates America. I hate them both,” says Ali, our 21-year-old Iraqi taxi driver, as he races down Route Irish at breakneck speed. Route Irish is the notorious road connecting Baghdad International Airport with the city, a route once laced with crude explosives and infested with heavily-armed insurgents waiting to ambush coalition forces. But today it’s mostly quiet—except for Ali’s rickety cab, which blares Iraqi rap while he scrolls through TikTok. “There’s a lot of talk these days about Iran or America and which country Iraq will align itself with,” he explains. “I really don’t want either. America wants our oil and resources, and Iran just wants us as a puppet. I say fuck them both. We Iraqis want to build this country for us . Not for the Iranians or the Americans. But then again, if I had to choose, I would choose Iran. The Americans destroyed my country, and now they’re helping Netanyahu destroy Palestine.” It is dusk, and the sun slips away beneath the murky brown haze hanging over downtown Baghdad. “See those? Get used to them. They’re everywhere,” Ali points out the dozens of murals and billboards along Route Irish depicting solemn portraits of Iranian military officer Qasem Soleimani, assassinated right there on Route Irish by a 2020 Donald Trump-issued drone strike, captioned, “The Blood of Our Martyrs Will Not Be Forgotten.” “Iran and America both want control over my country,” Ali glances at another Soleimani mural outside the cab, “but Iran already has it.” The most obvious example of Iranian influence are the many armed Shia militias, backed by Tehran, which roam Iraq under the umbrella of PMF. Furious over U.S. support for Israel’s assault on Gaza, the PMF has responded with a litany of attacks against the Americans. However, when Iran ordered the PMF to disengage, the militias obeyed. According to Slovenian International Relations expert Dr. Primož Šterbenc, this is largely because Iran isn’t interested in a wider war with Israel and the U.S., thus explaining why it ordered the PMF to stand down—for now. Nonetheless, despite hesitation on the part of the Biden administration amidst hawkish cries for retaliation against Iran, the U.S. Navy is deploying warships to deter Iran in case of war. Šterbenc argues that, when it comes to the scenario of wider conflict between Iran and the U.S. and Israel, “the Iraqi Shia militias themselves are aware…they would end up being militarily greatly weakened. However, the situation will still remain unstable as long as Israel's ultra-brutal military operation against Gaza continues, because the Iraqi militias will want to show their solidarity with Gaza through military actions.” Earlier this month Iran fired 200 ballistic missiles toward Israel. And since then, Iran-linked militias in Iraq have been ramping up action against Israel as well, springing roughly 40 attacks — consisting of an assortment of missiles, drones and rockets — in the past two weeks. Iran's influence, Šterbenc explains, has been very visible in recent months through Tehran’s ability to curb attacks by Shia militias on American targets in Iraq. On January 28 this year, when a Kata’ib Hezbollah drone—a militia part of the PMF— killed three American soldiers at the Tower 22 base in Jordan, Ismail Al Kani, the commander of Iran's Al Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, quickly arrived in Baghdad and pressured Kataib Hezbollah to announce a suspension of its attacks on American targets. The PMF didn’t officially exist before 2014, back when it was nothing more than a ragtag umbrella group of various Shia militias. It was not particularly organized, nor very influential. Then came the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which began seizing huge chunks of land it was declaring as part of its new Islamic caliphate. The Obama administration was reluctant to get tangled up in Iraq so soon after it had withdrawn all American troops in 2011. As officials deliberated in Washington, and after ISIS seized the city of Mosul, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa , calling for Iraqis to join together, take up arms and fight ISIS to save their country. Shia militias united to wage war against the Sunni jihadists, and thus, the PMF was formed. “I thought ISIS would take Baghdad,” says Sawada al-Nassif, a Baghdad resident and mother of four. “I was telling my husband we should leave the country, go to Jordan. But then the PMF started fighting ISIS and won back our country.” From The Land of [Sad] Oranges, 1973, by Dia al-Azzawi, inspired by the works of Ghassan Kanafani Today, the PMF is an auxiliary to the official Iraqi military; its fighters are paid equal salaries and benefits to military personnel and it is widely considered Iraq’s second army. Now, the PMF is also a leading political force after winning 101 out of 285 provincial seats in Iraq’s December 2023 elections. Because Sunnis are minorities in Iraq, and as the predominantly Shia PMF gain a stronger foothold in Iraqi politics, some Sunnis aren’t too happy. “Under Saddam (Hussein), we Sunnis at least held more political power than (Shias),” said Omar al-Dulaimi, a Sunni resident of Fallujah. “Now we are losing influence in government while still being the minority. I don’t like it.” With ISIS now driven into dormancy, the PMF is focused on its political aspirations. Among those is to see the expulsion of U.S. troops from Iraq. The American military has lingered in Iraq since ISIS roared back to life in 2014—and it remains at the invitation of the government in Baghdad. Higel states that the Gaza war has not developed in Washington's favor in Iraq, however, putting tremendous pressure on the government from the PMF to end the American presence in Baghdad. Experts, including Higel, agree that the PMF operates as an extension of the Iraqi state. In 2016, the government designated the PMF as an ‘independent military formation' within the Iraqi armed forces. For Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, it's a political tightrope act: balancing his government's relations with the United States, and the PMF, some of whose militias have been designated as terrorist groups by the U.S.A. “You’re American,” says Ahmed, an Iraqi friend of mine, as we sipped tea on Baghdad’s crowded Mutanabbi Street. “I know you’re American. You know you’re American. Nobody else should know you’re American.” Ahmed quietly advised me to keep my nationality under wraps. But why? Because of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003? Ahmed said no. “Your country has kept Israel’s genocide alive,” he said. “Normal people here won’t hold that against you specifically. But the militias outside Baghdad, well, it’s possible they might.” Ahmed also reminded me that ISIS had launched several small attacks in the last week, and outside Baghdad, I may be at a higher risk. But when myself and my European colleague, at a PMF-run checkpoint outside Baghdad, encounter one of these militias ourselves, things go differently than how Ahmed had prophesied. “You are American?” asks a bearded PMF militant with an assault rifle, as he studies the passport I hand him through a cab window. I nod and admit that I am. He looks me up and down, before asking if I work for the government. No, I answer. “Good,” he nods. “I don’t like your government.” In the Iraqi city of Najaf, a local scholar, Rajab al-Hasen, stands on the side of the road and explains the recently-erected signage. One image features an expressionless face of President Biden, flecked with fake blood, peering down at rubble-strewn Gaza. About twenty meters down the road from that sign is another one, featuring not Biden, but Netanyahu. “This sort of imagery and messaging is all over Iraq, from north to south,” al-Hasen explains. “None of it was here before Israel began its genocide in Gaza. That war has really changed things around here.” Even at the height of Iraq’s civil war and its bloody sectarian violence between Shias and Sunnis over a decade ago, a shared disdain for Israeli politics remained a uniting belief. “We are familiar with war and occupation,” says activist Naseera el-Sham. “Iraqis can empathize with Syrians, Yemenis, Afghans, but most of all Palestinians.” Iraqi society’s aversion to Israel is not a belief inherited from Iran. In 1948, 1967 and again in 1973, Iraq partook in wars against Israel. Even after the 2003 regime change which ousted Saddam Hussein from power, Iraq’s official position on the state of Israel didn’t change. Natalia Reinharz, an Israeli lecturer on foreign policy based in Jerusalem, says that Gaza hasn’t shifted what has been Iraq’s mainstream position on Israel. What it has done, she argues, has given Iran an in. “The United States has stubbornly stood by Netanyahu’s side for a year of barbaric war,” Reinharz says. “Not only will the war hurt Israel in the long term, but it's a critical foreign policy mistake from the Biden administration.” “If Washington wanted to retain influence not just in Iraq, but within the Arab and Muslim states, it would have reined Netanyahu in by now. But they haven’t, and that has made Arab states more open to exploring alliances to nations other than the U.S.” Meanwhile, the U.S. presidential election casts a long shadow. Iranian historian Kazem Ershadi echoes Reinharz’ sentiment, and adds that “a lot will depend on whether the U.S. and Iran will continue to negotiate behind the scenes with the help of Oman. Iran would need to agree to limiting its uranium enrichment, and the U.S. would need to relax economic sanctions against Iran. In other words, it may be possible for the U.S. and Iran to find a balance in Iraq, but not very likely against the backdrop of Gaza.” From The Land of [Sad] Oranges, 1973, by Dia al-Azzawi, inspired by the works of Ghassan Kanafani But common ground between the U.S. and Iran seems like a pipe dream, especially now. Gaza has been a rubble-strewn warzone for over a year, Israel has invaded Lebanon, and tension with Iran has, again, crescendoed so much that whispers of an all-out regional war permeate every conversation regarding the Middle East. Israel keeps on erasing previous red lines, barreling closer to a reality that consists of bombs raining down in Tehran, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Meanwhile, the Biden administration continues to pour billions of dollars’ worth of weaponry into Israel. Netanyahu – Israel’s longest-serving prime minister – is well-aware that U.S. support won’t wane, and so he keeps his foot on the gas. He also understands that the U.S., while busy with an election, will not resort to any measure drastic enough to force his hand. (Israel attacked Lebanon, and it did so without first getting approval from the country that underwrites most of its national security, the United States). “The timing of Israel invading Lebanon is, at the very least, curious,” Reinharz says. “Biden is clearly an ultra-Zionist who will not, no matter what, rein Israel in. But I still think that, despite this, Netanyahu and his far-right government would prefer Donald Trump in the Oval Office. I think he timed this escalation with the U.S. election for a reason.” Reinharz argues that a Trump administration would greenlight virtually any course of action Netanyahu wants to take, however radical, including the official annexation of the West Bank. “Trump’s campaign is partially bankrolled by (Miriam) Adelson, a Zionist billionaire who has donated millions to Trump. She’s helping Trump fund his campaign because she wants Israel to have the West Bank, without a Palestinian Authority or any peace accords. And she knows Trump would let that happen.” Reinharz and I first met in Jordan. We were sipping tea on a rooftop in Amman, listening to the day’s final call to prayer echo through the city. She took a long, slow drag of her cigarette, then predicted, with unnerving accuracy, what is happening now. “You watch,” she told me, her voice dripping with cynicism. “Netanyahu would rather have Trump than Biden. I bet he will escalate the war in the fall, when the polls are tight. Netanyahu will make it messy, and he will make sure the average American voter knows it's messy over here. That way blame is cast on Biden, and Trump can position himself as the anti-war, solution-bearing candidate. It’s what Netanyahu wants—Trump. Watch. You’ll see.” Dr. Šterbenc added that a Trump victory in the upcoming U.S. presidential elections could “change everything.” That’s because Trump would likely govern in the interests of Israel, like Biden does now and like Trump did as president, while pressuring Iran even more. After May 2018, Trump withdrew from the JCPOA—also known as the Iran nuclear deal—and began his “maximum pressure” policy towards Iran. Trump crippled the Iranian economy after slapping over 1,500 sanctions on banking, oil exports and shipping, and assassinated Soleimani in 2020, who was in Baghdad fighting ISIS at the time. “Trump could greatly increase tensions and consequently convince the Iranian authorities that they must develop nuclear weapons,” Šterbenc said. “Trump ripped up Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal, so this is more possible than ever. This would then be exploited by Israel with accusations against Iran, escalating the possibility of full-blown regional war.” Mustafa al-Tamimi sits on a blanket with his wife, Fatima, and their three children on the banks of the Tigris. It is a warm, breezy Friday evening in May, and the young family is one of many who have gathered along the river for a communal celebration. I ask Mustafa what they are celebrating. “We are celebrating life,” he says as though it were obvious. “In Iraq, we know death, and so we appreciate life while it's still here.” Mustafa and his family aren’t particularly religious, but still identify with Islam’s core tenants. “Islam teaches us to love people, whoever they are. So, for me, I love the Palestinians. I also love the Israelis, the Americans, and, of course,” he smiles at his wife, “I love Iraqis.” Mustafa’s opinion is in the minority, he thinks. “The world doesn’t think the way I do. Look at Palestine. Look at Gaza. Let me ask this: if Gaza were in France, the U.S. or Israel, and instead of Palestinians in Gaza, it were French, Americans or Israelis, then do you think the bombs would still be falling? Would children be starving to death? No. The war would be over.” He tears up, though only momentarily, while we discuss Gaza. “They are saying Iran is gaining strong influence over Iraq, much more influence than the Americans,” he said. “I think this is true. It seems like the reality I am seeing every day. And so what if it is? At least Iran isn’t in on the genocide.”∎ SUB-HEAD Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Reportage Iraq Baghdad Iran Palestine Gaza Warfare Human Rights Violations Shia Popular Mobilization Forces Zionist Zionism Israel USA Martyr Imperialism Militias Sunni Shia/Sunni Conflict Occupation Military Occupation Neo-colonialism War on Terror Axis of Resistance Najaf Religious Conflict Necropolitics Colonization New Middle East Middle East Middle East Geopolitics Globalization Colonialism Conflict Complicity Islamism Modernization Postcolonialism War On Iraq Militarism Collaborationism Discourses of War War Crimes Islamophobia Geopolitics US Imperialism United States Iran Nuclear Deal Soleimani PMF ISIS Obama Administration Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani Jordan JCPOA Genocide Foreign Policy Settler Colonialism Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. 26th Oct 2024 AUTHOR · AUTHOR Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. 1 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 On That Note:

The Awami League’s think tank, the Center for Research Information, had a “flagship publication”: WhiteBoard magazine. Projecting a modern, Anglophone, elite identity, WhiteBoard was part of a small media ecosystem that helped to whitewash a despotic power, with youthful figures deploying their credentials in international academic and publishing circles. What to make of WhiteBoard’s advisory board members who distance themselves from the Awami League now? · THE VERTICAL Opinion · Dhaka The Awami League’s think tank, the Center for Research Information, had a “flagship publication”: WhiteBoard magazine. Projecting a modern, Anglophone, elite identity, WhiteBoard was part of a small media ecosystem that helped to whitewash a despotic power, with youthful figures deploying their credentials in international academic and publishing circles. What to make of WhiteBoard’s advisory board members who distance themselves from the Awami League now? Kamil Ahsan, Untitled (2024). Digital collage. The WhiteBoard Board It’s been three weeks since the mass uprising in Bangladesh ousted the Awami League regime of Sheikh Hasina, and I remain glued to social media. Morning, noon, and night. One morning, eyes barely open, I wake up to several Facebook posts up in arms over an article in the Dhaka newspaper Bonik Barta, titled “CRI and WhiteBoard: Radwan Mujib Siddiq Bobby and his advisory board.” I see a screenshot from Bonik Barta with the faces of ten people. I recognize five. A few of them I have called my friends in the past, although distance crept in during the final years of the Hasina regime. Two have now shared Facebook posts denying they were ever a part of the advisory board of the Center for Research and Information (CRI). They say they had only been members of the editorial advisory board for CRI’s magazine, WhiteBoard, and had no association with CRI. Radwan Mujib Siddiq is the Editor-in-Chief of WhiteBoard and a trustee of CRI. He happens to be Sheikh Hasina’s nephew, the son of Sheikh Rehana, sometimes mentioned as Hasina’s successor. The CRI was the Awami League ’s think tank, the creator of projects such as the Sheikh Mujib comic book series, a volume of quotations from Sheikh Mujib , and, of course, WhiteBoard magazine. Earlier this year, the CRI came under scrutiny when news reports published some alarming information about the organization's activities. Meta had just published, in its Adversarial Threat Report for the first quarter of 2024, a section on Bangladesh that mentioned they had removed 50 Facebook accounts and 98 pages related to the Awami League (AL) and the CRI for “violating our policy against coordinated inauthentic behavior”: specifically the use of fake pages masquerading as real news outlets that spread pro-government propaganda. I am not surprised by the board members’ objections and disavowals. We are prone to compiling lists of “traitors” to be shunned and there’s a whiff of guilt by association. But the defensive explanations hardly seem adequate either. The websites for the CRI and WhiteBoard are no longer available. Thanks to the Wayback Machine, I’m able to read archived articles. I find some old press coverage of their activities from Netra News . It’s plainly stated that the CRI was considered the “research wing” of the AL, and WhiteBoard proudly declared itself as the CRI’s “flagship publication.” From the names of the editorial advisory board and other contributors, it’s clear they tried to rope in academic and civil society personalities. They also claim that WhiteBoard was “the first policy magazine in Bangladesh.” I doubt that. The AL has long tended to deny achievements in Bangladesh’s history not directly spearheaded by them. I read some of WhiteBoard ’'s old articles. They generally avoided issues of power and politics. I find two notable exceptions, however, that sing the glories of BaKSAL , the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League, the “one” party spearheaded by Sheikh Mujib when he established a one-party state in 1974, banning all opposition, and silencing all but four newspapers . One of the articles by Syed Badrul Ahsan, a well-known apologist for the AL, contains this delightful sentence: “When BaKSAL came in, the government approved four newspapers, two Bengali and two English. It would be simplistic to suggest that this was a measure to curb dissent. No, I would say it was a measure to bring about discipline in journalism.” Remember that the next time someone bans freedom of expression. It’s not meant to silence speech. Just to bring about some discipline . Of course, BaKSAL has long had a sordid reputation in Bangladesh, but during its latest rule, the AL—in creating the second edition of its authoritarian rule—was eager to rehabilitate its legacy, and WhiteBoard was eager to join in. Indeed, during the last fifteen years, the Awami League became well-known for crude remarks from its ministers and party leaders and the thuggery of its student and youth wings in the media. This was often embarrassing to the more suave apologists of the regime. I get the impression that WhiteBoard was aimed at projecting a smart, youthful, modern, and Westernized look for the AL regime. It was published in English. The board’s membership, dominated by people from the English-fluent posh neighborhoods of Dhaka, seemed geared towards gathering goodwill from the West and courting a younger elite within Bangladesh. The board includes figures involved in the corporate and tech sectors, private universities, the biggest NGO in the country, and the English-oriented literary and publishing spheres. The CRI was only one arm of the regime’s soft power projection. It also used other platforms managed by WhiteBoard advisors. The board member Kazi Anis Ahmed wears multiple hats, diverting “thousands of dollars…into a years-long covert lobbying effort in Washington DC” on behalf of AL, according to a recent report, which details Ahmed’s shadowy dealings with groups that lobbied for Tulsi Gabbard and conservative think tanks. Ahmed directs a family corporate group, publishes the Dhaka Tribune and Bangla Tribune newspapers, heads up a major private university, and runs the Dhaka Litfest . Through the festival, he cultivated connections in global literary and media circles that helped create goodwill towards the Hasina regime. He also penned op-eds locally and in the foreign press defending stolen elections. Unlike the Awami League’s central command, which claims that there was no rigging, Ahmed’s editorials took a different line—one for a “sophisticated” global audience. One example : “While their elections have been heavily questioned for their credibility, election interference is hardly unique to the Awami League.” He hammered home the regime’s appeal to India and the West–Hasina was the last line of defense against an Islamist takeover of Bangladesh. Some on the editorial advisory board are known AL supporters; others don’t have such clear affiliations. The upper class in Bangladesh is entangled in multiple webs of family and social ties. Some on the board joined because of such social connections, others perhaps because after a decade of entrenched power, the idea was simply: “the Awami League regime is the only game going, and if I want to get access to realize my policy ideas, how else do I get that?” Yet others signed up to get their photos and names in a slick-looking publication with clout. But when you put it all together, you can’t avoid the conclusion that no matter why each person joined—their intentions really don’t matter—they became part of a machine to promote the Hasina regime and bolster her cult of personality, as well as that of her father. After all, this was a regime that passed legislation outlawing any criticism of Mujib. The CRI and WhiteBoard helped provide an intellectual veneer to the Awami League’s rule. They deployed resources to boost Mujib and Hasina’s “thought” in recent years. WhiteBoard articles continually hammered in the theme of “development through political stability,” but they kept silent about the other side of the coin: the regime’s terror-fascistic methods of ruling, the disappearances, torture, extra-judicial executions, secret jails, and censorship. And in perfect nepotistic tradition, the CRI and the WhiteBoard ’s leadership teams included four members of the first family. The Awami League rigged three elections and dreamed of ruling forever. They truly believed that, by birthright, as the party that led the movement for independence, they had the sole right to rule. A regime like Hasina's rested on many legs. You cannot build an authoritarian regime with bullets, digital surveillance, security forces, and goondafied youth alone. You need compliant media and other ways to build up soft power. Whenever protests emerged on the streets, the youth squads were sent out to pummel and even shoot protesters. These squads wearing motorcycle helmets became popularly known as the Helmet League. Those intellectuals who supported or justified the AL’s power might claim that their role was different. But then, I recall a distasteful conversation in 2008 with a university professor in Dhaka lecturing me on the importance of a party having peshi shakti, muscle power. For many intellectuals, the lure of closeness to power and the rewards were seductive. And even for those journalists, NGO wallahs, and academics who wanted to preserve some independence but avoid marginalization, it wasn’t easy. I bet each editor, professor, reporter, talk show host, or NGO director who agreed to join the conveyor belts of the ruling power has a story to tell. Most won’t. But might some? Like those who wrote the Facebook posts claiming distance from the CRI and WhiteBoard ? Bring out the details, I say. At a time when much is being revealed about how this regime functioned, I wish some would be brave enough to spell out how the daily cultural and academic life worked under the now-departed regime. It would be far more enlightening than weak justifications about why we only did this much and not more. Open air, too, can be a robust disinfectant. ∎ SUB-HEAD Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Opinion Dhaka Bangladesh Awami League WhiteBoard CRI Sheikh Hasina Bonik Bharta Center for Research and Information Association Complicity Radwan Mujib Siddiq Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Student Protests Fascism Police Action Police Brutality Mass Protests Torture Enforced Disappearances Extrajudicial Killings Despotism Clientelism Chhatra League Dissent Bengali Nationalism Adversarial Threat Report Think Tank Meta Flagship Publication State & Media Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League BaKSAL Media Crackdown Newspapers Board of Directors Free Speech Censorship One-Party State Authoritarianism Postcolonialism Postcolonial State 1971 Liberation of Bangladesh State Modernization Narratives Corporate Power Corporate Media Kazi Anis Ahmed Bengali Dhaka Tribune Bangla Tribune Dhaka Litfest Bonik Barta Netra News Modernization Islamism Cult of Personality Dynastic Politics Career Politicians Cosmopolitanism Electioneering Rigging Elections Secret Prisons Surveillance Nepotism NGOs Literary Activism Literary Spheres Publishing Literary Complicity NY Times Peshi Shakti Youth Squads Movements The Guise of Democracy BSF Surveillance Regimes Quota Movement Student-People's Uprising July Revolution Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. 20th Oct 2024 AUTHOR · AUTHOR Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. 1 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 On That Note:

Periyarism, an anti-caste ideology that originated in Tamil Nadu, is under attack in Malaysia as witnessed during the Hindutva-led disruptions of the International Youth Rational Forum. Diasporic Tamils in West Malaysia are especially losing ground in the fight against the spread of Hindutva ideology. The legacies of corrupt Malaysian politicians and the demolition of Tamil Dravidian religious sites—calling for religious homogenization—has hindered the Periyarist agenda, but they have not culled the struggle to preserve Tamil tradition and dignity. · FEATURES Features · West Malaysia Periyarism, an anti-caste ideology that originated in Tamil Nadu, is under attack in Malaysia as witnessed during the Hindutva-led disruptions of the International Youth Rational Forum. Diasporic Tamils in West Malaysia are especially losing ground in the fight against the spread of Hindutva ideology. The legacies of corrupt Malaysian politicians and the demolition of Tamil Dravidian religious sites—calling for religious homogenization—has hindered the Periyarist agenda, but they have not culled the struggle to preserve Tamil tradition and dignity. OCTO, BLUES OF MALAYA (2024). 23.5” x 35.5”. Struggling for Self Respect To counter the growing influence of Hindu extremism within the West Malaysian Tamil Hindu diaspora, Karunchattai Ilaignar Padai ( Black Shirt Youth Movement ), a new Periyarist coalition in the country, organised the International Youth Rational Forum . It was meant to educate the public on the anti-fascist and rationalist principles of Periyar’s Dravidian ideology. The forum held on December 24, 2023 , welcomed several prominent Periyarist speakers including Tamil Nadu’s SM Mathivathani and Sri Lanka's Sathees Selvaraj. It was initially scheduled to be held at the MySkills Campus in Kalumpang, Selangor, but on December 18, 2023, the director, Pasupathi Sithamparam, received harassing phone calls from Hindu extremists. Fearing backlash from donors he revoked permission forcing the organisers to find a new venue within a week. The following day, 27 Hindu organizations urged the Malaysian Home Ministry to stop the forum alleging it went against Kepercayaan Kepada Tuhan (Belief in God), the first clause of the Rukun Negara (Malaysian National Principles). The clause states that citizens must submit to the power of God. While the Malaysian state claims that the Rukun Negara, constructed in 1970, was a way to reconcile with the aftermath of the 1969 race riots, prominent Malay-Chinese intellectual and former political prisoner Kua Kia Soong counters this narrative. He argues that the “race riots” were exploited by the emerging Malay capitalist class to gain political authority over the then-ruling aristocracy. According to Kua, the principles were designed to control the masses and prevent challenges to Ketuanan Melayu (Malay Supremacy), embedded in the national constitution. This is also evident in the second and third clauses, which reify citizens’ unquestioning allegiance to Malay royalty, the country, and the constitution. On December 21, 2023 , Karunchattai held a press conference refuting the allegations from the NGOs. He stated that the principles are not against the nation’s political foundations of race, religion, and royalty (the "3Rs") and Hindu extremists are targeting them for their Periyarist identity. Despite obstacles, the forum's programming was effectively executed. Photo courtesy of the author. Following the press meet—while organisers were picking up the international speakers from the airport—they were informed that the permission to host their forum at the Wisma Tun Sambanthan hall was revoked after the venue received complaints. Fortunately, that very same night, members of Karunchattai met with the management of the KL & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall who granted them permission and declared solidarity. The next day, Nagenteran Sandrasigran, the founder of Karunchattai Ilaignar Padai, was called into the Dang Wangi police station following additional complaints. The police interrogated Nagenteran about the nature of his organisation, the forum, and Periyarism, but he was released the same day without further action. The Malaysian Immigration Department (MID) also intervened, informing the organisers that their international guest speakers had travelled under the wrong visa and needed a special one to participate in the forum. MID restricted the live streaming of the event and also implemented orders to stop and interrogate the participants as they travelled to the region. "There have been many Dravidian forums in Malaysia before, where overseas speakers were invited, but nothing this severe has ever happened before,” Nagenteran observed. Harassment and deliberate sabotage were inflicted on both organisers and speakers. On the day of the event, while the speakers were in their hotels, they received suspicious calls from people pretending to be the organisers, asking them to come down to the lobby. “I told them to stay in their rooms until I called them and not to pick up calls from unknown numbers,” Nagenteran said. The entire forum took place under the vigilant presence of the Malaysian police and immigration department. Seven police officers, including the Dang Wangi Special Branch, Bukit Aman Special Branch, and the Kuala Lumpur Contingent Headquarters, along with nine immigration officers, surveyed the forum. There were several other events organised after the main event with constant police presence throughout the day. In addition, about ten representatives from various Hindu NGOs attended the event. One representative, Rishikumar Vadivelu, vice president of the NGO Hindhudharma Maamandram , refused to stand up for the Malaysian Tamil Thai Vaazhtu (Tamil Anthem), penned by Malaysian Tamil writer Seeni Naina Mohamed . Secretary Ponvaasagam of Malaysia Dravida Kazhagam (MDK) and several other MDK members noted his behaviour and approached Rishi to firmly advise him to stand up, but he refused. Later, when a photo of Rishi’s antics went viral on social media, he declared that he didn't want to, nor should he have to, stand for a Tamil anthem written by a Muslim. He insinuated that the Tamil literary icon Seeni Naina Mohamed was a “Muslim missionary” trying to proselytise Tamil-Hindus for Islam. Hindhudharma Maamandram's President, Radhakrishnan Alagamalai, sent a letter to Deputy National Unity Minister SaraswathyKandasami reiterating that the forum was in direct opposition to the Malaysian national ideology. Saraswathy, an opportunistic caste-Hindu politician with strong ties to caste-Hindu associations, sent a letter to the home ministry emphasising the much speculated threat of atheism. She also mentioned that one of the speakers had a speech titled “Periyar from a Marxist Perspective,” fueling the anti-communist sentiment already present in the state. The ministry advised Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Adam Adli , who previously contributed to the cause and accepted the invitation to inaugurate the forum, against following through on his plans. Just a day before the event, Adli’s assistant, Mr. Amar, informed Nagenteran that the Deputy Minister would not be attending. Nagenteran expressed his disappointment, stating that moral support from the governing party could have been significant in legitimising their cause. The influence of Periyar in West Malaysia dates back to the 1930s, driven by the Tamil diaspora. During this time, Periyarists established their own Dravidian organisations in erstwhile-Malaya that engaged with the political realities of Peninsula Malaysia, alongside the self-respect movement in Tamil Nadu. Malaya’s Tamil Reform Association (TRA), founded in 1932, published Tamil Murasu , a newspaper dedicated to cultivating Dravidian ideology. The paper covered various topics, including: Tamil social reforms, Indian nationalism, Dravidian nationalism, and the conditions of indentured workers from Burma to Ceylon. Courtesy of Singaporean governmental archives. Above is a special edition of the newspaper Tamil Murasu in celebration of ponggal, which the Dravidian movement celebrated as Tamilar Thirunaal (Day of the Tamils), celebrating the secular roots of tamil society. Many successful reforms were also introduced by the MTRA revolving around marriage, specifically widow remarriages, self-respect weddings, and the endorsement of the Sharada Child Marriage Restraint Act. However, this momentum drastically diminished in postcolonial Malaysia. Nagenteran detailed how, until the late 1980s, the Malaysian Dravida Kazhagam (MDK) had been a strong community ally of MIC. During the internal power struggle for party leadership between Samy Vellu and Dr. Subramaniam Sinniah , however, MDK’s then-president KR Ramasamy threatened to contest the elections if MIC didn’t change its opportunistic ways. Samy Vellu, aiming to extinguish political rivalry and appease the opposition, lured MDK members into joining MIC, rewarding those who did exceptional work for the party. “Then, the splinter between Pandithan and Samy Vellu happened,” said Nagenteran, citing how caste politics within the party caused MG Pandithan, who belonged to the Paraiyar caste, to split from Samy Vellu, a Thevar. The former formed a new political party called the All Malaysia Indian Progressive Front ( IPF ). Paraiyars and other caste-oppressed individuals from MIC and MDK left their respective organisations to join the IPF. Due to these deviations, the influence that MDK and Dravidian ideology once had on the Tamil population greatly disintegrated. “In the 90s, we could speak about Periyar to our families, but now it has become a taboo subject,” lamented Nagenteran, describing how the political situation shifted drastically within a single generation. Wider Malaysian politics also faced the decline of progressive elements with the rise of Malay Muslim ethno-religious supremacy, who demanded that the Malaysian people come together to form a united front. “We have to embrace multicultural politics,” asserted Gausalyah Arumugam, the secretary of Karunchattai, while also criticising the existing caste pride within the Malaysian Tamil-Hindu community. “When caste prevents them from viewing members of their own ethnic group as equals, how can they form genuine political solidarity with other ethnicities?” Tamils in Malaysia In the early 19th century, European imperialism forcefully displaced many dalit and lower shudra Tamil peasantry as indentured labourers to colonial West Malaysian plantations. While the migration of the Tamil workers was controlled by debt-bondage, free Tamil merchants were able to move with ease. The hellscape system of the plantation was shaped both by European imperialism and brahminical hierarchy. By the 1940s, Tamil workers led labour unions and contributed to the anti-imperialist armed struggle of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP). Britain's counterinsurgency across Southeast Asia, however, made progressive movements a weak entity in Malaysia, paving the way for the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) to be endorsed as a communal party that could de-radicalize Tamil workers. Nevertheless, Nagenteran notes that since 2008 MIC’s hold on the Tamil workers has drastically deteriorated. The weakening of MIC is attributed in part to the 2000s Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) movement, inspired by the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), an international branch of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( RSS). MIC's continued incompetence in fighting for Indian/Tamil minority rights led to a loss of support among Tamils and relegated it to the sidelines under then Prime Minister Najib Razak. Nagenteran explained that although Najib was a corrupt criminal, he successfully established strong bonds with working-class Tamils through opportunistic concessions. Instead of using MIC as a communication channel, Najib reached out directly to meet with Indian and Tamil communities, Hindu NGOs, and caste associations to protect his vote bank. He visited the Batu Caves Murugan Temple for Thaipusam , provided a grant of RM1 million for the development of the Sri Murugan Tuition Centre, and offered Indians and Tamils the opportunity to invest in the Amanah Saham unit trust funds. In post-Najib Malaysia—with the chaos of COVID-19 still fresh—leadership changes further degraded the hopes of working-class Tamils. The current government is no different in exhibiting a lack of interest in the Tamil population. “Anwar has missed two Thaipusam festivals. There are no Tamils in the cabinet. They even complained that no diaspora ministers were invited to the inauguration of the King!” exclaimed Nagenteran, who detailed the disregard faced by working-class Tamils from political parties, further contributing to their political demoralisation. Hindu Extremism and Casteist Violence in Malaysia Some Hindu temples, like the Batu Caves Murugan temple, are advertised as emblems of religious harmony in Peninsular Malaysia, while others are sites of contention. The Seafield Mariamman Temple is one such example. It was the site of a major dispute between its property owner and the public, revealing the sinister truth undergirding the dysfunctionality embedded within Malaysian society—resulting in a riot in 2018 that made national news. The recurring demolitions of Hindu temples find their roots in the destruction of the rubber plantations and subsequent displacement of Tamil workers, directly influenced by Razak’s New Economic Policy of the 70s, and then cemented by Mahathir's industrialisation throughout the 80s and 90s. In the 2000s, this complex crisis evolved into fertile ground for the emergence of a reactionary Hindu rights advocacy, which uprooted the crisis of the temple from the historical caste-labour politics of the plantation, indentureship, and caste-feudalism. Folk deity temples are among those most often demolished. They are part of Tamil Hindu heritage and are maintained by workers who are descendants of Dalit and Shudra villagers. The villagers used to worship folk deities rather than more Brahminized deities, however, Gausalyah states that, through the influence of Hindu extremism, Malaysian Tamil Hindus are abandoning their folk practices in favour of Vedic traditions. This shift in religious practices is endorsed by temple management in the nation, which is typically governed by members of a specific caste. “Casteists and Hindu extremists work in parallel to each other,” noted Gausalyah, discussing how these spaces are weaponized to assert brahminical hegemony. This, in turn, cultivates extremism under the guise of cultural preservation. Malaysia Dravidar Kalagam Ticket, Courtesy of Singaporean governmental archives. Just like the temples, Tamil government schools are disempowered, receiving very little financial or moral support, making them susceptible to political extremism. Despite schools being secular educational spaces for multi-religious Tamil children, extremism is gradually transforming them into Hindu education camps, with some schools receiving religious textbooks published by the Hindhudharma Maamandram. “It's so easy for Hindu NGOs to work with schools, but they won't let us (Periyarists) in,” stated Nagenteran. Hindu and caste dominance is propagated to children by school management, teachers, and staff of particular castes. Gausalyah notes that the hiring is predominantly caste-based to maintain control over the education system. This influence of Hindutva-led caste segregation is reaching far beyond grade school and into university clubs as well. Gausalyah speculates that extremism has been growing for the past six years, tracing the birth of the movement to a trip Rangaraj Pandey took to Malaysia. “Hindu extremism did not grow this strongly in Malaysia without receiving financial support,” she stated. Although they do not have concrete evidence of where this funding may have originated, Karunchattai is certain that a financial network has been established between groups in Malaysia and stronger Hindu extremist bodies like the RSS. Considering the rate at which Hindu extremism has developed—mirroring the RSS's fascistic language, educational and cultural programs, and political influence in Malaysian governance—the movement cannot sustain itself without substantial financial support. Karunchattai hosts reading groups and classes to support grassroots political work against Hindutva-backed caste extremism. They hope to introduce Periyar into Tamil schools and envision connecting with anti-caste organisations worldwide, fostering a strong internationalist anti-caste vanguard that can support one another in defeating the rise of Hindu fascism. As the politics of Malaysia differ greatly from those of Tamil Nadu, propagating Periyar to the Malaysian masses is a significant task set before Karunchattai, to which Nagenteran responds with determination: “Win or lose, we want to see how far we can go.”∎ SUB-HEAD Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Features West Malaysia Malaysia Malaya Fascism Hindu Fascism Hindutva Black Shirt Youth Movement Periyar Periyarism Tamil Tamil-Nadu Tamil Diaspora Dravidian Tamil Dravidian Activism Alienation Self-Respect Movement Tamil Reform Association TRA Tamil Labor Unions Malayan Communist Party MCP Malaysian Indian Congress MIC radicalization de-radicalization Hindu Rights Action Force HINDRAF Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh RSS HSS Corruption Anti-Caste COVID-19 Hindu Extremism temple demolition attacks on folk deities Tamil Murasu Singapore Colonialism Hindutva-based Caste extremism Caste extremism Civil Society Organizing Liberation ideology Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. 20th Dec 2024 AUTHOR · AUTHOR Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. 1 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 On That Note:

For decades, rural Peru has relied on journalists, human rights advocates, and indigenous organizers for protection from crossfire between state and vigilante militants that has weakened the region and enabled the growth of illicit trade activity. As indigenous Peruvians defend their land from exploitation and chemical damage in the service of the coca leaf industry, the government’s neglect of these native leaders’ efforts has led to their systemic and routine killing. · THE VERTICAL Features · Peru For decades, rural Peru has relied on journalists, human rights advocates, and indigenous organizers for protection from crossfire between state and vigilante militants that has weakened the region and enabled the growth of illicit trade activity. As indigenous Peruvians defend their land from exploitation and chemical damage in the service of the coca leaf industry, the government’s neglect of these native leaders’ efforts has led to their systemic and routine killing. Photograph courtesy of Tania Wamani. Police repression against Andean Indigenous Quechua-speaking women from Puno occurred in the capital city, Lima, during the demonstration for justice for the civilian victims killed by the police during the protests in Puno in January 2023. Lima's Forsaken For 24 days , Mariano Isacama was missing. Calls to the indigenous leader’s phone suddenly stopped going through on June 21, following threats he had been receiving through WhatsApp messages. The 35-year-old was a spokesperson for the Puerto Azul community, which is part of the broader Kakataibo indigenous group in Peru’s Ucayali province. He worked with the Kakataibo federation, FENACOKA, one of many indigenous-led organizations across Peru that aims to provide self-governance for communities. Coworkers quickly filed complaints with the police and human rights prosecutors against people they suspected of involvement and launched search parties. Isacama, like many leaders in Peru’s native communities, was not facing abstract threats. In the past nine years, 35 indigenous leaders have been killed in the country amid threats from various organized criminal groups. Leaders face near constant harassment for their public positions defending the environment. Illicit trades have grown around these native communities, so leaders are routinely threatened to either turn a blind eye or participate. Almost none of the murder cases have led to arrests or support for impacted families and communities. What happened to Mariano Isacama “They had time to find him alive,” said Herlin Odicio, a Kakataibo leader who helped search for Isacama, incessantly filing complaints with the state for weeks. “Unfortunately the justice officials did nothing in that respect.” Odicio had been working with Isacama for a while. The two would attend conferences and workshops together, or if one couldn’t go, the other would represent the Kakataibo community. Isacama’s deep involvement with the work made him a target. On July 10, more than two weeks after his disappearance, 40 members of La Guardia Indígena’s Kakataibo division arrived to search. As an autonomous, fluid structure that has gained support among Latin America’s indigenous communities in the past two decades, La Guardia Indígena attempts to train communities to protect themselves in ways the governments won’t. They carry out patrols and build strategies to confront armed violence through collective and grassroots action. The volunteer program is neither a political body nor an armed resistance organization, but rather a loose mechanism that’s been adapted and replicated within communities across Latin America. Courtesy of Tania Wamani. In Ucayali, they put together teams to head into the woods to look for Isacama. While they were searching, threats to the search party themselves were reported from nearby non-native settlers. Isacama’s body was found on July 14, hidden away in the wilderness. “We’ve already identified suspects,” Odicio said, “We hope the justice system will do its duty, which we’ve pushed for. If they don’t, and they do the opposite, the justice system we have as indigenous people is going to be something very different.” Odicio himself has been facing threats for years, and lives on the run as a result. In 2020, he was approached by cocaine producers and asked to ignore planeloads of the drugs flown off makeshift runways on his community’s land. He rejected the money, making him a target. His continued advocacy work and public profile as an environmental defender further puts him at risk. He reports having to change his location constantly, moving his family between cities and homes, and routinely receiving threatening messages—even from other members of the community. “Emotionally, I’m not doing well,” he said, after four years of living under threat and reflecting on Isacama’s murder, “It’s complicated, you know? But what else can I do? Keep working, that’s it.” How militarism gave way to cartels In recent years, lethal threats facing Peru’s indigenous leaders have grown into a crisis as various illicit trades in the Amazon and Andean regions flourish under state negligence. Indigenous leaders, local journalists, and human rights researchers have all documented growing cases of cultivation and transportation of cocaine, illegal logging and mining , construction of unplanned roads that facilitate these extractive programs, and the violence and corruption necessary to keep these operations functional. These problems started several decades ago in the wake of a shifting political and economic reality within the country. Peru’s government spent decades centralizing its population and economic policies around the capital of Lima. Rural areas struggle under neglect across the country, but in the particularly remote indigenous communities in the country, this has evolved into a crisis. Ángel Pedro Valerio, president of the indigenous organization Central Ashaninka of Río Ene (CARE), noted that the problem has grown over the past 40 years. Valerio’s Ashaninka community is located in VRAEM, a region that’s become defined by cocaine production, poverty, and the presence of the Shining Path militant group. “Inside our communities, since the ‘80s and ‘90s and 2000s, the Ashaninka people and the entire central region of the rainforest have suffered from terrorism,” Valerio said. “Many of us have had family members disappeared or killed. This political and social problem hasn’t gone away.” During an era of violence between the Shining Path and the central government, areas like Valle de los Rios Apurimac, Ene y Mantaro (VRAEM) were particularly hard hit. They were caught in the crossfire between a communist group accused of brutal attacks on civilians (including children) and a military run by dictator Alberto Fujimori, who was later sentenced to 25 years in prison for human rights violations. Fujimori died on September 11, 2024, several months after being released from prison for medical reasons. In the 1980s and 1990s, Lima’s population exploded as the armed conflict drove people away from Peru’s provincial areas. According to official state inquiries , Fujimori’s government was responsible for hundreds of forced disappearances and executions, including the killing of journalists and children , all under the guise of fighting terrorism. Civilians in rural areas were the most at risk, so many fled to the capital . In 1993, Lima had six million residents. In 2024, the city’s population is about 11 million –nearly one-third of all Peruvians live there. In the aftermath, rural areas were broadly left without infrastructure or police presence, as all modernization efforts focused on the capital. While skyscrapers fill the wealthier neighborhoods of Lima, infrastructural basics characterize much of the rest of the country. A 2023 United Nations report highlighted how hundreds of thousands in Peru live without basic nutrition, education, and healthcare. Earlier this year, a report in Infobae showed that 92% of the country’s high schools lack basic resources. Courtesy of Tania Wamani. VRAEM, though, has become defined by poverty and neglect. It’s known to be the home of what’s left of the Shining Path. “In recent years, the presence of illegal coca leaf growers has grown exponentially,” Valerio said of VRAEM. “They’re coming to invade the territory of native communities and those of us who live there can’t do anything about it. They’re opening large farms and deforesting the area, contaminating the water and the environment, degrading the soil. These coca leaves take a lot of chemicals to grow.” He pointed out that each time his organization files a complaint about threats from narcotraffickers, the state refuses to take action. He adds that state inaction puts them at greater risk. “Many of our brothers mention that they can’t file complaints because if they do, the first thing that happens is more threats,” Valerio said. “They brand us snitches and send us a warning.” A prosecutor’s vision In Lima, the central prosecutor’s office attempted to address this problem after years of neglect. In late 2023, they announced funding secured through the European Union to launch three task forces or workshops which would oversee environmental crime, human trafficking, and assassinations of indigenous leaders. “These problems have certainly grown because of a lack of attention from the central government,” said Jorge Chavez Cotrina, who oversees the attorney general’s division on organized crime. “Because the problem isn’t just to fight organized crime through police and prosecutors and the courts, but also has to be addressed by the executive branch. That is to say, before taking corrective actions we also have to take administrative actions—as in, prevention is key.” Cotrina said the three teams are mainly focused on partnering with indigenous leaders and working on building trust in the state by sending more officers into the field, participating in training programs, and sponsoring events. He said they’ve dismantled organized crime networks and opened investigations into murder cases of indigenous people. He argued, however, that this work is complicated by the lack of funds the central government provides them, pointing out that of the $3 billion budget his office was officially granted, they’ve only been disbursed $80 million. As a result, he said, they lack staff, forensic equipment, judges, and the ability to reach native communities that are the most remote. On top of that, Cintora points out that the problems can’t simply be addressed through arrests, and that prevention must consider economic development and increased governmental presence in the area. The centralized perspective of the government can exacerbate the problem by creating easier conditions for organized crime to flourish. Late last year, Peru passed a so-called “anti-forest law” swiftly denounced by activists, indigenous organizations, and leading environmental groups. The SPDA, a Peruvian legal watchdog and environmental NGO, declared that the law would openly promote and legalize deforestation in the Amazon, while putting local agriculture and communities at risk. Their legal opinion showed that the country would be violating its own laws by allowing this through and ensuring Peru's failure to meet international commitments regarding climate protection. Courtesy of Tania Wamani. “The legislature definitely has put in place a series of regulations without knowing the reality,” Cintora said. “When someone writes a regulation from their desk without knowing the reality, these are normally well-intentioned. But when you explain to them the reality, it’s counterproductive. And that’s what’s happening with issues like deforestation, illegal mining and the environment…The idea instead should be to call upon the rural communities that can give their opinion on regulations that would affect their territories.” A balance in trust Leaders like Odicio and Valerio remain skeptical of the state. Cintora’s vision is to work alongside communities, so they begin to trust police and prosecutors with time. “Our job is to gain their trust,” Cintora said, “and through these task forces, we’re having many meetings with different communities in the Peruvian Amazon, and we are on the right track.” One case took prosecutors and police a decade to resolve . In 2014, in the small town of Saweto, four indigenous leaders were killed. The case didn’t go to trial until 2022, when the state eventually won convictions against four men they accused of being involved. In 2023, those cases were declared null by a regional judge. For many in Peru’s activist communities, this signaled an important lesson: even in the rare case that the state seeks a conviction in these murders, the courts can’t be trusted. Only in April 2024, did the case finally go to the Superior Court of Ucayali and the sentences were restored. Cintora saw the case as a win, as it affirms faith in the prosecutor’s office for native communities. Despite funding problems, he hopes that this kind of work can make a difference in restoring collaboration with these communities. “With the small amount of resources we have, we do what we can,” Cintora said, “because we can’t sit around crying that there’s no money.” ∎ SUB-HEAD Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Features Peru Lima Indigenous self-governance Ucayali Rural strategic underdevelopment VRAEM Valle de los Rios Apurimac Ene y Mantaro Shining Path Central Ashaninka of Río Ene Kakataibo Militarism Cartel Drugs Cocoa Plant Amazon Rainforest Andres Mountains Trade Route Illicit Trading Forced Disappearance Free Speech Militant Anti-Forest Law Journalism Execution Underdevelopment Development Filmmaking Photography Human Rights Activism NGO Agriculture Climate Change Deforestation Community Security Climate Security European Union Human Trafficking Assassination Whatsapp Puerto Azul Conflict Justice La Guardia Indigena Volunteer Program Latin America South America Protest Search Party Aviation Transportation Logging Mining Construction Violence Corruption Politics Economy Poverty Terrorism Disappearance State Sanctioned Violence Policing Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. 18th Nov 2024 AUTHOR · AUTHOR Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. 1 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 On That Note:

KOKOKO!, an experimental music collective from the DRC, has navigated political censorship and the country’s struggles with energy exploitation to create a sound that electrifies the present. Using repurposed household materials as instruments and makeshift cables for amps, they fuse French and South African house with Congolese folk to produce innovative live and stereo listening experiences. Their latest album, BUTU— “the night”—calls on audiences to bear witness to the cacophony of Kinshasa after dusk as a commentary on the political state of Congo at large. · BOOKS & ARTS Review · Congo KOKOKO!, an experimental music collective from the DRC, has navigated political censorship and the country’s struggles with energy exploitation to create a sound that electrifies the present. Using repurposed household materials as instruments and makeshift cables for amps, they fuse French and South African house with Congolese folk to produce innovative live and stereo listening experiences. Their latest album, BUTU— “the night”—calls on audiences to bear witness to the cacophony of Kinshasa after dusk as a commentary on the political state of Congo at large. BUTU (2024) album cover. Image courtesy of KOKOKO! Lights Out in Kinshasa At a show in Kinshasa, electric wires glow red and drip from the ceiling. Massive grooves do not relent. Then, the amp explodes. Still, electronic group KOKOKO! and their audience are undeterred. “When this happens, nobody panics,” KOKOKO! producer and keyboardist Xavier Thomas tells me over Zoom. “We just rewire some things; maybe we don't tell people how long it's going to be. Then, the gig comes back at full intensity.” The duo came together in 2017, when Thomas aka Débruit, who is French, traveled to Kinshasa to work on a documentary about the city’s performance art scene. While there, he met Makara Bianko, a Congolese musician who was putting on daily live music performances, at the time, that lasted for hours and involved dozens of dancers. Thomas, Bianko, and a number of other musicians began by playing at a block party inside a building that was under construction. They had such a great time that they decided to form a group together. KOKOKO! Image courtesy of the artists. A video they released shortly afterwards featured snippets of their songs. In it, the group explained how they fashioned instruments out of everyday objects like detergent bottles and tin cans because they love electronic music but don’t always have access to instruments to make the music in conventional ways. KOKOKO!’s experimental production approach garnered so much attention that they were invited to go on a 12-stop tour of Europe before even releasing a single. They went on to tour the US, release their critically acclaimed 2019 debut album, Fongola , and play shows like Boiler room and NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series. KOKOKO! make a maximal, frenetic, and innovative blend of punk, trance, Congolese folk, and bits of Kwaito – a genre of house music that originated in South Africa. Makara Bianko, who is the vocalist and band leader, sings with propulsive, declarative wail delivered in “fast short loops.” And Débruit, who has been DJing French house music (combined with musical influences from Turkey, Tunisia, and of course, The Congo) for over two decades, takes production credits for his signature squirming basslines, blaring, distorted synths, and booming percussion. Though, it’s not just the intensity of KOKOKO!’s performances that causes the equipment at their shows to glow and burst at shows. The Congo produces a number of resources that are used to make technology like smartphones, batteries, and laptops. 70% of the world’s cobalt is mined in the country. Citizens rarely benefit from these resources or from the prosperity possible from its sale. On the contrary, a quarter of the country’s population of 111 million people. Interviews with over 130 people led Amnesty International to report that entire communities are being forced to leave their homes as mining companies expand operations. “The cables we were using were really cheap,” Thomas says in his diagnosis about the exploding amplifier. “I would take a plug apart and it would be just one thread of metal instead of a bunch of braided ones. The people in the Congo produce so many resources, but most can’t benefit from them.” It’s how people living in Kinshasa adapt to and resist this neglect that inspires KOKOKO!’s new album BUTU , which means ‘the night’ in Lingala. Scientists estimate that the Congo River that runs next to the city generates around 100,000 MW of electricity—enough to power the entire country of France. Locals, however, confront frequent power cuts as energy is largely sold outside of the country. According to the World Bank, only 19% of the country’s citizens have access to electricity. Due to its location near the equator, night falls early and quickly in the city. So, in the sudden, consuming darkness, the sounds of daily life—cars whizzing down the street, people finishing off their last errands of the day before heading home, churches competing with nearby clubs for passerbys’ attention — are amplified. “Kinshasa is never quiet,” Bianko says, “there is always somewhere to go party, always a performance, whether it’s in everyday life and how people act to be resourceful or the way people dress. People in Kinshasa do everything to stand out from the chaotic and difficult backdrop of the city. Everyone wants to be one special character out of 18M.” In capturing the night, KOKOKO! also bring a sense of mystery into their music. On opener “Butu Ezo Ya,” Bianko welcomes the listener into his world: “The night is coming /Come in enter all of you / The darkness is coming / Come enter and witness it.” As the chanted vocals layer and wind through field recordings of car horns grinding synth, you feel swathed in the falling night and all the disarray and excitement it will bring with it. The forthcoming details of the night are never specified, but you know they will be notable enough to warrant witnessing together. KOKOKO! Image courtesy of the artists. It appears that this communal witnessing serves as a political tool, too. The citizens of the DRC face intense censorship from the government. The government regularly shuts down the internet, especially during election periods. They can also criminalize journalism without stating any specific reasons, and in 2021 banned songs that were critical of the government. BUTU shares frustration at this political reality with the listener. There are moments of explicit critique: one song is titled “My country doesn’t like me” but most of the lyricism is opaque to avoid censorship. “Here in DRC, sometimes we need to disguise some meaning. Either the story is about something else but the message is the same, or we use words that sound similar to forbidden ones. We can’t really talk openly so it’s for the listener to discover.” “Mokili” begins with a handful of chanted imperatives: “Leap! Makes you jump! Grab it! Defeat him! Help! Open!” that transition into a melody about the world turning upside down. As with “Butu Ezo Ya,” it’s unclear if the words are sung with a sense of excitement or dread. Sonically, KOKOKO! pushed their production forward with Butu to capture this sense of political overwhelm. “We wanted the rolling rhythms, the music loops, and Macada’s powerful voice to be almost overwhelming,” Thomas says, “We wanted the music to have lots of information, lots of rhythms, and lots of vocals.” Fongola had a raw, improvised feeling that’s been replaced with lusher, more cohesive electronic production on KOKOKO’s latest album. While the earlier compositions relayed a sense of verve and spontaneity, the songs on BUTU build into tidal waves of emotion. On “Telema,” the call and response vocals enliven an already propulsive backdrop of grumbling synth and drums that surge forward like a forest fire. “Mokolo Lukambu” spotlights the honeyed undulations of Bianko’s vibrato, which relays a tangible feeling of longing. These burning, fluorescent songs are so poignant because of their multivalence. With BUTU , KOKOKO! celebrate the beauty of their city and lives while protesting the inhumane conditions the government imposes on them there. They keep playing even as the amp explodes, inviting us to bear witness, all while keeping the dance alive.∎ SUB-HEAD Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Review Congo Music KOKOKO! BUTU Arts Experimental Music DRC Censorship Politics French South African Live Music Production Bandcamp Instruments Recycled Materials Fongola Debut Boiler Room NPR Tiny Desk Punk Trance Folk Kwaito House music Turkey Tunisia Synth Percussion Technology Natural Resources Cobalt Environmental Science Migration Performance Resist Congo River Lingala Energy Electricity Equator State Government Narrative Banned Music Journalism Criminality Critique Kinshasa Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. You can update and reuse text themes. 17th Feb 2025 AUTHOR · AUTHOR Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Add paragraph text. Click “Edit Text” to customize this theme across your site. 1 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 5 Heading 6 Heading 6 Heading 6 On That Note: