In today’s episode of “Speaking Out of Place” we speak with Dr. Haley Duschinski and Mr. Imraan Mir, who people active in trying to grow global awareness of Kashmir and in working to secure human rights for the people of Kashmir. They give us important historical background on Kashmir, which is normally reduced to simply a place of struggle between India and Pakistan. To counter that image, Duschinski and Mir characterize Kashmir as a region with a deep and rich culture and history that is suffering under a brutal and anti-democratic occupation imposed and maintained by the state of India. 

We talk about the evasive moves Modi’s India has made to create a state of permanent emergency which is hidden by “performative democracy,” greenwashing, and deceptive and false labeling of pro-rights activists as “terrorists.” And we learn how the global community can help.

Dr. Haley Duschinski is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Ohio University (Ph.D. Anthropology, Harvard University, 2004). A legal and political anthropologist, she has co-edited Resisting Occupation in Kashmir (2018), The Routledge Handbook of Critical Kashmir Studies (2022), and The Palgrave Handbook of New Directions in Kashmir Studies (2023). Duschinski is a founding member of the Critical Kashmir Studies collective and an active member of the Kashmir Scholars Consultative and Advocacy Network (KSCAN).

Imraan Mir is a lawyer, entrepreneur and author.  His Kashmir-related work involves research, writing and advocacy to increase understanding of historic and contemporary realities and to facilitate accountability for rights violations.  He has done human rights-related work on Kashmir since the late 1990s independently and through collaborations with various organizations, including the Kashmir Law and Justice Project.  He holds a J.D. from Harvard Law.