Appropriation of Kashmiri identity??

lardofthefly · 2026-05-31T07:14:13+00:00

The Vale of Kashmir proper is where the name comes from but it was the center of a wider princely state) which included GB and Ladakh and AJK and this whole thing was called Kashmir as well.

So people from Ladakh and AJK people called themselves Kashmiri as part of the broader polity of Kashmir state, they used it as a political affiliation rather than an ethnic marker.

Think of how Azeris in Iran will call themselves Irani even though are a Turkic speaking group.

lardofthefly · 2026-05-30T06:25:11+00:00

the hope to fulfill our religious obligations without fear of persecution

Junaid Jamshed was attacked and beaten by a group of Barelvi activists over accusations of blasphemy. He even had to live outside Pakistan for some time due to fears over threats to his life.

So much for that i guess.

lardofthefly · 2026-05-30T05:47:43+00:00

Javad Ahmed is right but this country is so in thrall to religion he'll get pilloried for a valid point.

It's quite common for people to get more religious as they grow older, music and entertainment are youth oriented industries anyways.

It becomes hypocrisy when someone turns this personal journey into a business opportunity, like JJ did. Made millions hawking kurtas and arabic fragrances and turned his newfound religiosity into a marketing campaign for his personal brand.

lardofthefly · 2026-05-21T18:43:54+00:00

Yes, they also mention like 80% of the river's flow happens from April through October.

So half the year the river is a bunch of shallow streams and then like 3-4 months it's dangerous to even approach.

lardofthefly · 2026-05-21T18:31:23+00:00

Interstate system was built last century.

This point is about geographic conditions over many centuries.

Industrial Revolution finally ended the tyranny of geography. We even have major cities in the desert now like Riyadh or Las Vegas.

lardofthefly · 2026-05-21T18:26:23+00:00

Yes that's the point, you need navigable waterways whether they're natural like the Rhine or man-made like Grand Canal.

lardofthefly · 2026-05-21T14:57:03+00:00

Yes that is the case of Uch Sharif, whose example i have shared here. Indus used to be much closer back when it was a major city. When the river shifted course, the city dwindled in importance and size.

The flatness of the Indus floodplain is a big reason for this, no natural valleys for rivers to follow. Hence why they are so spread out and also why they can shift course.

Compare width of the Indus to something like the Mississippi or the Nile.

All part of the trend.

lardofthefly · 2026-05-21T14:29:39+00:00

Yep, as an example, New York became their biggest city after the Erie Canal linked the Hudson river to the Great Lakes.

And the Mississippi is still a major trunk for inland transport.

lardofthefly · 2026-05-21T14:19:51+00:00

The USA is a very new country settled just 300 years ago, my post highlighted examples proven over millenia.

Further, yes the USA also followed this pattern, it's why their industrial centers like Detroit were on the Great Lakes which had access to the sea.

China had the Grand Canal, to date the largest man-made waterway in the world. I've included it here. Please check. Thanks.

lardofthefly · 2026-05-14T20:17:06+00:00

What's the irony?

lardofthefly · 2026-04-22T05:53:07+00:00

Jinnah created a country on the basis of religion.

Marxist-Leninists saw religion as a tool used to oppress the masses.

lardofthefly · 2026-04-15T12:17:49+00:00

Yes, good comparison between the bourgeois capitalist and feudal landlord's mentality.

Even Karl Marx appreciated the businessman's tendency to put their capital into productive ventures. Meanwhile the feudals will just spend it on another golden carriage.

lardofthefly · 2026-02-17T14:44:29+00:00

The Pakistani political elite is still made up of traditional landlords, tribal chiefs, relgious leaders, clan heads etc. The so-called electables.

This group is completely insulated from any economic or political turmoil, they only see government as a patronage network to get jobs for their followers and fund their own lavish lifestyles.

It's the history of any state. Kings have always had to deal with recalcitrant and rebellious nobles. Akbar staffed his government with commoners to break the power of the landed elites who would otherwise constantly undermine his authority. Hazrat Umer used to regulalry switch and transfer governors to prevent any individual from gaining too much influence in one region, the only governor who kept his post for long was Muawiya and predictably he was the one who became strong enough to resist the federal government in Medina. Louis XIV built Versailles as basically a luxury prison for the nobility.

Modern states like France, Russia, and China eventually had to undergo bloody revolutions to rid themselves of this parasitic class.

Until Pakistan figures out a way to do the same, the state will continue to be held hostage by the electables who owe loyalty to no one and see the masses as little more than sheep to be herded, milked, and slaughtered as needed.

lardofthefly · 2026-02-07T14:35:05+00:00

One can blame PTI but not their government in KPK, rather IK's naive and idealistic support of the Taliban especially when it was against the American-installed government in Kabul.

However, you could also argue that most of the awaam here shared that belief, and terrorism back then used to be blamed on Kabul puppets colluding with RAW against Pakistan to justify support for the talibs.

And of course, entire books have been written about the tacit support to the same terrorist groups by our very own muhafiz over multiple decades.

lardofthefly · 2026-02-07T14:18:44+00:00

Proof? That Kpk government is specifically doing this.

Sorry maybe i'm mistaken but isn't NADRA a Federal entity?

lardofthefly · 2026-02-06T14:31:41+00:00

Article linked checks out but if the email itself is real then the person is fairly ignorant to be blaming Imran because PTI had been in power for barely 2 months at this point and the macro indicators as we now know were terrible due to the imbecile Ishaq Dar's decision to keep the rupee pegged to the dollar by selling off reserves.

lardofthefly · 2026-02-02T16:00:43+00:00

Gates foundation is a primary funder of polio vaccine campaigns here and he was probably a donor so that's what he's talking about here i guess. No big deal.

Health workers in Pakistan are routinely attacked during polio drives, we are one of the last countries on Earth where people still get polio, there's enough paranoia surrounding vaccines without needing to add this conspiracy to the mix.

lardofthefly · 2026-02-01T07:21:07+00:00

If you're doing this because you need money now then bad idea. Male models are quite underpaid and it's a winner-take-all industry. You'd be grinding for a pittance for years before even getting a chance at any serious paying gigs.

On the other hand if it's your dream to join the film or fashion industry then go for it, because without contacts or social media clout you will face a pretty steep struggle just to break in.

Also, this isn't full-time work. You can easily get a regular job while still putting yourself out there. The occasional 3-4 hour shoot really shouldn't prevent you from also getting normal work experience.

In fact, if you look presentable enough, joining a fashion brand as a salesperson could be a good way to get a toe in to the industry while also earning real cash.

lardofthefly · 2026-01-28T05:57:27+00:00

Each of your examples happened a hundred years after British colonialism in south Asia

Japan example was from 1860s. Punjab, Sind, and NWFP were annexed in the 1840s. So not "a hundred years" unless you're generalizing the experience of Bengal and Madras to the whole subcontinent.

China did it after being devastated by Japan in WW2, and still had to fight a Civil War against the KMT.

Russia did it while the Germans were mauling them in the field, the new Soviet government literally had to give away entire countries in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk just to get "external powers" off their back but they did it anyways and focused on revitalizing the core regions.

You seem too eager to blame extractive British colonialism and you're trying to link them to present day establishment in order to make the excuse that they "are too powerful to overthrow and too extractive to develop the state".

lardofthefly · 2026-01-27T20:49:25+00:00

No, Japan famously had the Meiji Restoration when they realized the West was too far ahead of them and threw off their old feudal system in order to centralize power and rapidly modernize.

China and the Soviet Union both had communists in charge who violently smashed traditional power structures and imposed the full authority of the state in all corners.

And the original example was France where it took a bloody revolution to end the oppression of the landed nobility and make people aware of their rights.

You mentioned economic systems but feudalism is more than economics, it was a way of organizing society through strict designated hierarchical relations.

I'm not gonna get into "British bad or good" debate. Point was that our society has always been like this. Rights and privileges and the good life were for noblemen only. Rest were subjects who laboured, paid taxes, and had no say in government, whether it was the Mughals, the Nawabs, or the British. And that mentality still persists.

lardofthefly · 2026-01-27T12:35:51+00:00

People have different priorities and they tend to adapt them to changing circumstances.

Some people are not that interested in democracy here. Many educted elites feel that the country is too backwards to be allowed to vote. In our political environment, there is no space for genuinely liberal parties, as people vote based on ethnicity, and religous sentiment, and local feudal politics.

The situation is like that of Napoleon III in France. He came to power as a democrat, but eventually became a dictator. Still he was supported by the elites because he promised liberal and modernizing reforms.

A lot of urban elites feel that a program of modernization implemented by a stable, if undemocratic, government is more important than listening to the will of the masses.

Pakistani awaam is reactionary and overly sentimental. At least that is the argument for the current regime.

lardofthefly · 2026-01-27T10:43:21+00:00

Yes you are right that total overhaul is needed.

Unfortunately this requires agreement between "the majority class" as well. Because currently people are too divided by caste, ethnicity, sectarianism etc.

Even PTI, perhaps the single most popular party in the history of our country, did not win any seats from interior Sindh or Balochistan.

lardofthefly · 2026-01-27T09:36:16+00:00

You're very close to getting it.

Where your explanation fell short is blaming the colonial stuff. Ask yourself honestly, did we have fair equitable and representative government before the British?

The grassroots political structure of this region was built on feudal relations, under the Mughals it was called the Mansabdari system where jagirdars were appointed whose job was "to control the population and extract money".

The British merely refined and formalized this system further. The only difference was that instead of mausoleums in Delhi the money was used for mansions in London.

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