Friday 22 February 2019

Kashmir


When you see the Kashmiri
Hate him.

For decades he has been
A stain on the nation

With his beard and his pheran
His gushtaba and his carpets
His insistence on existing
Being alive

His insistence that he, too
Is human, and has desires
This must not be allowed to be.

He is not like you and me.

Tie him to the bonnet of your car
To use as a human shield
Teach him a lesson.
Blind him
With pellet guns
Shoot him
And burn his house to ashes

The way the British treated us all
Him and her,
You and me.

He deserves it, even though
It is all the fault of Pakistan
Simultaneously.

When you see the Kashmiri
Spurn her.

She deserves it, because
Her husband, her brother
Her mother, her sister, her father
Breathe the pure air of your
Hindu nation,
And her children grow up

To be the Other that must not be.

When you see the Kashmiri
Hate them,
Call them traitors,
Send WhatsApp messages denouncing them
And demand that they be destroyed,
That they be boycotted,
That they be starved and made to kneel
That they be taught
The taste of your steel.

Even though it’s all the fault of Pakistan

Simultaneously.


Copyright B Purkayastha 2019





1 comment:

  1. Many thanks. As I've said before, in school I had geography classes where I learned all there was to know about the sub-Continent, but as I grow old, I know less and less every day. I had no idea about how Indians felt about Kashmirin (it wasn't in our schoolbooks or newspapers).

    MichaelWme

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