Continued mayhem in Palestine, increasing bloodshed in Kashmir, mass protest in Hong Kong - how do we connect these dots? Are they related?

Well, of course: The sun never set on the Union Jack! In the sunset of that empire - as is inevitable for all empires - chaos and turmoil were destined to follow.

"The world is reaping the chaos the British Empire sowed," Amy Hawkins recently wrote in Foreign Policy, "locals are still paying for the mess the British left behind in Hong Kong and Kashmir." The author left out Palestine, chief among places around the globe, where the British empire spread discord and enmity to ease its rule and prepare the ground for disaster after its exit.

Indeed, the anticolonial uprisings in the Indian subcontinent, China, the Arab world and elsewhere did not result in freedom or democracy for the nations ruled by the British Empire.

In Kashmir, the British left a bleeding wound amid the partition of colonial India.

In Palestine, they left a European settler colony and called it "Israel" to rule in their stead and torment Palestinians.

In Hong Kong, they left a major cosmopolis that is neither truly an independent entity, nor a part of mainland China.

They picked up their Union Jack and departed, leaving behind a ruinous legacy for decades and generations to bleed. Those consequences are not just historical and buried in the past. They are still unfolding.    

When the sun finally set 

Ironically, today the United Kingdom is struggling to hold itself together, as the Brexit debacle tears it apart. One looks at the country and marvels at the poetic justice of wanton cruelty coming back to haunt the former empire.

The UK finds itself face to face with its imperial past, with the Irish and Scottish once again defying English nationalists and their schizophrenic belief in their own exceptionalism. How bizarre, how just, how amazing, how Homeric, is that fate!    

We may, in fact, be witness to the final dissolution of the "United" Kingdom in our life-times. But there was a time when, from that very little island, they ruled the world from the Americas in the west to Asia and Australia in the east.

The terror of British imperialism - wreaking havoc on the world not just then but now as well - is the most historically obvious source that unites Hong Kong, Kashmir, and Palestine as well as the many other emblematic sites of colonial and postcolonial calamities we see around us today. But what precisely is the cause of today's unrests? 

In Hong Kong, Kashmir, and Palestine we have the rise of three nations, "baptised" by fire, as it were - three peoples, three collective memories, that have refused to settle for their colonial lot. The harsher they are brutalised, the mightier their collective will to resist power becomes. 

Britain took possession of Hong Kong in 1842 after the First Opium War with China. It transformed it into a major trading and military outpost, and insisted on keeping it long after its empire collapsed. In 1997, Britain handed Hong Kong over to China, conceding to the idea of a "one country, two systems" formula that allows for a certain degree of economic autonomy for Hong Kong. But what both China and Britain had neglected to consider was the fact that a nation of almost eight million human beings throughout a long colonial and postcolonial history had accumulated a robust collective memory of its own, which was neither British nor mainland Chinese - it was distinct.  

Kashmir came under British influence shortly after Hong Kong - in 1846, after the British East India Company defeated the Sikh Empire that ruled the region at that time. A century later, Kashmir was sucked into the bloody partition of India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the British departure from the subcontinent, with both post-colonial states having a mutually exclusive claim on its territory. Here, too, what India and Pakistan forget is the fact that almost 13 million Kashmiris have had a long history of countless troublesome colonial and postcolonial experiences, making Kashmir fundamentally different from either one of them.

The same is the case with Palestine, which fell under British rule in 1920 after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. Before the British packed their colonial possessions and left almost three decades later, they installed a successor settler colony in the form of a Zionist garrison state. Decades of unrelenting struggle against the barbarities of the British and the Zionists have left Palestinians in possession of one of the most courageous and steadfast histories of resistance to colonial domination.  

Memories of resistance

In revolting against China, India, and Israel, these three nations in Hong Kong, Kashmir, and Palestine have become three nuclei of resistance, of refusal to let go of their homelands.

They have narrated themselves into a history written by powers who have systematically tried to erase them and their collective memories. "Homeland" is not just a piece of land. It is a memorial presence of a history.

Those memories, corroborated by an entire history of resistance to imperial conquest and colonial occupation have now come back to haunt their tormentors.

China, India, and Israel have to resort to naked and brutish violence to deny the veracity of those defiant memories, now evident as facts on the ground. In doing so, these powers have picked up where the British empire left off.

They too seek to terrorise, divide and rule, but by now those they try to subdue have mastered resistance; their struggle has outlived one imperial oppressor, it can surely survive another.

In other words, no amount of imperial brutality, settler colonialism or historical revisionism can make the distinct identities, memories and histories of these people disappear.

Today people in Palestine, Kashmir, and Hong Kong see themselves as stateless nations ruled with brutish military occupation. In the postcolonial game of state formation, they have been denied their national sovereignty.

The more brutally they are repressed and denied their sovereignty, the more adamantly they will demand and exact it.

Neither China in Hong Kong, nor India in Kashmir, nor Israel in Palestine can have a day of peaceful domination until and unless the defiant nations they rule and abuse achieve and sustain their rightful place in the world.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/hong-kong-kashmir-palestine-ruins-british-empire-fire-190925122530155.html

T

Not only ruins but destroyed British Empire.

Kashmir belongs to Pakistan.. India are the one forcefully taking their lands.

Imagine Hong Kong... One country two systems. It simply means China has major influence in whatever decisions to be made in Hong Kong.

Karma they said is a bitch.. Is it not same British that is struggling for her own life with Brexit brouhaha...

Becareful of what you sow

Same way they cause havoc in Nigeria by bringing the northern and southern protectorate together. The result is why Nigeria is still backward today.

helinues:
Not only ruins but destroyed British Empire.

Kashmir belongs to Palestine.. Israel are the one forcefully taking their lands.

Imagine Hong Kong... One country two systems. It simply means China has major influence in whatever decisions to be made in Hong Kong.

Karma they said is a bitch.. Is it not same British that is struggling for her own life with Brexit brouhaha...

Becareful of what you sow

Kashmir belongs to Palestine? You must have flunked geography, you need an atlas.

MASTERCHIEF0847:


Kashmir belongs to Palestine? You must have flunked geography, you need an atlas.

The Map that was re drawn.. So Na geography map( story) you still dey relied on in 2019?

helinues:


The Map that was re drawn.. So Na geography map( story) you still dey relied on in 2019?

Oga Kashmir is located between India and Pakistan so how does it belongs to Palestine?
When you find yourself in a hole the sensible thing to do is to stop digging.
You're ignorant on this one.

MASTERCHIEF0847:


Oga Kashmir is located between India and Pakistan so how does it belongs to Palestine?
When you find yourself in a hole the sensible thing to do is to stop digging.
You're ignorant on this one.

Poor me.. You are right

helinues:
Not only ruins but destroyed British Empire.

Kashmir belongs to Pakistan.. India are the one forcefully taking their lands.

This, Sir, shows you didn't clearly get the message the OP passed.

Kashmir wants to be an independent nation, not under Palestine or India. Both countries are only flexing their muscles on the weaker nation of Kashmir, thanks to the Brits.

Even Pakistan was once part of India but chose to be independent.

Please get well informed.

Thanks.

kynbasil01:


In Palestine, they left a European settler colony and called it "Israel" to rule in their stead and torment Palestinians.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/hong-kong-kashmir-palestine-ruins-british-empire-fire-190925122530155.html

Agreed 100%
Pure truth.

LeoThaGreat:


This, Sir, shows you didn't clearly get the message the OP passed.

Kashmir wants to be an independent nation, not under Palestine or India. Both countries are only flexing their muscles on the weaker nation of Kashmir, thanks to the Brits.

Even Pakistan was once part of India but chose to be independent.

Please get well informed.

Thanks.

This is true, both Pakistan and Indian have a region in Kashmir that they administer.
Kashmir is used as a weapon for India against Pakistan and likewise.
But to dig into the topic more, India had proved more aggressive to people of Kashmir, the majority religion in Kashmir is Islam and recently a rise in Indian nationalism has increased racism towards Muslims. This includes Muslims both in India and Kashmir.
Secondly, Pakistan major water source flows through Kashmir and Indian have repeatedly make futher attempts to build dams and other constructs on the river, a development that'd provoke Pakistan.

So says a jihadi supporting al Jazeera based in Islamic terrorism supporting Qatar .

As per the agreements states in pre independent India were given the choice the join either India or Pakistan .

The king of Kashmir decided to join India and legally signed the letter of accession .

Pakistan then sent Islamic raiders to invade Kashmir , they would have occupied all of Kashmir had the inherent desire basic of of all Islamic jihadis to rape and loot not overcommed and sidetracked them.

It goes without saying most of those who were looted and raped by the Pakistanis were Muslims with significant no of Hindus.

Nothing to say about the genocide of Hindu Kashmiris at the hands of Islamists in Kashmir.

Thousands of Hindus were brutally killed and raped over a period of 30 years . More than 2 million Hindus were forced to flee for the safety of their lives leaving behind their homes and belongings which were occupied by the Muslims.

Jammu and Kashmir is not defacto muslim majority state as peddled , Ladakh is Buddhist majority , Jammu is Hindu majority , only Kashmir is muslim majority.

As per UN security council resolution 1948 , Pakistan is required to withdraw it's troops and tribal militias from Pak occupied Kashmir first , India will then sent its own troops to gain control and maintain peace and then under UN plebiscite will be held . Why is then Pakistan not withdrawing from Pakistan control Kashmir ?

The reason is very clear the people in Pak occupied Kashmir don't want to stay with Pakistan which is a failed nation. There is not even basic facilities available in Pak occupied Kashmir and the people have been protesting their subjugation and killings at the hands of Pakistan which largely goes unnoticed by international media.

And the biggest irony Kashmir name is derived from the Hindu goddess Kashmira and so claiming Kashmir on the basis of Islam falls flat.

The bigger question is how long is the so called Islamic republic of Pakistan going to last ?

Given the mass rebellion by balochis of Balochistan province , by Pashtuns of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , sindhis of Sindh due to the oppression by the state of Pakistan.

In 1971 East Pakistan rebelled and broke of from Pakistan as Bangladesh due to large scale genocide committed by Pakistan.

But the irony is when Muslims kill Muslims in Islamic countries it's supposed to be fine and overlooked but the results say otherwise.

Pakistan was made by accident 70 years ago , India has existed since time immemorial and so the mistakes of past will be undone if not today then tomorrow , but it shall be done.

And for the ignorant

Instrument of Accession signed by Maharaja Hari Singh (as a Sovereign) aceeding his state of Jammu & Kashmir to India. Accepted by British governor general of India lord Mountbatten.