Paper Short Abstract:

This paper examines unofficial politics of redress within practices of solidarity with the Kashmiri freedom movement in parliamentary politics. It explores how politicians in Britain assert their political responsibilities towards Kashmiris by recognising the British colonial legacy.

Paper Abstract:

This paper examines unofficial politics of redress within practices of solidarity with the Kashmiri freedom movement in British parliamentary politics. It explores how political parties and politicians in Britain assert their political responsibilities towards Kashmiris and other oppressed people by recognising the British colonial legacy and thus their own entanglement with ongoing forms of oppression in the world.

The legacy of British colonial rule in South Asia has shaped conflicts and violence in Kashmir, as well as the longstanding presence of Kashmiris in Britain. For many decades, British Kashmiris have mobilised in public protests, formed alliances with local and national politicians, and called upon the government to support their right to political self-determination. They constitute important voter bases in numerous constituencies that cannot be ignored. At the same time, British Kashmiris themselves have entered local and national politics as elected representatives. Because of the British government’s denial of responsibility in the Kashmir conflict, deemed a bilateral dispute between Pakistan and India, no official politics of redress exists. Nevertheless, the political situation in Kashmir is highly present in British politics and regularly debated in parliament.

In this paper, I focus on notions of responsibility as conditions for building solidarities across inequalities and the emergence of (un-)official politics of reparation. I discuss the possibilities and limits of solidarities in parliamentary politics to decolonise the institutions of the nation-state by recognising global entanglements and related political responsibilities to redress and support the struggles of oppressed people worldwide.