THREAD - On "A Celebration Of Kashmiri Resolve" and the Primal Fallacy Of Our 'Qoum' When It Comes To Supporting Artists.
I recently saw a few tweets that blast the virtual concert and slam all the participants as sellouts and collaborators.

The most prominent among the participants being Zeb Bangash, Ali Saffudin and Mohammad Muneem. The tweets spoke about how the event's organizer was a supporter of settler-colonialism in Kashmir and how anyone who participated in it must be a "collaborator" and hence, a sellout.

I take great offense to this as these tweets also took aim at my favourite Koshur artist, Ali Saffudin or as I know him, Ali bayya. I happen to have met him only once a few months ago at Kashmir University. I had not met Ali bayya before although I'd been an avid listener of his.

We met him at Naseem Bagh after @zeeshan_jaipuri, a good friend and frequent collaborator of his, and an excellent poet in his own right asked him to come visit when I requested him because I really wanted to meet him. Zeeshan Bhai called him and he agreed. I was very excited.

Ali bayya finally arrived around 4:30 PM on his trusty bike and at first, I was surprised by how tall he was and also quote reticent to interact with him because he is a bona-fide celebrity in our valley, whether you like it or not. But my hesitation was dispelled very quickly.

Ali bayya said salaam and I responded in kind. I found him to be quite humble and we spoke about his music for quite a while. We discussed his musical influences which range from Dylan to NFAK to Jim Morrison to Jimi Hendrix to Ali Azmat. I found him to be genuinely humble.

Not only that, we also spoke about the Kashmir conflict and I found him to be very passionate about the cause. I asked him about his new album which he is recording with the label "Azadi Records" and he actually transferred the entire unreleased album from his phone to mine.

I assured him that I would not leak it so he needn't worry. His answer surprised me, he laughed and said,"I don't need the album revenues. I just need genuine listeners. That's all." This is a very big deal when it comes to budding artists as revenues are their bread and butter.

But what happened next is something that floored me and shall remain in my mind for as long as I live. As we were speaking, Ali bayya got a call from an unknown number, he picked it up and spoke for a second and said to Zeeshan Bhai,"It's some major of the Indian army."

All of us suddenly went quiet and Ali bayya walked a few places to the side while listening to the major speak on the phone. All of us strained our ears to listen to what he was saying to the major. I swear by Allah that I heard Ali Saffudin say these words to the major.

The same Ali Saffudin whom some ignorant people are labelling a collaborator on Twitter as we speak. He said to the major,"No, I will not perform at your event. Why? Because that means legitimizing your presence in my land." I was floored to hear him say this to an army officer.

He went on further and said,"Why so? Because I believe your nation has occupied my home and you are occupational forces who have committed war-crimes on my people. I already told this to the person who called me previously so don't call me again." And he walked back towards us.

I was amazed because if you're a Kashmiri, you simply do not say this to an army-man. And here was Ali Saffudin, a relatively famous Kashmiri musician who happened to frequently work in India saying all these things nonchalantly and boldly to an actual officer of the Indian army.

As for Zeb and Muneem, they are massively popular artists. Zeb happens to be one of the most popular musicians in Pakistan and Muneem is frontman for one of Kashmir's most famous band. Both of them have time and again opposed the occupation of Kashmir through their music.

Ali bayya has a montage of Kashmiri freedom fighters ranging from Burhan to Maqbool Bhat in his video for "Ae Rah-e-Haq Ke Shaheedon." Does that really sound like something a collaborator would do or are you really that blinded by your own biases and hatred?

He has performed at events for the APDP, sang the poem of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, fonstantly and repeatedly denounced the occupation of Kashmir in his music, he even sang "Inqalab O Inqalab" live on BBC with the accompanying skit speaking about the freedom struggle of Kashmiris.

What does it take to convince some self-righteous twats of how genuine an artist is about the cause? Should those artists wear a placard around their necks with the text,"FREE KASHMIR" on it? Would that convince these people?

Now, on the subject of our fallacy and hypocrisy when it comes to supporting Kashmiri artists. Tell me, how many of us speak about our own musicians when we wax poetic about what a good singer XYZ from America is.

How many tweets in praise of Ali Sethi have you come across on Twitter and how many in praise of a Kashmiri artist? How many of us are willing to spend money in order to watch a Koshur musician perform and how many of us have spent thousands on Netflix and Amazon Prime?

Why is that we have become so reckless to slander and label someone a sellout or collaborator on social media without even doing our research and backing those sweeping claims of ours up with evidence?

Why have those people who criticized and slammed above-mentioned event conveniently forgotten to talk about how all the money raised from said event will all be donated to the people of Kashmir?

If I had a choice in the matter, I'd gladly prefer to be an Ali Saffudin who courageously speaks the truth to power without fearing recriminations than a K-Twitter warrior who spends his days disagreeing with anyone they don't like rather than do something genuine for the cause!

I end this thread by quoting Ali bayya from an unreleased song of his,"Sathth akh ekis senzi maayich thaavo,
Gul tei gulzaar, yemov routt mazaar, Gul tei gulzaar, yemov routt mazaar,
Yaad tihenzei vizzi vizzi aesi thaavo,
Khaab yus vuchukh tas pazzar aesi baanvov."

BAAQI WASALAM

Here's a picture of Ali bayya on the day I met him for good measure.