VOLUME LVII – Number 2

Ashley Hajimirsadeghi

Abstract: This article explores how the logic of elimination and exploitation entailed in settler colonialism generated civic nationalism in Tibet and Kashmir. Cultural elites in these lands responded to oppression by the metropole governments in China and India, respectively, by shaping the formation of nationalistic ideologies among their respective communities. Ultimately, the systematic persecution and desire for cultural destruction that is involved in settler colonialism has expedited the creation of “imagined communities,” and developed national identities for Tibetans and Kashmiris.

Key Words: settler colonialism, civic nationalism, imagined community, Tibet, Kashmir

About the Author: Ashley Hajimirsadeghi is an Iranian American multimedia artist, journalist, and writer from Baltimore, Maryland. She is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, U.S. State Department, University of Arizona, and Brooklyn Poets. From 2024-2025, she will be in Kolkata, India creating ethnographic and documentary poetry around climate change, migration, and India’s declining Chinatowns through an arts-based Fulbright-Nehru Open Research Award.

She received her M.A. in Global Humanities from Towson University, and a Bachelor of Science in International Trade & Marketing from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her creative poems, essays, and fiction have appeared in Passages North, Salt Hill, Salamander, and The Journal, among others. Her editorial work and criticism have appeared in MovieWeb, Smithsonian Magazine, and Screen Queens.

 

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