Nitasha Kaul | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Nitasha Kaul November 1976 [1] |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | St. Thomas' School |
| Alma mater | University of Delhi University of Hull |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, Poet, Activist, Academic |
| Known for | Residue |
Nitasha Kaul is a British-Indian [3] academic, writer and poet based in London. [4] [1] In addition to fiction, she writes and speaks about topics that cover the political economy, Bhutan, Kashmir, nationalism in India, gender and identity.
Nitasha Kaul was born in November 1976 in Gorakhpur, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, into a Kashmiri Pandit family that had migrated from the Downtown Mohalla of Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. [2] [5]
Kaul was raised in New Delhi had her schooling at St. Thomas' School. [6] Kaul graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the Sri Ram College of Commerce, then affiliated with the University of Delhi.
Kaul moved to England from India in 1997, at the age of 21, for pursuing her post-graduate degree from University of Hull. Kaul went on to earn her Doctorate in Economics and Philosophy from Hull in 2003. [7] Her doctoral thesis was Interrogating the Subject-World of Economic Epistemology: Re-Imagining Theory and Difference. [8]
Kaul is a Professor of Politics, International Relations, and Critical Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Westminster in the UK.https://www.westminster.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/directory/kaul-nitasha In addition to her Chair, she is also the Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD).https://www.westminster.ac.uk/research/groups-and-centres/centre-for-the-study-of-democracy Kaul served as a Lecturer of Economics at University of Bath [8] and as an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Bristol Business School from 2002 to 2007 before being made Associate Professor in Creative Writing at the Royal Thimphu College in Bhutan (2010). [7] Professor in Politics and International Relations at the University of Westminster. [7] [9] [10] She has published widely on themes relating to democracy, political economy, Hindutva/Indian politics, misogyny, technology/Artificial Intelligence, identity, rise of right-wing nationalism, feminist and postcolonial critiques, small states in geopolitics, regions of Bhutan, Kerala, and Kashmir. Having received multiple research grants and awards for her research, writing, and activism, she is the author of over 150 publications, including 7 single-authored or edited scholarly and literary books, book chapters in numerous critical and ground-breaking edited collections, plus peer-reviewed original research articles in numerous journals across humanities and social science disciplines.https://westminster.academia.edu/NitashaKaul/CurriculumVitae [11]
On October 22, 2019, Kaul served as one of the key witnesses at a United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing about the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir, following the revocation of special status within India. [12] Kaul outlined extensive UNHCHR reports about the violations of human rights (and democratic principles) in both Indian and Pakistan-administered Kashmir along with the clampdown on communication facilities and mass-detention in the Indian territory at the time. [13]
Her first book Imagining Economics Otherwise: encounters with Identity/Difference (2007), was a monograph on economics and philosophy and was subject to mixed reception. [14] [15] [16]
In 2009 she wrote Residue, which was the first novel in English by a Kashmiri woman [17] and was shortlisted for the 2009 Man Asian Literary Prize. [5]
In February 2024, Kaul was invited by the Congress-ruled Karnataka State Government to participate as a speaker in a two-day convention on constitutional values, but she was denied entry to India at Kempegowda International Airport, in Bengaluru, Karnataka, even though she carried valid Overseas Citizen of India credentials. [18] [19] https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2024-02-23-university-of-westminster/ There has been no official statement from the Government of India on why she was denied entry. Kaul has been a longstanding advocate of democracy, human rights, and rule of law, and a critic of extremist right-wing political projects including that of Hindutva in India, and particularly on matters of gender and economy.{https://westminster.academia.edu/NitashaKaul/CurriculumVitae, https://www.nitashakaul.com/uploads/Kaul-2017-Journal_of_Labor_and_Society.pdf, https://academic.oup.com/isr/article/23/4/1619/6303451. A wide-range of professional and academic organisations, including academic bodies such as BISA (British International Studies Association) https://x.com/MYBISA/status/1772951085403037923, International studies Association (ISA)https://www.isanet.org/News/ID/6389, Human Rights Watch https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/03/17/india-authorities-revoke-visa-privileges-diaspora-critics, Amnesty International https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/09/india-authorities-must-end-repression-of-dissent-in-jammu-and-kashmir/, and others publicly expressed outrage at her treatment and showed support for her work. Her case was also referred to in the 2024 Freedom House Report on authoritarian controls on freedom of movement https://freedomhouse.org/report/transnational-repression/2024/no-way-or-out-authoritarian-controls-freedom-movement.
Azad Jammu and Kashmir, officially the State of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entity and constituting the western portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947. Azad Kashmir also shares borders with the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the south and west, respectively. On its eastern side, Azad Kashmir is separated from the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir by the Line of Control (LoC), which serves as the de facto border between the Indian and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir. Geographically, it covers a total area of 13,297 km2 (5,134 sq mi) and has a total population of 4,045,366 per the 2017 national census.
Jammu and Kashmir was a region formerly administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019, constituting the southern and southeastern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India, Pakistan and China since the mid-20th century. The underlying region of this state were parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, whose western districts, now known as Azad Kashmir, and northern territories, now known as Gilgit-Baltistan, are administered by Pakistan. The Aksai Chin region in the east, bordering Tibet, has been under Chinese control since 1962.
The Kashmiri Pandits are a group of Kashmiri Hindus and a part of the larger Saraswat Brahmin community of India. They belong to the Pancha Gauda Brahmin group from the Kashmir Valley, located within the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmiri Pandits are Hindu Kashmiris native to the Kashmir Valley, and the only remaining Hindu Kashmiris after the large-scale of conversion of the Valley's population to Islam during the medieval times. Prompted by the growth of Islamic militancy in the valley, large numbers left in the exodus of the 1990s. Even so, small numbers remain.
The insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, also known as the Kashmir insurgency, is an ongoing separatist militant insurgency against the Indian administration in Jammu and Kashmir, a territory constituting the southwestern portion of the larger geographical region of Kashmir, which has been the subject of a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947.
The Kashmir conflict is a territorial conflict over the Kashmir region, primarily between India and Pakistan, and also between China and India in the northeastern portion of the region. The conflict started after the partition of India in 1947 as both India and Pakistan claimed the entirety of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is a dispute over the region that escalated into three wars between India and Pakistan and several other armed skirmishes. India controls approximately 55% of the land area of the region that includes Jammu, the Kashmir Valley, most of Ladakh, the Siachen Glacier, and 70% of its population; Pakistan controls approximately 30% of the land area that includes Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan; and China controls the remaining 15% of the land area that includes the Aksai Chin region, the mostly uninhabited Trans-Karakoram Tract, and part of the Demchok sector.
Kashmiris are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group speaking the Kashmiri language and originating from the Kashmir Valley, which is today located in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.
The Sudhanoti District is one of the 10 districts of Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region. The Sudhanoti District is bounded on the north and east by the Poonch District, on the south by the Kotli District, and on the west by the Rawalpindi District of Pakistan's Punjab Province. It is located 90 kilometres (56 mi) from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. It is connected with Rawalpindi and Islamabad via the Azad Pattan Road.
Angana P. Chatterji is an Indian anthropologist, activist, and feminist historian, whose research is closely related to her advocacy work and focuses mainly on India. She co-founded the International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir and was a co-convener from April 2008 to December 2012.
"I Protest" is a rap song by a Kashmiri singer MC Kash, that he sang in 2010. The song that is about the 2010 Kashmir Uprising and Human rights abuses in Kashmir and failures by Kashmiri politicians including the separatists. It became an immediate hit in the valley and outside. The song was sung during protests. The studio where the song was recorded was raided by the local police after the song was released and the staff was questioned about involvement of any separatist leader. Kash, who was emotionally disturbed by the deaths of youth, including his friend, in the unrest, wrote the song. According to Kash, he wrote this in English to spread awareness about the situation in Kashmir. Kash faced hard time in recording his songs after this song was released as most of the studios denied facilitating him and he felt considerable pressure to stop raising such issues in his songs after people close to him showed concern about his security.
Human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir range from mass killings, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and sexual abuse to political repression and suppression of freedom of speech. The Indian Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and Border Security Personnel (BSF) have been accused of committing severe human rights abuses against Kashmiri civilians. According to Seema Kazi, militant groups have also been held responsible for similar crimes, but the vast majority of abuses have been perpetrated by the armed forces of the Indian government.
Human rights abuses in Kashmir have been perpetrated by various belligerents in the territories controlled by both India and Pakistan since the two countries' conflict over the region began with their first war in 1947–1948, shortly after the partition of British India. The organized breaches of fundamental human rights in Kashmir are tied to the contested territorial status of the region, over which India and Pakistan have fought multiple wars. More specifically, the issue pertains to abuses committed in Indian-administered Kashmir and in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir (IPTK) is a People's Tribunal formed by Indian human rights activists for the purpose of probing human right violations in the Indian-administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir, and bridging the gap between people living in Kashmir and rest of India. It was first convened in 2008 by Parvez Imroz, Angana P. Chatterji, Gautam Navlakha and Zaheer-Ud-Din. Chatterji served as convener until December 2012.
The Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus, or Pandits, is their early-1990 migration, or flight, from the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley in Indian-administered Kashmir following rising violence in an insurgency. Of a total Pandit population of 120,000–140,000 some 90,000–100,000 left the valley or felt compelled to leave by the middle of 1990, by which time about 30–80 of them are said to have been killed by militants.
Parveena Ahangar is the Founder and Chairperson of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Kashmir conflict has been beset by large scale usage of sexual violence by multiple belligerents since its inception.
Shabir Choudhry is a British national and a Kashmiri leader, rights and peace activist, politician, academician and writer. He helped form the Kashmir Youth Movement in 1973, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front in 1976 and later on the Kashmir National Party in 2008. He resigned from each of these after being discouraged or opposed to the direction they were headed. He went to United Kingdom in 1966 where he continues his struggle against forces of occupation, terrorism, extremism and religious intolerance in Azad Kashmir and Kashmir through regular statements, articles, press releases, conference and videos. He is a British national as well as a Pakistani/Kashmiri national.
Peacebuilding in Jammu and Kashmir includes confidence-building measures at a nation-state level between the governments of India and Pakistan, track two diplomacy, as well as initiatives by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), institutes and individuals. The purpose of peacebuilding in Jammu and Kashmir include conflict prevention and reduction of hostilities in the Kashmir Valley. Many countries such as Russia, United States and China have also played a de-escalatory role with regard to tensions in the region.
On 5 August 2019, the government of India revoked the special status, or autonomy, granted under Article 370 of the Indian constitution to Jammu and Kashmir—a region administered by India as a state which consists of the larger part of Kashmir which has been the subject of dispute among India, Pakistan, and China since 1947.
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