Why is India vetting books in Kashmir in search of ‘anti-national’ content?
Authorities in the disputed region are auditing school, college and public libraries to look for ‘objectionable’ material. Authorities in India-administered Kashmir are conducting a mass
Authorities in the disputed region are auditing school, college and public libraries to look for ‘objectionable’ material. Authorities in India-administered Kashmir are conducting a mass filtering of books at the region’s prominent libraries and educational institutions over allegations that they carry “objectionable” content, including extolling leaders associated with Kashmir’s pro-freedom movement. All educational institutions in the region have been ordered to vet books, journals, dissertations, doctoral theses and digital resources to “prevent the procurement, circulation or retention of any publication containing misleading, factually incorrect, distorted, inflammatory, unlawful or otherwise objectionable material, including any content which directly or indirectly promotes, glorifies, legitimises or justifies terrorism, violent extremism, secessionism, radicalisation, communal disharmony or any activity prejudicial to the sovereignty, unity, integrity and security of nation,” according to an order issued by the government on July 9. Authorities have also ordered an investigation to determine how books with “seditious content” made their way into public libraries and educational institutions in the disputed region. The inquiry, initially ordered only for school libraries, was broadened last week to include not just books, but also research publications, dissertations, journals, and content stored digitally by the universities. Kashmir is controlled in parts by India and Pakistan, but claimed in full by both the nuclear powers. In 2019, New Delhi annulled Indian-administered Kashmir’s historic semi-autonomous status and brought it under direct federal control. Since then, the region has reported a widespread crackdown on educational institutions, rights activists and groups, journalists and other pro-freedom groups. When did the latest crackdown begin? It began earlier this month after Sunil Sharma, a politician belonging to the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), demanded a ban on a book titled Personalities and Legends of J&K, authored by regional educationists Hilal Ahmad and Santosh Meena. J&K stands for Jammu and Kashmir, the official name for the region. The 240-page book, of which Al Jazeera has a copy, is organised into five chapters featuring prominent politicians, activists, authors, poets, and historians from the region such as writers Salman Rushdie and Hari Kunzru, and Farah Pandith, the first-ever special representative to Muslim communities in the United States.
However, authorities have objected to the inclusion of key Kashmiri separatists in the book. Among them is Maqbool Bhat, a former separatist leader who was hanged to death on the orders of an Indian court in 1984. The book calls Bhat a “martyr” – one of the many thorny references the BJP has flagged. Also mentioned in the book is Masrat Alam Bhat, another separatist who led rallies during an uprising in 2010 and is currently in jail after his arrest during the 2019 clampdown. An entry on late separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani says he had called Kashmir a “disputed region awaiting political resolution under the aegis of the United Nations”. What are the officials objecting to? Ironically, the book, along with another titled Great Personalities of Jammu and Kashmir – authored by Sushant Giri and published by a New Delhi-based outfit – was provided to public and school libraries in the region under a government-funded programme. But the BJP’s Sharma described their presence as an example of “academic jihad”, invoking a popular Islamophobic dog-whistle and arguing that such books were intended to incite unrest in Kashmir. “These forces are once again trying to poison the minds of young people and children, pushing them back towards separatism and terrorism,” Sharma told reporters, demanding a ban on such books. Police in Kashmir, controlled by a New Delhi-appointed administrator rather than by an elected government in the region, immediately swooped down on the publishers of the two books and arrested three people, charging them with “endangering the sovereignty, unity, and integrity” of India. How have Kashmiri residents responded? For the region’s residents, a sweeping institutional audit of books has brought anxiety. “Writing or even reading about the region’s past suddenly becomes fraught with risk. If you tell the story of Kashmir, you cannot escape the pain, the conflict and the realities of human rights issues,” a senior Kashmiri journalist told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals from authorities. “In my own home, I have a collection of old human rights reports and archival books on Kashmir that the authorities would today classify as antinational.
The BriefWire