As Kashmir varsities cull ‘objectionable’ books, fear of losing academic rigour grows among scholars

Published 10 July 2026 · education

Over 50 academic departments of the Kashmir University (KU) and Valley-wide colleges and schools are carrying out a comprehensive screening of books to remove literature

Over 50 academic departments of the Kashmir University (KU) and Valley-wide colleges and schools are carrying out a comprehensive screening of books to remove literature suspected to contain ‘anti-India’ or ‘pro-separatist’ content, in the wake of official orders. Meanwhile, J&K regional parties reacted sharply to the development. KU’s three main departments of Political Science, Law, and History are the most affected. “We have been identifying problematic books for the past two days. The returned books will go to KU’s central library,” said a senior professor, on the condition of anonymity. Many Heads of Departments are grappling with the vague official order, which says all “problematic books should be removed without any titles or authors identified”. In 2025, KU removed all 25 books authored by Christopher Snedden, A.G. Noorani, Sumantra Bose, Ayesha Jalal, Sugata Bose, Arundhati Roy, Stephen P. Cohen, Anuradha Bhasin, Seema Qazi, etc, in the wake of an official ban. “This time, there are no titles or authors. It has induced a sense of self-censorship. Fearing action from officials, hundreds of books are identified and culled in the departments. This random culling will impact academic research of students in the future,” said another professor.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a scholar said removing books on history and personalities who are key to the historic trajectory of Kashmir “will dent the academic rigour” and “impact on the outcomes too”. “It will only induce academic bias among scholars,” he added. Not only Kashmir varsities, the Directorate of School Education, Kashmir, has also asked all Heads of Institutions of government schools, private schools, and coaching institutions “to conduct a comprehensive screening of all books available and ensure that no book contains inappropriate or objectionable content”. A committee has been tasked with collecting the certification reports on audit of objectionable books from the districts. “Any lapse in compliance with these instructions shall be viewed seriously and will invite appropriate disciplinary action,” the official order said. The order came days after a book, titled ‘Great Personalities and Legends of J&K’, profiled Kashmir separatist leaders like Maqbool Bhat, Masarat Alam, Shabir Shah and Syed Ali Geelani, and circulated in J&K schools under the national Samagra Shiksha scheme. The publisher of the book is from Jammu and the printing has been done either in Noida or Delhi, official sources said.