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Indian authorities in controlled Kashmir are filtering many books from the region’s prominent libraries and academic institutions on “suspicious” grounds, including honoring leaders associated with Kashmir’s independence movement.
All educational institutions in the region are ordered to check books, articles, manuscripts, doctoral dissertations and digital materials to “prohibit the purchase, distribution or storage of any book that contains misleading, incorrect, inaccurate, confusing, illegal or objectionable material, including any that directly or indirectly promotes, respects, insults or insults extremism, separatism, discord, civil liberties or anything that interferes with unity, unity, integrity and national security,” according to the law issued by the government on July 9.
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Authorities have also ordered an investigation into how the “disturbing” books got into public libraries and schools in the disputed region. The questionnaire, which initially only invited school libraries, was expanded last week to include not only books, but also publications, articles, records, and digital content held by universities.
Kashmir is controlled by India and Pakistan, but has been fully claimed by all nuclear powers. In 2019, New Delhi ended the independent status of Indian-administered Kashmir and placed it under direct rule. Since then, the region has reported serious violations of educational institutions, activists and groups, journalists and other groups supporting freedom.
When did the most recent violation begin?
It started earlier this month Sunil Sharma, a right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician, ordered the banning of a book titled Personalities and Legends of J&K, written by regional academics Hilal Ahmad and Santosh Meena. J&K stands for Jammu and Kashmir, the official name of the region.
The 240-page book, which Al Jazeera has, is organized into five chapters featuring well-known politicians, activists, writers, poets, and historians from the region such as authors Salman Rushdie and Hari Kunzru, and Farah Pandith, the first special representative for Muslim communities in the United States.
However, the government has opposed the inclusion of senior Kashmiri separatists in the book.
Among them is Maqbool Bhat, a former separatist leader who was hanged to death by an Indian court order in 1984. The book calls Bhat a “martyr” – one of many thorny labels issued by the BJP.
Also mentioned in the book is Masrat Alam Bhat, another separatist who led the protests during the 2010 riots and is currently in jail after being arrested during the 2019 riots.
The entry of late separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani is said to have called Kashmir “a non-aligned region awaiting a political settlement with the help of the United Nations”.
What are the authorities against?
Ironically, this book, along with another titled Great Personalities of Jammu and Kashmir – written by Sushant Giri and published by a New Delhi-based outfit – was given to public libraries and schools in the region under a government-sponsored scheme.
But the BJP’s Sharma described their presence as an example of “educational jihad”, invoking the popular Islamophobic dog whistle and arguing that such books were intended to incite violence in Kashmir.
“These forces are also trying to corrupt the minds of the youth and children, taking them back to separatism and terrorism,” Sharma told reporters, calling for the books to be banned.
The police in Kashmir, led by an inspector appointed in New Delhi on behalf of the elected government in the region, immediately rushed the two publishers and arrested three people, telling them that they were “threatening the sovereignty, unity, and integrity” of India.
How will the people of Kashmir respond?
For local residents, the literature review has raised concerns.
“Writing or even reading about the region suddenly becomes risky. When you tell the story of Kashmir, you cannot escape the pain, the conflict and the reality of human rights issues,” a senior Kashmiri journalist told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, fearing retribution.
“At my house, I have old human rights reports and archival books on Kashmir that today’s authorities would say are anti-national. Out of concern, I am clearing my shelves.
A bookshop owner in the capital city of Srinagar, who did not want to be named, told Al Jazeera that people like him are confused about which books to keep and which to throw away.
“We don’t know what will happen if it is against the country and what is in the interest of the country,” he said.
The bookseller said the same is happening in school, college and university libraries, especially in departments such as law, social sciences and humanities.
How has the government protected this?
The BJP has defended the decision, saying the inclusion of “disturbing” documents amounts to “inciting militancy” in the region.
“This is not history or education… This book is trying to revive the sense of alienation among the youth,” Sharma said. “It is an attempt to spread hatred against India and its armed forces.”
This is not the first time that the Indian government has expanded the educational and media power of Kashmir.
Last year, seniors banned 25 bookssaying that they denigrate the sovereignty of India, spread false news and create division. The banned names included those written by eminent judges, scholars, journalists and successful writers, including AG Noorani, Sumantra Bose and Arundhati Roy.
Police raided more than a dozen bookstores to make sure the books were removed.
Earlier, the police also banned books by Abul A’la Maududi, a prominent 20th-century Islamic scholar who founded Jamaat-e-Islami, a now-banned Muslim organization in Kashmir.
The police said that the operation was “based on reliable intelligence about the illegal sale and distribution of literature promoting the ideology of a banned organization”. In the process, at least 668 books were confiscated from several bookstores in Srinagar.
What do writers and experts say?
They call it breaking the “intimidating habit” to destroy reading a book.
“Even if there are criticisms here and there, so what? After all, books are not bombs,” journalist and author Anuradha Bhasin told Al Jazeera. When was the last time someone read a book and decided to carry a gun?”
Bhasin’s The Dismantled State was among the 25 books banned last year. He added that the administration is “going through the motions” in trying to analyze every article published in Kashmir.
He said: “How many books can you read? Even using AI to identify what is said to be questionable poses a risk of misreading.”
Mr Bhasin said the crackdown on books would “scare fear” and force people to “silence” Kashmir-related books that discussed and debated the causes of South Asia’s “unresolvable” conflict.
He said: “Come to think of it, the word ‘opposition’ doesn’t sound right.” Anything can be objectionable, but libraries will no longer have these books if they are put on hold due to ordering.
Political scientist Sumantra Bose, whose two books – Kashmir at the Crossroads: Inside a 21st-Century Conflict “(2021) and Contested Lands: Israel-Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Cyprus, and Sri Lanka (2007) – were among the banned last year, explained the recent laws “ab.
“If the administration wants to spend time, energy and money looking for one needle in a million haystacks, that’s their choice. I personally don’t think it’s a smart way, and it won’t give the desired results,” he told Al Jazeera.
Mohamad Junaid, a Kashmiri anthropologist at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, called the literature review on Kashmir “remembering”.
He said the “increasing amount” of literature shows that Kashmiris have become “unable to understand their status as the first phase to be eradicated as a people”.
“It’s a deliberate attempt to change the facts of the past and to forcefully change people’s perceptions of their life experiences.” The government wants young Kashmiris to have no way of knowing their status and to be self-governing,” Junaid told Al Jazeera.
