JNU Cancels Webinar For Calling Kashmir ‘India Occupied’; Probe Ordered

JNU vice chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar posted a message on the official Facebook page of JNU that the matter is being enquired into.

The topic of the webinar by Ather Zia, associate professor of anthropology and gender studies at UNCO Greeley, was to be ‘Gendered Resistance and Fresh Challenges in a Post-2019 Kashmir’.

“This talk will draw and build upon the ethnography of Resisting Disappearance, giving an overview of the historical gendered resistance to Indian occupation in Kashmir,” the description to the topic, reportedly posted on the JNU website for a while till it was taken down, read. “It will discuss the fresh challenges to resistance and dissent in Kashmir post-2019 and how it has affected women and Kashmir in general.”

Vinod Bansal, the national spokesperson of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), said in a tweet that JNU has again become a field for anti-nationals. Kashmir is an integral part of India and will continue to stay so.

Sources say that some faculty members reported the matter to the university administration as soon as they saw it and faculty members of the Centre were told to cancel the webinar via an official mail. It was cancelled less than one hour before it was slated to take place.

The vice chancellor posted a long message on the Facebook page described as the official page of JNU, to share the news late at night: “As soon as it came to our notice that an online webinar titled ‘Gendered Resistance and Fresh Challenges in Post-2019 Kashmir’ was going to be organised at 8.30 pm today by Centre for Women’s Studies, JNU, the JNU administration immediately instructed the faculty member organising the event to cancel it. The programme was cancelled forthwith. The faculty member did not seek permission of the administration before planning such an event. The notice of the webinar says, ‘this talk will draw and build upon the ethnography of… gendered resistance to Indian occupation of Kashmir.’ This is a highly objectionable and provocative subject, which questions the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country. JNU cannot be a platform to this kind of very questionable webinars. The matter is being enquired into.”