A dissertation paper by a student at TISS-Hyderabad has come under the scanner for calling Kashmir “India occupied Kashmir”. The paper, written by one Ananya Kundu, was titled, “Engendering Conflict: Understanding the impact of Militarization, Conflict and Pandemic-Induced Lockdown on Domestic Violence in India occupied Kashmir”.
MA Project report has ‘Indian occupied Kashmir’ in the title itself. Respected @DrRPNishank kindly tell us why is TISS Hyderabad not defunded & de-recognized with IMMEDIATE EFFECT? @AmitShah ji why is this still continuing? This is being normalized in state funded institutions! pic.twitter.com/bHVsmiCiSF
— Abhinav Prakash (@Abhina_Prakash) June 18, 2021
The paper was supervised by Dr. Nilanjana Ray. The paper contains several other extremely problematic comments. The paper says, “Indigenous Kashmiri researchers have shied away from working on domestic violence since recognition of domestic violence as a serious gender-based concern in the valley will contribute to the larger Indian state rhetoric of vilifying Kashmiri men which will then validate the Indian state’s imperialist intentions on the pretext of “protecting” and “rescuing” Kashmiri women.”
In other screenshot shared by Abhinav Prakash, the paper argues that the invasion of Jammu & Kashmir right after independence was a ‘freedom movement’. “These freedom fighters took help from Pakistan to overthrow the rule of the Dogras. Hari Singh’s army was being defeated and the King who had now been overthrown sought assistance from India. What history terms as invasion was the freedom struggle of Kashmiris from foreign rule, just like India’s movement against the British,” the paper said.
It continued, “The area they were successful in freeing is referred to as Pakistan Administered Kashmir. India calls it POK or Pakistan Occupied Kashmir but the people living there refer to it as Azad Kashmir, a name which stands testimony to their fight for freedom against foreign rule and its partial success.”
In the end, the paper blames India for the domestic violence in Kashmir. The paper says, “All issues of gender-based violence in Kashmir are impacted by the on-going conflict and militarization. So in order to resolve the issue of gender-based violence, the conflict and militarization needs to be brought to an end. This will require the government to address the political aspirations of Kashmiris for self determination an autonomy.”
Thus, what the author effectively says is that domestic violence is caused by India’s “occupation” of Kashmir and to brought it to an end, Kashmir must me made independent. Thus, once again, the objective appears to be absolve the actual culprits of their guilt and lay the blame at the feet of the Indian Army and the Government. And such pearls of wisdom comes from the School of gender Studies at TISS.
