‘No space for critical thought’: How detentions and surveillance are strangling academic freedom in Kashmir

On 3 September, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in Indian-administered Kashmir quashed the preventive detention order of research scholar Shafat Maqbool Wani, ruling that owning books with controversial titles does not make a person a criminal or justify detention without trial. Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi said in her order that “owning books with grim titles does not make their owner a criminal”. She held that authorities had failed to establish any specific subversive activity warranting Wani’s detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA), which allows administrative preventive detention without trial for up to two years. Wani, a resident of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, was initially arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), an anti-terrorism law. A special National Investigation Agency court in Jammu later granted him bail. On 13 September 2025, the same day he secured bail in the UAPA case, the Kupwara district magistrate ordered his detention under the PSA, citing concerns that his activities could be “detrimental to state security”. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The detention order cited four grounds: his father’s alleged militant links, invitations to international academic conferences, the UAPA case, and literature seized from his home. According to the order, Wani’s father, Mohammad Maqbool Wani, had been associated with the then militant outfit al-Barq before surrendering to authorities in 1990. Authorities also cited invitations Wani had received to present academic papers at Columbia University and Dublin City University. 'Erasing historical facts': India orders massive crackdown on books in Kashmir's libraries Read More » The detention record also mentioned the seizure of books from his residence, which authorities described as “anti-national”; it included Construction of an Islamic Order in Hindutva Reimagination, which police alleged he had authored, and The Saffronisation of Occupied Kashmir: Demystifying Hindutva Settlers, Colonial Designers. The High Court found that the books had been wrongly attributed to him. Since the ruling BJP government abrogated Article 370 unilaterally in the region, Kashmir has been going through sweeping administrative restructuring with the introduction of new domicile laws that critics describe as a “settler-colonial project” aimed at altering the region’s Muslim majority character. Residents have been living with curtailed civil liberties, and dissent has been criminalised, with journalists and academics facing arbitrary detentions and sweeping book bans and passport withholdings, leaving public life under continuous state surveillance. This tightening grip has extended into the region’s religious places as well; last week the Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board, the state body managing Islamic shrines and mosques, now headed by a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician, directed uniform Friday sermons across the region’s mosques, sparking outcry. No space for thought The ruling in Wani’s case comes amid concerns among academics, lawyers and rights groups about the impact of security measures and surveillance on intellectual life in Kashmir, which is growing each day. The case, experts say, exposes just how far authorities have gone in treating critical thinking and scholarship as a security threat. Many in the region’s small academic community warn that years of such detentions are already changing what gets written, and who dares to write it. From autonomy to 'settler colonialism': How India redrew Kashmir's demographic and political landscape Read More » “When books are banned and also discarded in large numbers, and people are detained on the presumption that they are anti-national, imagine the situation of writers," said a Kashmiri writer in their 40s based in Srinagar, the main city, on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. "Some are struggling, and some of us have given up writing, and others are writing not to annoy anyone. In media, you will not find any critical stories; there is only writing that is acceptable." “There is no space for critical thought,” the writer said. The authorities last year also banned the publication, sale and circulation of 25 books on Kashmir, alleging they promoted “false narratives” and “secessionism”. The list included work by internationally recognised scholars and journalists, among them Arundhati Roy, AG Noorani, Victoria Schofield, Hafsa Kanjwal, Ather Zia and Anuradha Bhasin, published by presses including Cambridge University Press. The order also directed schools, colleges, universities and public libraries to screen their collections for “objectionable content”. 'Objectionable content' In July this year, authorities began 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 liberation movement. All educational institutions have been ordered to vet books, journals, dissertations, doctoral theses and digital resources to “prevent any activity prejudicial to the sovereignty and security of the nation”. India's Kashmir railway is an engineering feat - and an occupation project Read More » Even inside the region's universities, students told Middle East Eye that a strict mandate requires vetting seminar topics, monitoring guest speakers, and scrubbing syllabi of critical political science and literature topics that touch on regional conflict or its history. The region’s education minister, Sakina Itoo, told the local legislative assembly in September that authorities pulled 4,249 books from public, school, and college libraries and sent another 1,752 titles for “expert examination” after screening more than 2.18 million books for “objectionable content” following the July order. Sheikh Khurshid, an independent legislator who raised the question about the books, told journalists in Srinagar that the way books are being removed is an indication that “Kashmir history is being erased”. “We have not been given details of the books that have been removed, and it is most ironic,” he said. Khurshid said that banning books is contrary to the claims that there is complete “freedom of expression” in Jammu and Kashmir. Scholars warn of a chilling effect Mohamad Junaid, an assistant professor of anthropology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, told MEE that academic freedom is closely connected to freedom of conscience, which is at the core of modern, liberal, tolerant societies. "Its lack means the country has drifted in the opposite direction," Junaid said. "Freedom to pursue academic work benefits the entire society even if the government doesn’t like it. Not allowing critical academic work blinds society to its own flaws and injustices. India: Outrage after Cambridge-educated Muslim academic arrested over online post Read More » "In these recent cases, it is not just a matter of freedom to pursue academic research that is at the centre, but whether Kashmiris can produce knowledge about themselves and their society." Ather Zia, an assistant professor of anthropology and gender studies at the University of Northern Colorado, whose own work is among the 25 banned titles, said that all aspects of Kashmiri life, from simply existing day to day to doing critical scholarship and writing, have become harder. “When books become contraband, especially for scholars who must read and question widely, it is not only what it tells us about the state of academic freedom or expression but what it tells us about the state itself,” she said. Kashmir’s elected chief minister Omar Abdulah has voiced his helplessness over books being banned in the region as the government powers now remain curtailed. “I have my own views on whether books should be banned or not. But unfortunately, in the current system we in the elected government don’t get to decide these things; we will take a fresh look at what’s happening,” he said in September, hoping for future changes. 'No academic freedom' Goldie Osuri, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Warwick, said Wani’s case is another indicator that there is no academic freedom in Kashmir. "When possession of academic or literary work is cited as a reason for detention, it is clear that a state that attempts to preventatively detain and charge anyone on this basis is engaging in fascism," Osuri said. In Kashmir, a desperate father set himself on fire. India looked away Read More » "We already know that 25 books were banned on 5 August 2025. And even if the J&K High Court quashed Shafat Wani’s detention, the fact that they described the academic material as having ‘dispiriting titles’ says something about state and legal attitudes to critical academic research," she added. Osuri said that laws such as the UAPA and the PSA function to intimidate academics, journalists and ordinary citizens. "Indeed, the detention of Shafat Wani under the PSA for more than a year is a way of signalling to others the punitive consequences of any academic research, journalistic or literary work," she said. "Preventive detention does not appear to bear any relation to justice as such in Kashmir. It is a political weapon intended to silence and punish any perceived whiff of criticism or dissent against the state. "In Shafat Wani’s case, the mere possession of academic material appeared to be enough of a reason for preventative detention."