SRINAGAR: The government of India has cancelled the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card of Professor Nitasha Kaul, a Kashmiri Pandit academic based in the United Kingdom, citing her alleged involvement in “anti-India activities”. Kaul, who teaches politics and international relations at the University of Westminster in London, made the development public on Sunday, calling it an act of “transnational repression”.
“A bad faith, vindictive, cruel example [of] transnational repression punishing me for scholarly work on anti-minority anti-democratic policies of Modi rule,” Kaul wrote in a post on social media platform X, sharing a portion of the cancellation notice she received.
The notice, as quoted by her, accuses Kaul of “indulging in anti-India activities, motivated by malice and complete disregard for facts or history.” It further says her “inimical writings, speeches and journalistic activities at various international forums and on social media platforms” regularly target India’s sovereignty and its institutions.
This is not the first time Kaul has faced action from Indian authorities. In February 2024, she was denied entry at Bengaluru airport despite being officially invited by the Congress-led Karnataka government to participate in a state event. At the time, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had opposed her visit, and its state leader Girish Bharadwaj had written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking cancellation of her OCI card.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had also criticised the Congress government over her invitation, accusing it of compromising the “unity and integrity” of the country. Kaul has been an outspoken critic of the Narendra Modi government’s policies, particularly with regard to Kashmir, minority rights, and what she describes as the “Hindutva project”.
Author of novel, Residue and Future Tense, Kaul was among the prominent voices in international academic and political forums following the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. In October that year, she testified before the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs during a hearing on the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
Born in Gorakhpur in 1976 to a Kashmiri Pandit family originally from Srinagar, Kaul was raised in Delhi and studied economics at Delhi University’s Shri Ram College of Commerce. She moved to the United Kingdom in 1997 and completed her postgraduate education, including a PhD in Economics and Philosophy, at the University of Hull. Besides her academic work, Kaul is also a novelist, poet, and editor. -(KL)
