Shapiro, a US citizen, has been accompanying Angana Chatterji, a citizen of India and a permanent resident of the US, to India since 1997, and has traveled here approximately 30 times. His area of work is not India or Kashmir, but focuses primarily on issues of race, class, gender, and alliance building in the United States, and discourses on power and subjectivity. He is not someone who has made India a "career," but invested in thinking and learning through the various struggles that Angana has been a part of across India.
Since July 2006, Shapiro regularly traveled to Kashmir, and interacted with various human rights defenders, scholars and youths to learn from their experiences. He has been conscientious in not violating the conditions of his tourist visa. He has not participated in formal conferences, and has not conducted any applied research in Kashmir or in India. He also helped form a Jewish-Muslim Friendship Circle. Shapiro had written an op-ed in 2009 and another in September 2010. These were analytical pieces based on articles and newspaper reports, and not on primary research that had been conducted by him. Any scholar can do that. This is a matter of academic freedom, and beyond the control of states and their desire to regulate thinking on the injustices they perpetrate.
On Nov.1, Shapiro had traveled a long way from San Francisco to be with Angana Chatterji, who was traveling to Kashmir for work, to think and learn. When he first presented his passport to the immigration authorities, he was stamped an entry permit. Then, they started processing Angana Chatterji's passport. She has been stopped regularly since the inception of International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-administered Kashmir (IPTK) in April 2008. As they paused over her passport, the immigration officer again asked Shapiro for his passport. Then, he was informed that he may not enter India, and that the ban was indefinite. The immigration authorities insisted that Shapiro return immediately. They stamped "cancelled" on the entry stamp they had provided minutes ago. They did not stamp "cancel" on his visa. His visa was not cancelled. The immigration authorities refused to pay for his return airfare. He was made to leave the same morning. The immigration authorities refused to give any reason, while stating that Shapiro had not been charged with anything.
While no charges were framed against Shapiro, the persons at the airport were categorical in stating that he is not to return to India, impinging on his academic freedom, freedom of movement, and rights to travel with his legal partner, and visit his family in Kolkata.
The government of India has initiated various "peace" processes and confidence-building measures without the consent of the Kashmiri people. With friends like Shapiro, we are able to think and learn together. This is what is urgently required to build an atmosphere in which Kashmiris are not isolated from new ideas, other worlds, from the friendship and hospitality offered by those who seek out a place that has been forsaken by so many. The ban on Shapiro days before the visit of US President Barack Obama speaks volumes about the arrogance of the Indian State. It is ironic too because the government of India desires that the US government grant more visas to Indians, even as it just evicted a US citizen without warning or due cause.
The ban on Shapiro also further seeks to intimidate and target Angana Chatterji and the work of IPTK.
The ban on Shapiro is also a ban on Kashmiris, condemning them to isolation.
The Indian state has targeted those who have been outspoken on injustices and military governance in Kashmir. Since 2008, Parvez Imroz and his family have been attacked in their home. Angana Chatterji and Zahir-Ud-Din have been charged under Section 505 of the Ranbir Penal Code, with writing to incite against the Indian State. Last week, Arundhati Roy has been threatened with charges of sedition. JKCCS condemns the attack on the home of Arundhati Roy in New Delhi, and the continued targeting of her stand on Kashmir, and the dangerous role being played by the mainstream Indian media in inciting violence against her.
These actions speak about the intent of the Indian State as it continues it impunity rule in Kashmir, with deliberate actions to isolate Kashmiris from the world and the world from Kashmiris. In the past, several academics and journalists have been banned from entering India, and numerous Kashmiri scholars, journalists, and activists have also been banned from leaving Kashmir to travel abroad.
