NEW DELHI: The Indian government has expelled a Canadian academic researcher specializing in Kashmiri politics.
John Cockell, a 27-year-old graduate student at Ottawa’s Carlston University, returned to Canada last week under an order from India’s ministry of home affairs not to enter India again.
Cockell, who holds a master’s degree in political science from New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, said he was not given a reason for his expulsion but suspects it was because of his vocal criticism of the Indian government’s record in Kashmir.
“I know for sure Kashmir is the reason, but they haven’t said any- thing,” Cockell said, before leaving New Delhi. “The Indian government is saying there’s a policy of transparency on Kashmir. What does that mean if a student can’t even go there?”
Mr. Cockell, who entered India on a tourist visa, visited Kashmir in July and travelled to the sacred shrine town of Chrar-e-Sharief, which was razed in May during fighting between Indian forces and militants. Neither place is restricted for foreigners.
During the recent visit and previous trips to Kashmir, he met and inter- viewed several members of militant groups.
Two members of the university faculty said the government’s intelligence bureau had developed a thick file on Cockell’s campus activities. One added that Cockell had been accused of supporting the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, one of the more moderate groups fighting for Kashmiri independence.
“I think in a sense he was rather naive,” said Kamal Mitra Chenoy, an associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University. “This is a Third World democracy, and it is not particularly a democracy in Kashmir. Officials in the foreigner’s section of India’s home ministry were not available for comment.
Cockell is the second Canadian student in the past year to have left India under threat. A University of British Columbia student fled New Delhi in December when police threatened to arrest him after a visit to Punjab.
A spokesman for the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi said Canadian diplomats had helped Cockell obtain a 10-day extension on his visa, and would request an explanation from the Indian government for the expulsion.
“I still have a lot of affection for this country,” Cockell said. “I want to come back.”
During his two-year master’s pro- gram, which concluded last year, he developed a reputation on campus as a sympathizer for the Kashmiri freedom movement. “I think if you go to Kashmir, that qualitavely changes everything from the point of view of the Indian state,” said Amitabh Mathu, an associate professor at the University. “You’re seen as an activist.”
After visiting Kashmir in 1993 – a trip for Indian academics have made in recent years – Mr. Cockell told a university seminar that Kashmir militancy was “a popular movement” rather than a Pakistani-supported militant movement, as it is often portrayed by New Delhi. He then wrote two articles for the Independent, in which he blamed the government for a range of human rights abuses in Kashmir – an accusation already made by many Indian human rights activists.
At a symposium in Sri Lanka on ethnic conflict, he suggested that the Indian government release from jail Yasin Malik and Shabir Shah, two popular champions of Kashmiri independence. Last year, the government released both men. In 1994, Cockell suggested to a University seminar in New Delhi that Kashmir be handed over to the United Nations, as neither India nor Pakistan had shown any strong desire to re- solve the dispute. The next day, the campus wing of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party plastered cam- pus walls with posters demanding an apology from him.
India and Pakistan have been fighting over Kashmir since they were partitioned at independence in 1947.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 1, 1995
