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BOOK S / AU T HOR S Conversation
unitary identity is still in a volatile stage. The symbols of nationhood in the former princely state, flag, anthem, and constitution, have thus far been unable to forge the process of nationalist self-imagining. My book, Islam, Women, and the Violence in Kashmir, is about the militarization of Jammu and Kashmir which has undermined the syncretic ethos of the State, not just the Valley. I am completely opposed to the attempts of Indian and Pakistani mainstream historians to underscore ethnic, religious, and regional divides in their explications of the Kashmir conflict. For this particular project I conducted field work only in the Valley but hope to expand my work by conducting field work in Jammu and Ladakh as well.
Q
Any differences one could have marked in the book if author were not the granddaughter of first prime minister of Kashmir. Islam, Women, and the Violence in Kashmir has been written by a Kashmiri Muslim woman academic who teaches at an American university and has a deep emotional investment in Kashmir. I am a writer who wants the recognition of the right to my opinion; the right to stand up for myself and be taken seriously; the right to express my anger without being labeled an 'Islamic militant;' the right to legitimately question things I don't understand; the right to peace of mind; the right to dream and to go after my dreams; the right to seek more spiritual awareness without being labeled a 'heretic;' to feel confident, secure, and peaceful. I just happen to be the granddaughter of the first Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
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Q
There has always been curiosity among readers to know about the authors. Would you like to tell us about the choice of your career, route to Amar Singh College, the journey to University of Nebraska and what is ahead? After completing my schooling in Kashmir, I joined the English Honours Program at Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi. My three years at LSR, 1990-1993, are memorable because of the enriching opportunities I got to interact and learn from erudite educators. I was an avid reader and a responsive student, but an unfocused examinee. I had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and the courses at LSR whetted my appetite for the idyllic and ornate world of canonical English literature. After completing my B.A. at LSR, I went on to pursue my Masters in English Literature at the University of Delhi, South Campus. The two years at DU were uneventful, rather banal, and not as growth oriented as I would have liked them to be. Most students just went through the motions and learned by rote, which did nothing for one's creativity or critical thinking. Subsequently, I taught at Maulana Azad women's College, Srinagar, as an ad hoc lecturer for about a year and a half. The pedagogical experience afforded to me at the women's college enabled me to work on pedagogical skills, collegiality, communicating with students, and made all the reading that I had done seem useful. I realized that I wanted to establish myself in academia and that motivated me to move to the U.S., unfamiliar territory, in order to pursue a Masters and a Ph.D. in Postcolonial Literature and Theory at the University of Oklahoma, Norman. I realized my full potential at
Vol. 3, Issue 12
the University of Oklahoma, where I worked with some wonderful scholars and experts in their respectable fields. While working on my Masters and Doctorate, I taught two full-fledged classes giving me hands-on training as an educator. My work became a lot more purposeful, goal-oriented, and politically motivated. I came into my own as a writer, scholar, and teacher. It was incredible to discover that literature and politics were inextricably intertwined. My Ph.D. dissertation, The Fiction of Nationality in an Era of Transnationalism, was published as a book by Routledge in 2005. I was hired as an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska-Kearney soon after I completed my Doctorate in 2004. I teach courses on non-western literature and World literature at UNK, where I am now an Associate Professor. I will teach at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, which is a research university, in spring 2010 (Inshallah!).
Q
You have said this book is first in the series. Can you give is some ideas about what is pipeline and when do we expect that. Working on Islam, Women, and the Violence in Kashmir was emotionally exhausting, physically grueling, and required a lot of soul searching, but it was extremely rewarding. Currently, I am teaching three courses at the University of Nebraska-Kearney, which doesn't leave much time for research. But my book is going to be reprinted in the U.S. by Palgrave Macmillan (Inshallah!), for which I need to make some revisions. I hope to begin work on a cross-disciplinary anthology on Jammu and Kashmir to which I have requested academics from the State to contribute.
Epilogue, December 2009