Two Leading Kashmir Universities Drop Agha Shahid Ali, Basharat Peer from English MA Courses
Jehangir Ali | 23 July 2023 | The Wire
Basharat Peer and (right) the last poet Agha Shahid Ali. In the background is the campus of the University of Kashmir. Photos: Wikimedia Commons and the UoK's Facebook page.
Srinagar: The works of two critically-acclaimed Kashmiri writers have been dropped from the curriculum by two leading universities of Kashmir without an explanation.
The University of Kashmir (UoK), the Valley’s premier higher-educational institution, has dropped three poems by Kashmiri-American poet Agha Shahid Ali along with author and journalist Basharat Peer’s memoir from the curriculum of a post-graduate programme in English. Shahid’s famous poems – ‘Postcard from Kashmir’, ‘In Arabic’ and ‘The Last Saffron’ – and Peer’s Curfewed Night were taught in the third semester of the Masters of Arts (English) course at the university.
“These works will no longer be part of the curriculum from this year onwards,” a source at the university said, adding that the decision was conveyed “orally” to the “relevant authorities after consultations” by the Vice-Chancellor’s office.