Nitasha Kaul

On October 22, 2019, Dr. Nitasha Kaul served as one of the key witnesses at a United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing about the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir (state), following the revocation of special status within India. Kaul outlined extensive UNHCHR reports about the violations of human rights (and democratic principles) in both Indian and Pakistan-administered Kashmir along with the recent clampdown on communication facilities and mass-detention in the Indian territory.

Nitasha Kaul is a London-based academic, author and poet of Kashmiri origin. In 2009 she wrote Residue, which was the first novel in English by a Kashmiri woman and was shortlisted for the 2009 Man Asian Literary Prize.

Residue was the first novel in English by a Kashmiri woman and was shortlisted for the 2009 Man Asian Literary Prize.

Her first book Imagining Economics Otherwise: encounters with Identity/Difference (2007), was a monograph on economics and philosophy and was subject to mixed reception.

Kaul grew up in Delhi and had her schooling at St. Thomas School. She graduated in Economics from Sri Ram College of Commerce before pursuing her post-graduate from University of Hull; Kaul went on to earn her doctorate in Economics and Philosophy from Hull, in 2003. Her doctoral thesis was Interrogating the Subject-World of Economic Epistemology: Re-Imagining Theory and Difference.

Kaul served as a Lecturer of Economics at University of Bath and as an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Bristol Business School from 2002 to 2007 before being roped in as the Associate Professor in Creative Writing at the Royal Thimphu College in Bhutan (2010). At present, she is an Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations at the University of Westminster. Her current scholarly interests include feminist issues concerning Kashmiri women, the rise of muscular neo-liberal nationalism in India, and an analysis of right-wing politics in India.