Nitasha Kaul Wiki, Age, Husband, Family, Biography & More

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Nitasha Kaul is a British Novelist, Politics academic, International Relations academic, poet, economist, and artist. She is known for speaking on topics like political economy, neoliberalism, economic justice, and economic violence.

Contents

Wiki/Biography

Nitasha Kaul was born on Tuesday, 30 November 1976 (age 47 years; as of 2023) in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. Her zodiac sign is Sagittarius. Soon after her birth, she moved to Delhi along with her family.

Nitasha Kaul’s childhood picture

She pursued her schooling at St. Thomas School in Delhi, India. Later, she pursued a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Economics at Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi, India. In 1997, at the age of 21, she moved to London, United Kingdom, where she pursued a Masters in Economics with a specialisation in Public Policy, and a Joint PhD in Economics and Philosophy at the University of Hull, UK. She completed her doctorate in 2003.

Physical Appearance

Hair Colour: Black

Eye Colour: Black

Family/Caste

Nitasha Kaul belongs to a Kashmiri Pandit Family in Delhi, India.

Parents & Siblings

Nitasha Kaul’s mother is a retired teacher.

Husband

According to some sources, Nitasha Kaul is married to Dibyesh Anand. He is an academic and a Gay rights activist.

Dibyesh Anand

Nitasha Kaul is secretly married to Gay rights activist Dibyesh Anand, who gained popularity by claiming himself as a gay activist. He is very vocal about India, like giving an Aljazeera interview about the CAA protest or attending anti-India seminars with spouse, Nitasha. (3/13) pic.twitter.com/rCdNO8uUvL

— D-Intent Data (@dintentdata) February 26, 2024

Signature/Autograph

Nitasha Kaul’s signature

Career

Teaching

In 2002, Nitasha Kaul began working as a lecturer and assistant professor in Economics at Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK, where she worked for 4 years before receiving a visiting research fellowship at the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) in London, UK. In 2003, she worked as a seminar tutor (2003) in Economics at the Department of Economics and International Development, University of Bath, UK and in 2004 became an Assistant professor at the University of Bath.

Nitasha Kaul with MJ Akbar at Jaipur Litfest 2011

She is an expert on Bhutan’s history, politics, and culture and has spent a lot of time there since 2006. In 2010, Nitasha Kaul worked as a Permanent Associate Professor in Creative Writing at the Department of English, Royal Thimphu College (under the Royal University of Bhutan), Bhutan. She worked in Bhutan for a year.

Nitasha Kaul in Zangtopelri Lhakhang in Bhutan

Nitasha Kaul joined the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Westminster, London, as a visiting lecturer from 2012 to 2013 and assistant professor from 2014 to 2015. She has received many fellowships over the years including a visiting fellowship at the Research School of Humanities, Australia National University (ANU), Canberra, Australia from June 2009 to August 2009, a visiting fellowship at the Department of Political Science, Central University of Hyderabad (CUH), Hyderabad, India in January 2010.

Nitasha Kaul (second from left) with her students from Centre for the Study of Democracy in London

Nitasha Kaul (second from left) with her students from the Centre for the Study of Democracy in London

In 2015, she began working at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Westminster, London in the United Kingdom in various positions including full-time permanent lecturer in Politics and International Relations 2015, full-time permanent associate professor in Politics and International Relations (in 2017, and full-time permanent associate professor (Reader) in Politics and International Relations in 2020.

On Jan 1, 2023, the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) — founded in 1989 and the home of politics & international relations at University of Westminster — gets a new (+1st female) Director. Yours truly 🥰https://t.co/zzlk4VXiE1 pic.twitter.com/FgSdpW5Beo

— Professor Nitasha Kaul, PhD (@NitashaKaul) December 31, 2022

On Jan 1, 2023, she became the director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) at the University of Westminster in London.

Writer

In 2007, Nitasha Kaul published her first book titled ‘Imagining Economics Otherwise: encounters with Identity/difference,’ which was an academic monograph on economics and philosophy.

Nitasha Kaul’s debut book

In 2009, Nitasha Kaul wrote her first novel titled Residue. It became the first novel in English by a Kashmiri woman. After the book was published, it was described as “an endless narrative of identity neurosis” by India Today. ^[1]India Today

Nitasha Kaul’s debut novel Residue (2009)

Over the years, Nitasha Kaul has written many books including November Light: An Anthology of Creative Writing from Bhutan and Future Tense (2020).

Other Works

Witness at the United States House Committee

On October 22, 2019, Kaul was an important witness at a United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing. The hearing was about human rights in Indian-administered Kashmir after its special status was revoked within India. Kaul talked about reports from the UNHCHR that showed violations of human rights and democratic principles in both Indian and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. She also mentioned the recent shutdown of communication services and large-scale detentions in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Nitasha Kaul giving her testimony at the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing

In her testimony, Kaul said,

I do not represent here Indian interests or Pakistani interests and in fact that is precisely the problem – that the people who speak about Kashmiri self-interest and the rights of Kashmiris themselves are the ones who are most vulnerable from any and every side. The communal politics serves no one. It does not serve the Indians and Kashmir. If Kashmir were a communal issue then Muslims in India would feel the same as Kashmiri Muslims and they do not. So it is not a communal issue, it is an issue albeit that has been communalised.” ^[2]Westminster

Special projects in Bhutan

She has done important research on Bhutan’s move to democracy in 2008 and its development as a democracy in 2018. She started a project called “Biodemocracy and Resilience in Bhutan,” which focuses on public policies. Her research opened up new areas of study and has been published in many international publications.

Nitasha Kaul in Haa Dzong in Bhutan in 2024

In 2021, she wrote the first article on Bhutan’s geopolitical history in the Journal of Asian Studies and an article about how Bhutan is portrayed in The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History.

Controversy

Denied Entry in India and Deported

In February 2024, Nitasha Kaul came to India from the UK to attend the Karnataka government’s conference on the Constitution, she was invited by the Karnataka government to participate as a speaker in the two-day ‘Constitution and National Unity Convention -2024’. However, upon her arrival at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bangalore, she was denied entry into the country. According to her, she was not given entry into the country because of her democratic and constitutional opinions. The central government gave no official statement regarding her deportation. On 25 February 2024, she took to Twitter to describe the whole incident. She revealed that she was kept captive at the airport and had limited access to basic amenities like food and water. Her tweet read,

Denied entry to #India for speaking on democratic & constitutional values. I was invited to a conference as esteemed delegate by Govt of #Karnataka (Congress-ruled state) but Centre refused me entry. All my documents were valid & current (UK passport & OCI).I spent 12 hours in a flight from London to Bangalore, several hours at immig where they shuttled me here & there, provided no info on process, then 24 hours in a holding cell (no BA flight back until next day) under direct cctv w restricted movement, a narrow area to lie down and no easy access to food and water, made dozens of calls to airport for basic things as a pillow and blanket, which they refused to provide, then 12 hours on the flight back to London.

A picture shared by Nitasha Kaul on Twitter of herself showing her condition during the immigration process

By the evening of 25 February 2024, Nitasha Kaul shared a series of tweets describing her experience as Hallow and also said that she was not given any prior notice by the central government that she would not be allowed entry into the country. Although many people came to her support on Twitter, she was also trolled and called a Pakistani Sympathiser by many people online. Many rumours surfaced on the internet that she married a Pakistani man in England and turned into a Jihadi which she later clarified through a Twitter post, which read,

Re all the lies, I am not married to a Pakistani, not Muslim convert, not a pawn of China, not a puppet of West, not a commie, not a jihadi, not Pak sympathiser, not terrorist supporter, not anti-India, not part of a gang. I am what authoritarians fear- a thinking woman.”

Achievements

In 2009, she was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize Award 2009 for her first novel Residue. Her novel was the only debut novel on the list.

Facts/Trivia

Nitasha Kaul enjoys travelling and has travelled to more than 70 countries across the globe.

During her schooling, she received a commendation from Sonia Gandhi for volunteer work on heart care awareness (Project Hriday) in collaboration with All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in 1993.