US Ambassador Sergio Gor visits Srinagar with J&K CM Omar NEW DELHI: US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor met Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah in Srinagar on Wednesday, his first visit to the region since taking office. Gor said that Washington would reconsider its travel advisories for the Union Territory.”It’s a pleasure to be here. This is an important part of India. I am here, visiting for the first time. It is an incredibly beautiful place. I am thrilled to be here,” Gor told reporters after the meeting.”We just had a very good meeting. We have some follow-ups, so we hope to take back to Washington, back to Delhi. But a very warm, a very cordial and we look forward to building this relationship forward,” he said.Gor said the US would reconsider its advisories on travel to Jammu and Kashmir, which have historically cautioned American citizens against visiting the region.”The United States puts out travel warnings and every so often, we re-evaluate those travel warnings. I cannot make any big announcements here today, but it is something we are going to look at.”New Delhi, the chief minister here, the government here, we believe have made some incredible steps to keeping this area safer and making it more safe,” Gor said at a joint media briefing with Abdullah.”So, we will be looking at if the travel warning that is imposed and recommended by the United States is something that should be downgraded because, as I said earlier, this is a beautiful area. I think a lot of Americans would enjoy coming here and seeing the beauty and the opportunities that exist here,” the US envoy added.In a post on X, he said he appreciated the opportunity to meet Abdullah and learn more about his priorities.”We discussed ways to deepen economic collaboration and create opportunities that would mutually benefit both of our nations,” Gor wrote.CM Abdullah described the meeting as “very good”, saying the discussions focused on what the US could do for Jammu and Kashmir.“As Ambassador Gor has said, it was a very good meeting. We had an opportunity to discuss the issues that we have, with a specific focus on what the US can do with Jammu and Kashmir,” Abdullah said.He added that there were “certain legacy issues” that they will be working on to resolve, while expressing hope that engagement between the US and J&K would move further.Join conversationView All Comments →Share your thoughts in the commentsInsightfulAgreeDisagreeSkepticalConcerningPromisingWorth ReadingBig DevelopmentPost CommentBe respectful · TOI community guidelines”This is a conversation that will take place both between Ambassador Gor and Washington, and between me and the Govt of India in New Delhi. But we are very hopeful and optimistic that the engagement between the US and J&K will both widen and deepen in the years ahead.”, Abdullah added.The visit is seen as a significant diplomatic engagement, with the US envoy meeting the chief minister of a region that has been at the centre of India-Pakistan tensions. It also signals a potential shift in Washington’s approach to travel advisories for the Union Territory.Get the latest India News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.About the AuthorPrisha PatnaikPrisha Patnaik is a journalist with The Times of India, writing across geopolitics, international affairs, culture, history and internet culture. With over two years of experience in social media and digital content, she is interested in how news, politics and culture are shaped for digital audiences. She holds a master’s degree in Media and Communications from Goldsmiths, University of London.Read MoreEnd of ArticleFollow Us On Social MediaVideosPatna Erupts As Tejashwi Yadav Detained During RJD March Over Siwan AK-47 And Paper Leak RowPakistan’s 2 AM Panic Over Operation Sindoor Documentary: Pak Army Calls It ‘Tragedy & Comedy’Kolkata Hotel Fire Kills 9, Six Injured; 80 Rescued As Safety Norms Face Serious QuestionsSupreme Court To Form Panel On July 20 Clash, Examine Police Force And Alleged Pellet Gun UseManipur Shuts Down For 48 Hours As NRC Demand Intensifies Ahead Of 2027 Census DeadlineAAP Leader Satyendar Jain Arrested In Delhi Jal Board ‘Corruption’ Case; Kejriwal Hits Out At BJPTrump Praises India’s Voter ID System, Pushes Same In US, Puts CEC Gyanesh Kumar In SpotlightBihar Transfers 18 Top Cops, Including Siwan SP, Amid Row Over AK-47 Use During Student Protest‘Join Republican Party’: Union Minister’s Big NDA Offer To CJP Founder Abhijeet Dipke30,000 Protesters, 5,000 Cops: Delhi Police Defends Force Before Supreme Court In Protest Case123PhotostoriesFrom Orry to Rubina Dilaik, Gaurav Khanna and others: Net worth of popular Khatron Ke Khiladi 15 contestantsLung cancer story is changing in India: Why doctors are looking at the air we breathe, not just the habits we have7 Signs your body is telling you to get more restSnake in the house during monsoon? 7 things you should NEVER doSharvari’s powder-blue Stella McCartney’s look is proof that power dressing can be soft and striking10 foods that naturally produce their own alcoholTiger vs leopard: 7 differences you can spot in the wildKeep these 8 foods at your desk for the 4 pm hunger attack5 things you should avoid for heart health: US cardiologist reveals after 8,000 surgeries16 Indian vegetarian dishes so hearty you won’t miss meat123Hot PicksSugar importBank holidays this weekAzam KhanCSBC resultJharkhand ProtestJSSC-CGL exam cancelledGold rate todayZepto internshipTN maternity leaveTop TrendingKolkata Hotel FireBengaluru MurderRahul GandhiBhopal MurderKerala MurderKiren RijijuAbhijeet DipkeSatyaki SavarkarBengaluru RapidoBen Gvir
NEW DELHI: US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor met Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah in Srinagar on Wednesday, his first visit to the region since taking office. Gor said that Washington would reconsider its travel advisories for the Union Territory.“It’s a pleasure to be here. This is an important part of India. I am here, visiting for the first time. It is an incredibly beautiful place. I am thrilled to be here,” Gor told reporters after the meeting.“We just had a very good meeting. We have some follow-ups, so we hope to take back to Washington, back to Delhi. But a very warm, a very cordial and we look forward to building this relationship forward,” he said.Gor said the US would reconsider its advisories on travel to Jammu and Kashmir, which have historically cautioned American citizens against visiting the region.“The United States puts out travel warnings and every so often, we re-evaluate those travel warnings. I cannot make any big announcements here today, but it is something we are going to look at.“New Delhi, the chief minister here, the government here, we believe have made some incredible steps to keeping this area safer and making it more safe,” Gor said at a joint media briefing with Abdullah.“So, we will be looking at if the travel warning that is imposed and recommended by the United States is something that should be downgraded because, as I said earlier, this is a beautiful area. I think a lot of Americans would enjoy coming here and seeing the beauty and the opportunities that exist here,” the US envoy added.In a post on X, he said he appreciated the opportunity to meet Abdullah and learn more about his priorities.“We discussed ways to deepen economic collaboration and create opportunities that would mutually benefit both of our nations,” Gor wrote.CM Abdullah described the meeting as “very good”, saying the discussions focused on what the US could do for Jammu and Kashmir.“As Ambassador Gor has said, it was a very good meeting. We had an opportunity to discuss the issues that we have, with a specific focus on what the US can do with Jammu and Kashmir,” Abdullah said.He added that there were “certain legacy issues” that they will be working on to resolve, while expressing hope that engagement between the US and J&K would move further.
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“This is a conversation that will take place both between Ambassador Gor and Washington, and between me and the Govt of India in New Delhi. But we are very hopeful and optimistic that the engagement between the US and J&K will both widen and deepen in the years ahead.”, Abdullah added.The visit is seen as a significant diplomatic engagement, with the US envoy meeting the chief minister of a region that has been at the centre of India-Pakistan tensions. It also signals a potential shift in Washington’s approach to travel advisories for the Union Territory.
![Professor Sumit Sarkar significantly impacted the understanding of Indian nationalism, illuminating its intricacies through comprehensive analysis. He explored the evolution of nationalism, internal disputes, and collective movements, while challenging conventional binaries. His focus on ordinary people’s cravings for justice defined his contributions as a public thinker and citizen historian. This article pays tribute to his influential teaching and the lasting academic heritage he leaves behind. Professor Sumit Sarkar, widely regarded as among the finest historians of modern Indian history, was educated at Presidency College and the University of Calcutta, and went on to teach for 30 years in the Department of History, University of Delhi. While his scholarship ranged and roamed over the vast canvas of modern Indian history, some indication of the originality of his vision and the painstaking rigour of his scholarship might be gathered by examining one particular facet. There was a recursive quality to the way he returned to the question of nationalism in colonial India, its critique as much as its self-critique. One sees this in his early essays on the 19th-century Bengali intelligentsia, the path-breaking study of the Swadeshi movement in Bengal, as well as the singularly important essays on Gandhian nationalism.Sarkar was a Marxist historian and, it might surprise some that his scholarship was aimed at democratising the scope of nationalism, in terms of method as much as archive. Nationalism could only be understood in terms of popular aspirations and struggles for justice, be they about land, labour, dignity or representation. In the words of Sarkar, “what was remarkable [about the national movement] was the capacity for internal debate, change and auto-critique…combined with a persistent concern for mass poverty…and the need for mass mobilization [leading] to a progressive broadening of the meanings of freedom. One need only note that none of the four features central to the [Indian] constitution…democracy based on universal suffrage, secularism, elements of federalism and social justice through affirmative action had been present in the early programs of mainstream nationalism”.His study of the Swadeshi movement in Bengal captured this complexity by analysing its radical agenda of complete independence, the rapid connections made between individuals and organisations nationally and internationally, the granular contestations over ideology, and the challenges of mass mobilisation. While Hindu religious symbols and imagery were employed by some for mobilisation, Sarkar shows us that even at the time of the Swadeshi movement, there was a recognition that such invocations of Hindu identity could be read in ways that reinforced narratives of Muslim tyranny or caste privilege.Sarkar documents the efforts made at the time to combat this possibility and to discover cult figures that would appeal to both communities, so as to broaden the scope of the national, with the revolutionary journal Yugantar suggesting a festival to honour Mir Kasim, not unlike those around Shivaji. Sarkar also discusses tensions within the revolutionary movement, including Hemchandra Kanungo’s writings of the late 1920s, which critiqued the invocation of Hindu religious imagery as much as arguments of a Hindu golden past in the Swadeshi movement, since this was bound to exclude Muslims, valorise caste privilege, and encourage a cultic devotion to a leader rather than broaden into a mass movement with a political and socio-economic agenda.Kanungo could not be ignored: he was a legend even among revolutionaries, had travelled to Europe to study the technology of the bomb and meet revolutionaries, was imprisoned in the Cellular Jail following his involvement in the Alipore bomb case, and was deeply admired among fellow revolutionaries.While the Swadeshi movement was no doubt central to the formation of nationalism, it had its limitations in terms of its treatment of the communal and caste question, as well as its inability to adequately formulate a broader agrarian programme; these challenges continued well into the period of Gandhian nationalism.This complex and evolving understanding of the phenomenon of nationalism informs Sarkar’s critique of theorisations which treat nationalism as captive to the rigid binary between India and the “West”. Such theorisations of Indian nationalism, which value it merely in terms of its perceived indigeneity and difference from the “West”, fail to recognise the evolving and transformative interaction between the two. Could one question Ambedkar for invoking the French Revolution in the Mahad Satyagraha, or forget Bhagat Singh’s invocation of Lenin during his trial?The agenda of nationalism was broadened because of popular movements and local struggles by marginalised sections, so-called lower castes, “tribal” groups, Socialists and Communists. It is this historical and democratic expansion, based on ideals of justice and equality, that characterised the national movement and that, in Sarkar’s analysis, distinguished it from Hindutva nationalism. He argued that important strands of the latter retained features visible in its early 20th-century formulations and remained open to critiques made at the time; he also questioned the extent to which questions of mass poverty or socio-economic change occupied a central place within it.Fiercely independent, Sarkar’s Marxism did not prevent him from publicly critiquing in the strongest terms the Left government’s policies and the events surrounding Singur and Nandigram.Sarkar, therefore, never shied away from drawing on his scholarship to speak as a citizen historian on what he perceived to be the crises of the day wracking the body politic. He was able to occupy that rare position of a public intellectual because his research attended to the fundamental questions that had a direct bearing on the dizzying churns of the present, soaring above the drive for narrow specialisation that can sometimes leave historians unprepared when it comes to addressing the most urgent challenges of the times.Writing this obituary, it is impossible not to remember his small office in which about six of us, privileged students of the MA, sat in 1999-2000 to learn, not Indian history, but the Renaissance and the Reformation in Europe.Professor Sarkar had his lectures meticulously prepared, written in his flowing, slanting hand on foolscap sheets of paper. The lectures lucidly brought alive the worlds of the Renaissance and the Reformation, and moved from Michelangelo’s search for the perfect blue and the ambivalence and originality of Machiavelli’s ‘ethics’ to the intricacies of theological dispute, showing how deeply knowledgeable Sarkar was about various aspects of European history.Join conversationView All Comments →Share your thoughts in the commentsInsightfulAgreeDisagreeSkepticalConcerningPromisingWorth ReadingBig DevelopmentPost CommentBe respectful · TOI community guidelinesAmidst the gravity of the issues being discussed, on more than one occasion there was the unmistakable, almost child-like mischievous humour that would surface, his face breaking into a smile, the tone and voice assuming the sharp edge of an irreverence that is perhaps always inseparable from great learning.It was very painful meeting Professor Sarkar in the years of his illness, which he bore with remarkable and rare fortitude. Farewell Professor Sarkar, even as you remain in the gift of your teaching and in the luminosity of your works.Rahul Govind was a student of Sumit Sarkar at the University of Delhi. He has a PhD. from Columbia University and is currently Professor of History at the University of Delhi.Get the latest India News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.About the AuthorRahul GovindRahul Govind has a PhD. from Columbia University and is currently Professor of History at the University of Delhi.End of ArticleFollow Us On Social MediaVideosPatna Erupts As Tejashwi Yadav Detained During RJD March Over Siwan AK-47 And Paper Leak RowPakistan’s 2 AM Panic Over Operation Sindoor Documentary: Pak Army Calls It ‘Tragedy & Comedy’Kolkata Hotel Fire Kills 9, Six Injured; 80 Rescued As Safety Norms Face Serious QuestionsSupreme Court To Form Panel On July 20 Clash, Examine Police Force And Alleged Pellet Gun UseManipur Shuts Down For 48 Hours As NRC Demand Intensifies Ahead Of 2027 Census DeadlineAAP Leader Satyendar Jain Arrested In Delhi Jal Board ‘Corruption’ Case; Kejriwal Hits Out At BJPTrump Praises India’s Voter ID System, Pushes Same In US, Puts CEC Gyanesh Kumar In SpotlightBihar Transfers 18 Top Cops, Including Siwan SP, Amid Row Over AK-47 Use During Student Protest‘Join Republican Party’: Union Minister’s Big NDA Offer To CJP Founder Abhijeet Dipke30,000 Protesters, 5,000 Cops: Delhi Police Defends Force Before Supreme Court In Protest Case123PhotostoriesStop saying sorry for choosing yourself: 7 things every woman should never feel guilty about, according to Ankur WarikooWhy do Indian brides wear black beads on their mangalsutra? The tradition, belief, and symbolism explainedFrom Orry to Rubina Dilaik, Gaurav Khanna and others: Net worth of popular Khatron Ke Khiladi 15 contestantsLung cancer story is changing in India: Why doctors are looking at the air we breathe, not just the habits we have7 Signs your body is telling you to get more restSnake in the house during monsoon? 7 things you should NEVER doSharvari’s powder-blue Stella McCartney’s look is proof that power dressing can be soft and striking10 foods that naturally produce their own alcoholTiger vs leopard: 7 differences you can spot in the wildKeep these 8 foods at your desk for the 4 pm hunger attack123Hot PicksSugar importBank holidays this weekAzam KhanCSBC resultJharkhand ProtestJSSC-CGL exam cancelledGold rate todayZepto internshipTN maternity leaveTop TrendingKiren RijijuBengaluru MurderRahul GandhiBhopal MurderKerala MurderKiren RijijuAbhijeet DipkeSatyaki SavarkarBengaluru RapidoBen Gvir](https://vknewstoday.in/wp-content/uploads/1787142430_photo.jpg "Professor Sumit Sarkar significantly impacted the understanding of Indian nationalism, illuminating its intricacies through comprehensive analysis. He explored the evolution of nationalism, internal disputes, and collective movements, while challenging conventional binaries. His focus on ordinary people’s cravings for justice defined his contributions as a public thinker and citizen historian. This article pays tribute to his influential teaching and the lasting academic heritage he leaves behind. Professor Sumit Sarkar, widely regarded as among the finest historians of modern Indian history, was educated at Presidency College and the University of Calcutta, and went on to teach for 30 years in the Department of History, University of Delhi. While his scholarship ranged and roamed over the vast canvas of modern Indian history, some indication of the originality of his vision and the painstaking rigour of his scholarship might be gathered by examining one particular facet. There was a recursive quality to the way he returned to the question of nationalism in colonial India, its critique as much as its self-critique. One sees this in his early essays on the 19th-century Bengali intelligentsia, the path-breaking study of the Swadeshi movement in Bengal, as well as the singularly important essays on Gandhian nationalism.Sarkar was a Marxist historian and, it might surprise some that his scholarship was aimed at democratising the scope of nationalism, in terms of method as much as archive. Nationalism could only be understood in terms of popular aspirations and struggles for justice, be they about land, labour, dignity or representation. In the words of Sarkar, “what was remarkable [about the national movement] was the capacity for internal debate, change and auto-critique…combined with a persistent concern for mass poverty…and the need for mass mobilization [leading] to a progressive broadening of the meanings of freedom. One need only note that none of the four features central to the [Indian] constitution…democracy based on universal suffrage, secularism, elements of federalism and social justice through affirmative action had been present in the early programs of mainstream nationalism”.His study of the Swadeshi movement in Bengal captured this complexity by analysing its radical agenda of complete independence, the rapid connections made between individuals and organisations nationally and internationally, the granular contestations over ideology, and the challenges of mass mobilisation. While Hindu religious symbols and imagery were employed by some for mobilisation, Sarkar shows us that even at the time of the Swadeshi movement, there was a recognition that such invocations of Hindu identity could be read in ways that reinforced narratives of Muslim tyranny or caste privilege.Sarkar documents the efforts made at the time to combat this possibility and to discover cult figures that would appeal to both communities, so as to broaden the scope of the national, with the revolutionary journal Yugantar suggesting a festival to honour Mir Kasim, not unlike those around Shivaji. Sarkar also discusses tensions within the revolutionary movement, including Hemchandra Kanungo’s writings of the late 1920s, which critiqued the invocation of Hindu religious imagery as much as arguments of a Hindu golden past in the Swadeshi movement, since this was bound to exclude Muslims, valorise caste privilege, and encourage a cultic devotion to a leader rather than broaden into a mass movement with a political and socio-economic agenda.Kanungo could not be ignored: he was a legend even among revolutionaries, had travelled to Europe to study the technology of the bomb and meet revolutionaries, was imprisoned in the Cellular Jail following his involvement in the Alipore bomb case, and was deeply admired among fellow revolutionaries.While the Swadeshi movement was no doubt central to the formation of nationalism, it had its limitations in terms of its treatment of the communal and caste question, as well as its inability to adequately formulate a broader agrarian programme; these challenges continued well into the period of Gandhian nationalism.This complex and evolving understanding of the phenomenon of nationalism informs Sarkar’s critique of theorisations which treat nationalism as captive to the rigid binary between India and the “West”. Such theorisations of Indian nationalism, which value it merely in terms of its perceived indigeneity and difference from the “West”, fail to recognise the evolving and transformative interaction between the two. Could one question Ambedkar for invoking the French Revolution in the Mahad Satyagraha, or forget Bhagat Singh’s invocation of Lenin during his trial?The agenda of nationalism was broadened because of popular movements and local struggles by marginalised sections, so-called lower castes, “tribal” groups, Socialists and Communists. It is this historical and democratic expansion, based on ideals of justice and equality, that characterised the national movement and that, in Sarkar’s analysis, distinguished it from Hindutva nationalism. He argued that important strands of the latter retained features visible in its early 20th-century formulations and remained open to critiques made at the time; he also questioned the extent to which questions of mass poverty or socio-economic change occupied a central place within it.Fiercely independent, Sarkar’s Marxism did not prevent him from publicly critiquing in the strongest terms the Left government’s policies and the events surrounding Singur and Nandigram.Sarkar, therefore, never shied away from drawing on his scholarship to speak as a citizen historian on what he perceived to be the crises of the day wracking the body politic. He was able to occupy that rare position of a public intellectual because his research attended to the fundamental questions that had a direct bearing on the dizzying churns of the present, soaring above the drive for narrow specialisation that can sometimes leave historians unprepared when it comes to addressing the most urgent challenges of the times.Writing this obituary, it is impossible not to remember his small office in which about six of us, privileged students of the MA, sat in 1999-2000 to learn, not Indian history, but the Renaissance and the Reformation in Europe.Professor Sarkar had his lectures meticulously prepared, written in his flowing, slanting hand on foolscap sheets of paper. The lectures lucidly brought alive the worlds of the Renaissance and the Reformation, and moved from Michelangelo’s search for the perfect blue and the ambivalence and originality of Machiavelli’s ‘ethics’ to the intricacies of theological dispute, showing how deeply knowledgeable Sarkar was about various aspects of European history.Join conversationView All Comments →Share your thoughts in the commentsInsightfulAgreeDisagreeSkepticalConcerningPromisingWorth ReadingBig DevelopmentPost CommentBe respectful · TOI community guidelinesAmidst the gravity of the issues being discussed, on more than one occasion there was the unmistakable, almost child-like mischievous humour that would surface, his face breaking into a smile, the tone and voice assuming the sharp edge of an irreverence that is perhaps always inseparable from great learning.It was very painful meeting Professor Sarkar in the years of his illness, which he bore with remarkable and rare fortitude. Farewell Professor Sarkar, even as you remain in the gift of your teaching and in the luminosity of your works.Rahul Govind was a student of Sumit Sarkar at the University of Delhi. He has a PhD. from Columbia University and is currently Professor of History at the University of Delhi.Get the latest India News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.About the AuthorRahul GovindRahul Govind has a PhD. from Columbia University and is currently Professor of History at the University of Delhi.End of ArticleFollow Us On Social MediaVideosPatna Erupts As Tejashwi Yadav Detained During RJD March Over Siwan AK-47 And Paper Leak RowPakistan’s 2 AM Panic Over Operation Sindoor Documentary: Pak Army Calls It ‘Tragedy & Comedy’Kolkata Hotel Fire Kills 9, Six Injured; 80 Rescued As Safety Norms Face Serious QuestionsSupreme Court To Form Panel On July 20 Clash, Examine Police Force And Alleged Pellet Gun UseManipur Shuts Down For 48 Hours As NRC Demand Intensifies Ahead Of 2027 Census DeadlineAAP Leader Satyendar Jain Arrested In Delhi Jal Board ‘Corruption’ Case; Kejriwal Hits Out At BJPTrump Praises India’s Voter ID System, Pushes Same In US, Puts CEC Gyanesh Kumar In SpotlightBihar Transfers 18 Top Cops, Including Siwan SP, Amid Row Over AK-47 Use During Student Protest‘Join Republican Party’: Union Minister’s Big NDA Offer To CJP Founder Abhijeet Dipke30,000 Protesters, 5,000 Cops: Delhi Police Defends Force Before Supreme Court In Protest Case123PhotostoriesStop saying sorry for choosing yourself: 7 things every woman should never feel guilty about, according to Ankur WarikooWhy do Indian brides wear black beads on their mangalsutra? The tradition, belief, and symbolism explainedFrom Orry to Rubina Dilaik, Gaurav Khanna and others: Net worth of popular Khatron Ke Khiladi 15 contestantsLung cancer story is changing in India: Why doctors are looking at the air we breathe, not just the habits we have7 Signs your body is telling you to get more restSnake in the house during monsoon? 7 things you should NEVER doSharvari’s powder-blue Stella McCartney’s look is proof that power dressing can be soft and striking10 foods that naturally produce their own alcoholTiger vs leopard: 7 differences you can spot in the wildKeep these 8 foods at your desk for the 4 pm hunger attack123Hot PicksSugar importBank holidays this weekAzam KhanCSBC resultJharkhand ProtestJSSC-CGL exam cancelledGold rate todayZepto internshipTN maternity leaveTop TrendingKiren RijijuBengaluru MurderRahul GandhiBhopal MurderKerala MurderKiren RijijuAbhijeet DipkeSatyaki SavarkarBengaluru RapidoBen Gvir")
