Kashmir book festival cancelled amid fears of violence

Tourists in a boat on Dal Lake in Srinagar, Kashmir. Photograph: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP/Getty

Kashmir's first ever literary festival has been cancelled following concerns from organisers that it could erupt into violence.

The Harud (meaning autumn in Kashmiri) literary festival was set to be held from 24-26 September in Srinagar, focusing on local writings from Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh and hosting "significant writers from across India". But organisers said yesterday in a statement that "with great sadness" the festival was being postponed.

"With many authors voicing their concerns about possible violence during the festival due to the heightened nature of the debate, and a call for protest at the venues, we neither have the desire to be responsible for yet more unrest in the valley nor to propagate mindless violence in the name of free speech. We are therefore left with little alternative but to cancel the festival for now," they said.

Rumours had been circulating that Salman Rushdie, whose controversial novel The Satanic Verses was banned in India, was being invited to speak at the festival, provoking calls to boycott the event. But the festival said it had "neither invited nor was planning to invite" the Booker prize-winning author. Around 20 authors from Jammu and Kashmir, and 20 from other parts of India, were on the programme, it said, with sessions planned on "The Silenced Voice: Creativity and Dissent", "Jail Diaries", "Gulistan: The Forgotten Environment" and "Chronicles of Exile".

As well as the unrest over Rushdie, over 200 people including the acclaimed writers Mirza Waheed and Basharat Peer put their names toan open letter stating their fears that "holding such a festival would, willy-nilly, dovetail with the state's concerted attempt to portray that all is normal in Kashmir. Even as the reality on the ground is one of utter abnormality and a state of acute militarisation and suppression of dissent, rights and freedoms".

"A literary festival, by definition, is an event that celebrates the free flow of ideas and opinions. It not only assumes a freedom from fear," the petition says, "it demands a certain independence of mind and spirit. To hold it in a context where some basic fundamental rights are markedly absent, indeed, denied to the population, is to commit a travesty."

But Harud's organisers said yesterday that "if those opposing the festival truly believed in free speech, they would have allowed this forum to go ahead and would come and express their dissent at the festival". They added that they hoped to "re-energise" the festival at a future date, "when calmer sense prevails, and we are confidently able to provide a sense of security to our speakers and guests".

"Till then it is a sad day for us, and a victory for a vocal minority who feel that they alone are the doorkeepers to people's minds and hearts," they added.

Kashmir has been the subject of dispute between India and Pakistan since it was divided between the two countries in 1947. Up to 70,000 people have died in the conflict, with a recent inquiry finding the remains of 2,156 people along the Indian side of the disputed border. Accusations of systematic human rights violations in the region have been consistently denied by Indian authorities.