Testimony

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Testimony Srinagar, India - 8th July 2011

Your Excellency Mr. Madanjeet Singh,

Let me introduce myself briefly. My name is Gunnar Klatt and I currently teach English as Foreign Language in a private Language School in Germany. I have a joined degree in History and German Literature and a PhD in Literature. I studied and worked for 10 years in Britain and at British Universities prior to my current job.

While visiting friends during my holidays in Srinagar, I was introduced to the Institute of Kashmir Studies at the University of Kashmir in Srinagar. Prof. Zaffar did welcome me heartily as a guest in the Institute and introduced me to the Research Students. I was a regular guest at their twice weekly meetings and I was impressed by the student’s research projects. The range and quality of their work is impressive, they are becoming real experts in their fields which I attribute to the determination with which they conduct their work under the guidance of extremely knowledgeable and devoted teachers.

Srinagar is geographically quite removed from most of the academic centers in India which might be seen as a disadvantage to the students the Institute in collaboration with the University makes every effort to provide the students with what I found a very broad basis of materials related to their research and I found Prof. Zaffar to be an outstanding academic who makes every effort to open the academic world beyond the borders of the Institute and Kashmir to the students. But all these efforts find their limits and Prof. Zaffa was delighted by my acceptance to give presentations to the students on German History and German Culture and the students where delighted to get a for them such rare insight into different world as they realized that they can understand a lot of their own culture by learning about a different culture. I wish such visits by outside scholars could become a more regular feature in the Institute as I have experienced the students as very eager to explore new ideas and even the wider academic community would benefit from such events.

In conclusion I have to say that my time at the Institute of Kashmir Studies has been a very interesting and enriching experience for me and I hope that I could give the students at least some idea what a wide field academia opens to them. I wish the Institute with all it’s staff and students all the best for the future.

Sincerely,
Yours

Gunnar Klatt