The Singapore-based Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) has withdrawn the erroneous map of Jammu and Kashmir from a 2010 publication.
Thanking The Hindu for “highlighting the error of the map on the cover of the publication,” ISAS Chairman Gopinath Pillai emphasised that “it was an oversight on the part of the publisher.” Mr. Pillai said: “We have re-designed the cover and re-published the book,” titled “Challenges of Economic Growth, Inequality and Conflict in South Asia.”
The book, brought out a few weeks ago as a 2010 publication, showed Jammu and Kashmir in its historical entirety as a “disputed area.” It was also conspicuously shown as an “area” distinct from India, Pakistan, and China. The source of the map was not stated. However, the ISAS had no intention of stirring up a controversy of any kind, Mr. Pillai noted.
The re-designed cover, showing a woman with some utensils in front of her and with a gleaming building in the background, seems to draw attention to the “growth” as also “inequality” aspects of South Asia. The “conflict” aspect was perhaps the theme of the now-withdrawn map, although Mr. Pillai himself did not indicate any such reasoning.
The book, based entirely on a conference on South Asia that the ISAS had organised in 2008, was brought out to coincide with the Institute’s 2009 conference on some other aspects of the region.
