Gurmehar Kaur (born 24 September 1996) is an Indian

student activist Student activism or campus activism is work by students to cause political, environmental, economic, or social change. Although often focused on schools, curriculum, and educational funding, student groups have influenced greater political e ...

and author. Graduating from

Lady Shri Ram College Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR) is a constituent women's college, affiliated with the University of Delhi, and has a legacy in women's education. History Established in 1956 in New Delhi by the late Lala Shri Ram in memory of his wife ...

, she pursued her masters from Somerville College, University of Oxford. Kaur is also an ambassador for Postcards for Peace, a UK-based charitable organisation that helps eliminate any form of discrimination. Gurmehar Kaur came in the limelight as she was a part of the 'Save DU campaign' following the February 2017 clashes at Ramjas College between members of the Students Federation of India (SFI) and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) when JNU students

Umar Khalid Umar Khalid (born Syed Umar Khalid) is an Indian student activist, former research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, former leader of Democratic Students' Union (DSU) in JNU. He was allegedly involved in the Jawaharlal Nehru University ...

and

Shehla Rashid Shora Shehla Rashid Shora is an Indian people, Indian human rights activist who has pursued her Ph.D. at Jawaharlal Nehru University. She was vice-president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) in 2015–16 and was a member of ...

were invited for a campus seminar. Earlier, she was in the news due to a video she released. In October 2017, ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine used the phrase "free speech warrior" in expressing their opinion of Kaur and included her in their "10 Next Generation Leaders" list for 2017. Her debut, a memoir, called '' Small Acts of Freedom'' which was published in January 2018 by

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. On April 2, 2020, Bertels ...

, was shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi YUVA Puraskar in 2020.

Early life

Gurmehar Kaur was born to Rajvinder Kaur and Captain Mandeep Singh in Jalandhar. She completed her education at Harvest International School, Ludhiana. Her father, Mandeep Singh, was one of the seven

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

personnel martyred at 1:15 am IST after a Rashtriya Rifle camp was attacked by terrorists in

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

on 6 August 1999. Kaur holds a degree in Literature from Lady Shri Ram College for Women. She pursued her MSc in Modern South Asian Studies from the Somerville College,

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

Controversies

Indo-Pak peace message video

On 28 April 2016, a video was uploaded to Facebook by Voice of Ram (Ram Subramanian), featuring Gurmehar Kaur. The video was also uploaded to YouTube by Voice of Ram. Gurmehar Kaur launched the #ProfileForPeace campaign in April 2016, questioning the calibre of leadership of India and Pakistan in the video, and advocating "peace" between India and Pakistan. She styled herself as a "soldier for peace" fighting against war. The video went viral in February 2017, after Gurmehar came forward with a social media message against ABVP at

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...

, a student federation belonging to the

Sangh Parivar The Sangh Parivar (translation: "Family of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh" or the "RSS family") refers, as an umbrella term, to the collection of Hindu nationalist organisations spawned by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which rema ...

. It attracted much controversy and ridicule, particularly a statement: "Pakistan did not kill my dad, war killed him." In 2017, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs of India

Kiren Rijiju Kiren Rijiju (born 19 November 1971) is an Indian politician from Arunachal Pradesh who serves as the Cabinet Minister of Law and Justice in the Government of India. Early life Rijiju was born on 19 November 1971 at Nakhu near Nafra in West K ...

commented on her video that "Some Political forces are behind her statements (Spoiling the minds of the students)". Former cricketer

Virender Sehwag Virender Sehwag (born 20 October 1978) is a former Indian cricketer who represented India from 1999 to 2013. Widely regarded as one of the most destructive opener, he played for Delhi Capitals in IPL and Delhi and Haryana in Indian domestic c ...

posted an image saying, "I didn't score triple centuries, my bat did".

Javed Akhtar Javed Akhtar (born 17 January 1945) is an Indian poet, lyricist, screenwriter and political activist. Known for his work in Hindi cinema, he has won five National Film Awards, and received the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 200 ...

also commented on this issue as he counterattacked on all those who were against Gurmehar. Gurmehar's mother showed support for her daughter clarifying that "Her message in the video should be seen in a larger perspective. What she actually wanted to say was that war always brings destruction. I never wanted her to look at people of Pakistan or any other country with hatred. Situations make people kill each other during a war."

Save DU Campaign

She was virtually part of Save DU campaign against ABVP in February 2017 in which she opposed the violence that erupted at the Ramjas College Campus after the lectures of

and

were cancelled due to ABVP's protest. She received death and rape threats for starting this campaign and later on she left the campaign.

Books

* '' Small Acts of Freedom'' (2018), Penguin Random House * ''The Young and the Restless (Youth and Politics in India)'' (2019), Penguin Books

References

External links

Gurmehar Kaur
at Penguin India
Gurmehar Kaur – Ted Talk – The Power and the Risk of raising your voice.

Ted.com TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaur, Gurmehar 1996 births Living people Indian women activists Delhi University alumni 21st-century Indian women writers Lady Shri Ram College alumni People from Jalandhar Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford