Canada globe ‘cuts J&K out of India’

TORONTO : On New Year’s Eve, Sandeep Deswal visited a store in a mall in Malton, a suburb of Toronto, where he purchased a small globe for his daughter, sixyear-old Ashmita.

When he returned home with the globe and examined it, he found that Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) was separated from India.

Deswal said he would raise the matter with the store.

But he was concerned over how the erroneous depiction of Indian territory would influence children of Indian origin like his daughter: “If we don’t tell her Kashmir is an integral part of the country, she will get a different image of India. The next generation will believe something else.”

This is the third reported instance since December as highlighted by Indo-canadians.

Two of these globes were manufactured in China and sold at mainstream Canadian outlets.

Sadhna Joshi, a professor at University of Toronto, encountered a similar globe with the entire J&K depicted as a ‘disputed area’. “I think it’s very important we don’t let our country be divided into pieces. Action must be taken and these must be withdrawn from everywhere.”

Earlier, another retailer had a globe, made in China, that omitted both J&K and Arunachal Pradesh from India.

Aghast at the availability of these globes, an Indo-canadian organisation is making efforts to have stores pull back these items and become aware of the sensitivities involved.

Azad Kaushik, president, National Alliance of Indo-canadians, said, “An inaccurate depiction of map on the globe defeats its educational purpose.”

While one of the retailers, a major corporation, has withdrawn the product, another has sent NAIC’S complaint to its product compliance department for a review.