Kashmir
History, Politics, Representation

This collection of essays discusses the less well-known aspects and areas of Kashmir on the seventieth anniversary of Indian independence.

Chitralekha Zutshi (Edited by)

9781108402101, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 November 2017

350 pages
22.2 x 14.9 x 2 cm, 0.42 kg

On the seventieth anniversary of Indian independence, Partition, and the creation of Pakistan, this ground breaking collection brings together fourteen cutting-edge scholarly essays on multiple aspects of both the region and the issue of Kashmir. While keeping the political dimensions of the dispute over the territory in focus, these innovative essays branch out from the high politics of the conflict to consider less well-known aspects and areas of Kashmir. They examine the continuities and ruptures between Kashmir's past and its present situation; reevaluate the contemporary political scenario from the perspective of gender, economic and political marginality, everyday experiences, and governance; and analyze the ways in which the region of Kashmir and its people are represented and (re)present themselves in films and literature through their regional and religious identities, and commodities. This volume aims to understand the limitations of postcolonial nationalism and citizenship as exemplified by the situation in contemporary Kashmir.

Acknowledgements
Map 1. Pre-partition Jammu and Kashmir
Map 2. Contemporary Kashmir
Introduction: new directions in the study of Kashmir Chitralekha Zutshi
Part I. History: 1. To 'tear the mask off the face of the past': archaeology and politics in Jammu and Kashmir Mridu Rai
2. Contesting urban space: shrine culture and the discourse on Kashmiri Muslim identities and protest in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Chitralekha Zutshi
3. The rise and fall of new Kashmir Andrew Whitehead
4. Kashmiri visions of freedom: the past and the present Shahla Hussain
Part II. Politics: 5. Azad Kashmir: integral to India, integrated into Pakistan, lacking integrity as an autonomous entity Christopher Snedden
6. 'Not part of Kashmir, but of the Kashmir dispute': the political predicaments of Gilgit-Baltistan Martin Sökefeld
7. Law, gender and governance in Kashmir Seema Kazi
8. 'Survival is now our politics': Kashmiri Pandit community identity and the politics of homeland Haley Duschinski
9. Beyond the 'Kashmir' meta-narrative: caste, identities and the politics of conflict in Jammu and Kashmir Mohita Bhatia
10. Contested governance, competing nationalisms and disenchanted publics: Kashmir beyond intractability? Reeta Chowdhari Tremblay
Part III. Representation: 11. Embedded mystics: writing Lal Ded and Nund Rishi into the Kashmiri landscape Dean Accardi
12. Producing paradise: Kashmir's shawl economy, the quest for authenticity and the politics of representation in Europe, c.1770–1870 Vanessa Chishti
13. The Kashmiri as Muslim in Bollywood's 'new Kashmir films' Ananya Jahanara Kabir
14. The witness of poetry: political feeling in Kashmiri poems Suvir Kaul
Notes on contributors
Index.

Subject Areas: Regional government [JPR], Politics & government [JP], Sociology [JHB], Asian history [HBJF]