Kashmir in the Aftermath of Partition

Historically grounded study of post-partition Kashmir that places Kashmir and Kashmiris at the centre of the historical debate.

Shahla Hussain (Author)

9781009370202, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 24 August 2023

402 pages
27 x 18 x 2.6 cm, 0.665 kg

'A comprehensive and insightful study of politics and resistance in Kashmir and the Kashmiri diaspora. A must-read to understand the situation in contemporary Kashmir.' Chitralekha Zutshi, Class of 1962 Professor of History, College of William and Mary

Kashmir remains one of the world's most militarized areas of dispute, having been in the grips of an armed insurgency against India since the late 1980s. In existing scholarship, ideas of territoriality, state sovereignty, and national security have dominated the discourses on the Kashmir conflict. This book, in contrast, places Kashmir and Kashmiris at the center of historical debate and investigates a broad range of sources to illuminate a century of political players and social structures on both sides of divided Kashmir and in the wider Kashmiri diaspora. In the process, it broadens the contours of Kashmir's postcolonial and resistance history, complicates the meaning of Kashmiri identity, and reveals Kashmiris' myriad imaginings of freedom. It asserts that 'Kashmir' has emerged as a political imaginary in postcolonial era, a vision that grounds Kashmiris in their negotiations for rights not only in India and Pakistan, but also in global political spaces.

Introduction
1. Meanings of freedom in the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir
2. Freedom, loyalty, belonging: Kashmir after decolonization
3. Puppet regimes: Collaboration and the political economy of Kashmiri resistance
4. The politics of plebiscite: Discontent and regional Dissidence
5. Mapping Kashmiri imaginings of freedom in the inter-regional and global arenas
6. Jang-i-Azadi (War for freedom): Religion, politics and resistance
Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendix 1: Map of the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Subject Areas: Political control & freedoms [JPV], Regional government [JPR], Public administration [JPP], Politics & government [JP], Society & culture: general [JF], Society & social sciences [J]