The Crisis in Kashmir
Portents of War, Hopes of Peace

Tracing the origins of the insurgency that has wracked the Indian-controlled portion of Jammu and Kashmir since 1989.

Šumit Ganguly (Author)

9780521590662, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 March 1997

203 pages, 2 b/w illus. 2 maps
23.4 x 15.8 x 1.8 cm, 0.44 kg

'?umit Ganguly has produced the fullest account yet of the causes and character of the Kashmir rebellion on the 1990s. Without dogma or predisposition, his analysis illuminates the sources and structure of a neglected, dangerous conflict.' Washington Post

This book traces the origins of the insurgency that has wracked the Indian-controlled portion (about two-thirds) of Jammu and Kashmir since 1989. The most complete, and the first theoretically grounded account, it is based on extensive interviews. Professor Ganguly's central argument is that the insurgency can be explained by the interlinked processes of political mobilisation and institutional decay. In an attempt to woo the citizens of India's only Muslim-majority state, the national government dramatically helped expand literacy, mass media, and higher education in Jammu and Kashmir. These processes produced a generation of Kashmiris who were politically knowledgeable and sophisticated. Simultaneously, the national government in New Delhi, fearful of potential secessionist proclivities amongst the Kashmiris, systematically stultified the development of political institutions in the state. Unable to express dissent in an institutional context, this new generation of Kashmiris resorted to violence.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Maps
1. The Kashmir conundrum
2. Political mobilization and the onset of the insurgency
3. The past as contrast
or, the dog that didn't bark
4. Another war and Mrs. Gandhi's legacy
5. The proximate causes: the Rajiv-Farooq accord and the outbreak of the insurgency
6. The crisis worsens
7. Strategies and options for resolving the crisis
Epilogue
Appendices
Index.

Subject Areas: Terrorism, armed struggle [JPWL]