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More About This Textbook
Overview
In 2002, nuclear-armed adversaries India and Pakistan mobilized for war over the long-disputed territory of Kashmir, sparking panic around the world. Drawing on extensive firsthand experience in the contested region, Sumantra Bose reveals how the conflict became a grave threat to South Asia and the world and suggests feasible steps toward peace.
Though the roots of conflict lie in the end of empire and the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, the contemporary problem owes more to subsequent developments, particularly the severe authoritarianism of Indian rule. Deadly dimensions have been added since 1990 with the rise of a Kashmiri independence movement and guerrilla war waged by Islamist groups. Bose explains the intricate mix of regional, ethnic, linguistic, religious, and caste communities that populate Kashmir, and emphasizes that a viable framework for peace must take into account the sovereignty concerns of India and Pakistan and popular aspirations to self-rule as well as conflicting loyalties within Kashmir. He calls for the establishment of inclusive, representative political structures in Indian Kashmir, and cross-border links between Indian and Pakistani Kashmir. Bose also invokes compelling comparisons to other cases, particularly the peace-building framework in Northern Ireland, which offers important lessons for a settlement in Kashmir.
The Western world has not fully appreciated the desperate tragedy of Kashmir: between 1989 and 2003 violence claimed up to 80,000 lives. Informative, balanced, and accessible, Kashmir is vital reading for anyone wishing to understand one of the world's most dangerous conflicts.
Editorial Reviews
Booklist
Though Bose summarizes how Kashmir became a bone of contention in the blood-wracking partition of British India in 1947-48, he restrains himself from adjudicating the grievances in favor of exploring an exit from the impasse. His basic idea, as in Northern Ireland, is to put into abeyance the parties' most radical demands in the hope they will ameliorate under the influence of newly created negotiating institutions. Knowledgeable about Kashmir's religio-ethnic complexities, Bose can be profitably consulted by serious students of the conflict.
— Gilbert Taylor
New York Sun
One of the many remarkable things about Sumantra Bose's book is that it demonstrates that the common 'solutions' offered on Kashmir are actually dangerous.
— Sauvik Chakraverti
Choice
The conflict over Kashmir remains one of the most intractable and explosive disputes of the postcolonial era and the subject of numerous books. Bose has added a clearly focused, concise, and well-written study to this list and provides an innovative set of proposals designed to settle the dispute.
— S. A. Kochanek
The Asian Art Newspaper
[In] an intelligent, thoughtful and accessible discussion of the conflict in Kashmir, Sumantra Bose examines how the conflict became a grave threat to South Asia and explains the roots of the conflict and seeks to proffer a solution for peace in the region.
International History Review
Sumantra Bose's refreshingly readable, authoritative, and fair-minded account of the dispute goes far to illuminate both the reasons for its intractability and the requirements for its resolution.
— Robert C. Wirsing
Booklist
Though Bose summarizes how Kashmir became a bone of contention in the blood-wracking partition of British India in 1947-48, he restrains himself from adjudicating the grievances in favor of exploring an exit from the impasse. His basic idea, as in Northern Ireland, is to put into abeyance the parties' most radical demands in the hope they will ameliorate under the influence of newly created negotiating institutions. Knowledgeable about Kashmir's religio-ethnic complexities, Bose can be profitably consulted by serious students of the conflict.— Gilbert Taylor
New York Sun
One of the many remarkable things about Sumantra Bose's book is that it demonstrates that the common 'solutions' offered on Kashmir are actually dangerous.— Sauvik Chakraverti
Choice
The conflict over Kashmir remains one of the most intractable and explosive disputes of the postcolonial era and the subject of numerous books. Bose has added a clearly focused, concise, and well-written study to this list and provides an innovative set of proposals designed to settle the dispute.— S. A. Kochanek
The Asian Art Newspaper
[In] an intelligent, thoughtful and accessible discussion of the conflict in Kashmir, Sumantra Bose examines how the conflict became a grave threat to South Asia and explains the roots of the conflict and seeks to proffer a solution for peace in the region.International History Review
Sumantra Bose's refreshingly readable, authoritative, and fair-minded account of the dispute goes far to illuminate both the reasons for its intractability and the requirements for its resolution.— Robert C. Wirsing
Foreign Affairs
This detailed study reveals that the Kashmir problem is more complicated than comparable clashes of sovereignties in other ethnically divided territories. Yet in the end, the author proposes some plausible policy measures to bring about an acceptable form of peace. The Line of Control (LOC) that divides the Pakistani- and Indian-held portions of Jammu and Kashmir was the outcome of the first war between the two countries, when both armies were commanded by British generals and the Indian Defense Committee was chaired by Lord Mountbatten. Bose argues that the LOC has held firm through subsequent clashes between the two (now nuclear) powers largely because the complex ethnic and linguistic groupings on each side of the line have learned to live with each other. Thus he argues that a decision by India and Pakistan to grant autonomy and democracy to the respective entities would open the way to peaceful politics in what has long been a dangerous flashpoint. Bose brings fresh thinking and new information to what has seemed a hopeless problem.Library Journal
To acquire another study relating the bloodshed in Kashmir is unremarkable, and to read another book listing the long litany of charge and countercharge made by India and Pakistan over Kashmir evokes boredom. But to study this analysis of the internal political factions of Kashmir and the possible means for agreement stimulates more hope than ever before thought possible. With great caution, Bose (comparative politics, London Sch. of Economics and Political Science) acknowledges the multilayered and historic nature of the conflicting political and religious factions within and without Kashmir. Using a carefully constructed framework of conflict resolution based on Northern Ireland's "Good Friday" accords, Bose envisions the possibility of slow progress toward a more stable South Asian society. Bose constructs his thesis from prior study of the societal and ethnic conflicts in Sri Lanka and Bosnia/Herzegovina. His statement shows evidence of careful, detailed research, and his thoughtful prose clarifies a subject of infinite complexity. This work is clearly the most important treatment of the Kashmir conflict to be published in the past two decades. Highly recommended for academic and larger public libraries.-John F. Riddick. Central Michigan Univ. Lib., Mt. Pleasant Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.Product Details
Meet the Author
Sumantra Bose is Professor of International and Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Table of Contents
Maps
Introduction
1. Origins of the Conflict
2. The Kashmir-India Debacle
3. The War in Kashmir
4. Sovereignty in Dispute
5. Pathways to Peace
Notes
Glossary
Acknowledgments
Index