Kashmir

Description

Since 1947-48, when India and Pakistan fought their first war over Kashmir, it has been reduced to an endlessly disputed territory. As a result, the people of this region and its rich history are often forgotten. This short introduction untangles the complex issue of Kashmir to help readers understand not just its past, present, and future, but also the sources of the existing misconceptions about it.

In lucidly written prose, the author presents a range of ways in which Kashmir has been imagined by its inhabitants and outsiders over the centuries—a sacred space, homeland, nation, secular symbol, and a zone of conflict. Kashmir thus emerges in this account as a geographic entity as well as a composite of multiple ideas and shifting boundaries that were produced in specific historical and political contexts.

About the Author

Chitralekha Zutshi is professor of history at The College of William & Mary, Virginia, USA. She specializes in nationalism, history writing, and political culture in South Asia. Her books include Kashmir: History, Politics, Representation (2018); Kashmir’s Contested Pasts: Narratives, Sacred Geographies, and the Historical Imagination (2014); and Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir (2004).

Table of contents

Introduction: The Idea of Kashmir vii

1 Kashmir as Sacred Space 1

2 Kashmir as Mulk 29

3 Kashmir as Princely State 46

4 Orientalizing and Nationalizing Kashmir 66

5 Kashmir as Nation 85

6 Fragmented Kashmir 116

7 The Kashmir Insurgency 149

Bibliography 172

Index 186

About the Author 194