Introduction
History and the Roots of Conflict
Democracy of Denial
Kashmir in India
The Struggle for `Self-Determination′
Kashmir in the Nineties
Democracy, `Self-Determination′ and the Challenge of a Just
Peace
Kashmir in Comparative Perspective
Conclusion and Epilogue (April 1996)
Elections, Democracy, `Self-Determination′
A Postscript (Autumn 1996)
Sumantra Bose is Fellow of the Faculty in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University, New York
`At times, such is the richness and heartfulness of the tales that they tell that Bose′s witnesses appear to be speaking for themselves. Yet this is not (nor is it claimed to be) an impartial account, even if such a thing were possible. Bose is an angry young man, who writes to redress wrongs, to effect change....It is not often that one reads a book that is at once so polemical and so meticulous in observing all the scholarly conventions′ - Australian Journal of Political Science `A theoretically informed study of the current problems in Kashmir....grounded in theory and extensive fieldwork on the ground in Jammu and Kashmir itself′ - Millenium: Journal of International Studies `Bose′s suggestion, which echoes that of many other scholars, is for negtioations with those "persons and forces who are creditble representatives of Kashmiri patriotism and its autonomist spirit - Kashmiriyat". To date, however, the Indian government has been unable to convince the Kashmiris of the vallley that there is genuine substance to the proposals for autonomy, and the hardline activists and militants are still refusing to consider a future for Kashmir within the Indian Union. Why, therefore, another book? The answer must surely be that until the Kashmir conflict is resolved, no book should be left unwritten, if it helps to explain - as this book does - the unparalleled complexities of this vexed topic′ - Asian Affairs `Bose opens his monograph with a pertinent question: `Why another book on the conflict in and over Kashmir?′ It is pertinent because, since 1989, writers in their droves have fastened, sometimes quite voyeuristically, on the tragedy that is the (as yet inconclusive) Kashmir revolt.... Bose answers his own question handsomely by giving us an account that at once brings the narrative up to date (as far as the 1996 parliamentary and state elections), extends the intellectual boundaries of the discussion by putting it into a context of recent theoretical work on nationalism, sovreignty and `self-determination′, and perhaps most strikingly of all, incorporates the experiences and views of a very wide cross-section of the ordinary people - the result of extensive fieldwork by the author, undertaken, one imagines, at considerable personal risk.... It is not often that one reads a book that is at once so polemical and so meticulous in observing all the scholarly conventions. In sum, The Challenge in Kashmir is a confronting and, at times, polemical ook which, nonetheless, offers probably the most penetrating and thoughtful account of the 1989 insurgency to have appeared thus far′ - Australian Journal of Political Science `An integral part of the history of the partition and independence of the subcontlinent 50 years ago, is the history of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. The situation has been sufficiently explosive for American analysts to suggest that the area might be a potential flashpoint for nuclear war in SouthAsia. Sumatra Bose′s book is the outcome not only of his analyses as a political scientist but of considerable research in the valley, which gives him greater immediacy to - and sympathy with - his subject matter: the Kashmiri people. His main focus of interest is the Kashmiris′ quest for self-determination and what it means in the present day′ - The Royal Institute of International Affairs
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