Author: R N Kaul
Publisher: Sterling
Year: 1999
Language: English
Pages: 310
ISBN/UPC (if available): 81 207 21217
Description
The Wail of Kashmir-In Quest of Peace offers an analytical insight into the dynamics of change in the social, cultural and political developments in Kashmir and the forces and factors that had the maximum impact on the state and its people.
Vital facts, crucial issues and the respercussion of long-term subjugation on the psyche of the Pandits, has been vividly highlighted. The agony of a people, degraded and discriminated against on their own soil, during foreign rule, and before and after Kashmir's accession, lays bare the soul of Kashmir and the Kashmiri Pandits.
Provocative issues like Kashmir's accession to India (which if effected within the prescribed time frame, could have eliminated most of the problems that followed), self-determination for Kashmiries, Article 370 of the Indian Constitution and greater autonomy for the State, have been dwelt upon in great detail. Constitution and greater autonomy for the State, have been dwelt upon in great detail. Controversies have been questioned and repudiated and myths dispelled. The role of the rulers, politicians and political parties has been recapitulated authentically, and constitution matters classified by reference to intermantional law and principles, the Indian and Jammu and Kashmir Constitutions, supported by the opinions of legal luminaries.
The postscript at the end of the Epilogue updates the book to developments culminating in the Lahore Declaration of 21st February, 1999, between the Prime Ministes of India and Pakistan.
The Wail of Kashmir-In Quest of Peace offers an analytical insight into the dynamics of change in the social, cultural and political developments in Kashmir and the forces and factors that had the maximum impact on the state and its people. The glorious part played by the founders of Kashmir, the Pandits, provides an insight into an era largely unknown.
Contents
Preface
1. The Kashmiri pandit in Historical erspective
2. Emigration and Exile
3. Subjugation of India and Kashmir
4. Colonisation and the Future
5. The Story of Accession
6. Genesis and Dilemma of Article 370
7. Autonomy and Deaccession I
8. Autonomy and Deaccession II
9. The Pandit's Bane
10. The Sheikh and the Pandit
11. Whither the Pandit
Epilogue
Postscript
(a) Appendices
(b) Bibliography
Index