Author: Sumantra Bose
Publisher: Sage Publications
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 266
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8178293285
Description
The dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir stretches back to 1947. The two countries have repeatedly gone to war and engaged in low-intensity conflict over Kashmir since then. Any solution to this protracted confrontation still appears elusive. Drawing on his extensive experience of the contested territory, Sumantra Bose expertly analyzes a complex conflict and develops a compelling framework for moving toward a settlement.
Though the roots of conflict lie in the events of 1947, the present-day problem is due more to subsequent developments, including the failings of India's democracy and federalism in relation to Kashmir. Serious and often deadly complications have multiplied between 1990 and 2003, a period Bose discusses in fascinating depth and detail. He argues that a viable approach to tackling the conflict must respect not only the sovereignty and territorial integrity concerns of the countries embroiled in the dispute, but also popular aspirations to self-rule as well as conflicting loyalties and allegiances within Jammu and Kashmir.
Peace is only possible, he says, through a skilful compromise that takes into account all the competing stances on the conflict. To this end, he calls for broadly inclusive political structures in Indian Kashmir, and cross-border links between Indian and Pakistani Kashmir. Bose also compares Kashmir to other global hotspots, especially the peace framework in Northern Ireland which offers important lessons for a similar process in Kashmir.
Informative, balanced and lucidly written, this book is essential reading on the Kashmir conflict as it exists today.
Contents
Maps
Introduction
Origins of the conflict
The Kashmir-India Debacle
The War in Kashmir
Sovereignty in dispute
Pathways to Peace
Notes
Glossary
Acknowledgments
Index