Kashmir

The paper proposes to engage with two postwar British novels Kingfishers Catch Fire (1953) by Rumer Godden and The Kashmir Shawl(2011) by Rosie Thomas and explore the politics of representing colonialism and its demise in the context of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Though Kashmir wasn't a part of the British territories in India, it came within the ambit of British hegemony under the Dogra regime and its representation is marked by typical colonial mindset since the mid-nineteenth century. The primary objective of the paper is to provide a postcolonial reading of these two novels in order to deconstruct their inherent colonial bias and decode the cultural politics of the 'persistence of Empire' in postwar British literature. The paper will focus on the cultural politics of representing Kashmir and its people within the larger narrative of Empire and its imminent dissolution. It is evident from these narratives that in spite of their 'good intentions', all the British characters expose their sense of superiority and social one-upmanship in their interaction with Kashmiris. These narratives written in the aftermath of the Second World War and the dismemberment of the British Empire in South Asia play a crucial role by evoking nostalgia for the Raj during a period when British influence in the international arena was on the wane. This paper will also explore the cultural politics of nostalgia for the Raj in the context of these two novels.

In this article, I analyze social media responses by Hindu men to the Indian government's August 2019 revocation of Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution that codified Jammu & Kashmir's special status. Kashmir has been under Indian military occupation since 1947 and it is now the most militarized place in the world. Hindu men reacted to the revocation of Articles 370 and 35A with glee, declaring on social media that this latest abrogation of Kashmiri sovereignty entitled them to "fair Kashmiri wives." My article contextualizes these responses in Partition era violence against girls and women. In addition, I argue that this representation of Kashmiri women resonates with colonial era martial race theory. My larger point is that the construction of race in India is part of a complex discursive formation that includes colonial attitudes, Partition violence, regional rivalries between India and Pakistan, and the rise of Hindu nationalism.

Ali Ahmed, PhD (JNU), PhD (Cantab.), is a former infantry officer and has been an academic and a UN official. He blogs at www.ali-writings.blogspot.com and tweets at @aliahd66.
I have compiled here my occasional long form writings on Kashmir since the high tide in the affairs of Kashmir in the early nineties.
CONTENTS

A.
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY – 1995-96
MPHIL DISSERTATION –
INTERVENTION IN INTERNAL AFFAIRS BY STATES IN SOUTH ASIA
CHAPTER III : CASE STUDY II
PAKISTAN’S INVOLVEMENT IN INDIAN KASHMIR


B.
USI PROJECT: MEA CHAIR 2000-01
INSTITUTIONAL INTEREST:
A STUDY OF INDIAN STRATEGIC CULTURE
CHAPTER III - CASE STUDY II
THE ARMY AND KASHMIR
C.
BOOK CHAPTER
COUNTERING INSURGENCY IN J&K:
DEBATES IN THE INDIAN ARMY
Maroof Raza (ed.): Confronting Terrorism,
New Delhi Penguin Viking India, 2009



D. 
KASHMIR: A STUDY IN INSURGENCY
AND COUNTER INSURGENCY
(unpublished essay, 1990)

Ex Brigadier Sadiq Khan Satti Military Cross
March 2017
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.15472.76806
Projects: Military History of India Pakistan Bangladesh Nepal Iran Afghanistan Burma Central Asian Republics China and Turkey  ,  Military Personality
Agha H Amin

Pakistan pays a heavy price for its claim to Kashmir; in military spending, in domestic instability, and in exclusion from Indian markets and the transit trade with Central Asia. A more coherent Kashmir policy could be constructed at much reduced cost based on achievable objectives, a sober view of the national interest and the long-term needs of the Kashmiri people.

Kashmir es mucho más que el ámbito de discusión y el espacio de confrontación entre India y Pakistán. Comprende una región que, aunque ahora está físicamente dividida y empobrecida, tiene una enorme importancia por los innumerables contactos culturales, históricos y comerciales, además de la riqueza en recursos naturales y su majestuosa belleza enmarcada por las montañas más altas del mundo, los Himalayas.
Las tensiones entre India y Pakistán por este territorio an estado presentes a lo largo de 72 años. Son la consecuencia de la construcción de dos Estados-nación distintos y una confrontación violenta después de la Independencia de la colonia británica. Kashmir ha sido todo este tiempo una herida abierta y el punto de mayor tensión entre ambos países. El conflicto ha marcado las decisiones de ambos en política exterior bilateral y regional desde su Independencia. Da muestra y es el recordatorio no sólo del paso de la colonia británica y la politización de identidades; también habla de la desastrosa, mal planeada y violenta Partición entre India y Pakistán; así como de la falta de una verdadera inclusión social y económica de esta región en la vida india.

The recent terrorist attack in the Pulwama district of Jammu & Kashmir and subsequent events show once again how volatile the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is and how it threatens peace not only in that state but also in the entire subcontinent.
The unresolved Kashmir problem affects different groups in different ways. I am concerned here with the peculiar condition of Kashmiri Hindus.  My concern is not addressed to a particular event, no matter how grave, but to the  existential problem of the community.
To facilitate understanding of the problem faced by the community, I have tried to offer some terminological clarifications, arguing that such terms as migrants, exodus, and exiles, often used to describe their condition, do not apply to them. They are indeed internal refugees or to use a technically more correct expression internally displaced persons.  I have also tried to show that the term 'Kashmiri Pandits' of which the community is proud has come at the cost of clarity and sympathy.  Hardly anyone knows that, due to the peculiarity of the history of Kashmir, all Kashmiri Hindus are Kashmiri Pandits.
My basic argument in this article is that Kashmiri Hindus have a double task: to secure a return to their homeland and to contribute to the resolution of the conflict. There can be no return unless there is a resolution of the conflict. If they want peace, they are not far from peaceful coexistence. So, they  need to find ways and means of peaceful coexistence which cannot be achieved unless all concerned recognise the right to live in one's homeland with security and dignity as much for oneself as for others.

The root cause of instability and hostility in South Asia stems from the unresolved nature of the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan. It has led to two major wars and several near misses in the past. Since the independence movement in India, the valley has been the source of repeated conflicts between India and Pakistan and a proxy war has developed. After evaluating the history of the conflict in and over Kashmir, this paper proposes a roadmap for peace in the region, drawing on strategic interests of Pakistan and India while reinforcing the conflict’s significance to Asia Pacific politics.

In these papers I will explore, through the lens of social power structures, the material and ideological structures and aims that frame the Belt and Road Initiative, precisely its flagship project China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. In the first part, I will frame my argument in line with Frantz Fanon's thread of colonial and post-colonial societies described in 'The Wretched of the Earth'. I will compare his analysis with the current state of Pakistan’s implementation of CPEC, dissecting the causes, methods and possible consequences of it. The second part will focus more on the actual implementation of these projects in two ares of Pakistan: Gilgit-Baltistan and Gwadar, Balochistan. I will focus on the following research questions: who is going to benefit the most from these projects, and how? What are the ideological pillars of the Initiative? Is it economically, environmentally, ethically sustainable? What's the role of Pakistani establishment in it? What kind of vision of humanity does this Initiative propose? This dissertation will contribute to the discourse on the betterment of current projects and, hopefully, will provide for some necessary and feasible alternatives.

Another tension between India and Pakistan pertains to the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. India had become quite close to the Kabul government under Karzai and Ghani. However, it seems clueless on how to deal with the current developments in that country. Pakistan and China are playing a lead role, meanwhile, in terms of generating a regional consensus to recognise the Taliban rule. Not finding any role in Afghanistan presently, New Delhi may use other means to distract Pakistan if not China. The other day, Pakistani authorities reportedly “detected and blocked” an Indian submarine from entering Pakistani territorial waters. This was the third reported incursion by an Indian submersible vessel since 2016. A section of Indian media and some politicians have been urging Modi to withdraw from the T-20 cricket match with Pakistan.
It seems that the past is hovering over the present in both India and Pakistan and the two are unable to break the mental barriers to think and act innovatively. Until that happens, confrontational discourse and ontological dilemmas will gain further currency not just in Pakistan but also India.

Intimate Connections dissects ideas, feelings, and practices around love, marriage, and respectability in the remote high mountains of Gilgit-Baltistan in northern Pakistan. It offers insightful perspectives from the emotional lives of Shia women and their active engagement with their husbands. These gender relations are shaped by countless factors, including embodied values of modesty and honor, vernacular fairy tales and Bollywood movies, Islamic revivalism and development initiatives. In particular, the advent of media and communication technologies has left a mark on (pre)marital relations in both South Asia and the wider Muslim world. Juxtaposing different understandings of 'love' reveals rich and manifold worlds of courtship, elopements, family dynamics, and more or less affectionate matches that are nowadays often initiated through SMS. Deep ethnographic accounts trace the relationships between young couples to show how Muslim women in a globalized world dynamically frame and negotiate circumstances in their lives.

https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/intimate-connections/9781978820487/

These are the first four pages of the book providing brief introduction about the book. This is the basic book for learning the Arabic Language in easiest way. Especially prepared for Children and beginners. U can get this book now in hardcopy contact : 9697998586, 8126200779,8803742446 firdousumri@gmail.com

How do societies come to terms with dispossession, loss, nomadic existence, and protracted displacement? What does it mean to be a refugee in one’s own state? Centring on these questions, the current volume seeks to explore the lives of the Kashmiri Pandits—the Hindu Pandit minority of Kashmir Valley—and their experience of forced migration and the conflict over Jammu and Kashmir. Since 1989, Jammu and Kashmir has been affected by conflict between the Indian state and a movement demanding independence. As a result of this conflict, thousands of Kashmiri Pandits have left the valley and sought refuge in different parts of India, especially Jammu and New Delhi. Addressing the themes of violence, suffering, and victimhood in the context of forced migration, On Uncertain Ground explores the experiences of Kashmiri Pandits’ rebuilding their lives after displacement, their relationship to the Indian state, and Indian and Kashmiri nationalism. Focusing on ‘camp colonies’ and the lives of Kashmiri Pandits across Jammu and New Delhi, this book reveals the tension between the recovery of everyday life and the inability to feel at home and find one’s place in the world.

International relations must distance itself from its Eurocentric and masculine moorings if it is to address its increasing irrelevance in the modern world and become more "international" and truly inclusive. The theoretical position of postcolonial feminism gives the discipline the best chance of doing so. The effect of conflict on women in Kashmir and the North East illustrates how a postcolonial feminist perspective enriches an understanding of the issue and enables international relations to reflect the lived reality of the people. - See more at: http://www.epw.in/journal/2017/20/special-articles/can-postcolonial-feminism-revive-international-relations.html#sthash.YHvmoJy9.dpuf

To address the question as to why women should be in the peace process in the particular context of conflict situation of Jammu and Kashmir, it may be pertinent first of all to refer to the question as to where women are located in the context of conflict. Except as victims, there is not much presence of women in the discourse related to conflict. In the core area of conflict, that is in the Kashmir valley and the militancy infested parts of Jammu, women attain visibility mainly as victims of violence. Their victimisation has resulted from the overar-ching role of violence. Most of what has been documented about the women therefore, is in relation to the various ways women have borne the impact of violence – women caught in the militarised context of conflict; their bodies having become the site of war with both security forces and militants being guilty of sexually abusing women; facing the burden of destitution in the absence of their men who are either killed or disappeared; facing the psychological trauma and manifold health-related problems. Though their victimisation remains a reality in the conflict situation of Jammu and Kashmir; however, the emphasis only on victimisation portrays women in a very limited manner. The assumptions that the men are responsible for conflict situation and women are passive recipients of this situation and are caught in it involuntarily, not only denies agency to women but also portrays them as 'apolitical' members of society. The stereotyped distinction between men 'who make war' and women who are merely sufferers, ignores the possibilities of women being actors in their own rights. Referring to women's agency in 'managing survival and reconstruction and women's notions of security of peace' in the context of South Asia, Rita Manchanda notes that 'Beyond the icon of Mother Sorrow, there are many faces of women in conflict in South Asia. Women have negotiated conflict situations by becoming citizens, combatants, heads of household, war munitions workers, prostitutes, producers of soldiers and war resisters and political leaders at the local and national level. In South Asia, at one end is the Women of Violence represented by the Armed Virgin of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), at the other end is the Woman of Peace, symbolised by the Naga Mothers Association (NMA) in the nationalist struggle for independent Nagaland.' (Man-chanda, 2001, 10-11) In Kashmir also, women have reflected various dimensions of their agency. They have shown a very strong sense of identification with the political movement as it has been manifesting itself during last six decades, but more particularly in the last two and half decades. In order to assess the role of women in the separatist movement of Kashmir, it may be pertinent to locate the movement in the broader context of conflict situation of the state.

The Musharraf formula refers to the resolution formula of the Kashmir conflict which was reportedly agreed upon during the one-to-one backchannel dialogue between Mr. Tariq Aziz, the former civil servant and close aide of the then President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf and Mr.Satinder Lambah, a special envoy of the Prime Minister of India. We now know some of the details of this formula from the article of the American journalist, Steve Coll which he had published in New Yorker in March 2009 and the book of Mr.Khursheed Mahmud Kasuri, 'Neither a Hawk nor a Dove' which was published in 2015. Prior to this Mr.Musharraf and Mr.Kasuri had already claimed in their TV interviews and press talks that by March 2007 India and Pakistan were very close to resolving the Kashmir conflict. This paper takes the details of that non-paper agreement and tries to study what exactly that agreement holds for the future resolution of the Kashmir conflict. The basic understanding is whenever the Pakistani and the Indian governments will take up the negotiations on the Kashmir conflict in future, this agreement is bound to come up in the talks as a starting reference point. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully look at this agreement and discuss what it entails for the resolution of the Kashmir conflict. ____________________

There is a Kashmir that tourists know about: the one with houseboats, carpets, the one called the Paradise on Earth. There is another Kashmir the world knows through the newspapers, that of militants, a place embroiled in the Indo-Pak border conflict. Madhuri Vijayʼs debut novel is a “fictional” attempt to know Kashmir from both extremes—the latter more than the former—through the lense of a woman visiting here for the first time.

Ethnic insurgencies have received less scholarly attention than colonial or ideological insurgencies—even as they have become the predominant form of insurgency following
the decolonization process and then the end of the Cold War. In the face of ethnic insurgencies, what determines the effectiveness of the various counterinsurgency strategies adopted by host states? Are democracies more likely to succeed by pursuing some kinds of counterinsurgency strategies rather than others? Theory indicates that
multiple counterinsurgency strategies, if thoroughly implemented, can defeat ethnic insurgencies. Host state regime type—particularly democracy—is important as a
constraint on the will to employ and thoroughly implement some counterinsurgency methods. Democracies are most likely to defeat ethnic insurgencies by employing more
cooperative or “balanced” strategies. Although such strategies employ economic and political inducements and rely on local ethnic elements to help fight the insurgents,
they also depend on a credible host state commitment to sustain the counterinsurgency for as long as it takes to win. Case studies of India’s multiphased counterinsurgency
efforts in Punjab and Kashmir offer some preliminary evidence in support of this theory. In both Punjab and Kashmir, early counterinsurgency efforts relied on less
discriminate campaigns conducted by central armed forces or by illegitimate local proxies. The outcomes were strengthened insurgencies. In both cases, the Indian state
adapted by seeking the cooperation of legitimate local moderates in more discriminate counterinsurgency efforts. These later, “balanced” strategies were more effective. This
was particularly true in Punjab, where conditions for local cooperation were more favorable.

The Obama administration considered Pakistan “the most dangerous country in the world”  and the US Joint Chiefs of Staff worried about insurgents there gaining control of nuclear weapons. So understanding Pakistan really matters. In nearly 25 years working in and dealing with Pakistan this collection of essays is among the best I have read and some of the chapters are outstanding.

Günümüzde insanlığın uğraştığı çatışmaların çözülmesi için pek çok seçenek olmasına rağmen sürdürülmesi için iki araç yeterlidir; din ve milliyetçilik. Maalesef bu iki aracın, tarafları gün geçtikçe birbirinden uzaklaştırdığı yerlerden birisi Keşmir bölgesidir. Hem dini hem milliyetçi unsurların birbirine düşman ettiği iki toplum bugün üç farklı toprak parçasına ayrılmış bir bölgenin eski ailesidir. Ailenin parçalanması başlangıçta farklı öznelerin işine yararken bugün menfaat yumağı nicelik ve nitelik olarak daha fazla etki gösteren öznelere devredilmiştir.
Bugün Keşmir sadece bölge halklarını etkileyen bir sorun olmaktan çıkıp Dünya'nın pek çok bölgesinde etkilerini terör ve mülteci sorunlarıyla gösteren bir olgu haline gelmiştir.

Terrorism has rightly come to occupy the centrestage in contemporary world. India, located in the immediate neighbourhood of Pakistan, the hotbed of global terrorism, has been at the receiving end since the 1980s. A hitherto hidden aspect of militancy in Kashmir is the terrorizing and consequent migration of thousands of Hindu Pandit families who are till this day leading life as refugees in their own country. Surprisingly, no state or central government has taken effective measures to re-settle them. While many books talk about the human rights of Muslims, it goes to the credit of Rajat Mitra, whose novel The Infidel Next Door takes up the sorry plight of the Kashmiri Pandit community. The novel, a beautiful literary work with all the adornments of a literary piece, is a realistic study of the conditions which were responsible for the exile of Kashmiri Pandits. Its protagonist, a Gandhian figure, fights the jehadis in his own idealistic manner and even though the end is not in sight, hope springs eternal in human heart.

In this article, I translate a section from Muhammad Din Fauq's famous book Tarikh-i-Aqwam-i-Kashmir (1934) where he writes about an important scholarly class Ganais who have contributed to the intellectual life and spiritual culture of Kashmir through generations. According to Fauq, Ganai was a title, which in Persian means "a literary person or scholar". So, Ganais were a celebrated scholarly class, which has given Kashmir such renowned people of learning and erudition as Sheikh Yaqoob Sarfi Ganai and Sheikh Baba Dawood Khaki Ganai.
Fauq categories Ganais into four sub-groups: one, those who’re from the children of Hazrat Aasim bin Hazrat Umar Farooq (RA). Second, those people who were Syed or Mughal or Pathan or Qureshi and were bestowed this [Ganai] title and later their progenies were also called Ganai. Third, those newly converted Muslims, including Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya. Fourth, those Ganai, who work as meat-sellers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India recently compared his country’s cross-border response against terrorists in Pakistan— following the attack in Uri in Indian-administered Kashmir—to Israel’s pre-emptive and retaliatory raids across its borders. This has given rise to serious debate about whether it is desirable for India to adopt Israeli military strategy. A country’s history, political culture, and dominant discourse of national security greatly influence policymakers and their communities. With that in mind, in this article, it is argued that the fundamental differences in strategic orientation, diplomatic posture, and military tactics in India and Israel explain their different approaches and priorities in responding to terrorism. Due to the different circumstances in which the Israeli and Indian militaries operate, co-opting Israeli counterterrorism strategies would be very challenging for India.

This article is self-consciously framed as a hypothesis, a suggestion of how we might go about the work of understanding Kalhaṇa’s Rājataraṅgiṇī (RT), as well as certain other works of Kashmirian Sanskrit. I propose that Kalhaṇa’s poem be understood as the crowning achievement of a local literary form which I term the Kashmirian ślokakathā. After a brief review of the style’s major diagnostic features, I analyse a passage drawn from the earliest extant example of the ślokakathā, Abhinanda’s Kādambarīkathāsāra, a reworking of Bāṇa’s influential seventh century
prose romance. Turning to Kalhaṇa, I show the instantiation of the ślokakathā style in the RT and his particular authorial impress upon it; in particular, I suggest that Kalhaṇa modulates his reliance on the diagnostic ślokakathā features over the course of his poem, the density of
which increases as the events narrated grow closer to the poet’s lifetime. Finally and most speculatively, I suggest that this increasing density (and difficulty) of Kalhaṇa’s verse suggests a connection between the RT’s stylistic realisation and his implicitly articulated theory of the nature of history and that this in turn supplies a lens through which we may view the fraught question of Kalhaṇa’s authorial project in a new way.