The Kashmir Files: From the library of Paradise on Earth

Blurb:

The author of the book, Basharat Peer, has related each and every detail provided in the book from the first-hand experiences gathered by him. Since the independence of India, many Kashmiri youths have been mesmerised by terrorism to the extent that they want to join terrorist organisations without even thinking about their families or themselves. They have illusioned godfathers in the leaders of such terrorist outfits. In fact, the author was sent out of Kashmir by his family, just to keep him away from these painful romances with the militants.

The book, Curfewed Night, has a lot of heart-rending accounts of how a mother watches her son who is forced to hold an exploding bomb or how a poet discovers his religion when his entire family is killed or how the politicians are tortured inside the refurbished torture chambers or how villages have been rigged with landmines which kills innocent civilians, and how temples have converted into army bunkers while ancient Sufi shrines have been decapitated in bomb blasts.

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Blurb:

Seven-year-old Munnu’s is a childhood experienced against the backdrop of conflict. Bilal’s classmates are crossing over into the Pakistan-administered portion of Kashmir to be trained to resist the ‘occupation’; Papa and Bilal are regularly taken by the military to identification parades where informers will point out ‘terrorists’; close neighbours are killed and the homes of Kashmiri Hindu families lie abandoned, as once close, mixed communities have ruptured under the pressure of Kashmir’s divisions.

Munnu is an amazingly personal insight into everyday life in Kashmir. Closely based on Malik Sajad’s own childhood and experiences, it is a beautiful, evocatively drawn graphic novel that questions every aspect of the Kashmir situation – the faults and responsibilities of every side, the history of the region, the role of Britain and the West, the possibilities for the future. It opens up the story of this contested and conflicted land, while also giving a brilliantly close, funny and warm-hearted portrait of a boy’s childhood and coming of age.

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The Kashmir dispute has dominated Indo-Pakistani relations since the Transfer of Power over 40 years ago. This study examines the history of the dispute from its remote origins in the early 19th century until the spring of 1990 when Pakistan and India came on the verge of a fourth armed conflict over this disputed inheritance. The author provides a detailed account of the history of the Northern Frontier in the final years of the British Raj, and shows how this may well have set the scene for the British policy towards the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Part 2 of the book deals with Jammu and Kashmir since 1947.

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Rahul Pandita was fourteen years old in 1990 when he was forced to leave his home in Srinagar along with his family, who were Kashmiri Pandits: the Hindu minority within a Muslim majority Kashmir that was becoming increasingly agitated with the cries of ‘Azadi’ from India. The heartbreaking story of Kashmir has so far been told through the prism of the brutality of the Indian state, and the pro-independence demands of separatists. But there is another part of the story that has remained unrecorded and buried. Our Moon Has Blood Clots is the unspoken chapter in the story of Kashmir, in which it was purged of the Kashmiri Pandit community in a violent ethnic cleansing backed by Islamist militants. Hundreds of people were tortured and killed, and about 3,50,000 Kashmiri Pandits were forced to leave their homes and spend the rest of their lives in exile in their own country. Rahul Pandita has written a deeply personal, powerful and unforgettable story of history, home and loss.

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Blurb:

Kashmir is one of the most intensely disputed regions of the world. Lying between India and Pakistan, it was acceded to India by the British when they left in 1947; however, with a majority Muslim population, many Kashmiris and Pakistanis felt that it should have become a part of Pakistan. To this day, it continues to be the subject of passionate conflict between the two countries — in late 2002, as troops aligned on the borders, the prospect of a possible nuclear war was only narrowly avoided. Prem Jha is a renowned Indian scholar and his new book is a controversial account, based on exhaustive research and recently declassified papers. Jha provides a virtually day-to-day account of the critical times when the fate of Kashmir was decided in the context of Britain’s geo-political strategies.

Drawing on personal accounts of the main players in the events of 1947, he examines the contrasting versions of history that have emerged since that time. Offering vital insights into the volatility of politics in the Indian subcontinent, this is an indispensable book for students, teachers, journalists and anyone interested in the history of the region.

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This is the story of Maximilian Ophuls, America’s counterterrorism chief, one of the makers of the modern world; his Kashmiri Muslim driver and subsequent killer, a mysterious figure who calls himself Shalimar the clown; Max’s illegitimate daughter India; and a woman who links them, whose revelation finally explains them all. It is an epic narrative that moves from California to Kashmir, France, and England, and back to California again. Along the way, there are tales of princesses lured from their homes by demons, and legends of kings forced to defend their kingdoms against evil. And there is always love, gained and lost, uncommonly beautiful and mortally dangerous.

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In the troubled history of contemporary Kashmir, the summer of 2010 will be remembered as a watershed. Protests against the ‘encounter’ killings of civilians turned into an unprecedented display of courage, as a new generation took to the streets, their only weapons the stones in their hands. It has been called Kashmir’s intifada, marking a paradigm shift from armed militancy to mass rebellion. Significantly, this was also accompanied by a remarkable explosion in the writing on Kashmir, in a new language of ideas that bypasses the old and parochial ways in which Kashmir has been seen and understood.

The pieces in this volume voice the rage and helplessness sweeping through the Valley, while also offering rare insights into the lives of those caught in the crossfire. With contributions from journalists, academics and artists, Until My Freedom Has Come: The New Intifada in Kashmir is a timely collection of some of the most exciting writing that has recently emerged from within Kashmir, and about it.

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On a cold February night in 1991, a group of soldiers and officers of the Indian Army pushed their way into two villages in Kashmir, seeking out militants assumed to be hiding there. They pulled the men out of their homes and subjected many to torture, and the women to rape. According to village accounts, as many as 31 women were raped.

Twenty-one years later, in 2012, the rape and murder of a young medical student in Delhi galvanized a protest movement so widespread and deep that it reached all corners of the world. In Kashmir, a group of young women, all in their twenties, were inspired to re-open the Kunan-Poshpora case, revisit their history and look at what had happened to the survivors of the 1991 mass rape. Through personal accounts of their journey, this book examines questions of justice, stigma, the responsibility of the state, and of the long-term impact of trauma.

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Rumours of Spring is the unforgettable account of Farah Bashir’s adolescence spent in Srinagar in the 1990s. As Indian troops and militants battle across the cityscape and violence becomes the new normal, a young schoolgirl finds that ordinary tasks – studying for exams, walking to the bus stop, combing her hair, falling asleep – are riddled with anxiety and fear. With haunting simplicity, Farah Bashir captures moments of vitality and resilience from her girlhood amidst the increasing trauma and turmoil of passing years – secretly dancing to pop songs on banned radio stations; writing her first love letter; going to the cinema for the first time – with haunting simplicity. This deeply affecting coming-of-age memoir portrays how territorial conflict surreptitiously affects everyday lives in Kashmir.

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Blurb:

Andhar Badirar Mookar (Blind, Deaf-and-Dumb) is Ramkrishnan’s response to the Modi government’s announcement of withdrawing Kashmir’s special status and dividing the state into two union territories. In the preface, he records that Fathima Nilofer, a Kashmiri woman killed by the military forces, wrote this story sitting inside his mind. Ramakrishnan is letting Fathima tell Kashmir’s story itself, an act of subversive storytelling against the hegemonic narrative of the government in power. If you have watched and enjoyed Kashmir Files, this book is a must-read.

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Azad (Free) Jammu and Kashmir (J&K)) is that part of Kashmir within Pakistan, separated by a Line of Control from Indian territory. This book is a rarity: it offers a fresh interpretive history of the largely forgotten four million people of Azad Kashmir. The author contends that in October 1947, pro-Pakistan Muslims in southwestern J&K instigated the Kashmir dispute-not Pashtun tribesmen invading from Pakistan, as India has consistently claimed. Later called Azad Kashmiris, these people, Snedden argues, are legitimate stakeholders in an unresolved dispute. He provides comprehensive new information that critically examines Azad Kashmir’s administration, economy, political system, and subordinate relationship with Pakistan. Azad Kashmiris considered their administration to be the only legitimate government in J&K and expected that it would rule after J&K was re-unified by an UN-supervised plebiscite.

This poll has never been conducted and Azad Kashmir has effectively, if not yet legally, become a (dependent) part of Pakistan. Snedden concludes his book by assessing the various proposals to resolve Azad Kashmir’s international status and the broader Kashmir dispute.

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It’s the nineties and Kashmir is in turmoil. The tourism industry has taken a big hit and the youth are disillusioned, with no jobs or hopes for the future. In this climate, Malla Khaliq waits day after day for guests to arrive at his three beloved houseboats – Gul, Gulshan and Gulfam – on the Dal Lake and struggles to keep his three sons together. While Noor Mohammed loves his father and tries to keep the faith, despite evidence that business is on the decline, Ghulam Ahmed and Ghulam Qadir have plans that might place them in the path of danger. Meanwhile, as Khaliq prepares for his much-pampered daughter Parveen’s wedding, the sudden arrival of a mysterious American girl sets in motion events that threaten to disturb the precarious equilibrium of his household.

Gul Gulfam Gulshan paints a portrait of a Kashmir in transition and of a man who is trying to salvage the memories and values of his youth. Once a popular television series, this novelization vividly recreates the streets of Srinagar and the once-living economy of Dal lake. This is a deeply affecting story about relationships, migration, ambitions and dreams of preserving one’s homeland.

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