Mahadeep Singh Jamwal
“Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light” – Vera Nazarian, an American writer and “Great books help you understand, and they help you feel understood” – John Green, the New York Times bestselling author.
Inspired with these great quotes, when I bumped into information center of books written by varied writers concerning Kashmir, a troubled state, it became difficult to lay my hands on the most genuine book depicting the real facts based on the negativity and positivity factors. As Kashmir never remained out of the news cycle, the region is also a perennial favorite with publishers. Scores of books have been written on its fractious history, geography, politics and society, but few have moved readers as much, for better or for worse, as personal memoirs. According to the ‘Nilmat Purana’, the land of Kashmir was occupied by a vast lake called “Satisara”.
Modern geological observations have supported this legendary view. Among the epics, we find the name of “Kashmir” in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The Mahabharata refers in several passages to “Kashmir” and their king, but in a way which merely indicates that the valley was situated in the hilly regions to the north of India.
Kalhana’s Rajtarangini is a very important historical document. For the historical geography of Kashmir it is the mass of incidental references of topographical interest scattered throughout his work. A number of references made by Kalhana regarding the origin of towns, cities, villages, estates and shrines are also of topographical importance.
Though the list of must-read books on Kashmir is long and illustrious, the reference of few of the books will end the journey of those looking for the best books about the Kashmir perspective.
1. The Rage of the Vulture (1948) by Alan Moorehead, of all the fictional accounts of Kashmir in 1947, this little known novel by Alan Moorehead has the ‘greatest’ historical interest.
2. Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir by Mridu Rai. The book’s central claim is that Dogra rule in Kashmir was a veritable Hindu rule over Muslim. This book explicates one of the darkest chapters of Kashmiri history.
3. Territory of Desire: Representing the Valley of Kashmir by Ananya Jahanara Kabir is a nuanced study of literary, historian and cinematic representations of Kashmir. It addresses this aspect of the dispute.
4. The Indian Ideology by Perry Anderson, originally published as three essays in the London Review of Books, as a critique of an India advertised as a secular democracy but given by religious violence and caste divisions. The book triggered a counter-attack in the form of ‘The Indian Ideology: Three responses to Perry Anderson’ by Partha Chatterjee, Sudipta Kaviraj and Nivedita Menon, and many other articles. It has an enlightening segment on Kashmir and places the troubled Valley in its proper historical perspective.
5. My Frozen turbulence in Kashmir (1991) by Jagmohan is a scholarly work which has some authentic, rare, inside information. It is a highly fascinating book which analyses, in the perspective of history, the tumultuous events of the author’s two terms of governorship of the most sensitive and strategic Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir.
6. Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years by A S Dulat (Former chief of the Research & Analysis Wing) with Aditya Sinha, exposes, in depth, the compromising positions of the who’s who of diplomacy putting Kashmir at stake. Strikingly different from all of the books, this is a must-read perspective on Kashmiri politics by a man who had a ringside view of it. Full of explosive revelations, the book is flooded with purported revelations about militants, separatists and some pro-India politicians of Kashmir. The book reveal that Indian intelligence agencies regularly pay terrorists, Hurriyat leaders and mainstream Jammu and Kashmir political parties. The memoir is a goldmine of startling revelations.
7. A Long Dream of Home – The Persecution, Exodus and Exile of Kashmiri Pandits, edited by Siddharth Gigoo and Varad Sharma is a collection of personal narratives that commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Pundit exodus from Kashmir. This book includes photographs of life in camps and accounts of persecution that have not appeared before. It is memoirs of a cross-section of the Pandit community include voices from across four generations.
8. The Garden of Solitude (2011) by Siddhartha Gigoo, a poignant tale of a Kashmiri Pandit family driven away from the Valley in the wake of armed insurgency and political turmoil.
9. Our Moon has Blood clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits by Rahul Pandita. Pandita a character in the book was a boy of fourteen when members of his community, the Kashmiri Pandits, were driven out of the valley by the separatists. This is a heartrending testimony of the aggression faced by the minority Hindus in a region resounding with the cry for ‘Azadi’. Narrated while the media and others have (rightly) focused on human rights abuses of the Kashmiri Muslims, the tragedy was that the media and commentators failed to highlight the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits when they were being killed and driven out by the thousands.
10. Until My Freedom Has Come, edited by Sanjay Kak, it narrates the uprising of 2010 in Kashmir; there was a voluminous output of writings in newspapers and other media. This collection includes short fiction, reportage, essays, news reports, interviews. Most of the writers featured are Kashmiris, which gives the pieces a voice that is missing in most writings on Kashmir.
11. Kashmir in Conflict: India, Pakistan and the Unfinished War by Victoria Schofield, an expanded version of her widely acclaimed Kashmir in the crossfire, which was published when insurgency in Kashmir had reached its peak in 1996. This book is regarded as one of the best general introductions to the Kashmir issue. In the revised version, Schofield explains how Kashmir is increasingly becoming irresolvable.
12. Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie is a love story. The story portrays the paradise that once was Kashmir, and how the politics of the sub-continent ripped apart the lives of those caught in the middle of the battleground.
13. Shadows beyond the Ghost Town (2014) by Shafi Ahmad narrates about the youth who returned from across the border is in direct confrontation with the armed forces. The citadel of pro-India political leadership has crumbled and the civilian governance is like ricks spread in various places unable to wield any authority.
14. Half Mother (2014) by Shahnaaz Bashir narrates a sorrowful journey of a Kashmiri mother looking for her lost son through the valleys. This well-written novel documents the tragedy which has befallen many families in Kashmir and about which not much is known outside the region.
15. Lost in Terror (2016) by Nayeema Mehjoor is a narration in the background of the uprising against the armed forces in Kashmir in the late 1980s, Lost in Terror is the tale of a young, educated, career-conscious woman who finds herself sucked into a maelstrom of death and destruction.
16. Leaves from Kashmir (2017) by Saba Shafi, narrate the trajectory of a young woman’s journey from her native land- Kashmir to Delhi, in a story, where prose and poetry intermingle in a lyrical, sensual dance. A moving allegorical account of the struggles, she faces as she grapples with the diverse shades of life, death, home, exile, love and longing.
17. Half Widow by Shafi Ahmad is an important addition to the handful of historical fiction novels that have portrayed the troublesome lives, in recent times, of the residents in the picturesque state of J&K. The story lines of the frustrated students provide an insight into the uprising, and their crossing the LoC into Pakistan to train in military camps.