Abstract
The state of Jammu and Kashmir has been the focus of an enduring rivalry between India and Pakistan. Both states consider Kashmir as part of their sovereign territory, marking it as a perceptual ‘territory of desire’. For India, Kashmir is an integral part of its territory and a symbol of secular nationalism. However, for Pakistan, the Kashmir issue is an unfinished agenda of the Partition as Pakistan continues to perceive itself as an incomplete Muslim state without the accession of Kashmir to its territorial boundaries (Mehdi, 2020).
In the huge corpus of literature on Kashmir, ideas of territoriality, state sovereignty and national security have dominated the discourse on conflict. Most scholarship views the Kashmir issue through the prism of Indian and Pakistani claims on the state, and its status as integral to the nation’s security, thus turning a political issue into a national security issue (Ganguly, 2016). Another strand of scholarship, mostly by political scientists, has focused on the Kashmiri right of self-determination and has placed it within the framework of United Nations resolutions, which limited the Kashmiri’s right of self-determination to join either India or Pakistan (Behera, 2000). Although recent scholarship led by anthropologists has documented how violence, both state- and insurgent-sponsored, has complicated the meaning of freedom for Kashmiris (Robinson, 2013), no serious attempt has been made to historicise the idea of freedom and place it within the context of Kashmir’s social-political culture and popular discourse. In this backdrop, Shahla Hussain’s book Kashmir in the Aftermath of Partition is a significant contribution in placing Kashmir and Kashmiris at the centre of the historical debate, complicating the meaning of Kashmiri identity and, more importantly, bringing to the fore Kashmir’s multiple imaginings of freedom (p. 3). The core of this book is a close examination of the shifting postcolonial meanings of ‘freedom’ (p. 4) and an in-depth analysis of the political history of the term.
The book has six chapters, which are organised chronologically and thematically. The first chapter examines Kashmiri understandings of freedom in a historical context, highlighting how Kashmiris engaged with ideas of freedom for political mobilisation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The second chapter addresses the themes of identity, belonging and loyalty in the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in the aftermath of the feud over Kashmir between India and Pakistan, which artificially divided Kashmir and dragged its people into an international dispute. Drawing on popular Kashmiri discourse, the chapter addresses resentment over the way in which the promise of freedom actually unfolded in the region. In the third chapter, the author examines the political economy of the Kashmiri resistance from 1953 to the 1980s, probing how India’s development policies created a class of collaborators who transformed Kashmir’s political processes and social structures. The fourth chapter examines the resistance discourse fashioned by activists from diverse political leanings, especially that of the Plebiscite Front, which sought to mobilise the excluded Muslim majority against the Indian state’s control over Kashmir. In the fifth chapter, the author shifts her attention to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and examines inter-regional connections across the ceasefire line as well as the transnational relationship between the POK and the Kashmir valley. The last chapter unravels the role of Islam in Kashmiri resistance and explores the significance of religious identity and symbolism in Kashmiri Muslim protests, while placing the articulation of an Islamist ideology by certain political groups in the context of Kashmiri disillusionment with their political elites and the globalisation of Islam.
Freedom was an essential component of the sociocultural discourse in Kashmir during the pre-colonial and colonial periods. There was never a single idea of freedom, but rather there were multiple meanings associated with freedom (Mehdi, 2021). Moreover, ‘the schisms within and between communities and classes complicated the Kashmiri discourse on freedom’ (p. 10). During the Dogra regime in the 1930s, the discourse on freedom in Kashmir was based on the principles of socialism. The economic emancipation of the landless peasantry and the working class was predominantly understood as freedom. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, then, a prominent leader of Kashmir, saw the terrible plight of the people in the Valley and started mobilising people against the oppressive Dogra rule. Moreover, in the late 1930s the traditions of Sufism in Kashmir were linked by the National Conference (NC), particularly Sheikh Abdullah with an idea of freedom based on ethics, humanism and brotherhood. During this period, as the author pertinently highlights, Kashmiris equated freedom with the concept of insaaf, or justice, the equitable distribution of resources for material development so that the disadvantaged were not mired in poverty; haq, or rights, meaning that rulers should practice political ethics and be accountable to the people; and izzat, or human dignity (p. 10). Throughout the twentieth century, these terms dominated popular discourses on freedom as Kashmiris envisioned a society where they would not have to undergo humiliation at the hands of the ruling power. This book shows that these ideas gained significance in the postcolonial era as self-determination moved from fantasy to a real possibility with the United Nations–mandated plebiscite, and informed popular resistance in the region (p. 10). But after the end of the Dogra rule, the conception of freedom changed. NC decided to join India in the hope that India would allow Kashmir to retain its autonomous status. But with the involvement of Pakistan in Kashmir’s politics, India had to intervene and shrink the space for Pakistan loyalists who were creating trouble in Kashmir. This gave rise to a section of people within the society whose idea of freedom was driven by anti-Indian sentiments (p. 311). Moreover, as the author maintains, Kashmiri imaginings of freedom in global arenas, especially during the eventful decades of the 1960s and the 1970s, drew inspiration from anticolonial struggles across Africa, Asia and Latin America that created transnational solidarity and conjured up new imaginaries of social justice, economic equity and political freedom. These powerful ideas inspired transnational activists from POK in Britain as they attempted to redefine the conflict while navigating the pressures of living on the margins of their host society. The British Kashmiri transnational community constructed its political claims in the image of the twentieth century’s worldwide political movements for self-determination (p. 281), placing the debate over Kashmir’s freedom within an ‘anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist framework’ (p. 13).
Though the book is well written and provides valuable insights, there are a few issues that have not been adequately addressed. The author gives a comprehensive understanding of the political history of freedom in Kashmir, but she doesn’t mention anything about the multiple visions of freedom envisaged by different communities in Kashmir. The idea of freedom envisaged by the Shias, Pandits and other minority communities has not always been the same as that of the majority community (Hussain & Mehdi, 2021). This analysis about the multiple imaginings of freedom as envisaged by the different communities in Kashmir is completely missing in the book.
Nonetheless, Shahla Hussain’s book Kashmir in the Aftermath of Partition is a valuable addition to the literature on understanding the political history of freedom in Kashmir. This book is a good starting point for anyone who wants to ruminate beyond nationalist agendas and understand Kashmir from a deeper perspective. Overall, this book has made a substantial contribution in placing both POK and Kashmir’s idea of freedom in the struggle for right to self-determination in the world.