Abstract
Sumantra Bose begins Kashmir at the Crossroads with a disclaimer: ‘This is not a book’ he had ‘particularly wished to write’. As the preface unfolds anecdotally, Bose sets the lens to recount the ‘conflict-riven Kashmir’ he witnessed as a specialist (1994–2020) and its grim contrast to the idyllic Kashmir he visited as a child with his family (1970s). The book presents a comprehensive account of the Kashmir conflict over the past 75 years. It has been the ‘bane of the subcontinent’ and the ‘most stubborn territorial dispute between India and Pakistan since the partition of 1947’ (pp. 11–12). Bose confesses that the book is written in a dark time when a better future for the region is unbecoming.
Five chapters are arranged along a historical timeline. ‘The Dispute (1947–1989)’ undertakes a retrospective to understand the birth of the Kashmir conflict as a by-product of the partition of India and Pakistan and their tussle over the ownership of Kashmir. The political equations between successive Hindu/Sikh Maharajas with the British and their definitive impact on local Muslim populace of the region are recounted. Communal undertones accentuated the animosity and political powerlessness experienced due to repeated subjugation by non-Muslim rulers. Divergent political–religious affiliations infused every actor or stakeholder with a specific motive.
‘The Carnage (1990–2004)’ chronicles the ‘bloodiest phase’ of the protracted insurgency, which lasted 15 years. Bose contrasts between nationalism and patriotism to assert that Kashmir manifests ‘two nationalisms competing for supremacy; the state-led nationalisms of India and Pakistan and the state-seeking Kashmiri nationalism which is controlled by the Muslims of the Kashmir Valley’ (p. 64). He mixes personal observations and data to highlight how the ravages of the conflict engulfed the Valley. The illustration of the expanding Eidgah graveyard in Srinagar in the 1990s to accommodate endless burials is particularly chilling (p. 64). Official records were manipulated during this phase. Reports of casualties from insurgency-related violence did not include the number of ‘disappeared persons’. The Kargil War, resumption and failure of diplomacy between India–Pakistan, rising US stakes in the Kashmir crisis, ascendance of the People’s Democratic Party in J&K, active operations of terrorist groups and the attack on the Indian Parliament are extensively discussed. The fidayeen operations of early 2000 are described to critically highlight the erosion of trust between the people and police.
In ‘The Stone Pelters (2005–2019)’, Bose believes that the driving force of the Kashmir conflict has been the ‘permanent state of exception’ regime (following Giorgio Agamben) in Indian J&K, with draconian laws in the Kashmir Valley. The stone pelting uprising in the Valley (2010 and 2016), the Uri attacks of 2016 and the failure of the 2005 Indo–Pakistan peace processes due to the terrorist attack on Mumbai in November 2008 are narrated. Bose feels that hard stances on the Line of Control have caused a major roadblock for India and Pakistan. A credible 2009 opinion survey is quoted where a vast majority in the Kashmir Valley and almost half the people in Pakistan’s Azad Kashmir expressed the abolition of the LoC altogether to enable a united, independent state of J&K. He rings clear the sentiment of the people to safeguard their ‘Kashmiri identity’ from the rest of India. The active entry of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in J&K during the Amarnath protests, which in turn emboldened renegade militants like Jam’at-i-Islami are discussed (pp. 152–153). Due to India’s strikes at Balakot and Pakistan’s counterattacks at Rajouri (p. 191), Modi got the leverage to escalate the Hindutva rhetoric and ‘flex some military muscle for the general election of April–May 2019’ (p. 191).
‘The Hindu Nationalist Offensive’ specifies no timeline, possibly to imply the continuing situation. Bose begins by drawing comparisons between India under Modi and China’s authoritarian system. He squarely blames the Modi–Amit Shah duo for having retuned Kashmir’s official policy with the sheer radicalism of Hindutva. For Bose, it is not the ‘burial’ of Article 370 which is disturbing; it is the erasure of J&K’s statehood along with the removal of Article 35A and the unilateral redrawing of the map splitting the state into two Union Territories that has ‘inaugurated a new phase in the history of the Kashmir dispute’ (p. 199). The persecution of journalists, large-scale detentions, lockdown of communication and vigilant monitoring of restricted media are discussed in-depth. The waning mandate of the people is illustrated by the District Development Council elections of November 2020, where the independent candidates of the Kashmir Valley won the single-largest share of the total votes polled.
‘The 21st-Century Conflict’ examines the international context. Tracing the history of the border with China, Bose discusses how in 2020, the Line of Actual Control to the east turned confrontational. Since then, ‘China has moved from lurking in the background to looming in the foreground’ (p. 269). The conflict has now become explicitly trilateral: India–Pakistan–China and makes for a ‘highly flammable’ situation (p. 270). Modi has made a conscious attempt to render the conflict ‘quadrilateral’ by trying to get the United States to endorse his Kashmir policy.
Despite the changing times, Bose reasserts his solutions provided in his earlier publication Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace; a soft border between the ‘two Kashmirs’ (India and Pakistan), self-governing entities and recognition of pro-independence sections of the population on both sides of the border—‘khudmukhtari’ (Bose, 2003). The three-pronged conflict resolution framework of the case of Northern Ireland treaty/settlement is also instructive for Kashmir. Without a peace process, Bose ominously predicts that the tinderbox-like situation prevailing in the Valley could flare up with the slightest spark of protests. This is the ‘crossroads for the Kashmir Valley’, a current ‘freeze mode’ (p. 279) from where people are likely to turn around and initiate escalation of protests.
The book is a primer for scholars foraying into the Kashmir conundrum. It is resourceful for experts who wish to dissect the current dynamics of the crisis, especially the linkage of Kashmir with Sino–India confrontations. Bose aces the work with his decades of specialisation and personal compassion for the region. He delivers his promise to provide a view from the grassroots to bring the human story of Kashmir into central focus. But few points of critique cannot be excused. Structurally, the historical details crammed into the book seem overwhelming at times. A wider range of sub-sections could have flagged the episodes more neatly. The narrative tends to move back and forth, which compromises the flow of the book. There are no summarisations at the end of chapters, which diffuse the arguments considerably. Theoretically, Bose uses the term ‘state’ far too over- archingly, which is problematic for the Kashmir crisis. The book had the scope to sharply differentiate between the role of the state, regimes and government in Kashmir, but Bose overlooks that. He makes no attempt to touch upon the defence spun by the ruling government since 2019, like ‘normalcy and peace returning to the region’. The sombre account contains no prelude to explain current developments like India peacefully hosting the G-20 tourism summit in Kashmir albeit with beefed up security and invisible policing. But what does ring true is his expert observation that Union Territories are a residual feature of India’s political architecture. Bose leaves us to bitterly ruminate about how the creation of the structurally and institutionally weaker union territory could possibly satiate the decades-old Kashmiri cry for their ‘azadi’.