This book traces the origins, and provides the most complete account, of the insurgency that has racked the Indian-controlled portion (about two-thirds) of Jammu and Kashmir since 1989. The first theoretically grounded account, it is based on extensive interviews with government officials, Kashmiri activists, journalists, members of nongovernmental organizations, and military personnel in India, Pakistan, and the United States. Ganguly's central argument is that the insurgency can be explained by the linked processes of political mobilization and institutional decay. In an attempt to woo the citizens of India's only Muslim-majority state, the national government in New Delhi dramatically helped expand literacy, mass media, and higher education in Jammu and Kashmir. These processes produced a generation of politically knowledgeable and sophisticated Kashmiris. Simultaneously, the national government, fearful of potential secessionist proclivities among the Kashmiris, systematically stultified the development of political institutions in the state. Unable to express dissent in an institutional context, this new generation of Kashmiris resorted to violence.
Industry Reviews
'Scholarly discourse on Kashmir is mostly confined to two broad schools of thought: one favours the Indian-held Muslim majority province's goal of secession from India, while the other confronts the issue of secessionism and its legality, with the aim, very often, of providing support for the purpose of keeping Kashmir in the Indian federation. umit Ganguly's Crisis in Kashmir is a welcome departure from the dual approach to the problem. ... The core of the book is a balanced picture of the ongoing Kashmiri uprising since the late 1980s. What I found especially interesting is the chapter on strategies and Options for Resolving the Crisis. Ganguly's book is also noteworthy for the inclusion in the appendix of four important documents that have shaped the history of modern Kashmir.' Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 'This volume represents social science at its best.' Foreign Affairs 'The conflict in Kashmir ... has precipitated two interstate wars and retains the potential to be the cause of another - this time between a nuclear-armed Pakistan and India. umit Ganguly's brief study provides a dispassionate examination of the conflict.' Current History 'Ganguly's book is a cool, controlled survey of Kashmir's recent political history, expressed in the vocabulary of political mobilization theory, followed by a review of feasible solutions.' Times Higher Education Supplement 'Essential for India specialists, political scientists, ethnicists, international theorists, and all levels of students, it can also be appreciated by general readers.' Choice ' umit Ganguly has produced the fullest account yet of the causes and character of the Kashmir rebellion on the 1990s. Without dogma or predisposition, his analysis illuminates the sources and structure of a neglected, dangerous conflict.' Washington Post
