1st Edition

‘Be Clear Kashmir will Vote for India’ Jammu & Kashmir 1947-1953 Reporting the Contemporary Understanding of the Unreported

By Raghuvendra Tanwar Copyright 2019
    328 Pages
    by Routledge

    308 Pages 38 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The central point that this volume makes is that much of what happened in Jammu & Kashmir in the critical first few years (1947-53) needs a more careful reassessment. It is argued that there were little voices of ordinary people that should have been heard but were ignored. The political discourse that took centre stage even as it appeared more assertive and representative of mass public opinion was, however, as is now clear only a clever and misleading political move.
    Much of the source material upon which the author has based his study has till now remained unstudied and uncited – rare hard to find books, pamphlets, articles in journals, magazines and newspapers, official and party reports and so on. The volume takes the reader back in time to a kind of ring side seat. Kashmir’s cultural and historical legacy, the invasion, the issue of the plebiscite, the United Nations and the ceasefire, the Praja Parishad and most important of all the political scene and its key players – Prime Minister Nehru, Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Sheikh Abdullah. Based on the nature of its sources the volume breaks free of a stereotyped approach to understanding the origin of what we commonly term today as the ‘Kashmir problem’.
    The volume argues that contemporary views recorded as they are in the heat of the moment with natural spontaneity often contain hidden lines and new light. Not surprisingly contemporary versions tell us a story very different from mainstream conventional writings on Jammu & Kashmir. This timely volume will radically influence the existing discourse on Jammu & Kashmir.



    Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

    Introduction 1. Jammu & Kashmir: A Historical Perspective – Religion Culture and Tradition 47 2. The Invasion of  Jammu & Kashmir: Public Opinion Turns Anti-Pakistan 3. Nehru Puts Abdullah  Incharge: Beginning of the Political Whirlpool 4. ‘Pilgrimage of Hindustan to  Lake Success (UN) the Hotbed of International Intrigue’: Nehru sees Kashmir as a World Problem 5. ‘Accession Still in the Melting Pot’ The Praja Parishad: Nehru-Mookerjee and Abdullah 6. The Dismissal of Sheikh Abdullah Pakistan Prime Minister Meets Nehru: Talk of Plebescite and Partition of Kashmir  7. Conclusion

    Biography

    Raghuvendra Tanwar has taught modern history at Kurukshetra University for thirty-nine years, superannuating as Senior Professor in 2015. He has been the University’s Dean Academic Affairs and Dean Social Sciences.