India, Pakistan, and the Kashmir Conflict

Abbas, Hassan.  Pakistan’s drift into extremism: Allah, the army, and America’s war on terror.  M.E. Sharpe, 2005.  275p index afp 0-7656-1496-0 , $69.95; 0765614979  pbk, $25.95. Reviewed in 2005may CHOICE.
42-5524  DS384  2004-7993 CIP

Abbas, a former Pakistani police officer and government official turned scholar, provides an absorbing and frightening insider account of Pakistan’s political development since 1947. The author attempts to explain why Pakistan has come to be what it is today by focusing attention on the critical role played by Pakistan’s military in the country’s political development; the emergence, development, and impact of jihadi groups on the country; and the negative effect of US foreign policy in the region. The book is based on published works, declassified US documents, and detailed interviews with Pakistani leaders. The author provides a fascinating account of the Byzantine political intrigues of the Pakistani establishment during the post-1977 period, a revealing account of the US role in creating jihadi groups in Pakistan that have become uncontrollable, and a vivid portrait of General Pervez Musharraf. Unless Pakistan can reach an accommodation with India over Kashmir and restore democracy, Abbas concludes, Pakistan faces a frightening future. The book will be of great interest to policy makers, scholars, and general readers who wish to understand Muslim antagonism toward the US. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels. — S. A. Kochanek, emeritus, Pennsylvania State University, University Park Campus 

Cohen, Stephen Philip.  The idea of Pakistan.  Brookings, 2004.  382p index afp 0-8157-1502-1, $32.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2005may CHOICE.
42-5528  DS376  2004-16553 CIP 

From the distinguished author of India: Emerging Power (CH, Apr’02, 39-4841) comes a lucid, penetrating, and brilliantly constructed book on the state and nation of Pakistan. Cohen (Brookings Institution), an old South Asia hand, brings to the fore all his knowledge and expertise of one of America’s most important allies in the war against terror. This thematic study traces Pakistan’s troubled history as an independent country since 1947 and explores how the country’s military, the Islamists, the democratic forces, and the perpetual rivalry with India have shaped its political, social, and economic development. In the concluding chapters, the author examines Pakistan’s possible future scenarios and argues in favor of America’s continuing engagement with that country, especially in the aftermath of the events of 9/11. This book belongs in the august company of other cognate works such as Mary Anne Weaver’s Pakistan: In the Shadow of Jihad and Afghanistan (2002), Dennis Kux’s The United States and Pakistan, 1947-2000: Disenchanted Allies (CH, Feb’02, 39-3527), and Ian Talbot’s Pakistan, A Modern History (1998). Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels. — A. Mazumdar, Miami University 

Daiya, Kavita. Violent belongings: partition, gender, and national culture in postcolonial India. Temple University, 2008. 260p bibl index afp 9781592137435, $54.50  Reviewed in 2009jan CHOICE
46-2504 PR129  CIP

In this study of violence in the modern world as represented in cultural output, Daiya (George Washington Univ.) explores one of the most violent and traumatic events in modern Indian history: the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan, bungled by the British as they abandoned their colonial enterprise.  An estimated one million people died in the violence that ensued.  As Daiya points out, the impact of that unaddressed violence continues into the present, as evidenced by the bombing of the Samjhauta Express in 2007.  Daiya’s two general aims are “to excavate the transition and transformation in cultural meanings and effects wrought by Partition and decolonization, violence, and displacement” and “to track the geneology of contemporary languages of ethnic nationalisms and belonging in South Asian communities in India, as well as in diasporas in the U.K. and North America.”  Her analysis takes up varied representations of gendered violence in Bollywood and popular fiction, then carries the analysis of gendered national identity into the diaspora and refugee displacement in the postcolonial public sphere.  Summing Up: Recommended.  Graduate and research collections. — T. S. Yamada,  California State University, Long Beach

Ganguly, Sumit.  Fearful symmetry: India-Pakistan crises in the shadow of nuclear weapons, by Sumit Ganguly and Devin T. Hagerty.  Washington, 2005.  223p bibl index 0-295-98525-9, $55.00. Reviewed in 2006jan CHOICE.
43-3046  DS450  2005-2816 CIP 

Building on prior research, Ganguly (Indiana Univ.) and Hagerty (Univ. of Maryland) present the first comprehensive analysis of the six Indo-Pakistani crises in the shadow of nuclear weapons. They argue that, despite profound mistrust and the intractable Kashmir dispute, both countries have refrained from all-out conventional war since 1984 for fear that it might escalate to the nuclear level. After analyzing the three major conventional Indo-Pakistani wars–1947-48, 1965, and 1971–the bulk of the book examines excellent, detailed case studies of the India-Pakistan crises of 1984, 1986-87, 1990, 1998, 1999, and 2001-02. The authors argue that nuclear deterrence provides the best explanation for the absence of major wars and that the Clinton administration’s strong pressure played an important role in preventing the 1999 Kargil war from developing into a major Indo-Pakistani conflict. They recognize the real danger of accidental nuclear war and recommend that the US abandon its crisis-management orientation and use its diplomatic resources to achieve a permanent solution to the Kashmir dispute. This well-researched volume would have benefited from a discussion of optimistic and pessimistic scholarly arguments about the stability of nuclear deterrence in South Asia. Readers should also consult Scott Sagan and Kenneth Waltz’s The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate Renewed (CH, Nov.’95, 33-1793). Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate and above. — M. E. Carranza, Texas A&M University–Kingsville 

Haqqani, Husain.  Pakistan: between mosque and military.  Carnegie Endowment, 2005.  395p bibl index 0-87003-223-2, $35.95; 0870032143  pbk, $17.95. Reviewed in 2006jan CHOICE.
43-3032  JQ629  2005-12396 CIP

Haqqani (Boston Univ.) investigates the deep links between the Pakistani military and the Islamists, and their impact on Pakistan’s polity. The military has been primarily responsible for the growth of radical Islamic groups, particularly since the mid-1970s. Pakistan has used these radical elements and religious nationalism both to fuel the conflict in Kashmir and Afghanistan and to isolate the moderate opposition domestically. Today, these groups have become a threat to the West and to Pakistan, and the latter has been forced to respond to their increasingly destructive influence on Pakistan’s economy, society, and international reputation and their insidious links with the military. Haqqani, a former advisor to three prime ministers and a political commentator, traces the political history of Pakistan and demonstrates how the links between the military and the Islamists developed as a result of Islamabad’s desire to maintain national unity, advance its regional ambitions, and counter India’s influence. This timely work helps in understanding the problems inherent in Pakistani politics and society, and it explains why it has been such an enigmatic ally in America’s war against terrorism. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, undergraduate, graduate, and research collections. — A. Mazumdar, Miami University 

44-7078  DS389  2006-51873 MARC 
Hussain, Zahid.  Frontline Pakistan: the struggle with militant Islam.  Columbia, 2007.  220p bibl index afp 0-231-14224-2, $24.95; 9780231142243, $24.95. Reviewed in 2007aug CHOICE.  

 Hussain is a well-known journalist who has been a correspondent for The Times of London, Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek.  Using his journalistic resources to conduct exclusive interviews with those inside the government and the military, the author clearly reveals the linkages between Pakistan’s powerful jihadi groups, the army, and intelligence services, and how these links have put a question mark on the country’s ability to play an effective role in the US war on terror.  General Musharraf’s decision to ally his country with the US has effectively brought Pakistan into direct conflict with the jihadi groups and their supporters within the Pakistani establishment.  These jihadi groups, who at one time enjoyed the patronage of the state for their role in advancing Pakistani interests in Afghanistan and Kashmir, have today become enemies of the state.  However, the task of rooting them out is by no means easy.  Hussain lucidly articulates the challenges and limitations faced by Musharraf as he deals with the threats posed by radical elements within his country, while trying to head off Western criticism regarding his perceived inconsistent support to the war on terror.  Summing Up: Highly recommended.  All readership levels. — A. Mazumdar,  Miami University

Khan, Yasmin.  The great partition: the making of India and Pakistan.  Yale, 2007.  251p bibl index afp; $30.00 9780300120783, $30.00. Reviewed in 2008feb CHOICE.
45-3347  DS480  2007-6713 CIP 

Decolonizing the British Raj in 1947–somewhat anticipated, but hardly planned–led to partition into India and Pakistan and resulted in approximately a million deaths, 10-15 million displaced persons, and thousands of rapes and abductions. The various communities of previously interwoven peoples became two geographically discreet nations divided along religious lines. They became disposed to violence as gangs and militias, supported by politicians from the Congress Party and the Muslim League, engaged in an ethnic cleansing “designed to eliminate and drive out the opposing ethnic group.” Violence thus became the means to settle land disputes and religious differences, as Muslims in India fled to Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs made their way to India across the line of partition. Khan (politics, Royall Holloway, Univ. of London) avoids adjudicating the disputes between the various contending groups to show how nationalism preceded and followed the great partition, how women and children suffered the most, and how defense spending and war continue to the present. Throughout, Khan demonstrates her skill as a historian: lively writing, careful analysis, perceptive interpretations, and an even-minded control of sources and evidence. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Most levels/libraries. — L. J. Alderink, emeritus, Concordia College 

Luce, Edward.  In spite of the gods: the strange rise of modern India.  Doubleday, 2007.  383p bibl index 0-385-51474-3, $26.00; 9780385514743, $26.00. Reviewed in 2007dec CHOICE.
45-2188  HC435  2006-14227 CIP 

Here is the best overall analysis of contemporary India to date. Luce was South Asia bureau chief for the Financial Times in New Delhi from 2001 to 2006. He has drawn on his sound understanding of Indian history and culture to produce a critical series of essays that demonstrate his keen insight into the mysteries of Indian thinking and society. Luce explores India’s “schizophrenic economy,” the pervasive nature of government bureaucracy, and the rise of the lower castes. He studies the “continuing threat of Hindu nationalism” through the growth of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (Organization of National Volunteers); its militant offspring, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Council of Hinduism); and its political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian Peoples’ Party)–all of which were significantly behind the destruction of the 16th-century Babri Masjid in 1992 and the horrific communal riots in Gujarat in 2002. Luce then analyzes the Congress Party’s “love affair with the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty,” the experience of India’s “divided Muslims,” and India’s odd relationship with the US and China. Luce predicts that India will meet its huge opportunities and challenges. “India always wins.” Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. — W. W. Reinhardt, Randolph-Macon College 

Nussbaum, Martha C.  The clash within: democracy, religious violence, and India’s future.  Belknap, Harvard, 2007.  403p bibl index afp 0-674-02482-6, $29.95; 9780674024823, $29.95. Reviewed in 2007oct CHOICE.
45-1098  DS422  2006-49715 CIP 

Horrified by the 2002 Gujarat riots–which killed 2,000 Indian Muslims, many of them raped and burned women–Nussbaum (philosophy, law, and religion, Univ. of Chicago) presents a critical study of the “Hindu Right,” which has long been an intolerant cultural and political movement. While Tagore, Gandhi, and Nehru were preaching inclusivity and pluralism, Hindu nationalists preached exclusivity and hatred of Muslims. The RSS movement, founded in 1925 and blamed for Gandhi’s 1947 assassination, organizes fascistic youth corps and fed into the BJP, the dominant political party in India from 1998 to 2004. This is a humanistic and psychological study that traces the Right’s rage to reaction against both the Muslim and British conquests of India, which humiliated and shamed Hindus. Nussbaum leaves many points unclear that would be addressed by a political scientist. How big and powerful is the Hindu Right? Where are its adherents concentrated? Are they still a serious danger to India? Could the BJP, ousted largely on economic grounds, score a rebound? Instead of the “clash of civilizations,” Nussbaum sees a clash within each culture, but her book could serve as a Huntington case study of the roots and rise of Hindutva (Hinduness). Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. — M. G. Roskin, Lycoming College 

Rahman, Mushtaqur.  Divided Kashmir: old problems, new opportunities for India, Pakistan, and the Kashmiri people.  L. Rienner, 1996.  219p bibl index afp 1-55587-589-0, $45.00.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 1996sep CHOICE.
34-0446  DS485  95-18416 CIP 

The state of Kashmir has experienced a long history of foreign dominance and a long struggle for freedom. Since 1947, when the Indian subcontinent was partitioned, India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir’s status. The ongoing civil strife and distrust fermented by various Muslim groups inside the state have further compounded the situation. The area remains at the center of a bitter custody battle between the two countries. Rahman’s book provides a comprehensive understanding of the Kashmir dispute and offers a proposal to resolve the problem. The first section deals with the evolution of the state of Kashmir, its geography, population, and economy; partition of British India; and the origin and development of the Kashmir conflict. The second section focuses on the UN and its role in dealing with the problem. The third section examines various proposals to resolve the dispute, and argues for a proposal based on the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan. Rahman has done a superb job in combining description and analysis. A welcome contribution to the literature on geopolitical struggles in South Asia. Excellent notes, chronology of events, maps, tables, figures, and appendixes. Highly recommended for undergraduate and graduate libraries with extensive holdings on South Asia. Upper-division undergraduates and above. — H. S. Jassal, SUNY College at Cortland 

Schofield, Victoria.  Kashmir in conflict: India, Pakistan and the unending war.  [Rev. 2nd ed.].  I.B. Tauris, 2003.  297p bibl index 1-86064-898-3 pbk, $18.95. Reviewed in 2003jul CHOICE.
40-6689  Orig 

For the past 50 years the world has witnessed a continuing tense conflict between Pakistan and India over the disputed territory of Kashmir. The two protagonist South Asian neighbors have fought devastating wars over this territory. The Kashmir conflict has also been the subject of continuing attention by great powers and international organizations. What makes the Kashmir issue more ominous today is the nuclearization of South Asia and the potential use of nuclear weapons in a future Indo-Pakistani war over the control of Kashmir. Although neither New Delhi nor Islamabad may wish to escalate the conflict into a nuclear confrontation, a conventional conflict over Kashmir can nevertheless spiral into a nuclear exchange. The Kashmir conflict’s deeply rooted historical, emotional, and religious overtones do not lend themselves to conventional conflict resolution methods. Schofield places contemporary problems in historical frameworks and describes in detail the genesis and development of the Indo-Pakistani conflict over Kashmir. This is a very useful and timely book for specialists and informed citizenry alike. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate courses through faculty. — N. Entessar, Spring Hill College 

© American Library Association. Contact [email protected] for permission to reproduce or redistribute.