The Crisis in Kashmir: Portents of War, Hopes of Peace

This book traces the origins of the insurgency that has wracked the Indian-controlled portion (about two-thirds) of Jammu and Kashmir since 1989. The most complete, and the first theoretically grounded account, it is based on extensive interviews. Professor Ganguly's central argument is that the insurgency can be explained by the interlinked processes of political mobilisation and institutional decay. In an attempt to woo the citizens of India's only Muslim-majority state, the national government dramatically helped expand literacy, mass media, and higher education in Jammu and Kashmir. These processes produced a generation of Kashmiris who were politically knowledgeable and sophisticated. Simultaneously, the national government in New Delhi, fearful of potential secessionist proclivities amongst 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.