Colonizing Kashmir: State-building under Indian Occupation

The book "Making Kashmir Integral to India: Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad's State-Building Policies and the Emotional Integration of a Disputed Region" by Hafsa Kanjwal examines how Kashmir was made integral to India through the rule of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad from 1953-1963. It explores the intentions, tensions, and unintended consequences of his policies, highlighting inter-religious tension, corruption, and political repression. Kanjwal challenges triumphalist narratives and sovereignty claims, urging us to question the new hierarchies of power and domination that emerged in the aftermath of decolonization.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 384 pages
Publication date: 25 July 2023
Publisher: Stanford University Press

The Indian government, often hailed as the world's largest democracy, asserts that Jammu and Kashmir, its sole Muslim-majority state, is an integral part of India. The region, which is disputed between India and Pakistan and is widely recognized as the most militarized zone globally, has been under Indian occupation for over seventy-five years. In her book, Hafsa Kanjwal delves into the historical process through which Kashmir became integral to India. Drawing upon a diverse range of bureaucratic documents, propaganda materials, memoirs, literary sources, and oral interviews conducted in English, Urdu, and Kashmiri, Kanjwal examines the intentions, tensions, and unintended consequences of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad's rule, the second Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, during the decade from 1953 to 1963. By contextualizing these policies within India's colonial occupation, Kanjwal sheds light on the strategies employed by the Kashmir government to integrate Kashmir's Muslim population while simultaneously navigating the complexities of inter-religious tension, corruption, and political repression. Challenging the conventional binaries of colonialism and postcolonialism, Kanjwal historicizes India's occupation of Kashmir by exploring processes of emotional integration, development, normalization, and empowerment. Through this lens, she highlights the emergence of new power hierarchies and dominance that followed decolonization. Kanjwal's book urges readers to critically interrogate triumphalist narratives of India's state-formation and the sovereignty claims of the modern nation-state. By doing so, she encourages us to explore the complex and multifaceted history of Kashmir and its ongoing struggle for self-determination.

Weight: 572g
Dimension: 150 x 229 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781503636033