Independent Kashmir: An Incomplete Aspiration

I ndependent Kashmir: An Incomplete Aspiration by noted author and expert Christopher Snedden touches upon a raw nerve in the discourse on Kashmir— the aspiration for independence. Snedden describes how and where exactly the idea germinated, sequentially tracing its evolution. This is Snedden’s third book on Kashmir; the first focussed on the so-called ‘Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK)’ that together with Gilgit-Baltistan forms Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The second book focused primarily on Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in India. The latest volume deliberating the question of Azadi (independence) forms Snedden’s trilogy on Kashmir. The book examines aspirations pertaining to an ‘independent Kashmir’, actual or envisaged, and why it failed to fructify. Tracing the origin of Kashmiri nationalism since 1925, the book tracks sentiments around Azadi in various phases, especially since 1947. It dwells upon a potential independent path the ruler of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) wished to chart, despite his latent ‘inertia and inabilities’ (p. 91). Snedden contends that the idea of Azadi is not new but a ‘lapsed or superseded one’ (p. 3). In this context, the book examines the paradigms of independence or Azadi from Maharaja Hari Singh’s reign to the Sheikh Abdullah era and finally in the aftermath of the onset of militancy that plagued the state. The onset of militancy is explained on a wide canvas of geopolitical developments as a chain of events that, among other things, may have propelled the violence in the Valley around 1989–90. Broadly, the book captures the contours of India’s approach towards J&K post the 1950s, a period that coincided with Sheikh Abdullah’s diminishing influence in the state’s politics. Independent Kashmir focuses on three longstanding issues that are central to Kashmir and consequently to the book’s narrative. First, Snedden refers to the Kashmir issue as the by-product of the ‘permanent India-Pakistan shibboleth’ one that concerns perpetuity of disputes, bilateral contestations and no meaningful engagement (p. 2). Second, the issue of integration which in the Indian case has been eventually completed by revocation of Article 370 in August 2019. Third, the question of disenchantment among the populace of Kashmir Valley. All the three add up to a ‘vicious cycle’, affecting the Kashmiri people at large. The author asserts, albeit as a bracketed caveat, that post-Partition, there were expectations in the Strategic Analysis, 2022 Vol. 46, No. 6, 644–646, https://doi.org/10.1080/09700161.2022.2149983