Book Review [129] : Kashmir - The unwritten history

Every civilization has a love that warms its heart, for India it is Kashmir. There are large number of books available on Kashmir crisis and i have had read many - The Meadow, War and Diplomacy in Kashmir (1947-48) etc. 'Kashmir : The unwritten history' by Christopher Snedden claims that his history of Kashmir is the unwritten history. This book implicates India and erstwhile Maharaja of Kashmir Hari Singh for falsely accusing the Pakhtuns for invading Kashmir and ignoring the uprising of Poonchi Muslims against the 'repressive' regime of Maharaja. 

This book blames highly polarized communal environment in Jammu province, in the midst of bloody partition of India, for the Kashmir crisis. The author accuses Maharaja of Kashmir for carrying out or passively supporting the massacre of Muslims in eastern part of Jammu province but he does not give any evidence for this alleged massacre. According to him and his political sources more than 200,000 Muslims were killed in eastern part of Jammu. He also accepts that non-Muslims were also killed in western part of Jammu in equal numbers - in region around Poonch, Mirpur etc, and there are more than solid proofs about this massacre. Hindu and Sikh Men were killed and their women were taken as booties and sold in the market for few hundred rupees. The best proof lies in the current demographic profile of these regions. Eastern Jammu and the PoK have absolutely negligible non-Muslims while western Jammu (or the Jammu Province) of India has more than 25% Muslims.
The author gives in details the demographic profile of Jammu province as per the 1941 census. Muslims in Jammu (that included Poonch, Mirpur etc) were about 61% and were about 77% of the total population of Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu was the largest province in terms of population in 1941. The alleged 'repressive' regime of Maharaja as well as the pro Pakistan sentiments were the main reasons behind the uprising of Poonchi Muslims against the Maharaja regime. This uprising began in Sept 1947 and it declared the formation of Azad Kashmir government on 24th Oct 1947. The Pakhtun raiders started their invasion of Kashmir on 22nd Oct and by 26th Oct Kashmir was in precarious situation. The state forces were poorly equipped and thinly stretched to defend Kashmir and were fighting a losing battle. In the end Maharaja signed the Instrument of Accession on 26th October and Indian forces started their movement on 27th Oct and this checked the progress of the raiders. Had India not gone to United Nations our forces would have certainly liberated the entire PoK. The author accuses India for unfairly accusing the raiders and ignoring totally the uprising led by the natives of Kashmir.
After this the book talks in detail about the politics of Azad Kashmir and its government. Till 1970 it did not have even proto autonomy, the 1970 Act gave this region a kind of legislative assembly and a President. Despite of all the political experiments this region never experienced the kind of democracy its Indian counter part experiences.
This book is full of repetitions and redundancies and Author has failed to do justice with the topic. Its a good read only for Pakistani propagandists and their supporters in India. For an Indian this book should be used as an important tool in the arsenal to counter any Pakistan propaganda.
Recommended (6/10)