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India and Pakistan -- Continued Conflict or Cooperation by Stanley Wolpert is an excellent account of the complex relationship that the two South Asian countries share. The book extensively deals with the issues that have bedevilled the relationship between India and Pakistan since their inception particularly focusing on Kashmir which is indeed the root cause of continued tension. Besides tracing the ancient history and the advent of different religions like Islam and Sikhism in the region the book begins with discussing partition and Lord Mounbattens agitation with the constant squabbling between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League that culminated into him urging the British Prime Minister to advance Britains withdrawal from India by a year. In less than ten weeks Cyril Radcliffe equipped with only a cursory understanding of the region hastily presided over the partition of Indias two largest multicultural provinces Punjab and Bengal.
The author discusses the factors that ultimately led Mountbatten to pressurise Radcliffe to award the Gurdaspur district of Punjab to India thus granting the country direct access to Kashmir. Similarly the Muslim majority district of Ferozepur was strategically included in India on the insistence of Lord Mountbatten. The Partition of India was followed by intense violence and bloodshed that left a permanent scar on both nations; a wound so deep that even today they have not been able to overcome their hatred and mistrust for each other.
In the following chapter the author goes back to 1148 C.E. when Kashmir was first mentioned in texts and traces the different phases of political development that the Valley underwent. A symbol of peace the Kashmiri industry of rug making shawl weaving and woodcarving was hailed the world over. However the decline of the Mughal Empire ultimately brought Kashmir under the rule of the Sikh Maharajas and Dogra Rajputs. During partition the fate of Kashmir was left to Maharaja Hari Singh who initially wished to keep Jammu and Kashmir independent. As tensions between Kashmiri peasants and their Hindu landlords escalated Muslims fled to Pakistan where the tribal Pathans inflamed at the plight of their Kashmiri brothers took it upon themselves to liberate Kashmir thus sparking the first war between India and Pakistan.
The writer provides a detailed account of the subsequent...