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BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS
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![]() Kashmir- contested identity by Dr. Ashok Kaul ![]() |
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Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Rawat Publications (June 28, 2011) Language: English ISBN-10: 8131604365 ISBN-13: 978-813160436 The book unfolds the subjectivity of estrangement in the consensus social history of Kashmir. In a derivative discourse, it traces the origins of its contemporary cultural assemblage, its rupture and then loss of nativity with the history of subjugations. The Quit Kashmir Movement, prompted by the National Movement, was an assertion to regain the nativity after centuries in a secular, democratic India. Since independence came with the fragmentation of culture, it turned into a binary hostility with Pakistan. The Cold War polemics mystified Kashmir with illusions and mythical referents that did not allow institutions to strike roots. The wash off effects of development produced a new rich class, which sought legitimacy in power and share in resources through disempowerment of politics. Prompted by the process of excessive democratization, it set its agenda on confessional referent. And, with the demise of the Cold War, Kashmir got linked with the Counter World Order Project bringing enormous loss of human lives, exodus of minority community and further fragmentation of its society. In post-September 11 world order, the disillusionments in flawed leadership have brought ailment to its society with fractured nativity. The author treats Kashmir ailment beyond politics of identity and a political dispute between India and Pakistan. Its estrangement is historical in nature and needs remedies not in compartmentalization of confessional religion but evolutionary cultural capital resurgence through empowerment of politics in a holistic paradigm. |
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Book Review by Bilhan Kaul: |
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It is good to see yet another book on Kashmir by a Kashmiri Pandit. Prof.Ashok koul of B.H.U. has produced eminently readable book “ Kashmir a contested Identity.
The book is scholarly though clichéd at times.For Instance,Dr.Kaul accepts Mughal intrusion in Kashmir as loss of independence of Kashmiris .Actually it had happened earlier when foreigners converted Kashmiris .one ought not to put conversion as a small matter . Dr. Ashok Kaul explains the demise of Buddhism in Kashmir as intellectual superiority of Brahmans. Actually, Buddhism with its nihilistic and no hopes philosophy had common masses ducking for cover. After all, belief and support from God was important in the life cycle of a commoner. Dr.Ashok Kaul further connects the loss of nativity of Kashmir’s with emergence of Lal Ded who according to the author understood the developments. But it is not proper to view number one poet of Kashmir as some Sociological miracle .In middle ages with illiteracy and hunger rampant and lack of scientific developments had left most people handicapped. And Lal Ded was not immune to those developments. Her vaakhs suggests she was little too much immersed in herself and understood like others foreign and local very little. In fact, the person who stood at the cusp of political changes going on in the valley was Nund Reshi. Nund Reshi ,as he is popularly referred as was a neo convert. And like other neo converts thronged to him in numbers. It was a sort of local solidarity. That is why term Kashmiriyat is popularly connected with Nund Reshi. In the chapter loss of nativity Dr.Ashok Kaul gives Marxist touch to the rise of Habba Khatoon.Actually,she was talented girl who become a queen later on . And like all good poets she understood what is germane to human condition like love, beauty, pain, separation and loss. Dr.Ashok Kaul depicts the rise of Sheikh Abdullah in detail. One must say it is generally a favorable description. Sheikh was one person who understood the concept of nativity very well . This led him to back Pt.Nehru much to the annoyance of communalists who expected him to side with Jinnah.That he mixed religion with politics was a compulsion. In the nine chapters of the book the last chapter Totalizing History, contested Discourse is an interesting one. It has several gems and nine cases are cited to point out fractured society.Surprisingly,Dr.Ashok Kaul has mentioned flight of Kashmiri Pandits but no detailed study is offered .In it very valuable term Kashmiriyat is described. Dr.Ashok Kaul is fairly close in giving accurate definition of the much abused and misused term.Infact,one of his fellow sociologists gives all reason not to define it. In the end one must say Dr.Ashok Kaul has produced scholarly book with several impressive insights. One may not agree with all the arguments given but in writing about book on nativity, History and contested political discourse it is very tough is highlight single dominant truth. Because several truths are interlapped, hidden and one set of truth appears more important to one section to the disappointment of another. |
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About the author: |
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Ashok Kumar Kaul is Professor of Sociology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. He has over thirty years of teaching and research experience at a number of universities in India and abroad.
Prof. Kaul was postdoctoral fellow at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria (1991-92), and the Department of Sociology University of Alberta, Edmonton (1993-94), and has been Visiting Faculty at the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi (2002), CSS, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (2005) and also at the University of Jammu. He is actively involved in academic assignments and is from time to time invited for special lectures and public discourse both in India and abroad. His specialization includes Social Theory and Modernization. He has published two books and produced more than fifty papers. . |
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About the reviewer: |
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![]() The writer has written extensively on forced conversion and believes it to be the root cause of the conflict in Kashmir. A Central Government Employee presently lives in Janipur, Jammu (India). |
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