Conflict Unending

Rating:
Summary: Not worth it
Review: A rather disappointing book.Mr Ganguly is unable to overcome his bias against Pakistan, and repeatedly harps on India's perceived military superiority over Pakistan.A good book on the issue of Kashmir is difficult to find. Victoria Schofield's Kashmir in Conflict is a good book,but some say that her friendship with Pakistan's former Prime minister Benazir Bhutto makes her a biased writer.Overall,Mr Ganguly has been unable to contain his patriotism while writing this book.I would not recommend this book to first time readers on the Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan.

Rating:
Summary: A very accurate description
Review: A very good potrayal of the Kashmir problem. The book does away with all political correctedness of assuming a false position of neutrality on all issues between the two neighboring countries, India and Pakistan, and reports factually, and as accurately as possible. I barely understood the problem before reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: A Superb India-Pakistan Primer
Review: Ganguly provides a valuable service with this book, an accessible, easy to read historical account and observation of India-Pakistan relations, in the context of their frequent wars and crises since 1947. Credit goes to Ganguly for making a no-nonsense call on the source of most of the intransigence and crisis, Pakistan. The reasons are numerous and different depending on the crisis at hand, and the discussions extensive (yet easy to follow), but Ganguly lays most of the blame for the ongoing problems between India and Pakistan at Pakistan's feet, more specifically at the feet of its arrogant, immature, and impetuous armed forces. India certainly is not without blame both for creating and exacerbating tension with Pakistan, and Ganguly highlights this when required.

This is an excellent primer on India-Pakistan relations, tensions, and warfare since their mutual 1947 independence. Ganguly discusses (by chapter) the 1947 war of independence/Partition (The First Kashmir War), the 1965 Second Kashmir War, the 1971Bangladesh War, and the Kargil Crisis/War of 1999. He includes two very useful chapters on the seemingly unending relationship of crisis between India and Pakistan and the recently public nuclear dimension of the relationship. This 2001 edition concludes shortly after 9/11/01 and its unfolding consequences, with some short personal observations and minor assessment from Ganguly, but does not benefit from a detailed analytical exploration of how the 9/11 attacks and their international political aftermath will affect the India-Pakistan situation.

The presentation of this extremely complex relationship is straightforward and simple, at least as simple as it can be presented and still retain the key aspects of the history. Ganguly's narrative proceeds quickly, is easy to read and follow, and only briefly (in the introduction mainly) does he stray into dogmatic academic language. His simplification and logical, flowing delivery of this complex subject is a major accomplishment in itself. This is not to say that this is a dumbed-down history of India-Pakistan relations, not in the least. His abundant citations illustrate his depth of knowledge on this subject, and serve as ample sources of information and reference for those who wish to pursue individual issues further.

Throughout the book Ganguly makes a logical and very clear argument that almost all of the bases for Pakistan's continued intransigence on Jammu and Kashmir, hence virtually all of the reasons for Indian and Pakistani animosity have ceased to exist. Pakistan's assumed mandate of foundation, as a homeland for South Asian Islam, has lost its legitimacy through the various crises in Jammu and Kashmir and their outcomes, and due to the "loss" of Bangladesh in 1971. Sadly, the outlook for tension between the two is not good, as Pakistan has come to rely increasingly on Muslim nationalism and its attendant creeping fundamentalism in order to bolster its essentially hollow claims to Jammu and Kashmir.

The extremely useful citations are in the form of chapter end notes, and reflect Ganguly's total familiarity with all major, minor, and related India-Pakistan issues. This does require some distractive page-turning to get to the specific citation or additional point of fact as you read, but the end notes serve to maintain the smooth, flowing narrative. Especially useful in this book are the appendices, a collection of nine essential documents from the history of India-Pakistan relations, including the 1947 letter of accession of Jammu and Kashmir, the 1972 Simla Agreement, and the 1999 Lahore Declaration. These documents are crucial to understanding the more esoteric aspects of this enduring conflict, are cited frequently throughout the book, and the inclusion of them as appendices is very thoughtful. The 14-page index is thorough and references almost all persons, places, events, issues, and concepts mentioned in the narrative. The index does not include reference to any of the citations, requiring a thorough (and tedious) reading of them to derive maximum research benefit.

This is an excellent introductory study for any serious student of South Asian relations and foreign policy. As such, I recommend this book for high school AP and college-level introductory South Asian/World Politics courses. Its easy narrative and fast pace allow for quick absorption and general understanding without a weight of detail and context. Not to say context and details are unimportant, Ganguly offers his copious citations for anyone interested in pursuing individual issues and opinions in depth. For any casual reader on international affairs, this is a valuable introduction to the history behind and general current state of play in what is arguably the world's most dangerous flashpoint.

Rating:
Summary: Certainly not the whole picture
Review: Mr. Ganguly has written a consice book that's quiet readable in a few hours and provides a good overview of the issues. The book doesn't go into details of "what" as much it goes into "why". His analysis adds nothing new. Book contains some interesting documents in the appendix; letter of accession of Kashmir to India, UN resolutions of 1948, Tashkent and Simla agreements etc. etc. The books covers upto 2001 and the last year probably is not well researched. If you haven't read or are new to this issue, this book could be a great starter.

Rating:
Summary: Invaluable Primer on India-PakistanTensions
Review: Sumit Ganguly offers an invaluable primer on the roots, history, and possible future of current tensions between India and Pakistan. Along the way he successfully challenges one fundamental myth that this conflict would not have occurred if there wasn't a dispute over Jammu and Kashmir. Ganguly notes that the seeds of the conflict go back centuries, even before the arrival of the British, due to bloody wars between predominantly Muslim and Hindu states on the Indian subcontinent. Yet he does bear the British Raj some responsibility, for promoting Muslim interests at the expense of other religious communities during the 19th Century. He strongly criticizes India for its complacency in its relations with Pakistan, forgoing possible opportunities to establish a long-lasting peace. He suggests that a peaceful resolution will be attained when both parties agree to the ceasefire line - or Line of Control - as the border in Kashmir and India offers the Kashmiris more political autonomy. Although this book may be a bit slim with regards to substance, it does an admirable job covering every facet of Indian-Pakistani relations. Without question it is essential reading for anyone interested in this ongoing crisis.

Rating:
Summary: A very accurate description
Review: This treatment of the conflict is indeed a very pertinent accumulation of the various aspects of the struggle that keeps the fabric of India stretched but not frayed.
I found the meat of the book to reside in pages beyond Pg.145.

The fruits of the Resolution on Assurances adopted by UNCIP in 1948 (pg. 161) did not materialize because Pakistan failed to honour its obligations as per Parts 1 and 2 of the UN Resolution of Aug 13, 1948. This preceded the Pakistani betrayals on the (1) Simla and (2) Lahore declarations; the first manifested itself in the actions of Zulfikar Bhutto after India returned 93000 captured Pakistani soldiers upon securing the liberation of Bangladesh, and the second transpired in the attempts of Pakistan to capture Kashmir in 1999.
The origins of this conflict have been captured in Dr.Ganguly's book and reflected very succinctly in the Sept. 17th, 2001 issue of The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung where the author comments that "...When Pakistani officer cadets swear allegiance to the flag, they also vow to avenge "1971," a reference to the secession of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), brought about by the Indian army. This explains why the Kashmir proxy war has been talked up into a holy war, keeping the larger neighbor in check...". The Pakistani jehadi factory which includes the Army, continues to indulge in and promote the rape and murder of innocent Indians in Kashmir, a fact well documented. The Pakistani dictator's warning to the Hurriyat to make themselves "invisible" to the electoral college, and his insistence that the rape of Kashmir is a "...byproduct of a freedom struggle....." certainly does little to diminish the enthusiasm of the jehadis.

While India needs to ensure that the forthcoming elections in Kashmir are transparent to the outside world if she wishes to enjoy the continued goodwill of people from all over, Pakistan needs to recognize that (1) by selling off a part of Kashmir to China (Pg. 33), thus securing Chinese expertise to develop weapons of mass destruction, and (2) its continued support for terrorism in and around Kashmir, it has divorced itself from the wishes of the Kashmiris as seen in the latest MORI poll.

Dr.Ganguly's analysis of the long and unshakeable link between Pakistan and its "Sugar Daddy", Big Daddy U.S., is educational in that one sees a transformation from a strategic one to a tactical one.
On the issue of Afghanistan, I found India's silence during the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviets enormously disappointing. Full marks to Dr.Ganguly for having exposed the weaknesses of the Indian leadership.
Dr.Ganguly's incessant dwelling on the underestimation of India's military might by the Pakistanis was a tad misplaced, as pointed out by some of the other reviewers too.