Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Kashmir Impasse
In January 2013 Indian officials published a
notice in newspapers in Kashmir about prepar-
ing for nuclear war, with tips on constructing
shelters, stockpiling supplies and what to do if
caught outside during an explosion. Delhi offi-
cials claimed that the notice was a normal
public-education announcement - and not a
response to recent border skirmishes, the
worst in a decade, that killed three Pakistanis
and two Indian soldiers, one of whom was be-
headed.
This was only the latest in a long series of
tragic events here: the predominantly Muslim
Kashmir Valley is claimed by India and
Pakistan (as well as the much less powerful
Kashmiris themselves), and the impasse has
plagued relations between the two countries
since Partition in 1947.
Three India-Pakistan wars - in 1947, 1965
and 1971 - resolved little, and by 1989 Kash-
mir had its own Pakistan-backed armed insur-
gency. Tens of thousands were killed in the
conflicts, and India has maintained hundreds
of thousands of troops in Indian-administered
Kashmir ever since. India-Pakistan relations
sunk even lower in 1998 when both govern-
ments tested nuclear devices in a muscle-flex-
ing show: nukes were now in the picture.
Talks that might have created an autonomous region were derailed in 2008, when ter-
rorists killed at least 163 people around Mumbai (Bombay) during three days of coordin-
ated bombings and shootings. The one sniper caught alive, a Pakistani, had ties to
Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group that formed to assist the Pakistani army in Kashmir in
the 1990s. Pakistan denied any involvement. The dust was beginning to settle in 2012, and
talks were making headway. But in late 2012, India secretly executed the Pakistani sniper,
Best in Film
Fire
(1996),
Earth
(1998) and
Water
(2005)
The Deepa Mehta-directed trilogy was popular
abroad, but controversial in India.
Pyaasa
(Thirst; 1957) and
Kaagaz Ke Phool
(Paper Flowers; 1959) Two bittersweet films
directed by and starring film legend Guru Dutt.
Gandhi
(1982) The classic.
Best in Print: Fiction
Midnight's Children
Salman Rushdie's al-
legory about Independence and Partition.
The Guide
and
The Painter of Signs
Classic
RK Narayan novels set in the fictional town of
Malgudi.
A Fine Balance
Rohinton Mistry's tragic
Mumbai-based story.
White Tiger
Aravind Adiga's Booker-winning
novel about class struggle in globalised India.
Best in Print: Nonfiction
India after Gandhi: The History of the
World's Largest Democracy
An elegant post-
Gandhi history by Ramachandra Guha.
The Nehrus and the Gandhis
Tariq Ali's astu-
te portrait-history of these powerful families.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Katherine
Boo's fascinating account of life in one of
Mumbai's slums.
