Article 370 of the Constitution of India relating to special status of the State of Jammu and Kashmir is now sixty-nine years old. It is the only state in the Union of India which negotiated the terms of its membership with the Union. The state acceded to India under ‘unique circumstances’ and the ‘unique problems’ existing within the state require a ‘unique solution’. One such problem is the impact of Article 370 on its capable economy. Kashmir’s tourism is an under developed sector which nevertheless fuels its economy. It is abundantly rich in natural resources including fertile lands, rivers, and various other resources which otherwise would have contributed towards a flourishing economy. Despite this, the economy of the state has not been able to grow at an expected pace. The authors argue that it is because of the presence of Article 370 and the resulting socio political conditions, the economy is in a sorry state. The constitutional provision giving special status ensures that no outsider can buy land or start any business, which makes it difficult to invest in the state. Also, the provision gives a limited space to the central government in the economic domain and in consequence to pool substantial resources for consolidating the economy. The authors’ idea is to bring forth how this politico-legal provision has shaped the economy of the state and how the functioning is to be changed for a better future.

On 26 January 1950, the Constitution of India came into force with a unique provision—Article 370. The special status accorded to the state of Jammu and Kashmir in the article meant that its people lived under a different set of laws while being part of the Indian Union. Alternating deftly between history and politics, A.G. Noorani examines a wide range of documents pertaining to Article 370. He incisively analyses the implications and consequences of the article for the constitutional democracy of the state and the nation. From Jammu and Kashmir's accession to India in 1947 to the various negotiations thereafter; Sheikh Abdullah's arrest to the framing of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir and the replacement of Sadar-i-Riyasat, this book impeccably documents the little-known constitutional history of the state. Noorani underscores the politics behind the gradual erosion of Article 370 and the need for restoration of autonomy. Critically analysing the various judgments relating to this constitutional arrangement, he suggests a framework for resolving the 'Kashmir problem'. Collecting together rare, often unseen and unnoticed, letters, memoranda, white papers, proclamations, and amendments, this book will be an indispensable resource on Kashmir.

Many disenchanted Kashmiris continue to demand independence or freedom from India. Written by a leading authority on Kashmir’s troubled past, this book revisits the topic of independence for the region (also known as Jammu and Kashmir, or J&K), and explores exactly why this aspiration has never been fulfilled. In a rare India-Pakistan agreement, they concur that neither J&K, nor any part of it, can be independent. Charting a complex history and intense geo-political rivalry from Maharaja Hari Singh’s leadership in the mid-1920s to the present, this book offers an essential insight into the disputes that have shaped the region. As tensions continue to rise following government-imposed COVID-19 lockdowns, Snedden asks a vital question: what might independence look like and just how realistic is this aspiration?

Resource exploitation in the form of land-grabbing has become a major debate worldwide. Based on extensive field research conducted at the India-Pakistan border, using Kishanganga Hydroelectric Project as a case study, this book on corporate land-grabbing in Kashmir explains how capital is at play in a conflict zone. The author explains how different actors—village elites, government officers, politicians, civil society coalitions, peasants, and the states of India and Pakistan—mobilize support to legitimize their respective claims. It captures how the tensions between developmentalism, environmentalism, and national interest on one hand, and universal rights, national sovereignty, subnational identity, and resistance on the other—facilitate and challenge these corporate resource-grabs simultaneously. The author argues that the patterns and scale of land- and resource-grabbing has led to depeasantization, dispossession, displacement, loss of livelihoods, forced commoditization of the local peasantry, and damages to the local ecology at large. The book thus combines the literature in violence and development and dispossession studies by addressing the socio-political conflict in land- and resource-grabbing in conflict zones.

Resisting Occupation in Kashmir considers the social and legal dimensions of India's occupation of Kashmir and the ways in which Kashmiri youth are drawing on the region's history of armed rebellion to reimagine the freedom struggle in the twenty-first century.

It is possible to beirrational without beinguneconomic ? What is the link betweenValue andvalues ? What do economists do when theyexplain ? We live in times when the economic logic has become unquestionable and all-powerful so that our quotidian economic experiences are defined by their scientific construal. This book is the result of a

This book departs from the conventional academic narration of the conflict situation in Jammu and Kashmir and expands the debate by shifting the focus from Kashmir to Jammu region. Generally, it is the response of Muslim-majority Kashmir region - particularly its contestation of the hegemonic and assimilative temperament of the Indian state - that captures the attention of researchers. The Hindu-majority Jammu region which is affected by the conflict in many ways remains in the shadows. This book seeks to address this crucial academic gap by locating the conflict in Jammu region. Besides explaining the 'Hindu reactionary' and 'ultra-nationalist' responses of some sections of Jammu's society, the book also foregrounds the genuine grievances of its people and their concerns within the dominant 'Kashmir-centric' discourse.

When India and Pakistan held nuclear tests in 1998, they restarted the clock on an intense competition that had begun with Partition. Nuclear weapons restored strategic parity, erasing the advantage of India's much larger military. But the shield offered by nuclear weapons also encouraged a reckless reliance by Pakistan on militant proxies even as jihadis spun out of control within and beyond its borders. In the years that followed, Pakistan would lose decisively to India, sacrificing its own domestic stability in a failed attempt to assert its claim to Kashmir and influence events in Afghanistan.Defeat is an Orphan tracks the defining episodes in the relationship between India and Pakistan from 1998, from bitter conflict in the mountains to military confrontation in the plains, from the hijacking of an Indian airliner to the Mumbai attacks. It is a frank history of an enduringly bitter relationship, set against the background of Islamist militancy in Pakistan and India's economic leap forward.