The Kashmir Conflict - 9781138654518

History-writing on Kashmir dispute has evolved along three lines: local, subcontinental and international. It began with works on the subcontinental level debating the partition of British India and its implications for Kashmir. It saw the eruption of a local phase in the 1990s that critically examines the relationship between an assertive India and an alienated Kashmir. In the last decade, the international dimensions of the dispute have been discussed.

This book shows the international dimensions of the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan, from October 1947 to January 1966, against the twin backdrop of Decolonisation and the Cold War. It analyses Kashmir’s evolution from a Commonwealth crisis to a Cold War dispute, documenting the first five years, 1947-52, when Kashmir made the transition from a regional to a global issue. Analysing the differences of opinion within and between the British and American governments of the day on the nature and implications of this transition, the book shows the re-fashioning of Kashmir within a changed Cold War context, from the Anglo-American-Russia binary to the Anglo-American-China axis, in the period 1958-63. Finally, it exhibits the emergence of Soviet Union in 1965 as mediator in Kashmir – a scarcely believable scenario when the dispute began, made possible by the emergence of the China Factor in subcontinental and international relationships.

Drawing on a wide range of sources, including official records of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Relations Office, files in India, the US and Russia and personal papers by relevant figures, this book will be of interest to scholars in the field of Asian History, Cold War History, Decolonisation and South Asian Studies.