Book Description
Kashmir is the focal point of an acute regional dispute that has pitted India and Pakistan against one another ever since they gained their independence from Great Britain in 1947. Already, these bitter rivals have gone to war twice over Kashmir leaving the state physically divided and heavily militarized. The reasons for and possible resolutions of this dispute are the themes of Wirsing's book Drawing on repeated field visits and wide-ranging interviews with government officials, political leaders, military officers and diplomats in both India and Pakistan, the author provides abundant new material on the Kashmir dispute's political, military, domestic and international dimensions. The book responds to mounting international concern about Kashmir with specific, step-by-step recommendations for breaking the existing diplomatic stalemate between India and Pakistan. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good...but I've read better
While Wirsing does present a fairly good argument, he presents a biased account of the dispute.He relies on evidence that is debated.Also, the book is very dry.There are much better writers that can relay the same information.

Awesome book
This is the best book I have ever read on the Kashmir dispute.I saw him on PBS last year and he was great.I recommend this book to everyone. It is informative and well written analysis of the Kashmir dispute. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Contemporary Asia, published by Journal of Contemporary Asia Publishers on August 1, 1998. The length of the article is 1013 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Civil-Military Relations in Pakistan: From Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to Benazir Bhutto. (book reviews)
Author: Ahmad Rashid Malik
Publication: Journal of Contemporary Asia (Refereed)
Date: August 1, 1998
Publisher: Journal of Contemporary Asia Publishers
Volume: v28Issue: n3Page: p418(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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Book Description
Professor Das provides a fascinating study on the issue of ethnic politics in multiethnic Third World countries and the non-convergence of state and nation, using the Kashmir and Sindh models.

The artificial decolonization process in the South Asian subcontinent resulted in the construction of national frontiers for its two successor states that did not rest on a synchronization of ethnic and state boundaries.Consequently, cross-border loyalties amongst significant sections of the population survived the boundaries imposed between the two successor states.When, in the context of centralizing nation-building strategies ethnic political assertions occur in outlying or frontier areas of these nation-states, the distinction between domestic and external affairs, or between home and foreign politics, tends to lose its significance in the traditional sense.Political actors from across the borders of neighboring state can then deny the marks of their different objective nationalities and treat themselves as members of a single "loyalty group".

Thus, ethnic politics transcends its domestic contours and helps foment regional tensions.In such circumstances, ethnic assertions tend to constitute vital local or domestic ingredients that define the national security priorities within a particular region.The current insurrection in Kashmir and turmoil in Sindh superbly demonstrate this pattern. ... Read more

Book Description
This book provides a broad, analytical study of Bangladesh's relationship with India and Pakistan between 1975 and 1990. Bangladesh's role in South Asian international relations has tended to be overlooked and underestimated. The book reveals the complexity of the relationship between Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan and challenges the biased and stereotypical views often encountered regarding Bangladesh's foreign policy. Considerable contemporary evidence is interpreted from a variety of perspectives: domestic, regional, and extra-regional. The evidence is then used to assess the relative significance of these perspectives. ... Read more

Book Description
For politicians and social scientists the fiftieth year of Pakistan's independence will be a time for stocktaking, a time to decipher and decode the country. An alternative view of history emerges, however, from the work of the country's fiction writers. Drawn from all the major languages of
Pakistan, this anthology is an attempt to read the country through its fiction. ... Read more

Book Description
'Nationalist' writers and politicians have been apt to take the 'nation' as a given entity, perhaps even a providential one. A more recent trend in historical writing, however, has been to emphasize the extent to which 'nations' are made, not born. The histories in this new series take as this as their organizing principle, whether the forging of the 'nation' was a matter of conscious manipulation by an elite or guided by more popular imperatives, or a combination of the two. Each volume describes how and when particular modern nations came into existence, while at the same time demonstrating that the process is both complex and deeply contingent. This first volume in the series looks at a region that is all too often viewed through the prism of European experience. Ian Talbot provides a wide-ranging study of nationalism in a non-European context, showing how the 'invention' of modern India and Pakistan drew heavily for inspiration on indigenous values. Analyzing both the effects of colonial rule and the post-colonial aftermath, the book is a readable and up-to-date introduction to the major issues in the contemporary history of the sub-continent. ... Read more

Book Description
The Regional Handbooks of Economic Development series provides accessible overviews of countries within their larger domestic and international contexts, focusing on the relations among regions as they meet the challenges of the twenty first century.

The series allows the non-specialist student to explore a wide range of complex factors-social and political as well as economic-that affect the growth of developing regions in Asia, Europe, and South America. Each Handbook provides an overview chapter discussing the region's economic conditions within an historical and political context, as well as 20 or more chapter-length essays written by recognized experts, which analyze the key issues affecting a region's economy: its population, natural resources, foreign trade, labor problems, and economic inequalities, and other vital factors.

In addition, the volumes offer useful support materials, including a series of appendices that include a detailed chronology of events in the region, a glossary of terms, biographical entries on key personalities, an annotated bibliography of further reading, and a comprehensive analytical index. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Bye-bye Let's Go, Hello Footprint
We started our five week tour of India with Let's Go India Nepal, and found the Footprint guide four weeks into our tour. After looking it over, we quickly realized how much detail, clarity, and completeness we were missing. We didn't open Let's Go again, other than to retrieve our bookmark.

Some of the telephone numbers were slightly off, but that is par for the course in India. The correct numbers were easily located via directory assistance, which the book informed us of.

We stayed at two of the highly recommended hotels between US$5 and US$6 a piece and were delighted by the overall quality and cleanliness we found.

Its descriptions of some of the sights surpassed even that of our tour guide.

We liked this guide so much that we now use Footprint guides for our travels wherever they are available and up to date.

WARNING: The guide warns that the prices for many tourist attractions will go up on Jan 1, 2001. They actually went up on October 18, 2000. Now at most major tourist sites in India, foreigners pay the same number of dollars as Indian's pay rupees.

Could not be better
I spent one month travelling all over India with the 1999 edition of the India Handbook and what a life saver it was.The book was fantastic with its information and right on the money everytime with hotel rates, ferryschedules, etc.The brief anecdotes were especially helpful and I reallyappreciated the open mind the book had quick not to judge a country full ofmany different aspects.The book was enlightening and in my hand all thetime, but my mind was still open to new experiences which were notpreconceived by the authors.HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to anyone who really wantsto experience India in a different light!

A thoroughly well-researched guide.
The India Handbook is a thoroughly well-researched and detailed guide. The most informative guide on the market,it provides invaluable information which is useful to both the short and long-term visitor to India,particularly by the inclusion of accurate large and small scale maps. It isalso strong and compact. However, perhaps the most appealing feature isit's direct and non-chatty text, packing important and need-to-know factsinto a notey yet precise format, leaving the reader to form his/her ownopinions on people and places.

An indispensible guide to India
A comprehensive guidebook to India which proved indispensable duringourthree month trip.Detailed descriptions of the history andlayout of the various tourist sites renders local guides andguidebooks largelyunnecessary.A broad based guidebook of nearly1400 pages, it includesdigestible background sections coveringhistory, language, religion andpolitics which enhanced enormously ourappreciation of Indian life andculture.Despite the wealth ofinformation its handy size, hardcover andtough binding stood up wellto the rigours of backpacking. The up-to-datehotel and restaurant sections cater for the fullspectrum of travellers -from budget back packer to luxury holidaymakers.The opinions offeredare balanced and fair, providing enoughinformation to plan and enjoy yourtrip without unfair bias - incontrast to many of the other Indiaguidebooks we consulted. An added advantage of using this little knownguide was that weavoided the ubiquitous "Lonely Planet" boreswho tramp through Indiareciting parrot fashion the recommendations andopinions of the LPauthors and researchers.

Fantastic trip through non-touridt areas of India
We hav just completed an excellent three week journey through India. Much of this would simply have not been possible without the help and guidance of this excellent guide. For instance we have just come back by road fromGoa to Mumbai through some very varied and interesting countrysideincluding a trip up into the Ghats which was quite hairaising anlongnarrow, twisty roads. The road conditions were such that it took us muchlonger than we anticipated. The Handbook did not let is down but suggestedan excellent hotel at Kiplung. In addition, we found that the descriptionsof the sites more than compensated for not having guides available atOrccha for instance. The only time we had problems was when we did notconsult the guide sufficiently! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Kashmir's Endless Conflict
Robert Wirsing's latest book on the Kashmir conflict explores sensitive issues such as whether Pakistan is a frontline ally in America's war on terrorism or whether it is the linchpin of the axis of an Islamic Jihad. His book makes unsettling reading for those who like to think the war against "The Axis of Evil" is over and won. Although Saddam Hussein and the Taliban might both be spent forces, there are bigger and more dangerous forces now coming into focus. Chief among those are Pakistan, India and the People's Republic of China. All three of these are nuclear powers and all three are involved with the United States and other regional Asian powers in a delicate balance of power play.

Although the Korean peninsula and Taiwan are the most immediate strategic places of consequence for Japan, because Kashmir, Wirsing's area of expertise, has been a major flashpoint since 1949, Japan, like the world at large, ignores it at its peril.The difference between past conflicts over Kashmir and any future one is that both India and Pakistan now have the capacity to give us a fully fledged nuclear war and China, which always keeps a weather eye on India, might join in as well. The result, needless to say, would be apocalyptic.

The low intensity alternative - whereby units of Pakistani Intelligence fund and run Islamic terror groups - which Wirsing also explores at some length, does not seem any better. Although India is a fractious country, it seems to be infinitely more stable than Pakistan, which tends to have too many military officers who, when they are not engineering coups, believe in robust responses on issues like Kashmir. These same generals promoted the Taliban takeover of neighboring Afghanistan and now that their Afghan allies are gone into the garbage can of history, Wirsing explains that they have to face the prospect of India gaining the upper hand diplomatically and economically in Afghanistan and all of Central Asia.Kashmir, he explains, is the joker in their deck of cards; it allows them to keep India wrong footed and on the defensive. Given that India has an overwhelming military capability and that Pakistan's only trump card is a nuclear first strike, the stakes are obviously sky high.

The author points out that the defeat of their Taliban allies has caused Kashmir insurgents dearly. The Pakistani generals have been forced to back peddle not only on Afghanistan but on Kashmir as well. As a string of arrests of Islamic militants show, Pakistan has, however belatedly, joined America's crusade against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, their former allies. However, Pakistan's renunciation of terror groups makes it politically difficult for them to continue to support armed insurrection in Kashmir.

Wirsing points out that, as long as the two belligerents can confine hostilities to Kashmir, the rest of the world would prefer to ignore the problem. However, he also points out that the United States' war on terrorism means that the problem will not be ignored. Although it will not be ignored, it probably will not be solved without a major conflict. Interesting read! ... Read more

Book Description
Here, Orestes Yakas describes the creation of Pakistan's new capital, from the selection of its site to the planning of the city, the construction of community facilities, and the first low-income houses and administrative buildings. The book covers the period between 1959-1963. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Contemporary Asia, published by Journal of Contemporary Asia Publishers on August 1, 2004. The length of the article is 2322 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Development and Security in Southeast Asia, Volume 1: the Environment.(Development and Security in Southeast Asia, Volume 1: the Environment/Privatization and the Crisis of Agricultural Extension: the Case of Pakistan/Unholy Trinity: the Imf, World Bank and Wto)(Book Review)
Author: Herb Thompson
Publication: Journal of Contemporary Asia (Refereed)
Date: August 1, 2004
Publisher: Journal of Contemporary Asia Publishers
Volume: 34Issue: 3Page: 412(5)

Article Type: Book Review

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Pacific Affairs, published by University of British Columbia on December 22, 2001. The length of the article is 4412 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Kashmir conflict: Secessionist movement, mobilization and political institutions. (book review)
Author: Reeta Chowdhari Tremblay
Publication: Pacific Affairs (Refereed)
Date: December 22, 2001
Publisher: University of British Columbia
Volume: 74Issue: 4Page: 569(9)

Article Type: Book Review

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