Jammu and Kashmir, the unfinished story (which everybody must know)

SYNOPSIS
In what manner and to what extent has religious disparity affected the conflict (ongoing and past) in the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir?
The question arose and was decided so for three reasons.

1) The quantity and quality of information, from diverse sources:
Religion was the most controversial issue during Partition and remains so in related historical debates. Most historians of the Hindutva faction refer to religious 'evidence' or at the very least to religious matters as legitimate sources, repudiated by the secular historians.

2) The importance in relation to the conflict:
The issues most often debated are Muslim mosque and Hindu temple destruction, the legality and socio-economic ramifications of partition and territorial claims based on the notion of cultural and religious unity (Bharatavarsha). Even legal claims are heavily influenced by religious matters. I endeavoured to present this divisive issue as the central point upon which the debate rests by devoting the majority of my attention to it, relating it not to Jammu and Kashmir in particular, but to the broader Hindu-Muslim struggle as a whole (in order to demonstrate façade of politicking placed over what is, essentially, a conflict of ideologies in which both sides seek vengeance).

3) The intricacy and purpose of the debate:
As noted, there is a certain polarisation of stances within the debate into Hindutva and secular Marxist parties which naturally engenders a great deal of controversy. Moreover, with political backing in the form of the BJP (its policies less than favourable to the monotheistic and secular viewpoints the Marxist historians revere and/or defend) the issue acquires another dimension quite beyond the legitimacy of sources and narrative of individual perspectives. Indeed, this division into mutually hostile schools of thought is highly conducive to discussion of historical trends, which have their basis in either secularism or Hinduism - hence, the divergence. I have endeavoured to cover the politicisation of history with reference to the emergence of national ideals from colonialism, then Marxism and communalism from their respective predecessors (especially the reactionary communalist movement's coincidence with the rise of the BJP and what that has engendered in terms of the re-interpretation of history.





Jammu and Kashmir, the unfinished story (which everybody must know)


Source:http://www.cifjkindia.org/images/JaKtus-wemk.pdf