Unravelling the Kashmir Knot, Aman Hingorani’s first book published in 2016, turned out to be an eye-opener. That was because the author had delved into the British archives declassified in 2012-13, which clearly brought out why India was partitioned and why Jammu and Kashmir was left the way it was by the British.
These archives reveal that the British needed the predominantly Islamic and strategic northwestern slice of undivided India to extend the ideological Islamic barrier stretching from Turkey to the Chinese border to prevent the then Soviet Union from dominating Central Asia. Partitioning this crucial region to create an accommodating and reliable sovereign state in form of Pakistan would complete this mission of the Great Game.
Post 1857, the British propped up the Muslim League to counter the political threat of the Congress to their colonial rule. The idea was to use the Muslim League to demand Pakistan based on the two-nation theory which asserted that Hindus and Muslims could not live peacefully together in one country.
At the 1945 Simla Conference, the British projected the pork-eating and non-pious M.A. Jinnah of the Muslim League as the sole representative of all Indian Muslims, even though he had little or no support among them. The British outwitted the Indian leadership into relinquishing the Congress-ruled North West Frontier Province to Pakistan and were complicit in Jinnah’s Direct Action that led to a bloodbath in Bengal, Punjab and other parts of the country that ultimately compelled the Indian leadership to accept Partition. They set people against each other, like they did to disintegrate the Ottoman Empire. They incited the deterioration of traditional Hindu-Muslim differences to such a point that it turned into a killing frenzy.
Published in 2024, Hingorani’s third edition of the book titled Unravelling the Kashmir Knot: Past Present and Future includes a major extension that covers the period after abrogation of Article 370. The first and second editions highlight important declassified documents of British archives clarifying the status of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and some other areas but this one recommends that India approach the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a step which India has not been in favour of taking. The author argues that India must have the Kashmir issue examined by the ICJ and that the findings will remove the “disputed territory” status and strengthen India’s moral authority over Kashmir. It will be much more effective than declaring ad nauseum that Kashmir is a part of India.
The third edition also presents a roadmap of all that needs to be done to engage ICJ and what the outcome will be.
While this third edition was published before the elections in Jammu and Kashmir, it turns out to be well timed as it can be referred to for countering the renewal of the demand for restoration of Article 370 which some leaders have promised the electorate.
Unravelling the Kashmir Knot: Past, Present and Future
By Aman Hingorani
Pan Macmillan
pp. 589, Rs 750
