Review By Harsimran Kaur

Rating: 4/5

Let’s begin with answering the questions below.

• Is Kashmir a vendetta for the egomaniacal political caucus who at any cost deprive it of its sovereignty and righteousness?
• Is Kashmir issue a plausible chicanery of the insinuators pledging to create a dystopia of polarization and decimation?
• Is Kashmir imbroglio a railroad of barren compartments to fill it with hope and then ruthlessly conflagrated with a self-justifying exculpation?

Do we really have an answer to all or the onset itself brings about a swirl of ambiguities that has been plaguing us for decades. Kashmir valley has gone through it all!! The author Sumantra Bose does not leave a devious bone in the body to unfold the Kashmir predicament.

The youth of today is well-versed with the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A. But, their inception seems eluded.  Their ears have played havoc with insurgencies in the Kashmir Valley deleteriously camouflaging its beauty with communal warfare. Kargil still remains the insalubrious perfidy of Pakistan emasculated by the beleaguered Indian army. The terrorist groups of Jaish-e-mohammed and Laksher-e-taiba have fought tooth and nail to embark on the territory of Kashmir to embrace it as a bride in union with the long-lost husband. We all our a witness to the heinous retributions across the border.

The book “Kashmir at the Crossroads” vividly talks about how the youth of Kashmir have been mobilized to fetch a dream of Independent Kashmir, furtively being trained to use their minds as a weapon; a weapon so lethal, capable of devastation conjuring that a devious mind does not believe in humanity, only human control. There is no denying to the fact that our very dear country India has been a witness to the obstreperous bawl of Kashmiris arousing severe opprobrium from countries like U.S and China. The situation still remains grim as any solution fails to touch a chord with the people.

The book profoundly makes an entrance through the vivisection of India in 1947 when Jammu & Kashmir was left abandoned for the hawkers to prowl, dissecting its soul which still wanders in oblivion. The paraphernalia to make Kashmir a disputed entity is plenty; intervention of Pakistan through insurgency and highlighting its insecurity to garner International sympathy, the encore of nationalistic jargons to solemnize their pre-occupation with Kashmir and using it for political gains and finally creating a wave of communalism so that a viable solution seems farfetched.

The book traces these paradigms with conviction and impeccably manoeuvres through the ordeals inflicted on the Kashmir Valley from 1947 till date.