Kashmir In The Crossfire

Victoria Schofield has managed to write an extraordinary book. Out of some 1,400 books on Kashmir 'Kashmir in the Crossfire' is an even-handed, carefully researched work of history that traces the political development of Kashmir right up to 1995. There's little about Victoria Schofield inside, but a great deal about Kashmir and Kashmiris. Instead of writing about Kashmir, Schofield weaves in a range of contemporary interviews and direct quotes from existing literature, allowing Kashmir to speak for itself.You might decide that one account is more accurate than another, but it is a tribute to Schofield's capacity as an historian to offer different views without feeling obliged to elevate or demolish them.Inevitably, books on Kashmir attract denunciations on-line for being either pro- or anti- established perspectives of the current conflict over the state. Let's hope that readers and reviewers alike will hold back their judgement until reading it fully and asking themselves some of the following questions.Is this book littered with error? (No.) Does Schofield pitch a particular answer to the Kashmir problem? (No, although she acknowledges that Kashmiris should play a part if it is to be resolved in a meaningful fashion.) Is Schofield an India or Pakistan 'basher'? (Not at all.) And finally, is Schofield guily of a rose-tinted view of Kashmir often held by other Western writers on the subject? (No - unlike most of her counterparts, this book exposes the part that many Kashmiris themselves have played in making contemporary Kashmir the unhappy place that it is.)If you buy one book on Kashmir, let it be this one. In 2000 a shorter, updated version was published under the title 'Kashmir in Conflict'. Equally excellent, this only pips it because it offers a deeper view of early Kashmir history.