Kashmir after 2019

This interdisciplinary volume portrays India’s removal of Article 370 and of Jammu and Kashmir's special status in August 2019 as an effort to stop the suffering of its highly diverse people. While the state had been divided between the only two successor nations allowed in 1947, local people were subjected to prolonged violence by several competing external and internal stakeholders. Though the bold step of August 2019 signified acceptance by both India and Pakistan of the completion of the partition of 1947, evidence of continuing discontent and latent adherence to continuing dreams of freedom (Azadi) indicates that the current arrangement needs to be better and more widely understood as a viable peace-making effort.

The book re-traces the history of the suffering of Kashmir's people and provides an intriguing new analysis of the conflict through the plurality-conscious kite model of law and life, suggesting important policy implications. It also challenges the negative implications of international and foreign meddling in the ‘Kashmir problem’.

This book will be useful to scholars, students and teachers of political science, sociology, governance, economics and development studies. It will also be an indispensable companion to scholars and general readers interested in India, especially Jammu and Kashmir, as well as those engaging with South Asian Studies.

Werner Menski is Emeritus Professor of South Asian Laws at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, where he taught from 1981 to 2014. He developed particularly the teaching of comparative legal studies with an interdisciplinary, multidimensional South Asian focus, through courses including Legal Systems of Asia and Africa, Law and Society in South Asia and Ethnic Minorities and the Law. Apart from supervising numerous doctoral students, he published 14 books, including Muslim Family Law (with D. Pearl, 3rd edn. 1998), Modern Indian Family Law (2002, 2016), Hindu Law (2003) and Comparative Law in a Global Context: The Legal Systems of Asia and Africa (2nd edn, 2006). He has contributed almost 300 published articles, continues to be co-editor of South Asia Research and remains active in mentoring junior scholars.

Muneeb Yousuf received his PhD from the Academy of International Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi. He is a Deputy Editor of South Asia Research. His research articles have been published in Studia Islamica, Contemporary South Asia and South Asia Research, among others. He also regularly writes on international affairs with a special focus on Pakistan and Kashmir and his work has appeared in Foreign Policy, The Telegraph, Al-Jazeera, The Diplomat, Frontline Magazine and several other media outlets.