Kashmir Awakes

Did Sheikh Abdullah have a hand in the Pakistan invasion of Jammu and Kashmir in August 1965? What lay behind the Indian Airlines plane that was hijacked to Lahore from Srinagar? Has the cultural genocide in Bangladesh, committed by the Pakistan Army, any significance for those who live in India's northernmost State?

These are some of the many questions examined in the book that surveys Kashmir's historical, cultural, political, and economic developments from the earliest times to the present day. The author pinpoints some of the sensitive issues that have agitated the State polity from time to time.

Analyzing Sheikh Abdullah's activities, before and since his first detention in 1953, the author concludes: "Abdullah is a blank cartridge, a spent force, a paper tiger....".

The book spotlights the implications of recent developments in East Pakistan for Kashmir, as also for Abdullah.

B.L. Sharma was Assistant Editor of Indian News Service, Fleet Street, London, during 1930-32. After a short assignment with the Hindustan Times he worked from 1935 to 1938 as a correspondent of the Statesman, Times of India, Pioneer, Civil and Military Gazette, and British United Press.

Mr Sharma served in the Press Information Bureau and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, during 1938-54, and was Principal Information Officer from 1949 to 1954. He was Director of Kashmir Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs, from 1956 to 1966. He acted as Adviser to several Indian delegations to international conferences, including meetings of the Security Council on Kashmir, and also attended the Tashkent Conference in 1966.