[First published in YouthKiAwaaz]
Kashmir is the third and last book in Manreet Sodhi Someshwar’s Partition Trilogy, which explores the events, exigencies and decisions that led to Independence, Partition and the Accession of States, which eventually led to the borders of India and Pakistan being what they now are.
Like Lahore and Hyderabad, the first two books of the Partition Trilogy, Kashmir too is a historical fiction told at two levels- the high-level political negotiations between the people whom history books talk about, and the stories of the common people who were being pulled apart by forces beyond their control.
Most people who have grown up in Independent India have only a vague understanding of what is often called the Kashmir issue. We know that the cartographic boundary of Kashmir differs based on whether the map was drawn in India or Pakistan. We know that the Army has been deployed in Kashmir for most of our lifetime and that the area has enjoyed only brief periods of peace. We know that Kashmir enjoyed “special status” till the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. However, most of us are unaware of the history of Kashmir, and of the conflicting interests which ensued that the issue never achieved a peaceful solution. This book goes a long way in addressing those gaps.
Almost all the historical figures who were involved in the process of decision-making appear as characters in the book. Through her study of archival material the author has recreated decisive moments of history and presented them as fictionalised scenes. Lord Mountbatten, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Sheikh Abdullah and Maharaja Hari Singh all flit through the pages of the book, and literally bring history alive. The invasion by the Kabailis and the battles fought by the Indian Army to defend their land and reclaim lost territory are faithfully rendered.
But what makes the book come alive are the common people. The husband who forces himself on his second wife every night in the hope of impregnating her. The husband who builds a floating vegetable garden and plants rose bushes on it for his wife. The man who ‘marries’ the woman he abducted and tries to kidnap her from the house where she is given shelter. The man who lost his beloved to mob violence and tries to atone by providing a safe haven for other abducted women. There are conversations between two brothers, one of whom supports the National Conference and the other the Muslim Conference. There is an entire family struggling in different ways to cope with the grief of losing a loved one. It is through each of these characters that the book comes alive, because they are the ones who face the consequences of decisions made in cities far away.
History has never been kind to women- they are either erased completely from the pages of history books or they are reduced to victims. Books set during the Partition, in particular, focus on how rape was used as a weapon of war and of how women protected family honour by sacrificing themselves.
Kashmir: Partition Trilogy #3, however, is full of stories of women who are recipients of or witness to senseless violence, but who rise above it to leave a mark.
No history of Kashmir can be written without mentioning the Sher e Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah, but this book notes the contribution of his wife, Begum Akbar Jahan, who, when her husband was jailed, left the seclusion of her home to tour the villages, keeping hope alive in the hearts of the Kashmiri people.
Less well known than Begum Akbar Jahan but pivotal to the book are the composite characters Zooni, Durga Mehra, Kashmira and Margot Parr. Durga Mehra witnessed the murder of her husband at the hands of the Kabailis but kept her family together till she was able to find safe passage back to her homeland. Both in the refugee camp and after her reunification with her family, she, like countless other women before her, applied her empathy and her considerable organization skills to the welfare of other women who were left destitute because of events beyond anyone’s control. Kashmira’s husband was killed “by mistake”- one of several similar mistakes that the Indian Army would make in the coming decades- but even while giving in to grief, she never lost sight of her need to pull herself together for the sake of her family. The state of Kashmir, in particular, is populated by countless women like her, and through her, the author honours each of them.
Zooni, the activist and sharpshooter, is based on a real woman who was the poster child of the Kashmiri resistance. Though not much is known about the woman who inspired the character, Zooni rises over personal tragedy, exchanges her slingshot for a rifle and offers her services to the Indian Army. Her courage, resilience and abiding concern for the welfare of her family is symbolic of the moral force displayed by countless women of Kashmir.
Perhaps my favourite character was that of the US journalist Margot Parr. She faces misogyny in her profession but doesn’t let that come in the way of chasing a story. She smokes, drinks and has a relationship with a considerably older man. When asked for her personal opinion by a politician, she was quick to retort, “My personal opinion is nobody’s business; you’ll agree. But my professional opinion is a work in progress: the more I learn, the better informed I am.” However, despite the professionalism, she develops a deep emotional bond with the family whose houseboat she lives in and goes beyond the line of duty to keep them financially, emotionally and physically secure.
Comparisons with the previous books, Lahore and Hyderabad, are inevitable. Though the storyline of Kashmir concludes a few months before that of Hyderabad, it is fitting that it should be the third book in the Trilogy because the history of Kashmir remains inconclusive. While both the Partition of Punjab and the Annexation of Hyderabad extracted a heavy price, the long-term repercussions are largely personal. The political drama ended once the borders were fixed, and what remained was a generation of people who were left to deal with the trauma they experienced and the almost paralysing ‘what ifs’. Kashmir, on the other hand, remains as much of a contentious issue as it was in 1947–48, and the social, political and personal repercussions of the political deliberations and strategic manoeuvres of 1947–48 continue to be felt even today. Reading Kashmir gives us the framework to understand the Kashmir problem; for that reason alone, I would recommend the book to anyone interested in learning more.
I would recommend reading it as a part of the Partition Trilogy. Many of the historical characters were developed in the earlier books, and Kashmir merely builds upon them. Some of the ‘common people’ from earlier books, too, make a reappearance in Kashmir and knowing the back story will help in better understanding what drives them in this book.
Kashmir would shine as a stand-alone book, too. It is a tight page-turner that takes us through the political decisions made in Delhi, Lahore, New York, Srinagar, and Jammu, and the ramifications of those decisions on common people. It explains why the ‘Kashmir issue’ is as complicated as it is and how there can be no easy solutions to it. Above all, it is the story of human resilience and love, even in the midst of gruesome violence, which shines through is hope, empathy and courage.
Kashmir: The Partition Trilogy III is published by Harper Collins. I thank the publisher for an Advanced Review Copy, but the views are my own.
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