How paradise was lost

Radha Kumar's accounts convey the deep sense of loss of dignity and respect among a people subjected daily to demeaning encounters with security forces. This has to change for any progress to be made

Paradise at War

A Political History of Kashmir  

Radha Kumar 

Aleph,

416 pages; Rs 799

Radha Kumar has had a long association with Jammu and Kashmir, initially as a scholar and historian, later as political analyst and eventually as one of the three interlocutors for Kashmir appointed by the United Progressive Alliance government in 2010. Her latest book, Paradise at War, is a very readable history of Kashmir, highlighting its hold on the Indian imagination as a land steeped in ancient Hindu and Buddhist myths and legends and later its own unique and accommodating brand of Sufi Islam. The focus is inevitably on the