Between the Great Divide: A Journey into Pakistan-Administered Kashmir by Anam Zakaria

Between the Great Divide: A Journey into Pakistan-Administered Kashmir Reviews

• 
  Vishnu Chevli

  We have received this book almost 2 months back. Actually, my husband wanted to read it. But being a patriot, my husband didn’t like the context after reading the first few pages. He took permission from Publisher to donate the book. Fortunately, he asked me to donate it to the library, unlike him I was able to read the book as a neutral party. So here I am to give my view about the book.
  
  The author has taken tremendous efforts in visiting Pakistan Occupied Kashmir region and gather information about the lives of those people. Instead of giving straight legal or documentary content, she has taken few life stories. She has taken us through the life of those people showing how their life is affected by all the political and military pressure of Kashmir.
  
  Life is life whether it is from India or POK. People have to meet days end with the same basic needs. But here things are not normal, their struggle is visible in words of Anam. I am not getting biased, but the same would be the condition of India Occupied Kashmish. Still, it won’t justify terrorism and violence shown towards authorities. Let's not divert the topic. In short, authorities at both sides should read such books and take decision for the betterment of population.
  
  Detailed Review Link -
  https://chevusread.blogspot.com/2018/...
• 
  Nikhil

  Jannat on earth. That's what people say when they talk about the Kashmir Valley. At least they are lucky that most can actually go to the Kashmir Valley if they'd so like. Unfortunately, little has been known about the other part of this jannat - Azad Kashmir or Pak-Occupied-Kashmir. And that's because this part is Azad only in name.
  
  So when Anam Zakaria promised a window into POK, the opportunity was too tempting to pass.
  
  And Anam Zakaria does not disappoint. She presents a reasonably multi-dimensional view of the state of Pakistan-Administered-Kashmir (as she calls it to distinguish it from India-Administered-Kashmir).
  
  Anam Zakaria tries to get to the roots of the problem, starting from the ethnic cleansing and mass rape and flesh trade which happened when the tribals invaded Kashmir in 1947. She clearly establishes the role of the Pakistani government and army in the invasion of 1947 and their unceasing obsession with Kashmir as well as India.
  
  While POK is called Azad Kashmir, Anam's narrative establishes what we understand from other sources too, that this part of Kashmir is anything but Azad. With a puppet government in place (through an electoral process where every candidate has to pledge allegiance to Pakistan), the entire political and economic fortunes of the region are controlled tightly by the Pakistani government. The freedom (to whatever extent) is accorded to the rest of Pakistanis, is not a luxury enjoyed by the residents of POK. Complete censorship, dissuasion of any anti-Pakistan or Free-Kashmir sentiment ensures the true feelings of the residents are never heard by the world.
  
  The active support to the mujaheddin in the early years of the Kashmiri terrorism was quickly converted into an Islamic terror movement where religion was used to suppress any true Kashmiri sentiment, including for a free Kashmir. And this religious colour assures a continued slavery to an anti-India sentiment and to a belief in the TINA factor with regards to Pakistan.
  
  Throughout the narrative, what comes out clearly is that residents recognise that Pakistan is misusing their helplessness. There is an acknowledgment that there is never going to be an independent Kashmir. Yet, the hatred of the occupier India is much stronger. Hence, Pakistan, as an Islamic nation, is seen as a lesser evil.
  
  The most poignant part of her narration is the story of the residents of Neelum Valley, the Northern most-part of Azad Kashmir, on the banks of the Neelum / Kishanganga River. Situated right on the Line of Control, they have lived for years under the constant threat of the Indian bullets and mortars. Especially moving is the story of the women, who are left behind in the villages and refugee camps to tend to the children and the elderly while the men make their way to other Pakistani towns to eke out a living.
  
  But the women are battle-hardened. As much as they hate India for occupying part of their Kashmir, they also understand that part of the reason for their troubles is the Pakistani army trying to push through mujahideen. And they have taken up cudgels against the same with the Pakistani army, as a result of which there has been a fragile peace in their part of the world.
  
  As an Indian, one could take objections to certain comments in the book. One could also feel a sense of 'gotcha' many a times as it acknowledges the role of the Pakistani state in fomenting trouble in Kashmir as much as the pathetic state of affairs of the residents of POK.
  
  But if that's all one takes away from the book, then one defeats the purpose of the book. It is a reasonably holistic account of pathetic life and history of the people of 'Azad Kashmir', caused in parts by the actions of the Indians as much as the Pakistanis.
• 
  Imran Khan

  Between the Great Divide: A Journey into Pakistan-Administered Kashmir
  By Anam Zakaria
  
  Kashmir has been the battleground for four wars, and countless skirmishes between Pakistan and India for the past seven decades. Yet, we never hear about the sufferings of the common people, and their perceptions about the Kashmir dispute and the politics surrounding it. In mainstream media, textbooks, and state-approved literature the voices of ordinary Kashmiris have been suppressed, and a narrative aligned with the political aspirations of the two countries have been propagated. Consequently, the stories of the residents of Kashmir – the most important stakeholders of the dispute – and their opinions regarding their future are nowhere to be seen.
  
  Anam Zakaria’s “Between the Great Divide: A Journey into Pakistan-administered Kashmir” does a great job at filling the vacuum and tells the horrifying stories of Kashmir through the experiences of common people. Most of these stories show a picture of Kashmir, which completely differs the dominant Pakistani narrative on the region.
  
  The book covers the origins of the Kashmir conflict; the tribal raids and how the Kashmiris see the incoming tribal raiders, whose entry into the heavenly region marked the beginning of the journey towards hell; stories of the militants and refugees created by the tribal raids; heart-wrenching accounts of the unimaginable hardships seen by the women and children; common perceptions about Pakistan and its policies regarding Kashmir; and grievances of the nationalists, who are tired of Pakistan and India playing with the lives of Kashmiris and want freedom from both the countries.
  
  These stories reveal that the dominant Pakistani narrative has been imposed on Kashmiris through mass media, textbooks which suppress the indigenous history and emphasizes on the religious connection between a Muslim-majority Kashmir and Pakistan, and banning books published by local writers. Voices of dissent have been silenced through threats, torture and even murder, which has led to the nurturing of an environment of obedience towards the Pakistani state. While most of the Kashmiris are loyal to Pakistan, because they are unaware of how they have been betrayed by their own guardian, the handful of the informed citizens are fighting an unending battle against insurmountable odds to ensure that one day every Kashmiri escapes the mental enslavement and decides his/her own fate.
  
  Everyone should read this book because Kashmir needs the attention of everyone. So many innocent lives have been lost and it is the least we can do, listen to the horrifying stories told by Kashmiris themselves, not those shown by the biased media.
• 
  Siddhi Palande

  When we hear the term conflict we just know that it is with reference to all the struggles but when we use it with context to Kashmir then the meaning takes a tumultuous and a gory turn. The book follows the real life incidences from Pakistan Administered Kashmir. It shows the mirror to the conflict in Kashmir. Though it limits itself to POK yet one can clearly conclude that the situation in Indian administered Kashmir won't be any different.
  
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• 
  Nikhil Kumar

  This is a much needed narration of the life of people living in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, treating them as human beings rather than passive subjects. It describes the aspirations, fears and struggles of persons living at the border of two sworn enemies.
  
  With an empathetic voice, this books speaks about the conflict from a perspective that has been muzzled by the hegemony of states and armies on both sides. It is both insightful and terrifying to read how lives have been either ignored or destroyed to fulfill religious fervor and whims of the state.
• 
  Anshuman

  An excellent introduction of an area about which there is hardly any information on the Eastern Side of the border despite tall claims of its rightful ownership. The Book while focusing on ‘Azad Jammu & Kashmir’ is able to bring out the larger issues affecting the whole of erstwhile kingdom of Jammu & Kashmir. Through series of interviews with people badly affected by the conflict it categorically establishes that simplified and convenient narratives that have been presented in history syllabi on both sides of the line are completely detached from the truth.
• 
  Sumallya Mukhopadhyay

  Between The Great Divide, Anam Zakaria
  
  It is difficult to write about Kashmir. Apparent reason being it has always been a contested region between India and Pakistan in South Asia. Most importantly, the state narratives are framed, perpetuated and cemented in public memory in such fashion that Kashmir epitomises national consciousness that demands Kashmir to be an integral part of both the nation-states. Very few realise that Kashmir is more than just a disputed geopolitical territory. Kashmir is about Kashmiriyat which, as Zakaria puts it, can be ‘defined in terms of region’s tolerance of multiple culture and religions.’ Tolerance, however, is a positive word in this contexts, precisely because the statist narratives are extremely unbalanced, more often than not marginalising micro-histories of the region to form a grand idea of national integrity of both India and Pakistan being laced with Kashmir. Zakaria’s ethnographic work is a significant intervention in this regard. Between the Great Divide features ten essays which are divided into three sections. It explores the issue of Kashmir through an interdisciplinary approach, comprising gender perspective, conflict studies, anthropology and sociology. It is, what various scholars have called, history written ‘from below’ for it focuses on the voices of the people of Kashmir, highlights their perspective and brings together the state narratives of both India and Pakistan to argue how ordinary individuals have become victims of ultranationalist jingoism.
  After the insurgency in 1989, much of the discourses on Kashmir have generated from the Indian side of the border, the area which in India is coalesced together with Srinagar to form a single state. Zakaria focuses on the other side of Kashmir, one which is administered by Pakistan and Indian media refer to it as Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). With the Partition of South Asia, Kashmir was equally partitioned as well. The tribal raids of 1947 instigated the armies of India and Pakistan to engage in a war that continues even today. As Kishanganga became Neelum, many appeared to have migrated from the Indian side to the Pakistani side. These individuals were rendered refugees who stay in camps. Zakaria also interviews women who have lost their sons and daughters either in army shelling or in cross-border terrorist activities. The first part of the book fittingly ends with the stories of these women, who confined to their spaces in the home and the bunkers, have practically dismissed the idea of Kashmir being ‘Azad.’ Zakaria substantiates this viewpoint by focusing on state policies in section two. The fact that Pakistan grants special constitutional arrangement for Kashmir appears to be a gimmick as the President is virtually powerless before the policies of the Pakistani State. The book ends with the issues concerning Mangla Dam. The revenue garnered from the power project is not utilised for the betterment of the Kashmiris. The army has a strong attachment towards Kashmir. They have been defending this area for quite some time now, and their sense of integrity has a lot to do with the feud with the Indian army. Zakaria also talks to people who discuss the Chinese Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) through Gilgit-Baltistan.
  The part which I found exceptionally intriguing is the narratives of the Kashmiri nationalist. They demand independence from both Pakistan and India. Their hero is Maqbool Bhatt, termed as a terrorist across the LOCs. Most of the time, they refuse to contest elections because if they want to, they have to subscribe to Pakistan’s claim over Kashmir. It is also fascinating the way she manoeuvres various areas in Kashmir. From Muzaffarabad to Neelum, Kotli to Mirpur, she covers decent grounds irrespective of the idea that she is an outsider here. As an oral historian, her narrative voice prioritises the voice of the interviewee. She carefully abides by this throughout the book.
• 
  Chitra Ahanthem

  ‘Between the Great Divide: A Journey into Pakistan administered Kashmir’ by Anam Zakaria is a brave attempt at bringing out the voices of the people of Pakistan administered Kashmir. There is an array of voices starting from people on the ground to former militant leaders to army leaders and through them, the reader not only gets to go over through established history but get acquainted with uncharted territories literally, namely the area along the Line of Control in the part of Kashmir administered by Pakistan.
  
  What I love about the book and its approach is that it caters to people who are not familiar with the political history of Kashmir and those who have been following developments in the conflict torn region. It will certainly be a book that will send some ripples in the corridors of power across both sides of the border with its telling commentary on how both the Indian and Pakistan governments look at the people who are most affected by their decisions on the ground.
  
  This is a deeply insightful book that looks at a geo politically strategic region in the continent and I will surely recommend this book to readers who want to be informed of current affairs.
• 
  Pranav Joshi

  I highly recommend this book, both for "patriotic" Pakistanis and "nationalistic" Indians. It is a welcome addition to the sparse literature on the situation on the Pakistani side of Kashmir. While we in India (who call it PoK), mostly ignore it otherwise than regarding it as a part of India - in Pakistan, most Pakistanis seem to believe it is more or less a part of their country and are hardly aware of the suffering of the people there at the hands of Islamabad.
  Anam Zakaria offers a compelling view into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (or Pakistan-administered Kashmir, or 'Azad Kashmir') through her meetings and discussions with ordinary people living there, with army officers, former militants, and pro-independence intellectuals. There are layers upon layers of aspirations there which have all been suppressed by the Pakistani state, one way or the other.
  The Indian reader also gains a perspective of how people from the "other side" of Kashmir view India, Indian Kashmir and the militancy. Pakistanis, on the other hand, will be able to appreciate that all is not rosy in "Azad Kashmir", and realise how the Pakistani state has kept its realities hidden from them.
• 
  Sanjay Banerjee

  Pakistani Author, Anam Zakaria, travels through POK to hear its people - their sufferings, hopes and aspirations. She talks to women and children living near the LOC, journalists and writers, political and military representatives, former militants, nationalists struggling for a united independent Kashmir and refugees yearning to reunite with their families on the other side. Little is known and has been written about POK and its people and the silence surrounding them. A great piece of word and Ms Zakaria‘s work is a ‘must read’ for those interested in the Kashmir problem as well as those interested in human-interest stories.
• 
  Rajesh Mohta

  A good book depicting there real situation in POK while the people their are no friends of India the disappointment with Pakistan is equally bad, Pakistan is virtually treating the area as a colony, they don't have any rights nor development.. As one of the characters said.. Hum Zehni ghulam hain
  At least people on the Indian side can protest against what they feel is injustice.. They can't even do that..
  The part describing how the families staying near the LOC have borne the brunt of the firing is really heart breaking
• 
  Anirudh Parpillewar

  The book intend to show bad and good sight of POK. Many people have suffered and it made us believe that the Kashmiri freedom is an inevitable discussion between India and Pakistan
  The book mostly felt like the journey vividly explained by Aman Zakaria. It tells the tale of how she traveled, with whom she traveled and what was the discussion. The book mostly felt like a travel book rather than proclaim of Kashmir issue.
  We heard complaints rather than any solid solutions. The book is one time read and could be crafted better. But overall it’s a good book to read!!
• 
  Abhinaya Dutta

  The author has taken a deep dive into a society which suffered not only in the hands of two governments but also because of its geographical seclusion. The work is important as it may possibly be the first of its kind, and may sway more people to wake up to the conditions of people living in Pak-administered Kashmir.
• 
  Christopher Benfer

  This book is basically an exploration of the Kashmir area through interviews with people that live there or have been involved in the area. The book is told from the Pakistan-controlled side of Kashmir, and the author makes no pretense to cover things from the Indian point of view - some of that creeps in from time to time but it isn't the main story. For those unfamiliar with Kashmir, the basic idea is that when India and Pakistan were created the Kashmir area could have gone either way. The people were majority Muslim, which would have predisposed them to join Pakistan, but the leader was Hindu, which predisposed him to the Indian side. In the end, there were various conflicts and the region was essentially split between the two countries with both claiming rights to the full area.
  
  The author chose to write this book to give voice to those living in Kashmir, and she goes out of her way to include accounts from people there. She doesn't generally fact-check or edit the opinions, with the idea that the opinions themselves are important regardless of the underlying facts. This made for a disjointed read as the author tended to cover similar topics multiple times in the book as she went for different interviews. As opposed to the Leningrad book I read earlier, which took diary entries and the like and then organized those pieces into a narrative this author chose to present the interviews in more or less whole form. While this certainly made it easier to follow who was who, I felt like the overall narrative suffered.
  
  Since I didn't know a lot about the region beforehand, I was definitely left confused by some of the references in the book. Most of it I could pick up by context, but some of Zakaria's subjects used different words to reference the same things and I found it confusing at times. I think some light editing would have helped clarify things without significantly impacting the voice of those who were being interviewed. The author also interjected her own story at times - traveling to visit an area or find someone to interview. While some of that probably added to the overall story I found it to be distracting more often than not.
  
  The actual writing was OK - I think some things weren't as clear as they could be and some subjects got very repetitive by the nature of how the book was arranged. There were also quite a few times when the author would provide a sentence or two from the interview in the person's native tongue and then immediately translate. I didn't see much point to that and eventually started skipping over that text to the translation - not a major point but an annoyance to me throughout the book.
  
  Overall, I think this might be an interesting read for someone who knows a bit about the conflict already and is looking for personal accounts. The writing wasn't amazing but it was passable and overall I definitely learned a few things about the area. Definitely not my favorite book of the year so far, but I don't regret reading it.