Conflict Unending
Since 1947 and independence from the British, India and Pakistan have gone to war in 1947-48, 1965, 1971, and 1999. With the exception of the 1971 war over East Pakistan, the occupation of Kashmir has provided the focal point for each conflict. Ganguly (Asian studies and government, Univ. of Texas, Austin) presents a concise, dispassionate summary of each Indo-Pakistani conflict. With Kashmir always in the foreground, he destroys as a basis of conflict the popular, monolithic view of Pakistan as an Islamic state and India as a secular entity. Probing deeper, Ganguly contends that Pakistani aggression has emanated from a false sense that India was too apathetic to meet a military challenge. He convincingly argues that this poor military analysis is rooted in the arrested development of Pakistan's democratic institutions. In the case of the 1999 Kargil conflict, Ganguly, however, points to Indian complacency as the root of Pakistan's perception of India's weakness. With both nations now in possession of nuclear arms, Ganguly (The Crisis of Kashmir) proposes a solution for the conflict over Kashmir in making the Line of Control permanent and greatly weakening Kashmir's federal relationship with India. For most libraries. John F. Riddick, Central Michigan Univ. Lib., Mount PlesantCopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.