Kashmir: Looking Back in Time—Politics, Culture, History (Hardbound-2023)

About the Book

The book reconstructs the 20th century’s turbulent years of Kashmir and offers a closer view of the people and events that influenced the course of its history. It is an absorbing commentary on the flipside of the politics of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah who ruled the political scene of Kashmir for five decades and, in the course, changed his goalposts.

Allowing a peek into the Kashmir of yesteryears, the book guides a reader on its social and cultural pathway, throwing up individuals and developments that made up its recent history. It is also a story of the loss of intellectual tradition of Kashmir and gradual emptying of its cultural opulence. The book presents an authentic and lucid description supported by thorough research and indisputable sources including archival literature, published works, travelogues, and eyewitness accounts.

About the Author

Khalid Bashir Ahmad  is an author, poet, and former Kashmir Administrative Service officer. He has served as Head, Departments of Information & Public Relations, Libraries & Research, and Archives, Archaeology & Museums, and, before he hung his boots in 2014, as Secretary, Jammu & Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture & Languages. His authored books, Kashmir: Exposing the Myth Behind the Narrative and Kashmir: A Walk Through History blow away the long accumulated fog over Kashmir’s historical spread by twisted narratives. His earlier work, Jhelum: The River Through My Backyard was credited with having added the Jhelum factor to the history of Kashmir. His two works of Urdu poetry and prose have won him the State’s highest literary award in 1984 and 2010, respectively.