18 Feb, 2009   ·    Dipankar Banerjee & D.Suba Chandran, eds.

The last sixteen years have witnessed violence and instability in Jammu and Kashmir irrespective of bilateral peace processes with Pakistan and internal dialogues.  The last two years, 2005 and 2006 were of enormous significance, for both Indo-Pak dialogue and intra-Kashmiri interactions.  For the first time since independence, a formal bus service has been inaugurated between Muzaffarabad and Srinagar, to be followed by another service between Poonch and Rawlakot.  The devastating earthquake of October 2005, brought the two Kashmirs even closer, with alternative approaches and ideas including soft borders and self rule emerging.  There are clear positive changes at the ground level with signs of a new beginning.  How to build from here? How to convert the positive change into a process ultimately leading to establishing peace and stability in J&K? This book is the outcome of a continued dialogue between a group of eminent persons from Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of India organized by the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in Collaboration with the J&K government.  The earlier dialogue in 2005 resulted in a book titled Jammu and Kashmir: Charting a Future.

Table of Contents

1. JAMMU & KASHMIR: AN OVERVIEW
1.1 Jammy and Kashmir: A New Beginning
1.2 Terroirsm in J&K: Police Perspective
1.3 Security Environment
1.4 Regional Security Environments
1.5 Terrorism in India: An Overview
1.6 Resurgenc of the Taliban
1.7 Changes in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir: Jihadis Regroup

2. POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND ADMINISTRATIVE DEVELOPMENTS
2.1 A Resurgent Indian Economy: Jammu and Kashmir Perspective
2.2 South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA): Emerging Opportunities for Jammy and Kashmir
2.3 Quake and its Aftermath

3. THE PEACE PROCESS
3.1 Recent Political Development in Jammu and Kashmir
3.2 Bilateral Peace Process

4. LOOKING AHEAD
4.1 Recent Peace Proposals
4.2 Autonomy and Self Rule: The Way Ahead

About the Editors

Dipankar Banerjee is a retired Major General of the Indian Army and an eminent defence, foreign policy, and strategic studies expert based in India. He is presently the Founding Director of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, India’s leading independent defence policy, foreign policy and strategic studies think tank based in Indian capital New Delhi. From 1999 to 2002 he was the director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He has held visiting fellowships at the United States Institute of Peace and The Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington, DC and has been a consultant to the United Nations on the Conventional Arms Register. He was the UN Consultant on the Conventional Arms Register in 2000 and from 2000-2003 was the member of the International Adivsory committee of the ICRC.

D. Suba Chandran is Deputy Director, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi and is currently a Visiting Fellow at the CSRS, University of Jammu. His primary area of research includes Pakistan’s internal security, in particular Balochistan, FATA and Northern Areas. He also works on Kashmir, terrorism, particularly Suicide Terrorism. Since January 2007, he is under taking field research in Kashmir on a study titled – People, State and Violence: Conflict Transformation in Jammu and Kashmir. He also edits an annual titled Armed Conflicts and Peace Processes in South Asia. D. Suba Chandran is the author of "Limited War".

Dipankar Banerjee & D.Suba Chandran, eds.
New Delhi: Samskriti, 2006

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