Bagchee

Jammu and Kashmir after the Earthquake: Preparing for a New Beginning

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 (New Delhi: Samskriti, 2005).