Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir

Despite its centrality to the political life of India and Pakistan, Kashmir has met with rather perfunctory treatment from historians of South Asia. The few works of history and politics that have appeared on this region, moreover, insist on defining Kashmiri culture, history and identity in terms of the ahistorical concept of Kashmiriyat, or a uniquely Kashmiri cultural identity.  This book, in contrast, questions the notion of any transcendent cultural uniqueness and Kashmiriyat by returning K…