Book Review: South and Southeast Asia: Tibet: A Political History
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207002500321 |
| Published date | 01 September 1970 |
| Author | Mervin Hanson |
| Date | 01 September 1970 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
648
INTERNATIONAL
0ou.N.AL
Jammu
and
Kashmir,
By JyoTI
BHUSAN
DAS
GUPTA.
The
Hague:
Martinus
Nijhoff.
1968.
xiv,
42
8pp.
Guilders
52.20.
'•This
study
is
primarily meant
for
readers
outside
India."
So
forewarns
the
author
in
the
first
of
four
hundred
exhaustive
pages
of
Kashmiri
history
from the
coming
of
the
Muslims
to
the
day
the manuscript
went
to
press.
If
there
is
a
fact
of
arguable
relevance,
it
is
here,
inserted
in
its
proper
chronology.
It
is
thorough,
disciplined,
systematic,
and
com-
prehensive,
but
for
what
readers
outside
India
is
it
intended?
For the
specialist
there
is
little
new
material
offered;
for
the
generalist
there
is
far
too
much
information
presented
for
Jammu
and
Kashmir
to
provide
an
easy
start
in
the
educative
process.
Published
ten years
after
his
early
pioneering
work
on
Indo-Pakistan
Relations,
1947-1955,
the
second
tome
has
been
a
long
labour
of
love.
If
the
outside
reader
has
not
lived
to
admire
the
Indo-Pakistani
people
and
experience
the beauty
of
Kash-
mir,
where
is
he without
that
love?
Das
Gupta
has
exercised
tireless
self-restraint
in
avoiding
the
pit-
falls
of
bias.
His
commitment
to
the Indian
cause
is
clear,
but there
is
no
sustained distortion
or
disparagement
of the
Pakistan
position.
Only
in
the
single
page
of
Preface and
two
of
Epilogue
does
he
challenge
the
view
that
the
Kashmir
problem
is
a
religious
one,
submitting
that
India's
case
for
Kashmir
is
based
on
incontrovertible
logic. He
perceives
himself as
a
democratic
socialist
secularist,
and
Pakistan
as bent
on
subverting
and
undermining
Indian
secularism.
He
wishes
Pakistan
would
give
up
its
experiments
with Islamic
ideology,
preparing
itself
for
a
confederation
in
the
subcontinent
and
then
for
a
common
market.
There
is
no
pretence
that
this
is
in
the
offing.
In
the
body
of
the study the
most
interesting
passages
deal
with
his
brief observations
on
Indian Kashmiri
leaders.
Sheikh
Abdullah
had
a
totalitarian
contempt
for
democratic
processes,
and
a
cavalier
attitude
to
charges
of
malpractices
and misappropriation.
Bakshi
Ghulam
Mohammed
was
a
determined
but
unpopular
manipulator.
If
there
is
a
hero
it
is
G.
M.
Sadiq,
a
man
of
known
efficiency,
incorruptibility,
politi-
cal
integrity,
exemplary
courage,
maturing
judgment, and
commitment
to
responsive
representative
institutions
and
to
total
integration
with
India.
He
apparently
hated
having
to
incarcerate
hundreds
of
his
com-
patriots.
These
are
but
the
faintest
gleanings
of
bridled
opinion.
Because
of its
comprehensive documentation,
the
book
can
be
confidently
recom-
mended
as
a
work
of
reference.
University
of
Western
Ontario
W.
M.
DOBELL
Tibet:
A
Political
History.
By
TSEPON
W.
D.
SHAKABPA.
New
Haven:
Yale
University
Press
[Montreal:
McGill
University
Press].
1967.
xii,
369pp.
$10.00.
Mr.
Shakabpa's
extensive
political
experience,
including
participation
in
trade
and
diplomatic
missions,
and
his
role
as
finance
minister
in
the
former
government has
qualified
him
to
write
a
sophisticated
and
authoritative
history
of
his
country.
The
early
history
is
a
synopsis
drawn from
standard
native
his-
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