While Kashmîr And Ladakh Have Been Written About Extensively, There Has Never Been A Book On The History, Culture And Tourist Attractions Of The Vast Jammû Region. The Holy Shrine Of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Ji Alone, Draws Sixty Lakh (Six Million) Tourists A Year. Another Three Million Visit Shahdra Sharief. Two Of The World S Highest Mountains, Brahma And Brahma S Wife, Are In Jammû, And So Several Mountain-Top Lakes. Parvéz Dewân, Who Revived The World Famous Basohli School Of Miniature Paintings, And Helped Make Shiv Khori, Jammû S Third Biggest Tourist Attraction, Has Brought In His Expertise On Jammû To Fill The Gap. In This First-Of-Its-Kind Encyclopaedic Three-Volume Set On Jammu, Kashmir And Ladakh, One On Each Region, Parvez Dewan Shares In Detail, His Interest And Excitement In The Fabled Land That Has Been The Arena Of His Adult Life: An Up-To-Date Yet Timeless Guide To The Magical Trinity Of Jammu, Kashmir And Ladakh That Crowns The Sub-Continent Of India.
If Anyone Has The Ultimate Dossier On Ladakh, It Is Parvez Dewan, After Years Of Running About India'S Northern-Most Region, Administering And Adventuring His Way Around Its Desert Plains, Passes And Lakes. Along The Way, He Discovered That Kargil And Leh Had Large Buddha Sculpture Carved Into The Mountainside, And Noticed That The `World'S Purest Aryans,' The Drokpas, Weren'T Amused By Suggestions That There Was Mass Kissing At Their Festivals And Taught Himself Polo On The Endless Kargyak Plains - The Highest Inhabited Place, In The World. Parvez Started The Ladakh Festival, Threw Open To Tourists Seven Hitherto `Forbidden' Areas (But Got Bounced Back From Siachen), Developed An Admiration For The History, Culture And People Of The Pak Occupied Gilgit-Baltistan-Hunza Region, Introduced The Suru Valley And Goshan Murad Bagh To The International Media, And Waited For Weeks To Sight The Snow Leopard. He Was Luckier With The Wild Ass, Brahmini Ducks And Black Necked Cranes, Though.
Jammu and Kashmir is one of the top states of India which is enriched with natural beauty so rich that it attracts candidates throughout the country to work in its territory. Having a good general knowledge about this state is highly beneficial for those appearing for its Civil Services Exam and other state level exams. Know Your State – Jammu and Kashmir lets you learn about the History, Geography, Polity, Economy, Art and Culture, Center and Government Welfare Schemes, and Current Affairs of this Northernmost Indian state. It has been revised carefully to provide the invaluable source of knowledge to help in exams. It is housed with an ample amount of more than 1100 multiple choice type questions to have a solid practice for your preparation. Written in a comprehensive manner and based on the latest syllabus of Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services Exam, it is a perfect reference book to help you perform better in your exam. TOC Jammu and Kashmir: Basic Information, Ancient History of Jammu and Kashmir, Medieval History of Jammu and Kashmir, Modern History of Jammu and Kashmir, Physiography of Jammu and Kashmir, Climate of Jammu and Kashmir, Drainage System of Jammu and Kashmir, Soils and Minerals of Jammu and Kashmir, Forests of Jammu and Kashmir, National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries, Agriculture and Irrigation in Jammu and Kashmir, Animal Husbandry of Jammu and Kashmir, Industries of Jammu and Kashmir, Energy Sources of Jammu and Kashmir, Transport and Communication of Jammu and Kashmir, Tourism Profile of Jammu and Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir: Constitution, Jammu and Kashmir Executive, Jammu and Kashmir Legislature, Jammu and Kashmir Judiciary, Jammu and Kashmir: Panchayati Raj, District Profile of Jammu and Kashmir, Language and Literature of Jammu and Kashmir, Art and Crafts of Jammu and Kashmir, Folk Music and Dance of Jammu and Kashmir, Fairs and Festivals of Jammu and Kashmir, Education and Health Scenario in Jammu and Kashmir, Tribes and Tribal Population of Jammu and Kashmir, Sports of Jammu and Kashmir, Awards and Honors of Jammu and Kashmir, Historical and Political Personalities of Jammu and Kashmir, Demographic Profile of Jammu and Kashmir, Current Affairs
Disputed between India and Pakistan, Kashmir contains a large majority of Muslims subject to the laws of a predominantly Hindu and increasingly "Hinduized" India. How did religion and politics become so enmeshed in defining the protest of Kashmir's Muslims against Hindu rule? This book reaches beyond standard accounts that look to the 1947 partition of India for an explanation. Examining the 100-year period before that landmark event, during which Kashmir was ruled by Hindu Dogra kings under the aegis of the British, Mridu Rai highlights the collusion that shaped a decisively Hindu sovereignty over a subject Muslim populace. Focusing on authority, sovereignty, legitimacy, and community rights, she explains how Kashmir's modern Muslim identity emerged. Rai shows how the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was formed as the East India Company marched into India beginning in the late eighteenth century. After the 1857 rebellion, outright annexation was abandoned as the British Crown took over and princes were incorporated into the imperial framework as junior partners. But, Rai argues, scholarship on other regions of India has led to misconceptions about colonialism, not least that a "hollowing of the crown" occurred throughout as Brahman came to dominate over King. In Kashmir the Dogra kings maintained firm control. They rode roughshod over the interests of the vast majority of their Kashmiri Muslim subjects, planting the seeds of a political movement that remains in thrall to a religiosity thrust upon it for the past 150 years.
The journal Civil Lines was conceived in the 1990s to publish the best new Indian writing in English. The first issue (1994) soon garnered a cult readership with works by writers like Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Ramachandra Guha and I. Allan Sealy. Claiming the magazine?s irregularity itself as a guarantee of quality, Civil Lines continued issues erratically. It encouraged a new wave of Indian English writers and laid the ground for, among others, Ruchir Joshi, Siddhartha Deb, Suketu Mehta, Amitava Kumar, and Manjula Padmanabhan, who went on to become established writers Ramachandra Guha?s first brilliant essay, a five-finger exercise in literary anthropology which appeared in the inaugural issue, and Amitav Ghosh?s reflective essay on the Indian practice of the short story as well as a wonderfully fluent translation of one of Tagore?s most famous tales, Kshudhita Pashan (The Hunger of Stones). This volume, edited by Rukun Advani (one of the four original editors), brings together the finest essays, stories, and poems in the first five issues of Civil Lines, all of which are now out of print and hard to come by. For anyone interested in the finest recent Indian writing in English, this is the book to possess.
In 1984 Tamarov, then 19, was drafted into the Soviet Army and posted to Afghanistan where he spent 20 months in a minesweeper outfit. Despite heavy operational responsibilities and danger, he managed to take artful photographs which capture the stark landscape, friendly and unfriendly Afghans and the men of his platoon in action and in repose. Photographs depicting the haunted faces of both soldiers and civilians, the country's rugged yet beautiful mountain terrain, and the banality of daily life between missions are interspersed with Tamarov's unsentimental but passionate prose, in which he reveals his growing disorientation and takes to task his government for a campaign that has been widely dubbed "the Soviet Vietnam". Returning home uninjured in 1986, the author subsequently traveled to the United States, met with Vietnam vets and paid his respects at the Wall on the Mall in Washington, D.C., sharing with his new acquaintances "something which others cannot understand." More than a photographic essay, Afghanistan offerns an stunningly personal view of combat that is rarely seen by most.
