This timely contribution demonstrates that the balance
of power in Kashmir today will affect the fate of not only itself, but very likely the
subcontinent at large, and may well have an even wider impact. No reader will be
able to ignore the depth of human suffering at the individual and family level, nor the
injustice on a vast scale, that this book describes. Its publication will draw necessary
attention to a dismal episode in the aftermath of the demise of an
empire. Hopefully, wider dissemination of knowledge and the stimulus to
debate the issues, dispersing ignorance, dispelling indifference, will lead to
the removal of the causes of suffering and the eradication of
its dire effects.