ISLAMABAD ( WNAM REPORT ): The India Study Centre at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) has launched its latest edited volume, titled: “The Kashmir Question in a Changing World – Beyond August 2019.”
Featuring 12 chapters contributed by renowned academics and scholars from Pakistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, as well as abroad, the book focuses on various dimensions of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and challenges the narratives advanced by India on the subject. Prominent Kashmiri leader Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai graced the occasion as Guest of Honour. Other speakers included: Dr. Waleed Rasool, Assistant Professor, Riphah International University; Altaf Hussain Wani, Chairman, Kashmir Institute of International Relations, Islamabad; and Ambassador Babar Amin, a career diplomat.
Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai commended the ISSI’s efforts in publishing the book, noting that most of the books available in the market were either written by Indian authors or foreign scholars, with many tending to lean more towards the Indian narrative. They completely ignore the suffering and pain of the Kashmiri people. Kashmiri voices have been conspicuously missing from the literary landscape on the conflict. The book published by the India Study Centre has done an excellent job by including contributions from a number of Kashmiri writers who have aptly highlighted the lived experience of the Kashmiri people.
Dr. Fai said that for many scholars, particularly those hailing from foreign countries, the Jammu and Kashmir dispute was a territorial dispute. However, the reality is that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is about the aspirations of millions of Kashmiri people. He went on to explain the role of diaspora in highlighting the case of Jammu and Kashmir that influenced almost all U.S. Administrations over almost eight decades. Dr. Fai also underlined that the world recognizes the international legitimacy of the Kashmir case and has empathy for the Kashmir cause. It was important to channelize these assets through strong advocacy and diplomatic moves. He expressed profound gratitude for the all-out support and solidarity extended by the Pakistani nation throughout the Kashmiri struggle.
Earlier, in his remarks, Director General ISSI Ambassador Sohail Mahmood said that the ISC book being launched serves as a lens through which the lived reality of the Kashmiri people could be viewed. It maps India’s repugnant policies and their unspeakable consequences for the Kashmiri people in the aftermath of New Delhi’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019. It illustrates a pattern of systematic denial of rights, political manipulation, and demographic engineering aimed at implementing a settler-colonial project. It repudiates the spurious arguments advanced by India to justify its unjustifiable actions as well as its false narratives of ‘development’ and ‘normalcy’ crafted to mislead the international community.
He said that over the years, the gross and systematic violations of human rights of Kashmiris by Indian security forces have been extensively documented. Unabated state-sponsored oppression is exacerbated by continuous attempts at demographic engineering, cultural suppression, extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrests of political leadership, specific targeting of the Kashmiri youth, crackdown on journalists and human rights workers, frequent occurrence of collective punishment, and economic subjugation. Many of these issues have been raised in the latest report released by the United Nations Special Procedures Mandate Holders about the situation since the Pahalgam attack on 22 April 2025. Ambassador Sohail Mahmood added that from Pakistan’s perspective, dialogue is the only way forward to resolve not just the Jammu and Kashmir dispute but all other issues that have held the South Asian region hostage to instability, mistrust and animosity. However, dialogue cannot proceed under coercive preconditions that legitimise illegal and unilateral actions. For peace to prevail, there has to be justice.
In his introductory remarks, Director India Study Centre, Dr. Khurram Abbas, said that the life of a newspaper article is 24 hours, a research paper lasts for six months, but a book has the longest life-span. This book is a humble attempt to bring forth various aspects of the Kashmir dispute in its true perspective.
Dr. Waleed Rasool termed the book as a welcome addition to the existing literature on Kashmir. He said it uses a multi-dimensional lens to view various aspects of the Kashmiri struggle. The importance of books can be gauged from the fact that only recently, India banned some 25 books on Jammu and Kashmir. India is only interested in the land of Kashmir, as evident from its policy of killing and economically strangulating the Kashmiri people. He also highlighted the moral, political and diplomatic support being extended by Pakistan to its Kashmiri brethren. Without this support, Jammu and Kashmir under Indian occupation would have been another Gaza, he opined.
Altaf Husain Wani, in his remarks, said that the book deals with the questions that cannot be set aside. This makes the book indispensable for students and researchers to look into the various aspects of the dispute and chart a futuristic view about how to move forward. He highlighted the importance of countering the Indian narrative on the subject, which can only be done by producing more research-based academic material backed by authentic sources.
Ambassador Babar Amin described the book as an important milestone that not only documents political and legal dimensions of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute but also the human cost, the international reactions, and the ongoing implications for peace, justice and human dignity in the region. Launching this book is not confined to a dynamic analysis of the dispute but also preserving the historic memory of people whose rights have been denied. The book reaffirms the legal and moral claims recognised by the international community and re-commits to ensuring that the voices and aspirations, and sacrifices of the Kashmiri people are heard.
In conclusion, Chairman BoG ISSI, Ambassador Khalid Mahmood, said that the book is on a subject that is vital to Pakistan and all freedom-loving people across the world. The right to self-determination has been acknowledged as a fundamental human right by the UN. Therefore, even if there were no UNSC resolutions, the people of Jammu and Kashmir still had their right to self-determination. He expressed his belief that the struggle of the people of Jammu and Kashmir will prevail sooner rather than later, as it is rooted in justice.
