Kashmir, Gujarat, and the Punjab: The Ancient and Modern History of India's Politically Divided States on the Border with Pakistan

Gujarat is one of the most storied sites in a storied area. Many groups and empires ruled India or tried to, and Gujarat was the power center for the region’s oldest of all, the Indus Valley Civilization. It also played an instrumental role in India’s greatest ancient empire. During the last centuries of the first millennium BCE, most of the Mediterranean basin and the Near East were either directly or indirectly under the influence of Hellenism. Although some of the Hellenistic kingdoms proved to be powerful in their own rights, no single one ever proved to be dominant. They battled each other for supremacy and attempted to claim new lands, especially to the east, in lands that the Greeks referred to generally as India. But a dynasty came to power that put most of the Indian subcontinent under the rule of one king.

At less than 20 percent of the population, Indian Muslims would inevitably find themselves overwhelmed by the Hindu majority, and as the British prepared to divest themselves of India, ancient enmities between Hindu and Muslim began once again to surface. At the heart of the geopolitical dispute that resulted is Kashmir, which has often been described as the most beautiful place on earth, but also the most dangerous. Nestled between the Karakoram mountains to the north and the Himalayas to the south, the Vale of Kashmir is a place of mythic beauty, in part the inspiration for James Hilton’s Shangri-La, and certainly one of the most unspoiled and lovely regions of South Asia. It also, however, happens to be the fault line of a bitter conflict between two major regional powers, India and Pakistan.