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Kashmir has always been the most contentious issue between India and Pakistan since Independence. Deconstructing its chequered history is not an easy task. The memories of 27th October 1947, the day when the princely state of Kashmir was annexed to India, were recollected on the same date 59 years later at the launch of "Bonfire of Kashmiriyat" by Sandeep Bamzai, published by Rupa & Co. The former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah releasedthe book along with Natwar Singh, former Union Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, Former Union Minister, and Vir Sanghvi, Editorial Director, Hindustan Times.
The author Sandeep Bamzai a well-known business journalist and a former business editor of Hindustan Times plays the role of a `sutradhar' about Kashmir in this book. In the form of a fascinating drama he connects the dots between Sheikh Abdullah, Pandit Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maharaja Hari Singh, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad and other players of the time. He highlights how the chasm between Hindu Jammu and Muslim Kashmir was never bridged despite repeated attempts, in the formative years of the state.
The author said, " For many years I was thinking to write this book and somehow I have concluded it. It is my effort to put together a definitive story about Kashmir's annexation."
Expressing his regrets, Abdullah said, "Today we are suffering for being with India. I don't know what I should call myself? An Indian? Kashmiri? Or a Pakistani? Nobody understands the real problems of Kashmir. These people in Delhi keep playing dirty politics and the poor people have to suffer."
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