ABSTRACT
A comprehensive investigation of the policies of India and Pakistan vis-à-vis Kashmir, which is an essential purpose of this monograph, provides an insight into an ideologically motivated significance both adversaries unceasingly attach to the disputed region. A brief historical outline tracing the genesis of the conflict illustrates how the inception of the artificially stitched Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir (PSJ&K) and subsequent policies of subjugation of the population on the part of the rulers predate the time of the partition and played a colossal role in shaping Indian and Pakistani post-1947 narratives. Kashmir incessantly plays a crucial role in shaping Indian and Pakistani domestic and international discourses, or to put it more precisely, both regimes avail themselves of the wide-ranging practical and symbolic significance of Kashmir, with its territory and population, as a handy political instrument and pretext for the internal and external use.
