ABSTRACT
This chapter touches upon the dynamics in Kashmir before and after partition, which had intense impact on shaping the future trajectories of the conflict. The inception of the artificially stitched Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir (PSJ&K) needs to be depicted as a manifestation of British imperialism, with its dire consequences. Since the second half of the 19th century, authoritarianism, economic dispossession, injustice and exploitation during the rule of the Dogra dynasty, particularly, but not only, against the Kashmiri Muslims, were profoundly structured within the patterns of exercising power and the relations between the state and local communities.
