ABSTRACT
Kashmir’s troubles have been a long, painful headache for India’s leaders, offering their assorted political opponents an endless supply of ready ammunition. In the turgid world of Indian domestic politics, accusations of being “soft on terrorism”—code for seeking accommodation with Kashmiri secessionists-or “caving in to Pakistan” can be an electoral kiss of death. Kashmir has become the pre-eminent symbol of the long struggle with hated Pakistan, and a constant reminder to Hindu nationalists of real and imagined historical wrongs inflicted on India by past Muslim rulers.
