'UNDERCOVER IN BANDIPORE' a book by Prof. Ashok Kaul

The only significant direct interaction I remember with him was during his lecture at the Department of Economics. He had nothing against Kashmiri Muslims in a lecture that lasted over 2 hours, and I was watching at him, awestruck, that how could this be for a person whose whole community was cleansed from their nativity, and he didn't even once talk anything against the people directly responsible for it and instead talked of the larger perspective, his cherished friendships with them; even then.

But his well-drawn conclusions were so backed by facts and logics that the audience could hardly differ on them, whatsoever their ideology be. I had always heard a lot about him from my seniors. But even after listening to two of his elaborate lectures on Kashmir, I wondered where according to him the solution lied, because he was a person so objective in his expression that one remained mesmerized in his explanations of Shaivism and Reshi culture of Kashmir, and forgot to ask him about the way ahead for Kashmir! Afterall Shaivism had become too limited long ago, and the Reshi culture too, is now a matter of distant past. 
And so, when I came to know about ‘Undercover in Bandipore’, I could not afford to wait for my examinations to end before grabbing this piece from him. Prof. Ashok Kaul, Professor Emeritus, Banaras Hindu University; calls it a novel, a fiction based on sociological imagination.

This book goes on to deal with the underlying sociological and psychological reasons that lead to the youth choosing for militancy. It deals with the social transmission that the territory has been going through for the past few decades now and it very well reads the minds of people who have remained there.

It brings out the societal fabric of present-day Kashmir and the circumstances that led to it with utmost perfection; and though it was through my limited experience of reading almost a dozen books on Kashmir, I found this one dealing with the individualistic perspective better than any other. It goes onto dealing with the intrinsic conflicts the individual faces once they are into that never ending process of jihad, the contradictions of the world there and how fascinating it seems from outside; only to realise that they and their families are the actual victims of it with hardly any end to their sufferings or any way back to normalcy.

And what Professor Kaul calls a sociological fiction is a classic empirical social research delivered through the characters of fiction so interestingly that every character at every other instance seems to be a philosopher. True, that it can happen only with the people of that land that every other person carried so detailed insight of life. But only the next moment, the reader returns to a realisation that it is actually Prof. Kaul speaking through those characters and then one becomes a greater admirer of his mastery over the subject. The book deals with a very limited subject matter but still runs through 350 pages, and nowhere it seems to repeat the content even remotely. It should have been a doctoral thesis for the sociological perspectives that it has brought in, but then it would be too lesser an analogy—considering it comes from a person who has inspired thousands of them.

While going through the fiction, there was a feeling on many occasions that it must be a true account, for it can't be a fiction which is so close to the fact and full of true emotions, simultaneously. It felt like Prof. Paras was none other than Prof. Kaul himself, or it was at least inspired by his life; because I remember our final days at BHU… We were taking photographs with the people we had came across in the journey there, to have those memories. We met Prof. Kaul in the corridors of the sociology department; and the way he blessed us after the photograph spoke volumes about his personality. It also left an indelible mark of him on us, forever. It was the same compassion and wisdom that reflected upon Prof. Paras of the novel.
The book goes on in detail to deal with the various causes of Kashmir crisis, the problem of jihad and its forms including love and intellectual jihad, the internal and external issues, the problems of poverty, education and religiosity; and to top it all he talks of them keeping in centre the ‘individual citizen’ of Kashmir. He talks of the Muslim, the batta (Kashmiri Pandit), the state and the Hurriyat. It is now that I know where according to him the solution lies. True, the solution isn't a straightjacket formula, but it is possible!

The work is a must read for the policymakers on Kashmir and those interested in understanding Kashmir and its problems. It was a privilege to read it in the first week of a new year, there couldn't have been a better way to put it on course!
Thank-you so much for bringing it all, Sir.