The Life of a Kashmiri Woman

Preface Foreword by Gopalkrishna Gandhi Introduction 1. Filiation and Affiliation 2. Lineage and Coming into her Own 3. Political and Social Activism 4. Perseverance in the Face of Political Persecution 5. Kashmir Conspiracy Case and World Opinion 6. Banishment and Trauma 7. Significance of Alliances and Shifting Balance of Power 8. Reminiscences of a Granddaughter of the Electoral Battle of 1977 9. Home and Hearth 10. End of an Era 11. I Witness that Faith is the Legacy of One's Upbringing 12. My Memories of Grandmother: Orator, Parliamentarian, Woman of the Soil 13. A House Divided Against Itself Conclusion

Author Nyla Ali Khan: Nyla Ali Khan is a visiting professor of English at the University of Oklahoma.

"By bringing women to the centre of Kashmir's political discourse, Nyla Ali Khan has sought to question not merely the academic silence around the gender dimensions of Kashmir's politics but has also sought to challenge the dominant paternalistic notions about the relationship between women and politics. The book is an important contribution from a gender perspective since one does not get to hear the women's side of story in the much analysed history of Kashmir's politics. There seems to be a complete invisibility of woman. It is as if women did not exist or if they did, they did not play any role. If at all the women are portrayed, they are shown as the mute and passive spectators or as victims at the receiving end. What gets missing is their role as agents in their own rights. In her story of Akbar Jehan, Nyla looks for her agential role. 'Her foray into public realm was not due to circumstances beyond her control but was agential', she notes. That said, the book is a very important contribution to the literature on Kashmir's politics. It is one of those rare personal accounts that have been written with academic dexterity." - Rekha Chowdhary, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Jammu, India, Biblio: A Review of Books

"Nyla Ali Khan places her maternal grandmother, Akbar Jehan Abdullah, at the center of a historical inquiry into the unsuccessful, mid-twentieth century independence movement in Kashmir and, in doing so, deconstructs traditional frameworks of understanding about women's agency in social change and the recent history of a politically contentious region located in India near Pakistan. Effectively combining personal memoir, archival research, oral history, and feminist theory, Khan produces a richly textured history of a time and place both beautiful and desperate in its struggle for autonomy from the 1950s to the 1970s. The book is important for its contribution to a collective historical memory of the region and for its deeply