Bot at 17:08, 20 August 2022

2022-08-20T17:08:07Z

New page

{{Short description|Australian political scientist, politico-strategic analyst, academic researcher and author}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Christopher Snedden''' is an Australian [[Political science|political scientist]] and author. He has studied and published on the long-running [[Kashmir conflict]] between [[India]] and [[Pakistan]]. In his book, ''The Untold Story of the People of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir'' (2012), he proposed that the origins of the [[Kashmir]] dispute lay in the protests and eventual [[1947 Poonch rebellion|rebellion]] by the [[Kashmiris|Kashmiri]] people of [[Poonch district, India|Poonch]] and [[Mirpur, Pakistan|Mirpur]] against [[Maharaja]] [[Hari Singh]], and not in the subsequent invasion of Kashmir by [[Pashtuns|Pashtun]] tribal militias from the [[North-West Frontier Province]] of [[Dominion of Pakistan|Pakistan]].<ref name=reimagining>
{{cite news |title=Reimagining Kashmir |newspaper=The Hindu |date=1 March 2013 |url=http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/reimagining-kashmir/article4465702.ece |accessdate=2014-10-31}}
</ref>

== Life and career ==
Christopher Snedden received B.A. in Modern Languages from the [[University of Canberra]] in 1981, focusing in Russian and Political Science. He completed a [[Ph.D.]] at [[La Trobe University]] in [[Melbourne]] in 2001, in which he explored the origins of the Kashmir dispute.<ref name=bio>[http://www.apcss.org/college/faculty/snedden/ Christopher J. G. Snedden, Ph.D.] Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Retrieved 23 February 2017.</ref>

Snedden has worked for the Australian Department of Defence in its Joint Intelligence Organisation (1984–1989), Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (1989–1990), and the Australian Transaction Reports and analysis Centre (1990–1994). From 1994 to 2002, Snedden ran his own consultancy, ''Asia Calling'', focusing on South Asian matters.<ref name=bio/>

After 2002, Snedden worked as an academic in the [[La Trobe University]] (2002-2004) and in the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies of the [[Deakin University]] (2004-2009) as the Director of the M.A. (Strategic Studies) programme for senior military and civilian officers. Until 2019, he was a Professor specialising in South Asian studies at the [[Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies]] in [[Honolulu]].<ref name=bio/>

==The Untold Story of the People of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir==
* ''The Untold Story of the People of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir'' ([[C. Hurst & Co.]], 2012), {{ISBN|1849041504}}; co-published by [[Columbia University Press]] in the United States; also by HarperCollins India under the title ''Kashmir: The Unwritten History'' (2013), {{ISBN|978-9350298978}} and {{ISBN|978-9350298985}}.
* ''Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris'' ([[Oxford University Press]], 2015), {{ISBN|978-1-84904-342-7}}.

Idrees Kanth of [[Leiden University]] notes the main thesis of the ''Untold Story'' as saying that the [[Jammu]]ites, who later became [[Pakistan-occupied Kashmir]]is, had a central role in instigating the [[Kashmir dispute]], giving a "new spin" to the Kashmir issue that makes us rethink the accepted narratives.
It is not [[Maharaja Hari Singh]]'s "indecisiveness" that led to the Kashmir dispute, but rather the different accessional desires of the State's peoples. Three events in the Jammu division of the State shaped these desires: first, the pro-Pakistan, [[1947 Poonch Rebellion|anti-Maharaja uprising]] by the Muslim inhabitants of the [[Poonch jagir]]; second, large-scale [[1947 Jammu massacres|communal violence]] in the eastern districts of Jammu that caused upheaval and death, including a massacre of Muslims; third, the establishment of a provisional [[Pakistan-occupied Kashmir]] government in areas "liberated" by the Poonch uprising. These three events, which happened well before 26 October 1947, divided the Jammu province into pro-Pakistan and pro-India areas "politically, physically and militarily."<ref name=Kanth>
{{cite journal |first=Idrees |last=Kanth |title=The Untold Story of the People of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir - Book Review |journal=Politics, Religion and Ideology |volume=14 |number=4 |pages=589–591 |doi=10.1080/21567689.2013.838477 |s2cid=144444255 }}
</ref>

However, Idrees Kanth finds that Snedden has oversimplified the narrative of the 'pro-India' part of the State to that of a secular attitude of ''[[Kashmiriyat]]''. He argues that the role of the [[Indian National Congress|Congress]] party (and the [[Jammu & Kashmir National Conference|National Conference]] allied with it) as well as the colonial state in Kashmir were also important factors.<ref name=Kanth/>

Journalist [[B. G. Verghese]] points out that the book is entirely based on source material in Pakistan and sees the events from the point of view of Islamabad. There are no Indian or international sources or other analyses that question the Pakistani view.<ref>B. G. Verghese, [http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130428/spectrum/book1.htm Blinkered history of Kashmir dispute (Review of Christopher Snedden's ''Kashmir: The Unwritten History'')], The Tribune (Chandigarh), 28 April 2013.</ref>

Satish Kumar of the Foundation for National Security Research in New Delhi finds the new material on the Poonch uprising contains considerable detail. However, he finds the assertion of the uprising as the main cause of the Kashmir dispute to be questionable. He points out that a local uprising internal to the State by itself cannot turn a dispute into an international dispute. However, he credits Snedden for having made a "realistic assessment" that there is no possibility of Jammu and Kashmir either getting independence or being unified.<ref name=Kumar>
{{cite journal |first=Satish |last=Kumar |title=Book Review: Christopher Snedden, Kashmir: The Unwritten History |journal=International Studies |volume=49 |year=2012 |issue=3–4 |pages=449–451 |doi=10.1177/0020881714534539 |s2cid=155812870 }}
</ref>

Priyanka Singh of the [[Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses]] finds the book meticulously researched providing a wealth of empirical evidence. However, she states that Snedden takes a `moderate view' on Pakistan in the first half of the book and disagrees with India's position that Pakistan incited the [[Indo-Pakistani War of 1947|tribal invasion]] of Kashmir. These arguments she finds 'more or less in sync with conventional Western approach' of putting the onus on India for not holding a plebiscite without insisting on a Pakistani withdrawal. She says that Snedden's conclusions and recommendations come from a 'partial reading of history', perceiving it as problem of the Muslims and disregarding the issues of [[Jammu Division|Jammu]] and [[Ladakh]]. She finds his proposed solution of 'let the people decide' disappointing as it disregards the fundamental ideological differences between India and Pakistan and the complications issuing from cross-border terrorism.<ref>
{{citation |first=Priyanka |last=Singh |title=Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir on the Periphery |journal=Strategic Analysis |volume=37 |number=1 |pages=128–135 |year=2013 |doi=10.1080/09700161.2013.737594 |s2cid=154034362 }}
</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20141110014447/http://www.aii.unimelb.edu.au/christopher-snedden Christopher Snedden's page at the Australia India Institute]
* [http://www.apcss.org/college/faculty/snedden/ Christopher Snedden's page at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies]

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snedden, Christopher}}
[[Category:Australian political scientists]]
[[Category:Writers about the Kashmir conflict]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:Australian scholars of Pakistan studies]]
[[Category:Historians of Pakistan]]

Christopher Snedden - Revision history

Bot at 17:08, 20 August 2022