MACMILLAN
SOURCE/Macmillan
Dialectic of Resistance and Accommodation by Nyla Ali Khan with Foreword by Gopalkrishan Gandhi. Palgrave Pivot.
Nyla Ali Khan’s subject, Akbar Jehan, was a political activist and the wife of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, Kashmiri nationalist and first Muslim Prime Minister of the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir. The author employs oral testimonies and relies on written resources to add layers of understanding to the events that shaped the history of Kashmir. In this hybrid of memoir and auto/ biography, the author has also interspersed her memories with descriptions of historical and political events in which Akbar Jehan and her husband were principal political players.
Praise
“This penetrating biography of Begum Akbar Jehan Abdullah by her granddaughter Nyla Ali Khan stands at the intersection of feminist as well as postcolonial theory and history, taking a hybrid form of memoir, auto/biography, and history that allows the author to probe her own history and subjectivity in the context of familial and Kashmiri historical mileposts and unfolding political developments. With a perspective heightened by distance from her home country and a tone at times tinged with a nostalgia that she herself is wary of, the author paints a loving and personal picture of a powerful woman whose role and actions gave Kashmir a model for women’s political action in the critical period before and after the partition of India in 1947.” – Catherine Hobbs, Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Oklahoma, USA
“Nyla Khan’s biography of her grandmother is a valuable exercise in retrieval and reconstruction, a heartfelt stand against the dissolution of Kashmiri history and the mitigation of its sometimes self-inflicted wounds, and a continuation of her ongoing memorialization of the retreating wraiths of her elusive childhood in her oddly claustrophobic summers in the Himalayan foothills of the 1990s. The influence of Akbar Jehan in the Plebiscite Front and the National Conference, and the writing of this account from Khan herself, shine a welcome light on the role of women in Kashmiri self-definition.” – John C. Hawley, Professor of English, Santa Clara University, USA
“Nyla Ali Khan presents a hybrid feminist memoir and auto/biography of her grandmother, Begum Akbar Jehan. Jehan was the wife of political advocate, socialist, and first prime minister of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. From a wealthy background, Jehan promoted the overlapping grassroots and nationalist interests of herself and her husband, placing emphasis on women’s education. She was a pillar of stability for her husband, children and grandchildren and a representative of Jammu and Kashmir politics whether her husband was in or out of power.” – Betty J. Harris, Professor of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma, USA
“This is a personal, political and devotional biography of a woman to whom the author pays homage while also recording the history of Kashmir through the various political quagmires.Through the biography of her grandmother, Begum Akbar Jahan Abdullah, the author traces the political history of Kashmir and the traumas of the political process. The author through lyrical prose and cultural sensitivity deconstructs the life of her grandmother and other women in her family to situate them as women with agency through a feminist lens.” – Huma Ahmed-Ghosh, Professor of Women’s Studies, San Diego State University, USA
“Khan’s The Life of a Kashmiri Woman personal memories that unpacks the legacy of Kashmiri nationalist and social and political activist, Akbar Jehan. For the first time, we hear the story of the woman next to the man in power, former Prime Minister Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, highlighting Jehan’s agency, voice and determination to make her own contributions to Kashmir’s quest for independence and the creation of a secular, pluralist society. Written by her granddaughter, it provides insight into Jehan’s character and family dynamics in the midst of contentious politics and intrigues, telling the inside story and chellenging the dominant narratives of both hagiographers and critics alike. Unique in its vantage point and poetically written, it is a story of both triumph and heartache that is a tribute to the spirit of love and partnership.” – Natana J. DeLong-Bas, Visiting Assistant Professor of the Theology Department & Islamic Civilization and Societies Program, Boston College, USA
“Richly detailed, passionately argued, and strongly feminist, at once scholarly and intensely personal in its approach, this study of Akbar Jehan Abdullah’s role in the modern history of her country will be of interest to everyone who shares Nyla Khan’s commitment to a democratic and pluralist future for Kashmir.” – Daniel Cottom, Professor of English, University of Oklahoma, USA.
Biography
Nyla Ali Khan
Nyla Ali Khan is a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma, USA, and member of Scholars Strategy Network. She is the author of Fiction of Nationality in an Era of Transnationalism, Islam, Women, and Violence in Kashmir, and the editor of The Parchment of Kashmir.
Table of Contents
Preface
Foreword by Gopakrishna 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
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