Contextualizing Governance

Abstract

The first chapter contextualizes governance in Kashmir in the context of the role played by various factors that shaped and continue to shape the nature and character of governance in Kashmir. Among them mention may be made of the impact of Kashmir dispute, identity politics of the state, the legacy of the authoritarian, feudal and exclusivist princely order, ideological orientation of the freedom movement, Kashmir’s special position, its contestation and disorder in Kashmir, policy interventions from the centre, financial crisis and the changing environment which characterizes the period. It also provide an overview of the changing context of the Kashmiri society in which governance has to operate.