Azad (Free) Jammu and Kashmir (JandK)) is that part of Kashmir within Pakistan, separated by a Line of Control from Indian territory. This book is a rarity: it offers a fresh interpretive history of the largely forgotten four million people of Azad Kashmir. The author contends that in October1947, pro-Pakistan Muslims in south-western JandK instigated the Kashmir dispute - not Pashtun tribesmen invading from Pakistan, as India has consistently claimed. Later called Azad Kashmiris, these people, Snedden argues, are legitimate stakeholders in an unresolved dispute. He provides comprehensive new information that critically examines Azad Kashmir's administration, economy, political system, and its subordinate relationship with Pakistan. Azad Kashmirisconsidered their administration to be the only legitimate government in JandK and expected that it would rule after JandK was re-unified by a UN-supervised plebiscite. This poll has never been conducted and Azad Kashmir has effectively, if not yet legally, become a (dependent) part of Pakistan. Long disenchanted with Islamabad, some Azad Kashmiris now favour independence for JandK, hoping that they may survive and prosper without recourse to either of their biggerneighbours. Snedden concludes his book by assessing the various proposals to resolve Azad Kashmir's international status and the broader Kashmir dispute. | Untold Story of the People of Azad Kashmir by Christopher Snedden, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters