Parvez Dewan can send you to sleep about Jammu. If anyone has the Ultimate Dossier on this region, it is he, after years of running about India’s northernmost state, administering and adventuring his way around its valleys, peaks and rivers. Along the way he managed to revive Basohli’s famous miniature paintings and worked with nomadic Gujjar tribes. Along with studying the history of the region, he spent more than two years recording the customs and traditions of Banni, an enchanting valley on the state’s border with Himachal Pradesh. During field visits he came upon compelling reminders of the legendary unity that has always existed between Jammu’s Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. This led him to investigate how the events of 1947 had changed things. In this first-of-its-kind three-volume set on Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, one on each region, Parvez Dewan has tried to bring alive the past of the fabled land that has been the arena of his adult life: an up-to-date yet timeless history of the magical trinity of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh that crowns the sub-continent of India.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Parvez Dewan
Parvez Dewan was educated at St. Stephen's College, Delhi, and the University of Cambridge, and was elected a Visiting Research Fellow of Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University. He hitchhiked through Nicaragua to study its total literacy miracle and trawled Cambodia and Central Asia for their architectural links to Kashmir's temples and shrines. An officer of the Indian Administrative Service, he is currently the Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir. Two of his libretti were recorded as rock operas in Denmark, a third was telecast on Britain's Channel Four (and none of the three was ever heard of again). At St. Stephen's he was elected President of the College Union society and was awarded the L. Raghubir singh History Prize for ranking first in his B.A. (Hons.) class. At Cambridge, he was awarded the Jennings Prize in 1987 for obtaining the highest marks, and a distinction, in the Development Studies class. He was the Senior Treasurer of the Cambridge University (C.U.) Friends of the Earth and was also with the C.U. Green Party. Most of the publications that Parvez has written for had to fold up (Youth Times, JS, The Hindustan times Evening News, The Metropolitan on Saturday, Shama (Urdu) and such sections of The Times of India as he regularly contributed to). However, some survived (notably the Times of India, India Today, The Hindustan Times, The Statesman and Stardust).
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