Kashmir

View of Srinagar

This article covers Kashmir and other nearby countries of Central or High Asia.

Kashmir and Jammu was a Princely State which was created in 1846 after the 1st Sikh War. The British annexed the Kashmir Valley, Ladakh and Gilgit-Baltistan and tranferred it to Maharajah Gulab Singh for an indemnity payment. The capital of Kashmir was Srinagar.

Spelling variants

Modern name: Kashmir Variants: Cashmere

FIBIS resources

• Photograph: All Saints Church, Srinagar, Kashmir ca 1911 FIBIS Gallery: Emmy Eustace Collection.

External links

• Jammu and Kashmir Wikipedia (retrieved 16 June 2016)
• "Heritage tag for 110-yr-old power project" by Majid Jahangir. The second oldest power project, the Mohura [Mohra] Power House located in the Uri area of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, was commissioned in 1902. The Tribune September 1, 2012, Chandigarh, now an archived webpage. The Mohura Power House was situated midway between Uri and Baramulla.
• "Returning to Kashmir, where our parents were shot in front of us" by Andrew Whitehead 16 November 2017 from Baramulla, Kashmir. BBC com. Lieutenant-Colonel Tom Dykes of the Sikh Regiment, and his wife Biddy, and four others were shot dead at St Joseph's Catholic Mission Hospital in the riverside town of Baramulla, Kashmir in October 1947.
• 'Kashmir" by Kenneth Iain MacDonald. (library.utoronto.ca). In J. Speake (ed) (2003) The Literature of Travel and Exploration: An Encyclopedia. London: Routledge. Includes a Bibliography.

Historical books online

• Kashmir and Jammu Imperial Gazetteer
• Pahar- Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset contains online books related to Kashmir. Use the Search box to locate the books. Some, but not all, book files from Pahar have been uploaded to the Internet Archive, Archive.org.
• A Gazetteer of Kashmir and the adjacent districts of Kishtwa̕r, Badrawa̕r, Jamu̕, Naoshera, Pu̕nch and the valley of the Kishen Ganga ; Pt. 7, Sect. 1 (of the series Central Asia) by Charles Ellison Bates 1873 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek. Reprint edition Archive.org. The other titles in the series Central Asia include pt. 7, section 2. Ladak by F. Maisey Archive.org version, mirror from Pahar.

Gazetteer Of Kashmir And Ladak 1890 . Full title: Gazetteer of Kashmír and Ladak : together with routes in the territories of the Maharaja of Jamu and Kashmir compiled (for political and military reference) under the direction of the Quarter Master General in India in the Intelligence Branch 1890. Archive.org version, mirror from Digital Library of India.

• Imperial Gazetteer of India Provincial Series: Kashmir and Jammu 1908. Archive.org version mirror from Digital Library of India.
• Handbook of the Panjab, Western Rajputana, Kashmir, and Upper Sindh by Edward B. Eastwick, published by John Murray 1883 Archive.org
• The Kashmir Handbook: a guide for visitors by John Ince, 3rd edition, revised and enlarged 1876. Pdf download, PAHAR Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset. Archive.org mirror version.

• 1876 Map of Vale of Kashmir to accompany Dr. Ince’s Hand Book of Kashmir. Download, PAHAR Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset.

Kashmir and Jammu: A Guide for Visitors by Joshua Duke, late Resident Surgeon in Kashmir. Thacker, Spink 1903. There was a later edition 1910. Cover title: Kashmir Handbook. Northwestern University Libraries Digitized Books [USA]. Catalogue entry. It is stated that it is practically a new book although based on Ince’s work (editions at the end of the 1860s, 1876 and 1888. Titles are The Káshmir Handbook: a guide for visitors by John Ince 1867, 1872, 1876-see above; Ince's Kashmir Handbook : a guide for visitors, rewritten and much enlarged by Joshua Duke 1888). 1910 edition HathiTrust Digital Library, 1910 Google Books edition, both available only to North American etc viewers.

• A Guide for visitors to Kashmir by John Collett. Enlarged, revised and corrected up to date by A. Mitra, Chief Medical Officer, Kashmir 1898. Archive.org. British Library Digital. Previously published as Collett, John, A Guide for Visitors to Kashmir, 1884
• The Tourist's Guide to Kashmir, Ladakh, Skardo, &c. Edited by Arthur Neve. Originally published c 1890.

1918; 1927, 14th edition. Pdf downloads, Pahar- Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset.

1918 11th edition Archive.org version, mirror from Pahar; 1927 14th edition Archive.org version, 1933 15th edition Archive.org version revised by E F Neve, mirrors from Digital Library of India.

• Handbook for Visitors to Kashmir by J L K Jalali 1933. Archive.org, mirror from Digital Library of India.
• A.I.S.A. Kashmir Guide [All India Spinners' Association] catalogued 1935 by M H Kotak. Pdf download, Pahar- Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset. Archive.org mirror version.
• The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province and Kashmir by Sir James Douie 1916 Archive.org. A volume in the series Provincial Geographies of India
• Account of Koonawur, in the Himalaya‬ [1817-1818] by Captain Alexander Gerard 1841 Archive.org.
  • Map of Koonawur, front of book. Koonawur was situated between the north of India and Chinese Tartary.

Narrative of a journey from Caunpoor to the Boorendo pass, in the Himalaya Mountains viâ Gwalior, Agra, Delhi, and Sirhind; by Major Sir William Lloyd. And Captain Alexander Gerard's account of an attempt to penetrate by Bekhur to Garoo, and the Lake Manasarowara: with a letter from the late J.G. Gerard, esq. detailing a visit to the Shatool and Boorendo passes, for the purpose of determining tte line of perpetual snow on the southern face of the Himalaya. Ed. by George Lloyd, published 1840. Volume I [1821-1822] Google Books. Volume II Captain Alexander Gerard’s Narrative 1821 Archive.org. Article about the book, page 421 The Monthly Review, From January To April Inclusive. 1840 Google Books.

• Letters from India : describing a journey in the British dominions of India, Tibet, Lahore, and Cashmere, during the years 1828, 1829, 1830, 1831, undertaken by order of the French government by Victor Jacquemont, Museum of Natural History, Paris. Volume I, Volume II Archive.org
• Travels in Kashmir and the Panjab - Containing A Particular Account Of The Government And Character Of The Sikhs From The German Of Baron Charles Hügel [or Hugel] With Notes By Major T.B. Jervis, F.R.S. 1845 Archive.org
• Western Himalaya and Tibet : a narrative of a journey through the mountains of northern India, during the years 1847-8 by Thomas Thomson, Assistant Surgeon Bengal Army 1852 Archive.org.
• The Adventures of a Lady in Tartary, Thibet, China, and Kashmir. ... With an account of the Journey from the Punjab to Bombay overland. ... Also an account of the Mahableshwur and Neilgherry Mountains, etc. by Mrs Hervey 1853. The Himalayan part of the journey took place March, 1850 to October, 1851. In three volumes:

Volume I, Volume II, Volume III Google Books

Volume I, Volume II, Volume III British Library Digital Collection. Images can be rotated.

Some sources give her names as Eleanor Louisa, Mrs Thomas Kibble. However, another source gives her as Julia Harvey, born 1825, the daughter of William Morton an engineer and his wife Juliana. There was a marriage in Cawnpore 10 September 1845 of Julian Susan Morton , age 20, to Edward Harvey, Captain 10th Light Cavalry. He appears to be still alive in the late 1850s, so if this identification was correct, she did not undertake the journey due to widowhood. Article about the book by Christina Stoltz exploringtibet.wikischolars.columbia.edu

• Illustrations of Himalayan plants : chiefly selected from drawings made for the late J.F. Cathcart, Esq.re of the Bengal Civil Service ; the descriptions and analyses by J.D. Hooker ; the plates executed by W.H. Fitch 1855 Archive.org
• Hunting in the Himalaya. With notices of customs and countries from the elephant haunts of the Dehra Doon to the Bunchowr tracks in eternal snow by R H W Dunlop BCS [Bengal Civil Service] 1860 with a Map. Archive.org.
• ‪A Summer Ramble in the Himalayas: With Sporting Adventures in the Vale of Cashmere‬ Edited by Mountaineer [Frederick Wilson] 1860 Google Books
• Gunner Jingo's Jubilee by Major-General T Bland Strange. Late Royal Artillery 1893 Archive.org. Born 1831 in Meerut he subsequently came to India when the Indian Mutiny broke out (page 129) and remained, including leave in 1861, when he went on on a six months hunting trek in Kashmir and Ladak, until c 1862 (page 337). Thomas Bland Strange Wikipedia. “Strange, Thomas Bland” by Roderick C. Macleod in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 15, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003.
• The rifle in Cashmere : a narrative of shooting expeditions in Ladak, Cashmere, Punjaub, etc., with advice on travelling, shooting, and stalking : to which are added notes on army reform and Indian politics by Arthur Brinckman, late of HM’s 94th Regt. 1862 Google Books
• The Diary of a Hunter from the Punjab to the Karakorum Mountains by [A.H. Irby]. 1863 Google Books. Kashmir and adjacent countries, principally Ladak.
• Diary of a Pedestrian in Cashmere and Thibet by Captain Knight, Forty-Eighth Regiment 1863 Archive.org
• Wanderings of a Naturalist in India : the Western Himalayas, and Cashmere by Andrew Leith Adams, Surgeon 22nd Regiment. 1867. Archive.org
• Medical Missions : as illustrated by some letters and notices of the late Dr. Elmslie. Printed for the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society 1874. Archive.org. Dr. Elmslie (William Jackson) arrived in Srinagar in 1865 to work for the Kashmir Medical Mission, and died in 1871.
• 1987 reprint edition titled Sikkim. With hints on mountain and jungle warfare. Exhibiting also the facilities for opening commercial relations through the state of Sikhim with Central Asia, Thibet, and western China by Colonel J. C. Gawler originally published 1873 HathiTrust Digital Library. Also available as a pdf download of the original edition titled Sikhim... PAHAR Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset, Archive.org mirror version.
• Visits To High Tartary, Yarkand, And Kashghar (formerly Chinese Tartary), and Return Journey Over the Karakoram Pass by Robert Shaw 1871 Archive.org
• Kashmir and Kashghar. A narrative of the journey of the embassy to Kashghar in 1873-74 by H W Bellew, Surgeon-Major, Bengal Staff Corps 1875 Archive.org
• A varied life: a record of military and civil service, of sport and of travel in India, Central Asia and Persia 1849 -1902 by Gen. Sir Thomas Edward Gordon. 1906 Archive.org. Appointed to the Indian Army Indian Staff Corps 1862, appointed to the Kashgar Mission in 1873.

The Roof of the World : being a narrative of a journey over the high plateau of Tibet to the Russian Frontier and the Oxus Sources on Pamir by Lieutenant-Colonel T E Gordon, Honorary Aide-De-Camp to the Viceroy of India, lately attached to the Special Mission to Kashghar 1876 Archive.org. Includes Kashghar.

• Sporting and military adventures in Nepaul and the Himalayas. A narrative of personal encounters and narrow escapes by Major Blaney Walshe [1875]. Archive.org. Although elsewhere catalogued as a personal account, this book appears to be an adventure novel.
• Soldier and traveller; memoirs of Alexander Gardner, Colonel of Artillery in the service of Maharaja Ranjit Singh [1785-1877] edited by Major Hugh Pearse 1898 Archive.org. "The fantastic adventures of the tartan-turbaned colonel" by William Dalrymple 13 May 2017 The Spectator, archived.
• Routes in Asia. Variant Title: Routes in Central Asia. Calcutta : Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1877-1878. "Compiled under the direction of Major General Fred. S. Roberts, C.B., V.C., Quarter Master General in India ...". Section 5. Routes in the territories of the Maharaja of Jummoo and Kashmir, and adjacent countries compiled ... by M.H. Saward, Royal Horse Artillery. Google Books
• The Sportsman's Guide to Kashmir & Ladak, etc. Reproduced with additions from letters which appeared in the "Asian." by A E Ward , Bengal Staff Corps. Second and revised edition 1883 Archive.org

The Tourist's and Sportsman’s Guide to Kashmir and Ladak by A E Ward, Bengal Staff Corps 1896. Archive.org

• Journals kept in Hyderabad, Kashmir, Sikkim, and Nepal by Sir Richard Temple 1887 Volume I HathiTrust Digital Library; Volume II Archive.org
• The Highlands of India, Volume II, being a Chronicle of Field Sports and Travel in India by Major General D J F Newall R A (Bengal Retired) 1887 Archive.org
• Hindu-Koh: wanderings and wild sport on and beyond the Himalayas by Major General Donald Macintyre, VC, late Prince of Wales Own Goorkhas 1889 edition, 1891 edition Archive.org
• A First Bear-Shoot in Kashmir being a guide for would-be sportsmen by W Dutton Burrard 1892, published Allahabad. Pdf download PAHAR- Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset (MCADD). Archive.org mirror version.
• Where three empires meet : a narrative of recent travel in Kashmir, Western Tibet, Gilgit, and the adjoining countries by E F Knight. New Edition 1894 (first published March 1893) Archive.org.
  • With a Map

The Hunza Nagar Expedition page 112 Reminiscences; the Wanderings of a Yachtsman and War Correspondent by E. F. Knight 1923. HathiTrust Digital Library. This book is also available Pahar-Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset. If the download button does not display, locate under Books/Indian Subcontinent.

• Climbing and Exploration in the Karakoram-Himalayas by William Martin Conway with Three Hundred Illustrations by A D McCormick 1894. Archive.org, Central Secretariat Library, Government of India Collection.

An Artist in the Himalayas by A D McCormick (Arthur David) 1895. Illustrated by sketches. Archive.org. Arthur David McCormick Wikipedia

• The Valley of Kashmir by Walter Lawrence ICS CIE 1895 Archive.org
• Sport on the Pamirs and Turkistan steppes by Major C S Cumberland 1895 Archive.org
• Sport in Ladakh. Five letters from “The Field” by F. E. S. A. [Sir Frederick Edward Shafto Adair] ; illustrated from photographs by R. S. A. 1895 Archive.org. Originally appeared in The Field newspaper.

A Summer in High Asia, being a record of sport and travel in Baltisan and Ladakh by Capt F E S Adair, late Rifle Brigade 1899. 2nd file images may be marginally better. Archive.org

• Routes in Jammu and Kashmir arranged topographically with description of routes; distances by stages; and information as to supplies and transport by Major-General Le Marquis De Bourbel, R E Retired, late Chief Engineer of the Jammu and Kashmir State 1897. British Library Digital file. Pages may be rotated if required. There is an alternative version available on Archive.org, but note it may be difficult to read on a fixed computer screen, as most of the pages are printed "sideways". For readers in some areas such as North America, the HathiTrust Digital Library version has a page rotation facility.
• Sport in the Highlands of Kashmir. Being a narrative of an eight months' trip in Baltistan and Ladak, and a lady's experiences in the latter country; together with hints for the guidance of sportsmen by Henry Zouch Darrah, Indian Civil Service 1898 Archive.org
• A Trip to Kashmir by James Arbuthnot 1900. Archive.org, mirror from Central Secretariat Library, Government of India.
• Innermost Asia : travel & sport in the Pamirs by Ralph P Cobbold (late 60th Rifles) 1900 Archive.org
• Picturesque Kashmir by Arthur Neve, illustrated by Geoffrey W Millais 1900 Archive.org

Thirty years in Kashmir by Arthur Neve, Church Missionary Society 1913. Archive.org

• Irene Petrie, Missionary to Kashmir by Mrs Ashley Carus-Wilson 1901 Archive.org. Irene Petrie, 1864-1897, was with the Church Missionary Society.

Robert Clark of the Panjab : pioneer and missionary statesman by Henry Martyn Clark 1907 Archive.org. Includes chapters on the Cashmere Mission. Born 1825, Robert Clark joined the Church Missionary Society and was sent to India where he arrived in 1852 and was posted to Amritsar. He partially retired in 1898, completely in 1900, but died soon after.

• Sport and politics under an eastern sky by [Lawrence Zetland] the Earl of Ronaldsay 1902 Archive.org. Part I "In Pursuit of Wild Game in Highest Asia".
• The Romantic East: Burma, Assam, & Kashmir by Walter Del Mar 1906 "Containing sixty-four full page illustrations from photographs" Archive.org
• "Two Months in Kashmir" by Captain T H Stevenson, Royal Army Medical Corps, page 308 Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps March 1907. jramc.bmj.com. Hunting.
• A Holiday in the Happy Valley with Pen and Pencil by T. R. Swinburne 1907 Archive.org.
• Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya by Major R L Kennion 1910 Archive.org. The author joined the Indian Foreign and Political Department in 1893, serving in Kashmir, Gilgit and Leh until 1907.
• Kashmir described by Sir Francis Younghusband KCIE and painted by Major E Molyneux. DSO. 1911 Archive.org
• Across the roof of the world; a record of sport and travel through Kashmir, Gilgit, Hunza, the Pamirs, Chinese Turkistan, Mongolia and Siberia by Lieut P T Etherton, 39th Garhwal Rifles (Indian Army) 1911 Archive.org. Percy T. Etherton subsequently became the British consul in Kashgar, Xinjiang, in 1918-1922, see Norperforce.
• Beyond the Pir Panjal : life among the mountains and valleys of Kashmir by Ernest F. Neve 1912. Archive.org. The author was a doctor who worked at the Kashmir Medical Mission.
• The Realm Of The Gods by Captain C M Enriquez 1915. Full title: The Realm of the Gods; a tale of travel in Kangra, Mandi, Kulu, Chamba, Kishtwar, Kashmir, Ladakh and Baltistan. Archive.org version mirror from Digital Library of India.
• With Pen and Rifle in Kishtwar by Otto Rothfeld 1918. The author was a member of the Indian Civil Service. He describes Kishtwar as, "…the province of Kishtwar, situated between Kashmir and Chamba on the way to Simla, and ruled by H. H. the Maharaja of Kashmir and Jammu". Pdf download, PAHAR Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset. If the book download does not display, locate the digital file under Books. Archive.org mirror version.
• On the Edge of the World by Edmund Candler 1919 Archive.org
• The Charm of Kashmir by V. C. Scott O'Connor (Vincent Clarence) 1920 Archive.org
• Camera Shikar and Guide for Visitors to Kashmir by Brown. 1921. Pdf download, PAHAR Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset. Archive.org mirror version. Full title: Camera Shikar and Guide for Visitors to Kashmir : being the wanderings of an artist with camera, brush and pen through the Happy Valley and its mountains compiled from the diaries of Browyne Longnose-Brown and some entries by his companion Mac.
• "A Shooting Trip in Chamba" by F L Farrer page 318 Blackwood’s Magazine, no 211 January-June 1922 Archive.org
• Diary of a Journey from Srinagar to Kashgar via Gilgit by H I Harding of the British Consular Service in China, 1922. Archive.org, mirror from PAHAR: Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset.
• Kashmir in Sunlight & Shade : a description of the beauties of the country, the life, habits, and humour of its inhabitants and an account of the gradual but steady rebuilding of a once down-trodden people by C E Tyndale-Biscoe, of the Church Missionary Society High School in Srinagar. 1922 Archive.org.
• Routes in Western-Himalaya Kashmir &c Volume 1 Punch, Kashmir, Ladakh by Kenneth Mason. [Púnch, Kashmír & Ladákh]. Published under the direction of the Surveyor General of India, 1922 and printed at the Office of the Trigonometrical Survey of India, Dehra Dun. 2nd edition 1929, Revised and corrected. Pdf downloads, PAHAR Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset. 1922 Archive.org mirror version, 1929, Second edition, Archive.org mirror version.
• Beyond Leh: A Shooting Trip in Ladakh, 1926 by K. W. Dickson, wife of R, a Medical Officer. Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps

Part 1 1933;60:5 377-392. Part 2 1933;60:6 456-461. Part 3 1933;61:1 61-70. Part 4 1933;61:2 133-144. Part 5 1933;61:4 304-309. Part 6 1933;61:5 379-393. Part 7 1933;61:6 ?-466: not online. Part 8 1934;62:2 142-150. Part 9 1934;62:3 224-233. Part 10 1934;62:5 365-376. Part 11 1934;62:6 430-440. Part 12 1934;63:2 127-134. Part 13 1934;63:3 193-206.

• Mountain Magic by Eve Orme [1945]. About travel to Ladakh in 1926 with her Army officer husband who was on a shooting-trip.
• Macartney at Kashgar: New Light on British, Chinese and Russian Activities in Sinkiang, 1890-1918 by C.P. Skrine and Pamela Nightingale. 1973. Link to a pdf download PAHAR Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset. Also available Archive.org version. Macartney’s wife Catherine wrote of her time at Kashgar in An English Lady in Chinese Turkestan first published 1931. Archive.org, mirror from PAHAR Mountains of Central Asia Digital Datase. A later biography is The Diplomat of Kashgar: A Very Special Agent. The Life of Sir George Macartney, 18 January 1867-19 May 1945 by James McCarthy.

Through Deserts and Oases of Central Asia by Ella Sykes and Percy Sykes, 1920 Archive.org. Covers the brief period in which Percy Sykes relieved Macartney at Kashgar while the latter was on leave in 1916 but is really Percy's sister Ella Sykes’s travel account and says little about consular affairs.

• Includes a Map, in two sections.

Chinese Central Asia by C P Skrine. Indian Civil Service, British Consul General in Chinese Turkistan 1922-1924. First published 1926 Archive.org. Index.Hathi Trust Digital Library version where images are rotatable. The Consulate was at Kashgar. Clarmont Percival Skrine Wikipedia.

Also see Norperforce for more about the Kashgar Mission during WW1 prior to 1922.

The Antique Land by Diana Shipton 1950. Archive.org Lending Library. A memoir by the wife of Eric Shipton, the last British consul in Kashgar before the consulate closed in 1947.

• Khyber Caravan: Through Kashmir, Waziristan, Afghanistan, Baluchistan and Northern India by Gordon Sinclair 1936. Archive.org. Also available PAHAR Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset. If download button does not display, locate in Books/Indian Subcontinent/1936. Archive.org mirror version.
• Hired to Kill: Some Chapters of Autobiography by John Morris 1960. Link to a pdf download, PAHAR Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset. Archive.org mirror version. Morris was an officer with the 3rd Gurkha Rifles from 1918 until 1934. Includes chapters when he was transport officer for the 1922 Mount Everest Expedition (page 134 onwards) and in 1927 he trekked in Chinese Turkestan (page 225 onwards).
• British India's Northern Frontier 1865-1895. A Study in Imperial Policy by G J Alder 1963. Archive.org, mirror from PAHAR: Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset.
• The Gilgit Game: The Explorers of the Western Himalayas 1865-95 by John Keay 1979. Archive.org, mirror from PAHAR: Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset.
• Kashmir and the British Raj 1847-1947 by Robert A Huttenback 2004. Link to a pdf download, PAHAR - Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset (MCADD). If download button does not display, locate in Books/Indian Subcontinent.

Historical Genesis of India’s Northern Frontier Problem by Robert A Huttenback 1961. Link to a pdf download, PAHAR - Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset (MCADD). If download button does not display, locate in Books/Indian Subcontinent or Direct link. Archive.org mirror version. Paper presented before the South Asia Colloquium, April 27, 1961.

• Recipes by The Mallinson Girls’ School , Srinagar. unknown date, but probably after 1961. Archive.org. This school was established in 1912 as the Girls' Mission High School and was later named after the Church Missionary Society Missionary, Miss Muriel Pauline Mallinson, probably after she retired c 1961. The School is now part of the Tyndale-Biscoe & Mallinson Schools, Srinagar.
• Fiction:
  • A Freelance in Kashmir: A Tale of the Great Anarchy by Lieut.-Colonel G F MacMunn c 1914 Archive.org.
  • Death Walked In Kashmir by M M Kaye 1953. Archive.org version, mirror from Digital Library of India. An edition published in 1984 under the title Death in Kashmir is available from the Internet Archive (Archive.org) Lending Library: first you must register, and only one person at a time may read the book. A 'whodunnit' set in 1947 just before partition, by the author of The Far Pavilions and Shadow of the Moon.