BOOK REVIEW - Ganguly, SUlnit. Conflict Unending: India, Pakistan Tensions Since 1947

This article provides a scholarly review of the book "Conflict Unending: India, Pakistan Tensions Since 1947" by the renowned political scientist Sumit Ganguly. The reviewer summarizes the book's main contribution, which is a comprehensive and analytically rigorous history of the conflict between India and Pakistan from partition to the turn of the century. The review highlights Ganguly's central arguments about the deep-seated, ideologically-rooted nature of the conflict, which goes far beyond a simple territorial dispute over Kashmir. The reviewer assesses the strengths of the book's historical narrative and its theoretical framework for explaining the persistence of the conflict. The review concludes by affirming the book's status as a foundational and essential text for any student or scholar seeking to understand the tragic and enduring rivalry between India and Pakistan.

This article offers a critical review of Professor Sumit Ganguly's major work, "Conflict Unending: India, Pakistan Tensions Since 1947." The review begins by positioning the book as a masterful and authoritative synthesis of the vast history of the Indo-Pakistani conflict. It summarizes the author's main thesis: that the conflict is not merely a result of rational, state-level security dilemmas, but is deeply rooted in the foundational and conflicting ideologies of the two states—Indian secular nationalism versus the two-nation theory that is the basis of Pakistan. The reviewer discusses the key historical events that are analyzed in the book, from the first Kashmir war to the 1971 war that led to the creation of Bangladesh, and the nuclearization of the conflict in 1998. The review would praise the book for its analytical depth, its clear and compelling narrative, and its success in weaving together domestic political factors with the broader regional and international dynamics. It would highlight Ganguly's nuanced analysis of the Kashmir dispute as both a cause and a consequence of the deeper ideological rivalry. The review would conclude by establishing "Conflict Unending" as a definitive and indispensable scholarly work, a foundational text that provides the essential historical and analytical context for understanding one of the world's most dangerous and protracted inter-state conflicts.