Why has the valley of Kashmir, famed for its beauty and tranquility, become a major flashpoint, threatening the stability of a region of great strategic importance and posing a nuclear threat for the entire world? This book examines the Kashmir conflict in its historical context, from the period when the valley was an independent kingdom right up to the struggles of the 1990s. Drawing upon research in India and Pakistan as well as historical sources, this book traces the origins of the state in the 19th century, the controversial sale by the British of the predominantly Muslim valley to a Hindu Maharaja in 1846 and the 20th century clashes between Muslim and Hindu interests culminating in the threat of a major war at the end of the millennium.