Graveyards in Kashmir

When EILEEN HEWSON travelled through the Himalayan state of Kashmir in search of memorials connected with the Raj, she discovered a sinister side to the tranquil valley not depicted in the guide books. A search in the graveyards and burial records revealed the bodies of four foreigners who had dared to criticise the regime of the Maharaja of Kashmir and whose deaths are unexplained. Combine these with a massacre by Afghan insurgents, several accidents in the mountains where climbers and sportsmen fell or were swept away by avalanches, a major truck accident which happened on the way to Leh (everyone died), an air crash in Jammu and two suicides show us that these graveyards are far from peaceful places. Although this book containing both European and Indian memorial inscriptions is intended for the family historian many of the biographies tell a good tale and may be of interest to the reader.