The Kashmiri leader Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah (1905-82) is one of the best-known \nand most controversial political figures of twentieth-century South Asia. A fierce \nKashmiri nationalist, Abdullah is best remembered for opposing the Dogra monarchy's \nexploitative economic and political system; securing Jammu and Kashmir's accession to \nIndia in 1947; passing revolutionary land reforms as Prime Minister of J&K; and later \nfor championing the cause of Kashmiri self-determination---as a consequence of which \nhe was imprisoned for two decades---before coming to terms with the Indian \ngovernment in 1975. He has been alternately celebrated as a patriot and reviled as a \ntraitor in Kashmir, in India and in Pakistan. \nIn this richly researched and elegantly crafted biography, renowned historian \nChitralekha Zutshi transcends these labels by placing Abdullah's life in the context of \ncritical global developments in the twentieth century. She deftly illustrates how his \npolitical trajectory---forged in the inequities of the princely state system and burnished \nin the flames of anti-colonial nationalism, Islamic universalism, socialism, communism, \nsecularism, communalism, federalism and the Cold War---embodies the becoming of \nIndia itself. Based on new archival sources as well as oral histories, this book is as \nmuch a biography of one Kashmiri as that of an entire generation of leaders who \nshaped the politics and institutions of twentieth-century South Asia. \n* \nIndia is not the most important nor the most powerful country in the world. However, it \nhas strong claims to being the most interesting. This modern nation is heir to a rich \ncivilizational history, with the rise and fall of mighty empires juxtaposed with the rise \nand renewal of great religious traditions. The past two centuries have witnessed an epic \nstruggle against colonial rule as well as the construction of the world's largest \ndemocracy---in the inhospitable soil of the world's most hierarchical society. This \nhistory, ancient and modern, has featured many extraordinary individuals active in a \nvariety of fields: politics, spirituality, social reform, science, literature, art, music, film, \nsport and more. \nEach book in the Indian Lives series, written by a leading writer/scholar, focuses on \nthe life and legacy of an important figure from India's history.