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In the Valley of Mist: Kashmir: One Family In A Changing World
A personal, moving, and vibrant picture of one of the most beautiful and troubled places in the world, described through the experiences of one family, whose fortunes have changed dramatically with those of the region.
If there is a paradise on earth, it is definitely here, here and only here," said the early seventeenth-century Mughal Emperor Jehangir when describing the Kashmir Valley. But for nearly twenty years this delicate mountain region has been torn by a brutal conflict that has pitched idealism against Islamist militancy and military crackdown. In the tradition of Ryszard Kapuscinski, this is an intimate story told by the author, journalist, and aid worker Justine Hardy. Having lived and worked in Kashmir for many years, she draws the reader beyond the headlines into the world of In the Valley of Mist. A family portrait, the book describes a unique and gentle culture that has been shattered by the impact of insurgency, repression, and Islamic extremism in a place once famous for the warmth between its Hindu and Muslim residents.
"If you want people to know do not tell stories that will make them hold their breath like in a made-up film. Tell them the truth. It is strong enough," she was told when she asked permission of her Kashmiri friends to tell this story.
Revealing and disturbing, In the Valley of Mist paints Kashmir as the template for the changing face of Islam.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Justine Hardy
10 books15 followersJustine Hardy is a British journalist, author, and conflict trauma therapist specializing in South Asia, and the Kashmir region in particular. She is the author of six books, ranging from journeys through Tibet, Hindi film, her time working on an Indian newspaper, the realities of orthodox Islam, and war.
Hardy has contributed to the BBC, the Financial Times, The Times, Traveler, and Vanity Fair. Her journalism extends from travel in Europe, India, the United States, and the Caribbean, to book reviews and social affairs reporting. Among other topics, she has written articles on the search for peace and the mental health crisis in Kashmir, and on female activists within Islam.
In addition to her writing, Hardy is involved in several aid projects.
Hardy has contributed to the BBC, the Financial Times, The Times, Traveler, and Vanity Fair. Her journalism extends from travel in Europe, India, the United States, and the Caribbean, to book reviews and social affairs reporting. Among other topics, she has written articles on the search for peace and the mental health crisis in Kashmir, and on female activists within Islam.
In addition to her writing, Hardy is involved in several aid projects.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
December 6, 2016
I'm going to go against the tide here and say that this book was a far cry from being "well-written." It was anything but that. I literally sat through the entire read with a pencil in my hand circling the poor editing job done with this book as I went along. It was hard not to. Every few pages, something kept jumping out at me. Hence, reading a fairly short book turned into a tedious task. To my absolute horror, the author credited four people for having edited this book. Clearly, she needed a fifth!
While one can appreciate the content of the book itself, the writing style was absolutely cringe-worthy. This is definitely one that I won't be recommending to anyone.
While one can appreciate the content of the book itself, the writing style was absolutely cringe-worthy. This is definitely one that I won't be recommending to anyone.
February 16, 2010
Justine Hardy (and a disclaimer that she is a personal friend) has written one of the best ever books to profile the complex, violent Kashmir crisis, but from the vantage of her 12 year relationship with the Dar family, and has skillfully woven together a fascinating and informative read about recent Kashmir, including the massive 2005 earthquake which hit Pakistan and India's mountain regions. I especially enjoyed how she would get older people to lament on the 'good old days' and how she tied together the cultural nuances of a region little understood by the outside world. Bravo Justine, and can't wait for another books soon!
May 26, 2010
This book brought back all my childhood memories of growing up in the Srinagar district of Kashmir valley. Watching and hearing a group of young men raising anti India & Freedom slogans in 1989 from my school window at the age of six was not a good sign for things to come. The story of Dar family in the book is as same as other kashmiri families who witnessed the most traumatic and dreadful time. I am still trying to figure out where my childhood went.
Justine Hardy has done a great job in writing the book which is full of facts and speaks for Kashmir itself.
Justine Hardy has done a great job in writing the book which is full of facts and speaks for Kashmir itself.
August 9, 2019
At a time when Kashmir is in the news, this book covers the nuance of conflict - over a period of decades - through the lens of one family. How can the Valley have endured so much, from all sides? And yet it still contains so much - beauty, hope, people, craftsmanship, poetry...This is the question you’re left with, a weight, it sits heavy but feels essential
October 9, 2022
this book is a memoir.
it is about a man called mohommad dar.
it is about the family of the dars.
he has three brothers and they drink alcahol, wear jeans and make girl friends but all that changes this book is based in srinagar , kashmir.
there is a war going on and there is destruction and chaos every where.
it follows the soviet afghan conflict.
it is about the september 11 , 2001 attacks.
there is talk about kashmir and the pakistani part of kashmir and the indian side of kashmir.
mohommad dar wants the best for his children and want them to go to england to study as their was no future in kashmir.
it is about the war between india and pakistan and the nuclear war.
mohommad dar is a muslim.
in the end , there is talk about the 2005 earthquake which happened in pakistan and india and about how he did every thing he could do for his country and for kashmir.
he works with the people and the government to do all he can do for the earth quake victims.
this book was nice!.
it is about a man called mohommad dar.
it is about the family of the dars.
he has three brothers and they drink alcahol, wear jeans and make girl friends but all that changes this book is based in srinagar , kashmir.
there is a war going on and there is destruction and chaos every where.
it follows the soviet afghan conflict.
it is about the september 11 , 2001 attacks.
there is talk about kashmir and the pakistani part of kashmir and the indian side of kashmir.
mohommad dar wants the best for his children and want them to go to england to study as their was no future in kashmir.
it is about the war between india and pakistan and the nuclear war.
mohommad dar is a muslim.
in the end , there is talk about the 2005 earthquake which happened in pakistan and india and about how he did every thing he could do for his country and for kashmir.
he works with the people and the government to do all he can do for the earth quake victims.
this book was nice!.
April 16, 2020
If there was an option of 0 stars I would have opted for that. It could have been more enjoyable for the reader but the writer was more concerned about how she was getting treated and her experiences than the writer at a lot of incidents.
Disappointed !!!
Disappointed !!!
March 24, 2013
The book I read was In the Valley of Mist: Kashmir: One Family in a Changing World. This book is a memoir written by a woman, Justine Hardy. It is about her experience spending time is Kashmir. She has spent time in Kashmir off and on since she was a teenager.
This memoir takes place in Kashmir. Although the author spent a lot of time in Kashmir, most of this memoir is from 1997 to 2008. The author is very close with the Dar family, mainly Mohammad Dar and his family. When the author is in Kashmir she lives on a houseboat that is owned by the Dar family. Mohammad’s immediate family includes his wife and six kids. Two of his sons are married. He has 2 grandkids. They all live together in a house up on the hill. When a daughter gets married she moves in with the husband and their family. Women usually don’t have friendships outside of their family or their husband’s family. The author is also close to a man that works for the Dar family. His name is Maqbool. Women do not go out in public without a man for a chaperone. Maqbool is the person that maintains the Dar’s houseboat and often chaperones the author when she is out in public.
The story begins as the author decides to have a pheran made. The pheran is clothing that is worn in Kashmir by both men and women. The pheran is formless, plain, three quarter length part sack and part woolen tunic. The author says that a lot of thought is put in to having a pheran made because you will live in it for the foreseeable future. The pherans worn by women are often embroidered at the neckline and cuffs. At one point the pherans were declared illegal garments for men because weapons could be easily hidden within the garment. The men still wore them. The Muslim men have beards. The women cover their hair and at times cover their faces. They also have burqas that they wear in public periodically.
In the book the author talks about the conflict in Kashmir and what the fighting has done to the Dar family, the Kashmiris people and the once beautiful valley. Kashmir wanted its freedom from both India and Pakistan. It wasn’t for religious reasons. The Hindus and Muslims celebrated traditions together prior to the struggle for independence. Once fighting started though, the local Muslims were supported by Pakistan. When the strict Muslims took over the area the women lost a lot of their rights and had to start wearing burkas. At that point religion separated the Kashmir people. Many of the non-Muslim people left the area. The Muslims that stayed became more devout.
The insurgency caused tourism to disappear and it made it difficult for people to make a living. The conflict also caused people to become depressed. Mental illness from post traumatic stress syndrome and depression increased and the mental health clinics couldn’t provide service to most of them. In the fall of 2005 Kashmir had a huge earthquake. Over 80,000 people were killed. The political issues and the corruption caused a delay in getting supplies to the areas that were the hardest hit. Mohammad and the author worked together to raise money and purchase the supplies for the people that survive the earthquake.
I chose this book because I thought that is was going to be about a girl or woman. Although this book is written by a woman, the story is almost all about the men and the conflict in Kashmir. Women are mentioned a few times but the book seemed to be more about the conversations the author has with the men and the effects of the conflict in Kashmir. The author is from England but she never explains why she started to go to Kashmir. I assumed it was for vacations with her family. She mentions her mother a couple of times but never her father. I also thought the writing difficult to follow. The author jumped from present day to the past and from Kashmir to London. I found myself lost and having to reread several times. I also was frustrated by all the different terms and names.
I would recommend this book to anyone that is interested in India, Pakistan, Kashmir or history in that region. I did not enjoy this book. I did learn a little about an area that I perviously knew nothing about. It also made me sad that an area that was once peaceful and beautiful is now full of fear and destruction. Although I didn’t like this book I think some people may like it.
October 5, 2014
The story of the Kashmir insurgency told thru the eyes of the ordinary people. Justine Hardy is a British journalist who has been going to Kashmir since she was a child, through the worst periods of the insurgency in the early 1990's and well into the 2000's. Although the political events that have led to Kashmir's current status are briefly mentioned, this is not a historical analysis of the causes of the conflict. It is a people's story, a collection of anecdotes mainly of an extended Muslim merchant family.
I fully expected the book to be a rant against the human rights abuses of the Indian military and Government. But I was pleasantly surprised. There are, certainly, several accounts of "encounter" killings, beatings and other abuses. However, most of the stories are about sufferings of the common man at the hands of the insurgents from across the border. There is the long conversation with a Hindu Pandit woman who has been living in a refugee camp outside Delhi with her family for years. There is a conversation with a boy who had been abducted by the insurgents, taken to a training camp in POK, had escaped and was now working as an informer for the Indian army.
However, along with many such stories, there is also the description of a society turning more conservative and religious, and less tolerant. So one wonders if the insurgents lost the military battle but gained their objectives? Or can Kashmir ever be the same vibrant society it was in the 60's, 70's and 80's?
I fully expected the book to be a rant against the human rights abuses of the Indian military and Government. But I was pleasantly surprised. There are, certainly, several accounts of "encounter" killings, beatings and other abuses. However, most of the stories are about sufferings of the common man at the hands of the insurgents from across the border. There is the long conversation with a Hindu Pandit woman who has been living in a refugee camp outside Delhi with her family for years. There is a conversation with a boy who had been abducted by the insurgents, taken to a training camp in POK, had escaped and was now working as an informer for the Indian army.
However, along with many such stories, there is also the description of a society turning more conservative and religious, and less tolerant. So one wonders if the insurgents lost the military battle but gained their objectives? Or can Kashmir ever be the same vibrant society it was in the 60's, 70's and 80's?
January 14, 2012
Although this book was nicely written, I had a hard time getting through it. It may not have been a good time for me to read it, with lots of distractions, etc. but I think that because the author skips from one person's story to historical background to another person's story (and it was easy for me to forget how one person was related to another), the book as a whole was not compelling. I did not feel like I got to know any of the people, although obviously dear to her, very well, although the message of the problems of injustice and corruption were clear. I also didn't realize that she was heading up an aid group until the end of the book, and I felt a bit misled since that is not mentioned on the book jacket or at the beginning of the book. For a more compelling story with a similar message, I'd recommend Three Cups of Tea or Stones into Schools (about Pakistan and Afganistan).
July 23, 2010
Interesting book about Kashmir and the struggles its people have had.
My favorite "snippets" ::
"Do foreigners miss the language of corruption sometimes and then find that obstacles have appeared to stop us from doing something? Or is it, as I replied to the lame man, that the majority of corruption is kept away from the foreigners so that it can be denied for lack of evidence?"
and
"One truth is that he and I know how different we are from each other, and we are trying not to challenge those differences."
My favorite "snippets" ::
"Do foreigners miss the language of corruption sometimes and then find that obstacles have appeared to stop us from doing something? Or is it, as I replied to the lame man, that the majority of corruption is kept away from the foreigners so that it can be denied for lack of evidence?"
and
"One truth is that he and I know how different we are from each other, and we are trying not to challenge those differences."
November 30, 2016
I've chosen this book to get some overview of Kashmir conflict. As it is written by a journalist, I was hoping for the mix of very personal stories and sober factual analysis of the situation. And I've indeed got that I expected. The author does a good job in painting Kashmir for the readers with all the colors, details and general mood of the place. However, even though I generally enjoyed reading, I would say that book is not as powerful as the topic it's covering. The way it is structured is very distracting as the stories do not seem to be connected.
January 26, 2014
The history in the book is very interesting and there is some really good sections of the book however, either due to the author or editors composition, the flow is very stunted. Sometimes you can feel the authors desire to describe something with beautiful prose but it comes off as vague, unusual and strange. I struggled to get through the book due to the layout/plan and the unusual descriptive passages.
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April 23, 2014Can't give this book a rating because I abandoned it after reading the Introduction and first chapter.
If only the writing had measured up to the writing in the book's description!
I've no doubt that the family's and larger story are worth learning, which is why I wanted to read this book in the first place. However, poor writing does a story no service, regardless of the facts of the matter.
I simply can't get past the poor construction and choppy writing.
If only the writing had measured up to the writing in the book's description!
I've no doubt that the family's and larger story are worth learning, which is why I wanted to read this book in the first place. However, poor writing does a story no service, regardless of the facts of the matter.
I simply can't get past the poor construction and choppy writing.
July 8, 2009
I really enjoyed this book, my only complaint being that the story was told in a rather disjointed way and I often had trouble piecing the story together chronologically. But a beautiful exploration of the difficulties and the people of Kashmir. The sections on the 2005 Pakistan earthquake were especially powerful. Lovely book.
August 4, 2015
The book covers stories of chaos in Valley through changes in environment of a family. Unsettlements in valley,exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, female literacy, Islamisation of Kashmiriyat etc. are covered in short recitals. The book doesn't follow any chronological order, so one might have to go back and forth to relate the events.
November 29, 2009
Interesting and well written - but of limited appeal. I've wanted to go to Kashmir for a long time. However, reading this book reinforces the idea that it may never be possible in my lifetime given the unrest there.
August 29, 2016
The book is picturing the circumstances that the people of Kashmir has to go through and how they face them with their courage and winning over the hurdles. Well for some, you need immense amount of patience to finish this book. :)
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June 14, 2010Interesting perspective on being a journalist but also a participant in the community she's researching.
August 22, 2009
The library wants it back, and this is too heavy duty a book to go through quickly. As best I can tell, this is a wonderful explanation of Kashmir and its ethic and relegious traits.
December 12, 2009
Clearly explains the difficulties of a developing country. But more than that it gives the heart of the country and shows it soul and the beauty that goes beyond the difficulty
April 7, 2010
This is similar in content to "3 Cups of Tea" but I think it's so much better written, I enjoyed reading this so much more than 3 Cups.
April 25, 2013
Moving and eloquent, revealing the conflicts in Kashmir and the challenges created by those sowing and nurturing ethnic dissension and hatred.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews