Member Review
Review by
Ankit S, Reviewer
I believe that being a citizen of United Kingdom, Alastair must learn more on history than geography when writing such books. Such collation of data about countries you knew rarely about or the history that they have lived for ages shouldn't be put forth like its a back of your hand. Ironically a UK citizen is showing guts to mention that Kashmir is not an integral part of India and that too based on merely Google Maps not knowing how those from British rule just broke one beautiful peaceful country but putting lines on map and separate one big part from it apart in the name of racism and hate towards indigenous people's religion.
Most of the Maps were merely copy-paste of archived scanned images and unnecessary data mentioned here to give non-proliferation in value to the context alongside. this seems like author just wanted to add merely one more published work in his name so that in coming time he will be counted as more prominent as not most want to go through what scrap he had collated. I really doubt his research because mostly are either incomplete or half truth.
I would like to highlight one such example from "Map 20 : Kashmir for Google users in India versus Kashmir for Google users outside India, 2024"
At first, I'm quoting as is from book then will explain why I had written what I did in first 2 paras of my review to start with.
"Kashmir is a country of snow-white mountains and wide green valleys that should be full of tourists but is full of soldiers. It sits at the top of India and the eastern side of Pakistan. In both countries, Google’s share on the mobile search engine market is almost a hundred percent. These maps matter. The bottom one shows us what Google Map users in India see. It portrays the whole of Kashmir, not just the bit that is actually administered by India, as if it were under Indian control. The top map is what you see if you’re a Google Map user living in Pakistan, or anywhere else, and is more complex. It has a lot of dotted lines, which indicate disputed lines of control, in this case not just between Pakistan and India but also China, which claims and controls the dotted zones on the eastern side of the map. One of those dotted lines – the one that marches out across the middle of the territory – is so uncertain that it appears to give up. It stops, paralyzed by worry, in a high, cold nowhere, or more precisely in a frozen slope in the Himalayas, which separate Kashmir from China.
What neither map shows us is that plenty of people in Kashmir don’t want to be in India, Pakistan or China. They want to be in a country called Kashmir. It’s an unlikely prospect, given how much national pride Kashmir’s neighbours pour their way. Kashmir is one of the most militarized places on Earth. Hundreds of thousands of troops keep it in a vice-like grip and there are continuous skirmishes and bouts of violence. Thousands of civilians have been killed and, currently, there is little sign of peace. In 2019, India reinforced its claim on the parts of Kashmir that are under its control (which is most of the southern half) by getting rid of the political autonomy the region once enjoyed and governing it directly from New Delhi."
Now coming back to the explanation behind all this propaganda, as I highlighted before this quotation from book.
Author must know that Kashmir is an Integral part of India and what was called as POK (Pakistan occupied Kashmir) is something which was taken away from India due to the British boot-lickers like Nehru who happened to be unfortunate first PM of India. He made sure to appease the Muslim Minorities of India for the votes in then coming elections, first in Independent India (1950 Elections) and gave hold of area (now POK) to Pakistan by giving it's case to UN and a special entitlement to India's Kashmir to favor his bloodline Sheikh Abdullah so that it can never become part of India fully and those radical Islamists can easily enjoy their regime as PM of the place but thanks to incumbent GOI it was removed in 2019 constitutionally and hence now in 2024 after maintaining proper peace and from the POV of development and tourism, Legislative Assembly Elections also going to commence in Sep'24 end to 1st oct'24. By this the claim of author that plenty of People in Kashmir do not want to live in India is also nullified. I suggest he should visit some factual articles on current situation or I'll let travel with me personally to showcase the reality which is way better and different than he claim otherwise and on how Kashmir transformed in terms of economic structure and tourism between 2019 and 2024 he must go through Statistics on the same (as I do not post confidential data here but are publicly available to read online on Govt. websites).
There is a massive increase in tourism where it 1.62 Cr. in 2019 and in 2023 it reached 2.11 Cr. annual tourists. If the decision of GOI is not good as author claimed by interfering in the internal matters of the country, then how come this place became safe eventually and people from all over world start visiting it? Also, why GOI is by making it safe also ensuring better earning options for the natives by giving huge budget for industries and civil infras?
To conclude, Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK), a fundamental part of the original Kashmir region, which has been illegally occupied with the aid of Pakistan since 1947 keeps no value basis on 'Google Map outside India'.
Author here seems to me as biased against India and majorly wants to put forth the theory which earlier planned by British rule under Churchill and way back too, to divide this nation inside-out. Ironically whole of their island nation is surviving from the looting their ancestors did from India else they would have been vanished from world map then and today no one is there to write with racism and biasing on rest maps of the world.
And yes, Author must read and write on the imaginary line which divides Israel from Palestine but exclusion of it shows enough of his crumbled mindset.
Most of the Maps were merely copy-paste of archived scanned images and unnecessary data mentioned here to give non-proliferation in value to the context alongside. this seems like author just wanted to add merely one more published work in his name so that in coming time he will be counted as more prominent as not most want to go through what scrap he had collated. I really doubt his research because mostly are either incomplete or half truth.
I would like to highlight one such example from "Map 20 : Kashmir for Google users in India versus Kashmir for Google users outside India, 2024"
At first, I'm quoting as is from book then will explain why I had written what I did in first 2 paras of my review to start with.
"Kashmir is a country of snow-white mountains and wide green valleys that should be full of tourists but is full of soldiers. It sits at the top of India and the eastern side of Pakistan. In both countries, Google’s share on the mobile search engine market is almost a hundred percent. These maps matter. The bottom one shows us what Google Map users in India see. It portrays the whole of Kashmir, not just the bit that is actually administered by India, as if it were under Indian control. The top map is what you see if you’re a Google Map user living in Pakistan, or anywhere else, and is more complex. It has a lot of dotted lines, which indicate disputed lines of control, in this case not just between Pakistan and India but also China, which claims and controls the dotted zones on the eastern side of the map. One of those dotted lines – the one that marches out across the middle of the territory – is so uncertain that it appears to give up. It stops, paralyzed by worry, in a high, cold nowhere, or more precisely in a frozen slope in the Himalayas, which separate Kashmir from China.
What neither map shows us is that plenty of people in Kashmir don’t want to be in India, Pakistan or China. They want to be in a country called Kashmir. It’s an unlikely prospect, given how much national pride Kashmir’s neighbours pour their way. Kashmir is one of the most militarized places on Earth. Hundreds of thousands of troops keep it in a vice-like grip and there are continuous skirmishes and bouts of violence. Thousands of civilians have been killed and, currently, there is little sign of peace. In 2019, India reinforced its claim on the parts of Kashmir that are under its control (which is most of the southern half) by getting rid of the political autonomy the region once enjoyed and governing it directly from New Delhi."
Now coming back to the explanation behind all this propaganda, as I highlighted before this quotation from book.
Author must know that Kashmir is an Integral part of India and what was called as POK (Pakistan occupied Kashmir) is something which was taken away from India due to the British boot-lickers like Nehru who happened to be unfortunate first PM of India. He made sure to appease the Muslim Minorities of India for the votes in then coming elections, first in Independent India (1950 Elections) and gave hold of area (now POK) to Pakistan by giving it's case to UN and a special entitlement to India's Kashmir to favor his bloodline Sheikh Abdullah so that it can never become part of India fully and those radical Islamists can easily enjoy their regime as PM of the place but thanks to incumbent GOI it was removed in 2019 constitutionally and hence now in 2024 after maintaining proper peace and from the POV of development and tourism, Legislative Assembly Elections also going to commence in Sep'24 end to 1st oct'24. By this the claim of author that plenty of People in Kashmir do not want to live in India is also nullified. I suggest he should visit some factual articles on current situation or I'll let travel with me personally to showcase the reality which is way better and different than he claim otherwise and on how Kashmir transformed in terms of economic structure and tourism between 2019 and 2024 he must go through Statistics on the same (as I do not post confidential data here but are publicly available to read online on Govt. websites).
There is a massive increase in tourism where it 1.62 Cr. in 2019 and in 2023 it reached 2.11 Cr. annual tourists. If the decision of GOI is not good as author claimed by interfering in the internal matters of the country, then how come this place became safe eventually and people from all over world start visiting it? Also, why GOI is by making it safe also ensuring better earning options for the natives by giving huge budget for industries and civil infras?
To conclude, Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK), a fundamental part of the original Kashmir region, which has been illegally occupied with the aid of Pakistan since 1947 keeps no value basis on 'Google Map outside India'.
Author here seems to me as biased against India and majorly wants to put forth the theory which earlier planned by British rule under Churchill and way back too, to divide this nation inside-out. Ironically whole of their island nation is surviving from the looting their ancestors did from India else they would have been vanished from world map then and today no one is there to write with racism and biasing on rest maps of the world.
And yes, Author must read and write on the imaginary line which divides Israel from Palestine but exclusion of it shows enough of his crumbled mindset.
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