The disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir regularly makes international headlines. Four years ago, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government revoked the region’s special autonomous status, flooded it with troops, and enforced a months-long lockdown. Modi has now embarked on a process of “patriotic industrialisation,” which Kashmiri residents have likened to a wave of colonization. Criticism of Indian policy toward the region is met with aggression: just a few days ago, government officials indicated their intent to charge author Arundhati Roy for her 2010 comments in support of Kashmiri autonomy.

Adding to the volatility of the region are a series of ongoing border disputes between India and its neighbors. India’s disagreements with Pakistan are relatively well known. But three years ago, the brutal clash between Chinese and Indian troops in the Galwan Valley resulted in deaths on both sides and brought a new aspect of this regional instability to the world’s attention.

Despite the renewed global scrutiny, Kashmir is still very poorly understood by outsiders. Nuclear Flashpoint: The War Over Kashmir (Pluto Press) is an illuminating exploration of the fraught history of the region and a sharp exposé of the right-wing politics trying to erase this history. Jacobin spoke with author Farhan M. Chak about what most mainstream commentary gets wrong about Kashmir.