The Battle for Baramulla

The Battle for Baramulla, the latest book in the Songs of Freedom series takes us to 1947 Kashmir. The maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir wants his kingdom to remain independent. But when there are attacks from the northwest frontier, is staying independent really an option?

The Battle for Baramulla begins slowly. I took a while to get into the story because the protagonist Zooni seems like a bystander, giving us a glimpse of how the world around her functions, but doing little else. One by one, we meet a range of characters, including Chandra, whose name means the same as Zooni’s–the moon.

It is when a pregnant Chandra returns to a charged Baramulla that the story picks up. Before we know it, we’re sucked into a world of violence, terror and betrayal, and we cannot stop reading. Whom can Zooni trust? And what if her trust is misplaced?

I tore through the story, caught up in politics and communal tension. At the end of the book, I had tears in my eyes. I love stories where in the middle of hatred and death, we’re brought face to face with humanity and love of the noblest and truest kind. With Zooni in The Battle for Baramulla, we are left with the sense that things can be simple and beautiful, if only we give regular people a chance.

As with The District Cup, I was struck by how thorough author Mallika Ravikumar’s research is. Through her words, we step into Baramulla, and the author’s note at the end tells us how she went about telling this story, blending legend, fact and fiction.