Kashmir in the Line of Fire

Maj Gen Ranjan Mahajan served five tenures in Jammu and Kashmir over about fifteen years, a period that saw the rise of militancy and the Army's response to it. This memoir is his account of that time.

The book is less about strategy than about people. It writes about young soldiers, and about civilians caught between faith and fear in a place where violence has long been part of daily life. It recounts encounters, losses and acts of heroism that rarely reach the headlines.

Running through the memoir is a sense of resilience and humanity under pressure: the ordinary people and soldiers of the subtitle who carry on in extraordinary circumstances.

For readers who know Kashmir only through news reports, it offers a view from the ground by an officer who spent a large part of his service there, told as personal memory rather than official history.