100 Best Pakistan History Books of All Time
We've researched and ranked the best pakistan history books in the world, based on recommendations from world experts, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. Learn more
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Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince" is intended to be a treatise on ruling and is considered by many to be a classic of political science. In the book Machiavelli offers many bits of practical advice on how to rule and even though the book was written in the early 16th century its ideas are still very relevant today. Where "The Prince" differs from other political literature before it is in its separation of the lofty idealism of morality and ethics from the practical demands of governing. It is this very aspect of Machiavelli's work that has made his name synonymous with an almost immoral... more
Eric RipertA fascinating study and still wholly relevant. (Source)
Neil deGrasse TysonWhich books should be read by every single intelligent person on planet? [...] The Prince (Machiavelli) [to learn that people not in power will do all they can to acquire it, and people in power will do all they can to keep it]. If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world. (Source)
Ryan HolidayOf course, this is a must read. Machiavelli is one of those figures and writers who is tragically overrated and underrated at the same time. Unfortunately that means that many people who read him miss the point and other people avoid him and miss out altogether. Take Machiavelli slow, and really read him. Also understand the man behind the book–not just as a masterful writer but a man who... (Source)
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The news-breaking book that has sent shockwaves through the Bush White House, Ghost Wars is the most accurate and revealing account yet of the CIA's secret involvement in al-Qaeda's evolution. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005.
Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll has spent years reporting from the Middle East, accessed previously classified government files and interviewed senior US officials and foreign spymasters. Here he gives the full inside story of the CIA's covert funding of an Islamic jihad against Soviet forces in Afghanistan, explores how this sowed the seeds of... more
Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll has spent years reporting from the Middle East, accessed previously classified government files and interviewed senior US officials and foreign spymasters. Here he gives the full inside story of the CIA's covert funding of an Islamic jihad against Soviet forces in Afghanistan, explores how this sowed the seeds of... more
3
In the past decade Pakistan has become a country of immense importance to its region, the United States, and the world. With almost 200 million people, a 500,000-man army, nuclear weapons, and a large diaspora in Britain and North America, Pakistan is central to the hopes of jihadis and the fears of their enemies. Yet the greatest short-term threat to Pakistan is not Islamist insurgency as such, but the actions of the United States, and the greatest long-term threat is ecological change. Anatol Lieven's book is a magisterial investigation of this highly complex and often poorly understood... more
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Born only five years after Pakistan was created in 1947, Imran Khan has lived his country's history. Undermined by a ruling elite, and unable to protect its people from the carnage of regular bombings from terrorists and its own ally, America, Pakistan has for years suffered from instability. Now Imran Khan and his own political party, the Tehreek-e-Insaf, offer a real political alternative for the people of Pakistan at a time when tension between Pakistan's government and the powerful military has reached dangerous new levels. How did this flashpoint of volatility and injustice come... more
Recommended by Zitto Kabwe Ruyagwa, and 1 others. Zitto Kabwe RuyagwaI know it is has happened since two weeks now. But I feel obliged to heartily congratulate @ImranKhanPTI for the successful election. Went through his 2011 book, his struggle and those of his party were remarkable. Lots to learn. I wish him success in transforming PAKISTAN (Source)
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In the bestselling tradition of Why Nations Fail and The Revenge of Geography, an award-winning journalist uses ten maps of crucial regions to explain the geo-political strategies of the world powers.
All leaders of nations are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas, and concrete. To understand world events, news organizations and other authorities often focus on people, ideas, and political movements, but without geography, we never have the full picture. Now, in the relevant and timely Prisoners of Geography, seasoned... more
All leaders of nations are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas, and concrete. To understand world events, news organizations and other authorities often focus on people, ideas, and political movements, but without geography, we never have the full picture. Now, in the relevant and timely Prisoners of Geography, seasoned... more
Lee MckenzieThis is a great book and by far the best thing I have read for a while. If you are curious about the world in which we live, geopolitics or just fancy something a little different, you couldn’t do much better than this. Coffee optional! @Itwitius 👏🏻 #prisonersofgeography https://t.co/Gd3G2tDVyT (Source)
Sunil Chhetri@TaranaRaja The cover got me and I'm sure the book is very, very interesting! (Source)
Lucas MoralesDepending on your interest and goals, if you are like me and always looking for the trends in the big picture then I highly recommend being an active contrarian reader. Read what no one else is reading. Your goal is to think outside the box. To look at the world and ask “why hasn’t this been solved?” And that gives you a roadmap as to what opportunities may exist for your entrepreneurial efforts.... (Source)
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It is not my purpose to attempt a real autobiography. I simply want to tell the story of my numerous experiments with truth, and as my life consists of nothing but those experiments, it is true that the story will take the shape of an autobiography.
...Identification with everything that lives is impossible without self-purification; without self-purification, the observance of the law of Ahimsa must remain an empty dream; God can never be realised by one who is not pure of heart. Self-purification, therefore, must remain purification in all walks of life. And purification being... more
...Identification with everything that lives is impossible without self-purification; without self-purification, the observance of the law of Ahimsa must remain an empty dream; God can never be realised by one who is not pure of heart. Self-purification, therefore, must remain purification in all walks of life. And purification being... more
Barack ObamaAccording to the president’s Facebook page and a 2008 interview with the New York Times, this title is among his most influential forever favorites. (Source)
Tim CookI have two books going right now: One is the Bobby Kennedy book [“Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon,” by Larry Tye] that just came out. The other is quite an old book. It’s a Gandhi book [“Mohandas K. Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth”] that I got interested in because we went to the Gandhi museum when we were in India recently. I tend to like nonfiction and... (Source)
Cory BookerA profound read. (Source)
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I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday.
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.
On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive.
Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a... more
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.
On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive.
Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a... more
Recommended by Adrienne Kisner, and 1 others. Adrienne KisnerMalala’s story of triumph is a battle cry for girls (and boys) everywhere. Education can set you free. (Source)
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A riveting history—the first full account—of the involvement of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger in the 1971 atrocities in Bangladesh that led to war between India and Pakistan, shaped the fate of Asia, and left in their wake a host of major strategic consequences for the world today.
Giving an astonishing inside view of how the White House really works in a crisis, The Blood Telegram is an unprecedented chronicle of a pivotal but little-known chapter of the Cold War. Gary J. Bass shows how Nixon and Kissinger supported Pakistan’s military dictatorship as it brutally... more
Giving an astonishing inside view of how the White House really works in a crisis, The Blood Telegram is an unprecedented chronicle of a pivotal but little-known chapter of the Cold War. Gary J. Bass shows how Nixon and Kissinger supported Pakistan’s military dictatorship as it brutally... more
9
The Partition of India in 1947 promised its people both political and religious freedom—through the liberation of India from British rule, and the creation of the Muslim state of Pakistan. Instead, the geographical divide brought displacement and death, and it benefited the few at the expense of the very many. Thousands of women were raped, at least one million people were killed, and ten to fifteen million were forced to leave their homes as refugees. One of the first events of decolonization in the twentieth century, Partition was also one of the most bloody.
In this book Yasmin... more
In this book Yasmin... more
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THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The only comprehensive, firsthand account of the fourteen-hour firefight at the Battle of Keating by Medal of Honor recipient Clinton Romesha, for readers of Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden and Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell.
"'It doesn't get better.' To us, that phrase nailed one of the essential truths, maybe even the essential truth, about being stuck at an outpost whose strategic and tactical vulnerabilities were so glaringly obvious to every soldier who had ever set foot in that place that the... more
The only comprehensive, firsthand account of the fourteen-hour firefight at the Battle of Keating by Medal of Honor recipient Clinton Romesha, for readers of Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden and Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell.
"'It doesn't get better.' To us, that phrase nailed one of the essential truths, maybe even the essential truth, about being stuck at an outpost whose strategic and tactical vulnerabilities were so glaringly obvious to every soldier who had ever set foot in that place that the... more
Don't have time to read the top Pakistan History books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
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Nobody expected the liberation of India and birth of Pakistan to be so bloody — it was supposed to be an answer to the dreams of Muslims and Hindus who had been ruled by the British for centuries. Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi’s protégé and the political leader of India, believed Indians were an inherently nonviolent, peaceful people. Pakistan’s founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, was a secular lawyer, not a firebrand. But in August 1946, exactly a year before Independence, Calcutta erupted in riots. A cycle of street-fighting — targeting Hindus, then Muslims, then Sikhs — spun out of control. As the... more
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پاکستان ایکسپریس کا موضوع دورانِ تقسیم ہند و پاکستان کے فسادات ہیں۔ ناول پنجاب کے ایک گانو منوماجرا کے گرد گھومتا ہے جس کی بیشتر آبادی سکھ ہے اور ان کے مزارعہ مسلمان ہیں۔ سکھوں کے دل میں کوئی جذبۂ منافقت نہیں مگر کچھ اشعتال پسند انھیں زبردستی اشعتال کی راہ پر گامزن کردیتے ہیں۔ less
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“Alice Albinia is the most extraordinary traveler of her generation. . . . A journey of astonishing confidence and courage.”—Rory Stewart
One of the largest rivers in the world, the Indus rises in the Tibetan mountains and flows west across northern India and south through Pakistan. It has been worshipped as a god, used as a tool of imperial expansion, and today is the cement of Pakistan’s fractious union. Alice Albinia follows the river upstream, through two thousand miles of geography and back to a time five thousand years ago when a string of sophisticated... more
One of the largest rivers in the world, the Indus rises in the Tibetan mountains and flows west across northern India and south through Pakistan. It has been worshipped as a god, used as a tool of imperial expansion, and today is the cement of Pakistan’s fractious union. Alice Albinia follows the river upstream, through two thousand miles of geography and back to a time five thousand years ago when a string of sophisticated... more
Fatima BhuttoI chose this because it beautifully tells the story of this legacy of conquest, of the empires and colonialism and all the politics that go along with that. And also we know that the wars of this century are more than anything else going to be about resources, one of which is water. If you look at South Asia you can see that water is a huge part of that conflict. There is all the flooding in... (Source)
Victor MalletA wonderful book. It’s an adventure story, apart from anything else. She starts at the mouth of the Indus, and heads to the source. (Source)
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Startling and scandalous, this is an intimate insider's story of Osama bin Laden's retinue in the ten years after 9/11, a family in flight and at war.
From September 11, 2001 to May 2, 2011, Osama Bin Laden evaded intelligence services and special forces units, drones and hunter killer squads. The Exile tells the extraordinary inside story of that decade through the eyes of those who witnessed it: bin Laden's four wives and many children, his deputies and military strategists, his spiritual advisor, the CIA, Pakistan's ISI, and many others who have never before told... more
From September 11, 2001 to May 2, 2011, Osama Bin Laden evaded intelligence services and special forces units, drones and hunter killer squads. The Exile tells the extraordinary inside story of that decade through the eyes of those who witnessed it: bin Laden's four wives and many children, his deputies and military strategists, his spiritual advisor, the CIA, Pakistan's ISI, and many others who have never before told... more
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A Washington Post, Rocky Mountain News, Boston Globe Best Book of the Year
Intrigue and subterfuge combine with bad luck and good in this darkly comic debut about love, betrayal, tyranny, family, and a conspiracy trying its damnedest to happen.
Ali Shigri, Pakistan Air Force pilot and Silent Drill Commander of the Fury Squadron, is on a mission to avenge his father's suspicious death, which the government calls a suicide.Ali's target is none other than General Zia ul-Haq, dictator of Pakistani. Enlisting a rag-tag group of conspirators,... more
Intrigue and subterfuge combine with bad luck and good in this darkly comic debut about love, betrayal, tyranny, family, and a conspiracy trying its damnedest to happen.
Ali Shigri, Pakistan Air Force pilot and Silent Drill Commander of the Fury Squadron, is on a mission to avenge his father's suspicious death, which the government calls a suicide.Ali's target is none other than General Zia ul-Haq, dictator of Pakistani. Enlisting a rag-tag group of conspirators,... more
Daniyal MueenuddinNo. This is a book about the assassination of General Zia. Nobody really knows who killed him, but the suggestion is that a case of mangoes was loaded on to his airplane and inside the case of mangoes was nerve gas which knocked out the pilot and caused the plane to crash. In a way it’s a comic book because it pokes fun at the General. I think it’s a useful book because of that. People like... (Source)
Sophie Mcneill@diaahadid @AFPAfPak Love this book x (Source)
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The inspiring account of one man's campaign to build schools in the most dangerous, remote, and anti-American reaches of Asia.
In April 2011, the CBS documentary "60 Minutes" called into question Greg Mortenson's work. The program alleged several inaccuracies in Three Cups of Tea, and its sequel, Stones into Schools, as well as financial improprieties in the operation of Mortenson's Central Asia Institute. Questions were also raised about Mortenson's claim that he got lost near K2 and ended up in Korphe; that he was captured by the Taliban in 1996; the number of... more
In April 2011, the CBS documentary "60 Minutes" called into question Greg Mortenson's work. The program alleged several inaccuracies in Three Cups of Tea, and its sequel, Stones into Schools, as well as financial improprieties in the operation of Mortenson's Central Asia Institute. Questions were also raised about Mortenson's claim that he got lost near K2 and ended up in Korphe; that he was captured by the Taliban in 1996; the number of... more
Jennifer SteilGreg Mortenson has changed literally thousands and thousands of lives. (Source)
Nicholas KristofI think Greg does a very good job of providing a more nuanced portrait of the Islamic world and what is possible in it. (Source)
Gretchen PetersI went to a refugee camp after 9/11 where people were living in tents and boiling grass to make tea and at least one family offered to let me sleep in their tent. (Source)
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We in the west share a common narrative of world history. But our story largely omits a whole civilization whose citizens shared an entirely different narrative for a thousand years.In Destiny Disrupted, Tamim Ansary tells the rich story of world history as the Islamic world saw it, from the time of Mohammed to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and beyond. He clarifies why our civilizations grew up oblivious to each other, what happened when they intersected, and how the Islamic world was affected by its slow recognition that Europe—a place it long perceived as primitive and... more
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“What the Communist Manifesto is to the capitalist world, Annihilation of Caste is to India.” —Anand Teltumbde, author of The Persistence of Caste
B.R. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste is one of the most important, yet neglected, works of political writing from India. Written in 1936, it is an audacious denunciation of Hinduism and its caste system. Ambedkar – a figure like W.E.B. Du Bois – offers a scholarly critique of Hindu scriptures, scriptures that sanction a rigidly hierarchical and iniquitous social system. The world’s best-known Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi, responded publicly to... more
B.R. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste is one of the most important, yet neglected, works of political writing from India. Written in 1936, it is an audacious denunciation of Hinduism and its caste system. Ambedkar – a figure like W.E.B. Du Bois – offers a scholarly critique of Hindu scriptures, scriptures that sanction a rigidly hierarchical and iniquitous social system. The world’s best-known Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi, responded publicly to... more
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When Edmund Hillary first conquered Mt. Everest, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay was at his side. Indeed, for as long as Westerners have been climbing the Himalaya, Sherpas have been the unsung heroes in the background. In August 2008, when eleven climbers lost their lives on K2, the world’s most dangerous peak, two Sherpas survived. They had emerged from poverty and political turmoil to become two of the most skillful mountaineers on earth. Based on unprecedented access and interviews, Buried in the Sky reveals their astonishing story for the first time.
Peter Zuckerman and... more
Peter Zuckerman and... more
Don't have time to read the top Pakistan History books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
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An innovative collection of essays on the turmoil spreading across South Asia, Contesting Nation sheds light on how violence—in wars of direct and indirect conquest—marks the present. Featuring contributions by distinguished South Asian women scholars, the book offers inspired, gendered, and contested histories of the present, exploring nation-making and its intersections with projects of militarization and cultural assertion, modernization, and globalization.
The contributors to this volume consider such turbulent events as the Gujarat carnage of 2002, post-9/11... more
The contributors to this volume consider such turbulent events as the Gujarat carnage of 2002, post-9/11... more
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The relationship between America and Pakistan is based on mutual incomprehension and always has been. Pakistan—to American eyes—has gone from being a quirky irrelevance, to a stabilizing friend, to an essential military ally, to a seedbed of terror. America—to Pakistani eyes—has been a guarantee of security, a coldly distant scold, an enthusiastic military enabler, and is now a threat to national security and a source of humiliation.
The countries are not merely at odds. Each believes it can play the other—with sometimes absurd, sometimes tragic, results. The conventional narrative... more
The countries are not merely at odds. Each believes it can play the other—with sometimes absurd, sometimes tragic, results. The conventional narrative... more
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Not just a historical narrative, The Formative Phase evaluates the strength and weakness of the Muslim separatist movement that eventually culminated in the creation of Pakistan. In addition to the basic theme of the Muslim nationalist movement, Khalid Sayeed has also focused on the working and development of the British vice-regal system, and argues that the vice-regal system that Pakistan inherited from the British sustained Pakistan through the on-going political and cultural tensions that it has faced ever since its establishment.
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Recommended by Mani Shankar Aiyar, and 1 others. Mani Shankar AiyarYes, this book is extremely well documented and it has the advantage that besides taking the story up to the partition of India and Pakistan, it also takes the story forward to approximately the first decade of Pakistan as a separate national identity. And it is clear that even in 1940, when the Pakistan resolution was passed, it was not without significance that the word Pakistan did not exist... (Source)
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This book fills the need for a broad, historically sophisticated understanding of Pakistan, a country at fifty which is understood by many in the West only in terms of stereotypes--the fanatical, authoritarian and reactionary "other" which is unfavorably compared to a tolerant, democratic and progressive India. There is a need at the time of Pakistan's golden jubilee for it to be taken seriously in its own right as a country of 130 million people. It is in reality a complex plural society which although greatly shaped by the colonial inheritance and circumstances of its birth is also... more
Recommended by Anatol Lieven, and 1 others. Anatol LievenSimply because it’s terribly important for Westerners to know the facts about Pakistani history and to have an understanding of where Pakistan today is coming from and how it was shaped. Ian Talbot’s book remains the standard work on that subject. His is the essential historical textbook that everybody needs to read. It’s essentially a straightforward narrative history with analysis, starting... (Source)
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Since Pakistan was founded in 1947, its army has dominated the state. The military establishment has locked the country in an enduring rivalry with India, with the primary aim of wresting Kashmir from it. To that end, Pakistan initiated three wars over Kashmir-in 1947, 1965, and 1999-and failed to win any of them. Today, the army continues to prosecute this dangerous policy by employing non-state actors under the security of its ever-expanding nuclear umbrella. It has sustained a proxy war in Kashmir since 1989 using Islamist militants, as well as supporting non-Islamist insurgencies... more
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This book examines the early entry of Pakistan's armed forces into the country's politics and the struggle for the restoration of democracy since 1968. It deals in some detail with the rule of General Yahya Khan and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto during the 1970's, the General Ziaul Haq during the 1980's. The author also reviews the events that led to the re-entry of the armed forces into politics in 1999, after a short and turbulent period of 'demomcracy', and provides some insights into possible political developments in Pakistan in the future. less
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Winner of the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
Longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award for Nonfiction
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ghost Wars, the epic and enthralling story of America's intelligence, military, and diplomatic efforts to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 9/11
Prior to 9/11, the United States had been carrying out small-scale covert operations in Afghanistan, ostensibly in cooperation, although often in direct opposition, with I.S.I., the... more
Longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award for Nonfiction
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ghost Wars, the epic and enthralling story of America's intelligence, military, and diplomatic efforts to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 9/11
Prior to 9/11, the United States had been carrying out small-scale covert operations in Afghanistan, ostensibly in cooperation, although often in direct opposition, with I.S.I., the... more
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Pakistan or the Partition of India by B.R.Ambedkar
The problem of Pakistan has given a headache to everyone, more so to me than to anybody else. I cannot help recalling with regret how much of my time it has consumed when so much of my other literary work of greater importance to me than this is held up for want of it. I therefore hope that this second edition will also be the last I trust that before it is exhausted either the question will be settled or withdrawn. less
The problem of Pakistan has given a headache to everyone, more so to me than to anybody else. I cannot help recalling with regret how much of my time it has consumed when so much of my other literary work of greater importance to me than this is held up for want of it. I therefore hope that this second edition will also be the last I trust that before it is exhausted either the question will be settled or withdrawn. less
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From adventure to indenture, martyrs to merchants, Partition to plantation, from Kashmir to Kerala, Japan to Jamaica and beyond, the many facets of the great migrations of India and the world are mapped in India Moving, the first book of its kind.
To understand how millions of people have moved-from, to and within India-the book embarks on a journey laced with evidence, argument and wit, providing insights into topics like the slave trade and migration of workers, travelling business communities such as the Marwaris, Gujaratis and Chettiars, refugee crises and the roots of contemporary... more
To understand how millions of people have moved-from, to and within India-the book embarks on a journey laced with evidence, argument and wit, providing insights into topics like the slave trade and migration of workers, travelling business communities such as the Marwaris, Gujaratis and Chettiars, refugee crises and the roots of contemporary... more
Recommended by Mostly Offline Send Email Instead, and 1 others. Mostly Offline Send Email InsteadChinmay Tumbhe’s India Moving is really a wonderful book. Great stories, great sources, data, optimism, and just all round superb. Cannot recommend enough. Buy immediately and read urgently. https://t.co/rg6HcVsndh (Source)
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“The rural rootedness and gentle humour of R.K. Narayan with the literary sophistication and stylishness of Jhumpa Lahiri.”—Financial Times
Passing from the mannered drawing rooms of Pakistan’s cities to the harsh mud villages beyond, Daniyal Mueenuddin’s linked stories describe the interwoven lives of an aging feudal landowner, his servants and managers, and his extended family, industrialists who have lost touch with the land. In the spirit of Joyce’s Dubliners and Turgenev’s A Sportsman’s Sketches, these stories comprehensively...
Recommended by Anatol Lieven, and 1 others. Anatol LievenI put it on my list for two reasons. The first is that simply he’s so good. Some of his stories I would say rival Chekhov in their ability to put across character, place and situation in a very vivid and deep way in a very short space. I mention Chekhov and the Russian writers deliberately because I think the other thing that makes him so interesting is that besides being half American, he also... (Source)
Don't have time to read the top Pakistan History books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
31
“Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Muhammad Ali Jinnah did all three.” Stanley Wolpert
These are the opening lines of the preface of Stanley Wolpert’s book, “Jinnah of Pakistan” and serves to entice you to read an extremely thorough, comprehensive and detailed study about one of the most pragmatic and charismatic leaders of South Asia, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Stanley Wolpert is an American academic who is considered to be one of the world's foremost... more
These are the opening lines of the preface of Stanley Wolpert’s book, “Jinnah of Pakistan” and serves to entice you to read an extremely thorough, comprehensive and detailed study about one of the most pragmatic and charismatic leaders of South Asia, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Stanley Wolpert is an American academic who is considered to be one of the world's foremost... more
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Dunia dan akhirat bak sekeping uang logam, kedua sisinya saling berhubungan. Antara satu sisi dengan sisi lainnya tidak dapat terpisahkan. Kehidupan dunia merupakan masa penyemaian biji-biji amal ibadah, ladang berharga untuk menebar benih kebaikan dan memperbanyak amal saleh. Musim tanam ini hanya ada satu masa, dan takkan terulang kembali. Sementara kehidupan akhirat merupakan tempat menuai.
Akhirat menjadi pelabuhan terakhir dan penentuan tujuan kita di dunia. Akhirat sebuah kulminasi pencapaian kehidupan dunia (yang fana) menuju kehidupan akhirat (yang abadi). Inilah, cita-cita... more
Akhirat menjadi pelabuhan terakhir dan penentuan tujuan kita di dunia. Akhirat sebuah kulminasi pencapaian kehidupan dunia (yang fana) menuju kehidupan akhirat (yang abadi). Inilah, cita-cita... more
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A memoir of Karachi through the eyes of its women
An Indies Introduce Debut Authors Selection
For a brief moment on December 27, 2007, life came to a standstill in Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto, the country’s former prime minister and the first woman ever to lead a Muslim country, had been assassinated at a political rally just outside Islamabad. Back in Karachi—Bhutto’s birthplace and Pakistan’s other great metropolis—Rafia Zakaria’s family was suffering through a crisis of its own: her Uncle Sohail, the man who had brought shame upon the family, was near death.... more
An Indies Introduce Debut Authors Selection
For a brief moment on December 27, 2007, life came to a standstill in Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto, the country’s former prime minister and the first woman ever to lead a Muslim country, had been assassinated at a political rally just outside Islamabad. Back in Karachi—Bhutto’s birthplace and Pakistan’s other great metropolis—Rafia Zakaria’s family was suffering through a crisis of its own: her Uncle Sohail, the man who had brought shame upon the family, was near death.... more
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India Wins Freedom is an enlightened account of the partition from the author, Maulana Azad’s perspective. It includes his personal experiences when India became independent, and his ideas on freedom and liberty.
The book takes the form of an autobiographical narrative and goes over the happenings of the Indian Independence movement. The book traces the events that took place and ultimately led to the partition in a frank and profound manner. The book says that politics was responsible for the partition more than religion. It also states that India failed to maximise its potential... more
The book takes the form of an autobiographical narrative and goes over the happenings of the Indian Independence movement. The book traces the events that took place and ultimately led to the partition in a frank and profound manner. The book says that politics was responsible for the partition more than religion. It also states that India failed to maximise its potential... more
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Pakistan was born as the creation of elite Urdu-speaking Muslims who sought to govern a state that would maintain their dominance. After rallying non-Urdu speaking leaders around him, Jinnah imposed a unitary definition of the new nation state that obliterated linguistic diversity. This centralisation - 'justified' by the Indian threat - fostered centrifugal forces that resulted in Bengali secessionism in 1971 and Baloch, as well as Mohajir, separatisms today.
Concentration of power in the hands of the establishment remained the norm, and while authoritarianism peaked under military... more
Concentration of power in the hands of the establishment remained the norm, and while authoritarianism peaked under military... more
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After September 11th, Ahmed Rashid's crucial book "Taliban" introduced American readers to that now notorious regime. In this new work, he returns to Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia to review the catastrophic aftermath of America's failed war on terror. Called "Pakistan's best and bravest reporter" by Christopher Hitchens, Rashid has shown himself to be a voice of reason amid the chaos of present-day Central Asia. "Descent Into Chaos" is his blistering critique of American policy-a dire warning and an impassioned call to correct these disasterous strategies before these failing states... more
Thomas BarfieldHis book about the Taliban came to prominence after 9/11. What Rashid manages to do is to show that this is a transnational problem. (Source)
Paddy DochertyBecause it is the authoritative account of the current situation in the region. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to understand what’s going on in Pakistan and Afghanistan. (Source)
Gretchen PetersThis is a thorough analysis of how Western policy towards the region has made things worse since 2001. It is pretty bleak. Rashid joked to me while he was writing it that the working title was, What A Fucking Mess. (Source)
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For a man who made such a powerful intervention in the history of the 20th century, many of Mahatma Gandhi's ideas were misunderstood or obfuscated during his lifetime. This book draws our attention to Gandhi's last years, particularly the marked change in his understanding of the acceptance of non-violence by Indians. It points to a startling discovery Gandhi made in the years preceding India's Independence and Partition: the struggle for freedom which he had all along believed to be non-violent was in fact not so. He realised that there was a causal relationship between the path of illusory... more
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Regarded as one of the greatest Hindi novels ever written, this comprises of the journey of the characters through the tumultuous times of India - Pakistan partition of 1947. less
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What stops India and Pakistan from being friends? In this provocative, deeply analysed book, full of riveting revelations and anecdotes, Husain Haqqani, adviser to four Pakistani prime ministers, looks at the key pressure points in the relationship and argues that Pakistan has a pathological obsession with India, which lies at the heart of the problems between the two countries. less
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41
Saleem Sinai was born at midnight, the midnight of India's independence, and found himself mysteriously "handcuffed to history" by the coincidence. He is one of 1,001 children born at the midnight hour, each of them endowed with an extraordinary talent—and whose privilege and curse it is to be both master and victims of their times. Through Saleem's gifts—inner ear and wildly sensitive sense of smell—we are drawn into a fascinating family saga set against the vast, colourful background of the India of the 20th century. less
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This book is the main text for post-graduate courses on South Asia's development, economic history and on its political economy. For researchers on Pakistan's economy, it is the key source for reference, and covers a huge and diverse array of data, literature reviews, commentary and analysis. less
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The war of 1971 was the most significant geopolitical event in the Indian subcontinent since its partition in 1947. At one swoop, it led to the creation of Bangladesh, and it tilted the balance of power between India and Pakistan steeply in favor of India. The Line of Control in Kashmir, the nuclearization of India and Pakistan, the conflicts in Siachen Glacier and Kargil, the insurgency in Kashmir, the political travails of Bangladesh--all can be traced back to the intense nine months in 1971.
Against the grain of received wisdom, Srinath Raghavan contends that far from being a... more
Against the grain of received wisdom, Srinath Raghavan contends that far from being a... more
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Part of the first generation to be born in the new state of Pakistan, Lynette Viccaji grew up with her country. Here she recounts some of her life experiences, a childhood in the backwaters of a colony in Gizri, a youth in the heart of her Catholic community, marriage and a move to Jhelum and Akora Khattak and finally, settling into a villa by the sea. Entertaining stories of amateur theatricals and adventures with young friends at home, student-life, teaching at various schools, and returning to college to get a B.Ed degree are interwoven with her experiences as a wife and mother to three... more
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The Beijing-Islamabad axis plays a central role in Asia's geopolitics, from India's rise to the prospects for a post-American Afghanistan, from the threat of nuclear terrorism to the continent's new map of mines, ports and pipelines. China is Pakistan's great economic hope and its most trusted military partner; Pakistan is the battleground for China's encounters with Islamic militancy and the heart of its efforts to counter-balance the emerging US-India partnership. For decades, each country has been the other's only 'all-weather' friend. Yet the relationship is still little understood. The... more
47
Once a model of Muslim enlightenment, Pakistan is now facing a lethal Islamist threat. Many believe this is due to Pakistan's partnership with the United States, while others see it as the consequence of an authoritarian rule that has marginalized liberal opinion while creating inroads for the religious right.
Farzana Shaikh argues that though external influences and domestic politics have unquestionably shaped Pakistan, an uncertainty about the meaning of Pakistan and the significance of "being Pakistani" lies at the heart of the state's social and political decline. "Making Sense... more
Farzana Shaikh argues that though external influences and domestic politics have unquestionably shaped Pakistan, an uncertainty about the meaning of Pakistan and the significance of "being Pakistani" lies at the heart of the state's social and political decline. "Making Sense... more
Iftikhar MalikFarzana Shaikh’s earliest historical study, based on her doctoral research, was a timely attempt to investigate the quest of a cohesive political community anchored on the historical and intellectual ethos of worldwide Islam within a specific South Asian context. That volume had tried to move the discourse on Pakistan’s evolution from the prevalent paradigm of high politics of a few powerful men... (Source)
Mani Shankar AiyarYes, it is the very best book I have read on Pakistan. If Pakistan can introspect, it will have to recognise that in their Islamic republic, as Omar Khayyam said all those centuries ago, “the two and seventy jarring sects confute” – all these sects are part of the family of Islam. The question of whether there should be a Muslim nation or not on the subcontinent is one that is only of historical... (Source)
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“An enthralling and largely firsthand account of the war in Afghanistan.”—Financial Times
Few reporters know as much about Afghanistan as Carlotta Gall. She was there in the 1990s after the Russians were driven out. She witnessed the early flourishing of radical Islam, imported from abroad, which caused so much local suffering. She was there right after 9/11, when the US special forces helped the Northern Alliance drive the Taliban out of the north and then the south, fighting pitched battles and causing their enemies to flee underground and into Pakistan. She... more
Few reporters know as much about Afghanistan as Carlotta Gall. She was there in the 1990s after the Russians were driven out. She witnessed the early flourishing of radical Islam, imported from abroad, which caused so much local suffering. She was there right after 9/11, when the US special forces helped the Northern Alliance drive the Taliban out of the north and then the south, fighting pitched battles and causing their enemies to flee underground and into Pakistan. She... more
49
The armed forces occupy a special position in Indian society. Yet, standard accounts of contemporary Indian history rarely have a military dimension. In India's Wars, serving Air Vice Marshal Arjun Subramaniam seeks to give India's military exploits their rightful place. Beginning with a snapshot of the growth of the armed forces, he provides detailed accounts of the principal conflicts from Independence to 1971: the first India-Pakistan war of 1947-48, the liberation of Hyderabad and Junagadh, the campaign to evict the Portuguese from Goa in 1961, and the full-blown conventional wars against... more
50
Pakistan, with its political instability, Islamic community, pressing economic and social problems, access to nuclear weapons, and proximity to Afghanistan, stands at the centre of global attention. This title looks at Pakistan's past, recounts its recent history, and assesses its future options. less
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51
Among U.S. allies in the war against terrorism, Pakistan cannot be easily characterized as either friend or foe. Nuclear-armed Pakistan is an important center of radical Islamic ideas and groups. Since 9/11, the selective cooperation of president General Pervez Musharraf in sharing intelligence with the United States and apprehending al Qaeda members has led to the assumption that Pakistan might be ready to give up its longstanding ties with radical Islam. But Pakistan's status as an Islamic ideological state is closely linked with the Pakistani elites' worldview and the praetorian ambitions... more
Recommended by Bruce Riedel, and 1 others. Bruce RiedelI would say that the United States has had a tempestuous relationship with Pakistan. There have been moments of great embrace between the two of us in the 50s and 60s when we built the secret U2 base there to fly over the Soviet Union. Also in the 1980s when we supported the mujahideen in the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan and then at the beginning of this century when the United States... (Source)
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Drawing on primary sources, especially literature, the author endeavours to establish the separateness of Indus from India. Discarding many widely accepted myths of Indian history, the book presents a history of the political culture of the Indus region (now Pakistan) from ancient times to the modern age. less
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In September 1996, fourteen-year-old Fatima Bhutto shielded her baby brother while shots rang out outside the family home in Karachi. This was the evening that her father, Murtaza, was assassinated. It was the latest in a long line of tragedies for one of the world's best-known political dynasties.Songs of Blood and Sword tells the story of a family of feudal landlords who became power brokers in the newly created state of Pakistan. It is an epic tale of intrigue and the international political elite, the making of modern Pakistan, and, ultimately, tragedy. It is also a book about a... more
Recommended by Vishakha Desai, and 1 others. Vishakha DesaiThis, again, is a book written from the inside about a family, in this case the Bhutto family. Fatima is Benazir Bhutto’s niece. Both her father and her uncle were killed. What I like about the book is that, again, it’s very well written. It is unflinching in terms of exploring the family dynamic. At the same time, it really gives you an insider’s perspective on, in this case, a very feudal... (Source)
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When Daru Shezad is fired from his banking job in Lahore, he begins a decline that plummets the length of this sharply drawn, subversive tale. Before long, he can't pay his bills, and he loses his toehold among Pakistan's cell-phone-toting elite. Daru descends into drugs and dissolution, and, for good measure, he falls in love with the wife of his childhood friend and rival, Ozi—the beautiful, restless Mumtaz.
Desperate to reverse his fortunes, Daru embarks on a career in crime, taking as his partner Murad Badshah, the notorious rickshaw driver, populist, and pirate. When a... more
Desperate to reverse his fortunes, Daru embarks on a career in crime, taking as his partner Murad Badshah, the notorious rickshaw driver, populist, and pirate. When a... more
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Arguing that water development and management is one of the central development challenges facing Pakistan, this report examines the evolution of the management of Pakistan's waters. Drawing heavily on documents by eminent practitioners and policy analysts, it suggests what changes should be considered and how to manage the transition from past practices in a principled and pragmatic manner. less
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The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a major military confrontation between India and Pakistan. Fought on two fronts of the Indian sub-continent between 3 and 17 December 1971, it pitted two major conventional armed forces in an all-out war over the fate of the former East Pakistan, and resulted in the emergence of a new, independent nation of Bangladesh.
In the West, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) initiated its involvement with an attack on the forward air bases of the Indian Air Force (IAF), on 3 December 1971. A series of major air battles followed over the primary conflict zones.... more
In the West, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) initiated its involvement with an attack on the forward air bases of the Indian Air Force (IAF), on 3 December 1971. A series of major air battles followed over the primary conflict zones.... more
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Discover the fascinating history of a long-hidden Buddhist culture at a historic crossroads.
In the years following Alexander the Great’s conquest of the East, a series of empires rose up along the Silk Road. In what is now northern Pakistan, the civilizations in the region called Gandhara became increasingly important centers for the development of Buddhism, reaching their apex under King Kaniska of the Kusanas in the second century CE. Gandhara has long been known for its Greek-Indian synthesis in architecture and statuary, but until about twenty years ago, almost nothing... more
In the years following Alexander the Great’s conquest of the East, a series of empires rose up along the Silk Road. In what is now northern Pakistan, the civilizations in the region called Gandhara became increasingly important centers for the development of Buddhism, reaching their apex under King Kaniska of the Kusanas in the second century CE. Gandhara has long been known for its Greek-Indian synthesis in architecture and statuary, but until about twenty years ago, almost nothing... more
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This book examines how the idea of Pakistan was articulated and debated in the public sphere and how popular enthusiasm was generated for its successful achievement, especially in the crucial province of UP (now Uttar Pradesh) in the last decade of British colonial rule in India. It argues that Pakistan was not a simply a vague idea that serendipitously emerged as a nation-state, but was popularly imagined as a sovereign Islamic State, a new Medina, as some called it. In this regard, it was envisaged as the harbinger of Islam's renewal and rise in the twentieth century, the new leader and... more
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The history of Pakistan's nuclear program is the history of Pakistan. Fascinated with the new nuclear science, the young nation's leaders launched a nuclear energy program in 1956 and consciously interwove nuclear developments into the broader narrative of Pakistani nationalism. Then, impelled first by the 1965 and 1971 India-Pakistan Wars, and more urgently by India's first nuclear weapon test in 1974, Pakistani senior officials tapped into the country's pool of young nuclear scientists and engineers and molded them into a motivated cadre committed to building the 'ultimate weapon.' The... more
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This young readers edition of the worldwide bestseller Three Cups of Tea has been specially adapted for younger readers and updated by Greg Mortenson to bring his remarkable story of humanitarianism up to date for the present. Includes new photos and illustrations, as well as a special interview by Greg’s twelve-year-old daughter, Amira, who has traveled with her father as an advocate for the Pennies for Peace program for children. less
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People interested in the history of India's partition invariably ask the same question: Why did Pakistan happen? Or, what was the Pakistan idea? Focusing on M. A. Jinnah's political career, this book addresses the issue of whether he had a secular or religious vision for Pakistan, or perhaps something in between.
Pakistan as a country has yet to find its proper place in the world. Logically, it is assumed that if we can reach a consensus on Jinnah's thought, then we can also resolve the long-standing question of what kind of state Pakistan was meant to be, and thus how it...
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Pakistan and the United States have been locked in a deadly embrace for decades. Successive American presidents from both parties have pursued narrow short-term interests in the South Asian nation, and many of the resulting policies proved counterproductive in the long term, contributing to political instability and a radicalized public. This background has helped set the stage for the global jihad confronting much of the world today.
In Deadly Embrace, Bruce Riedel explores the forces behind these developments, explaining how and why the history of Pakistan-U.S. relations... more
In Deadly Embrace, Bruce Riedel explores the forces behind these developments, explaining how and why the history of Pakistan-U.S. relations... more
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Headline statement: 'An unnerving tale of how politics empowered bigotry in Pakistan': Asma Jahangir About the book: '[Y]ou will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State.' - Muhammad Ali Jinnah Pakistan was carved out in 1947 to protect the subcontinent's largest religious minority. It was conceived as a Muslim-majority, albeit secular, State that would set an example for India on how to treat its... more
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A history of the country's international relations from 1947-2005, Pakistan's Foreign Policy is a narrative of events and a recapitulation of fateful turning points. Aiming to provide objective background to policy decisions, the book also presents assessment of their costs and benefits. By no means an attempt to flaunt a 20-20 hindsight, its principal purpose is to provide insights into constraints and considerations that motivated policies, as perceived at the time and articulated by the decision makers on and off the record.
The author, with forty years of experience in the Ministry... more
The author, with forty years of experience in the Ministry... more
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In recent years Pakistan has emerged as a strategic player on the world stageboth as a potential rogue state armed with nuclear weapons and as an American ally in the war against terrorism. But our understanding of this country is superficial. To probe beyond the headlines, Stephen Cohen, author of the prize-winning India: Emerging Power, offers a panoramic portrait of this complex countryfrom its origins as a homeland for Indian Muslims to a militarydominated state that has experienced uneven economic growth, political chaos, sectarian violence, and several nuclear crises with its much... more
Recommended by Mani Shankar Aiyar, and 1 others. Mani Shankar AiyarStephen Cohen has a similar thesis to Sherbaz Khan Mazari’s book but he also looks into the future. And the future he looks into and concludes about Pakistan is at odds with my final author MJ Akbar’s prediction of the future, where all you see is a void. Stephen Cohen makes the much more valid point that Pakistan is, in fact, a very stable country, because it has a highly educated, highly... (Source)
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Correspondent Ahmed Rashid brings the shadowy world of the Taliban—the world’s most extreme & radical Islamic organization—into sharp focus in this enormously insightful book. He offers the only authoritative account of the Taliban available to English-language readers, explaining the Taliban’s rise to power, its impact on Afghanistan & the region, its role in oil & gas company decisions, & the effects of changing American attitudes toward the Taliban. He also describes the new face of Islamic fundamentalism & explains why Afghanistan has become the world center for... more
Recommended by Jonathan Powell, and 1 others. Jonathan Powell9/11 was a big shock. When the first plane hit I thought it was an accident. When I was told of a second plane, I assumed it was a loop on the film. Once I knew the truth, I spent the rest of the day dealing with the consequences and trying to make sure the UK wasn’t under attack. (Source)
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Don't have time to read the top Pakistan History books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
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71
Protected by vast mountains and seas, the Indian subcontinent might seem a nearly complete and self-contained world with its own religions, philosophies, and social systems. And yet this ancient land and its varied societies experienced prolonged and intense interaction with the peoples and cultures of East and Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa, and especially Central Asia and the Iranian plateau.
Richard M. Eaton tells this extraordinary story with relish and originality, as he traces the rise of Persianate culture, a many-faceted transregional world connected by ever-widening... more
Richard M. Eaton tells this extraordinary story with relish and originality, as he traces the rise of Persianate culture, a many-faceted transregional world connected by ever-widening... more
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Finalist: 2012 Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in JournalismFew reporters have covered Afghanistan as intrepidly and humanely as Edward Girardet. Now, in a gripping, personal account, Girardet delivers a story of that nation's resistance fighters, foreign invaders, mercenaries, spies, aid workers, Islamic extremists, and others who have defined Afghanistan's last thirty years of war, chaos, and strife.As a young foreign correspondent, Girardet arrived in Afghanistan just three months prior to the Soviet invasion in 1979. Over the next decades, he trekked hundreds of miles across rugged... more
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John Keay's India: A History is a probing and provocative chronicle of five thousand years of South Asian history, from the first Harrapan settlements on the banks of the Indus River to the recent nuclear-arms race. In a tour de force of narrative history, Keay blends together insights from a variety of scholarly fields and weaves them together to chart the evolution of the rich tapestry of cultures, religions, and peoples that makes up the modern nations of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. Authoritative and eminently readable, India: A History is a compelling epic portrait of one of the... more
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This book is a definitive, path-breaking account of the partition of the Punjab in 1947. Its chronicles how East and West Punjab were emptied of unwanted minorities. Besides shedding new light on the events through secret British reports, it contains poignant accounts by eyewitnesses, survivors and even participators in the carnage, from both sides of the border. These exclusive accounts present Partition through the eyes of those who were a part of it, and the effect it has had on their lives up to the present day. The interviewees from both sides of the border, the book aims to give a... more
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A definitive account of the American experience in Afghanistan from the rise of the Taliban to the depths of the insurgency.
Longtime Afghanistan expert and RAND analyst Seth G. Jones watched as American optimism evaporated after the Taliban defeat in 2001; by 2005, a new "war of a thousand cuts" had brought Afghanistan to its knees. Harnessing important new historical research on insurgencies and integrating thousands of declassified government documents, Jones shows how the siphoning of resources to Iraq left U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan ineffectual and without support.... more
Longtime Afghanistan expert and RAND analyst Seth G. Jones watched as American optimism evaporated after the Taliban defeat in 2001; by 2005, a new "war of a thousand cuts" had brought Afghanistan to its knees. Harnessing important new historical research on insurgencies and integrating thousands of declassified government documents, Jones shows how the siphoning of resources to Iraq left U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan ineffectual and without support.... more
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The second and concluding volume of the definitive biography of one of the most abidingly influential--and controversial--men in world history.
Opening in July 1914, as Mohandas Gandhi leaves South Africa to return to India, Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914-1918 traces the Mahatma's life over the next three decades: his struggle to deliver India from British rule, to forge harmonious relations between India's Hindus and Muslims, to end the pernicious practice of untouchability, and to nurture India's economic and moral self-reliance. We see how in each... more
Opening in July 1914, as Mohandas Gandhi leaves South Africa to return to India, Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914-1918 traces the Mahatma's life over the next three decades: his struggle to deliver India from British rule, to forge harmonious relations between India's Hindus and Muslims, to end the pernicious practice of untouchability, and to nurture India's economic and moral self-reliance. We see how in each... more
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A re-creation of one of the key moments of twentieth-century history: the partition and independence of India, and the final days of the Raj. less
Recommended by William Dalrymple, and 1 others. William DalrymplePartition is a very complicated story. Many people have tried to tell it before, but this is far and away the best book I’ve read on Partition. I don’t think she had particular access to any brand-new material. She certainly didn’t get her hands on the material she would most have liked, the love letters between Nehru and Lady Mountbatten [wife of Lord Mountbatten, last Viceroy of India]. Because... (Source)
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Echoes of the traumatic events surrounding the Partition of India in 1947 can be heard to this day in the daily life of the subcontinent, each time India and Pakistan play a cricket match or when their political leaders speak of "unfinished business." Sikhs who lived through the pogrom following the assassination of Indira Gandhi recall Partition, as do, most recently, Muslim communities targeted by mobs in Gujarat.
The eight essays in The Partitions of Memory suggest ways in which the tangled skein of Partition might be unraveled. The contributors range over issues as diverse as... more
The eight essays in The Partitions of Memory suggest ways in which the tangled skein of Partition might be unraveled. The contributors range over issues as diverse as... more
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David FrumSuch a great book, all who care about modern India should read it https://t.co/zOGZyJILVN (Source)
Sanjay JhaWhile on a serene sabbatical read @kapskom’a brilliant book on contemporary Indian politics; it spares no political party, while confesses that India could be perilously close to becoming a authoritarian state. The book is cathartic, given craven media cheerleading. https://t.co/I2a93no4lT (Source)
Don't have time to read the top Pakistan History books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
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- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
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82
Unlike other studies on South Asian Islam, which either ignore the Ahl al-Quran or misread their dogmatic approach, and also the extent of its impact, the present study researches the Ahl al-Quran as disparate set of movements originating during the late nineteenth century, mainly in Punjab. To varying degrees, these movements and their ideologues-most notably Maulvi Abdullah Chakralavi, Khwaja Ahmad-ud-Din Amritsari and Ghulam Ahmad Parvez-espoused the centrality of Quran as the only divine text required for the inference of religious doctrines. They questioned the relevance and authority of... more
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Morning Edition cohost Steve Inskeep presents a riveting account of a single harrowing day in December 2009 that sheds light on the constant tensions in Karachi, Pakistan—when a bomb blast ripped through a Shia religious procession, followed by the torching of hundreds of businesses in Karachi’s commercial district. Through interviews with a broad cross section of Karachi residents, Inskeep peels back the layers of that terrible day. It is the beginning, and a constant touchstone, in a journey across the city’s epic history and its troubled present Thrilling and deeply... more
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The South Asian Health Solution is the first book to provide an ancestral health-based wellness plan culturally tailored for those of South Asian ancestry living in India, the United States and across the world – a population identified as being at the highest risk for heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and related conditions. Dr. Ronesh Sinha, an internal medicine specialist in California’s Silicon Valley, sees high risk South Asian patients and runs education and wellness programs for corporate clients. He has taken many South Asians out of the high risk, high body mass category and... more
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In this sweeping historical survey, Humayan Mirza traces the fortunes of his ancestors, the powerful rulers of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. Turning next to the colonial experience India under British rule, Mirza describes the long struggle for independence that ultimately led to the partition of India and the birth of Pakistan. With its subsequent focus on the career of the author's father, Iskander Mirza, From Plassey to Pakistan offers the reader a comprehensive picture of a politically volatile region that remains at the very center of our global consciousness. Also included in this revised... more
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When India and Pakistan held nuclear tests in 1998, they restarted the clock on a competition that had begun half a century earlier. Nuclear weapons restored strategic parity, erasing the advantage of India's much larger size and conventional military superiority. Yet in the years that followed Pakistan went on to lose decisively to India. It lost any ability to stake a serious claim to Kashmir, a region it called its jugular vein. Its ability to influence events in Afghanistan diminished. While India's growing economy won it recognition as a rising world power, Pakistan became known as a... more
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What does it mean to be an English-language fiction writer in a country that is perpetually on the brink of disaster? In this first-ever collection of interviews with Pakistani novelists writing in English, Mushtaq Bilal explores how fictions are informed by the authors’ cultural identities. Is it possible, for instance, to write about Pakistan without self-censoring? How do writers contest and challenge Western stereotypes of the country? Do they even consciously do that? And what about challenging Pakistani stereotypes of the West? Providing fresh insights into some of the most important... more
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"Dennis Kux's book possesses a wealth of new information, based partly on fresh research in published and archival sources, but based even more impressively on the more than 100 personal interviews he conducted with former diplomats and defense officials in both the United States and Pakistan."–Robert J. McMahon, University of Florida
"Kux's study is, to my knowledge, the first full-dress, comprehensive, and authoritative study of U.S.-Pakistan relations. Focused primarily on formal diplomacy between these two countries, it systematically chronicles the major events, deftly handles... more
"Kux's study is, to my knowledge, the first full-dress, comprehensive, and authoritative study of U.S.-Pakistan relations. Focused primarily on formal diplomacy between these two countries, it systematically chronicles the major events, deftly handles... more
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If Pakistan is to preserve all that is good about its country--the generosity and hospitality of its people, the dynamism of its youth--it must face the deterioration of its social and political institutions. Sidestepping easy headlines to identify Pakistan's true dangers, this volume revisits the major turning points and trends of Pakistani history over the past six decades, focusing on the increasing entrenchment of Pakistan's army in its political and economic arenas; the complex role of Islam in public life; the tensions between central and local identities and democratic impulses; and... more
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An urgent, on-the-ground report from Pakistan--from the bestselling author of "Descent""Into Chaos" and "Taliban" Ahmed Rashid, one of the world's leading experts on the social and political situations in Pakistan and Afghanistan, offers a highly anticipated update on the possibilities--and hazards--facing the United States after the death of Osama bin Laden and as Operation Enduring Freedom winds down. With the characteristic professionalism that has made him the preeminent independent journalist in Pakistan for three decades, Rashid asks the important questions and delivers informed... more
Don't have time to read the top Pakistan History books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
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91
With an official population approaching fifteen million, Karachi is one of the largest cities in the world. It is also the most violent. Since the mid-1980s, it has endured endemic political conflict and criminal violence, which revolve around control of the city and its resources (votes, land and bhatta-"protection" money). These struggles for the city have become ethnicized. Karachi, often referred to as a "Pakistan in miniature," has become increasingly fragmented, socially as well as territorially. Despite this chronic state of urban political warfare, Karachi is the cornerstone of the... more
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How did the horrendous situation in Afghanistan, with all its implications for recent events and the present time, come to pass? What was the role of the CIA and Pakistani intelligence in the creation of what became the Taliban? What are the implications for the future and lessons from the past for American forces today?
This highly controversial book reveals one of the greatest military, political and financial secrets of recent times. It is nothing less than the true, if fantastic, account of how Pakistan and the USA covertly controlled the largest guerrilla war of the 20th... more
This highly controversial book reveals one of the greatest military, political and financial secrets of recent times. It is nothing less than the true, if fantastic, account of how Pakistan and the USA covertly controlled the largest guerrilla war of the 20th... more
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Provides a detailed look at how war affects human life and health far beyond the battlefield
Since 2010, a team of activists, social scientists, and physicians have monitored the lives lost as a result of the US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan through an initiative called the Costs of War Project. Unlike most studies of war casualties, this research looks beyond lives lost in violence to consider those who have died as a result of illness, injuries, and malnutrition that would not have occurred had the war not taken place. Incredibly, the Cost of War... more
Since 2010, a team of activists, social scientists, and physicians have monitored the lives lost as a result of the US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan through an initiative called the Costs of War Project. Unlike most studies of war casualties, this research looks beyond lives lost in violence to consider those who have died as a result of illness, injuries, and malnutrition that would not have occurred had the war not taken place. Incredibly, the Cost of War... more
94
Since Pakistan gained independence in 1947, only once has an elected government completed its tenure and peacefully transferred power to another elected government. In sharp contrast to neighboring India, the Muslim nation has been ruled by its military for over three decades. Even when they were not directly in control of the government, the armed forces maintained a firm grip on national politics. How the military became Pakistan's foremost power elite and what its unchecked authority means for the future of this nuclear-armed nation are among the crucial questions Aqil Shah takes up in The... more
95
The clouds are moving ecstatically from Kashi to Mathura and the sky will remain covered with dense clouds as long as there is Krishna in Braj. These lines were composed by Mohsin Kakorvi, an Urdu poet, to celebrate not Lord Krishna's birthday but that of the Prophet Muhammad.
Awadh, the author's birthplace, was steeped in this exquisite confluence of cultures. Sadly, this glorious tradition has been systematically destroyed over the past century. In many ways, Awadh stood for everything that independent India could have become, a land in which people of different faiths... more
Awadh, the author's birthplace, was steeped in this exquisite confluence of cultures. Sadly, this glorious tradition has been systematically destroyed over the past century. In many ways, Awadh stood for everything that independent India could have become, a land in which people of different faiths... more
97
The State of Islam tells the story of Pakistan through the lens of the Cold War, and more recently the War on Terror, to shed light on the domestic and international processes behind the global rise of militant Islam.
Unlike existing scholarship on nationalism, Islam and the state in Pakistan, which tends to privilege events in a narrowly-defined ‘political’ realm, Saadia Toor highlights the significance of cultural politics in Pakistan from its origins to the contemporary period. This extra dimension allows Toor to explain how the struggle between Marxists and liberal... more
Unlike existing scholarship on nationalism, Islam and the state in Pakistan, which tends to privilege events in a narrowly-defined ‘political’ realm, Saadia Toor highlights the significance of cultural politics in Pakistan from its origins to the contemporary period. This extra dimension allows Toor to explain how the struggle between Marxists and liberal... more
98
Britain's precipitous and ill-planned disengagement from India in 1947--condemned as a "shameful flight" by Winston Churchill--had a truly catastrophic effect on South Asia, leaving hundreds of thousands of people dead in its wake and creating a legacy of chaos, hatred, and war that has lasted over half a century.
Ranging from the fall of Singapore in 1942 to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, Shameful Flight provides a vivid behind-the-scenes look at Britain's decision to divest itself from the crown jewel of its empire. Stanley Wolpert, a leading authority on Indian... more
Ranging from the fall of Singapore in 1942 to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, Shameful Flight provides a vivid behind-the-scenes look at Britain's decision to divest itself from the crown jewel of its empire. Stanley Wolpert, a leading authority on Indian... more
99
A haunting literary debut set in the forbidding remote tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Traditions that have lasted for centuries, both brutal and beautiful, create a rigid structure for life in the wild, astonishing place where Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan meet—the Federally Administered Tribal Lands (FATA). It is a formidable world and the people who live there are constantly subjected to extremes—both of geography and of culture.
The Wandering Falcon begins with a young couple, refugees from their tribe, who have traveled to the middle of... more
Traditions that have lasted for centuries, both brutal and beautiful, create a rigid structure for life in the wild, astonishing place where Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan meet—the Federally Administered Tribal Lands (FATA). It is a formidable world and the people who live there are constantly subjected to extremes—both of geography and of culture.
The Wandering Falcon begins with a young couple, refugees from their tribe, who have traveled to the middle of... more
100
A brilliant account of the workings of state terrorism by the world’s foremost critic of US imperialism. less
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