Adil Najam
We at ATP like books. Over the last many months we have featured and discussed a number of books that relate to Pakistan in various ways.
I must confess that I had always hoped that we would talk more about books than we have. I hope we will be able to do so in the future. As a step towards that goal, we would like to invite our readers to share with us your suggestions of books on Pakistan that are worth reading.
This is not a popularity contest. We have no awards to give. We merely want to collate a list of books on Pakistan that people consider to be interesting reads. Specially those that you would consider recommending to others for whatever reason.
We have only two criteria:
- First, that the books you suggest must be about Pakistan, and significantly so. We, of course, realize that many Pakistanis read many books that are not about Pakistan, but the focus of this blog is not only on ‘All’ Things Pakistan, but also ‘Only’ things about Pakistan.
- Second, for the purpose of this first exercise please restrict your suggestions to books in the English language. This is a pragmatic, and not an ideological, criteria. The universe of books in Urdu is much larger - especially when one includes works of fiction and poetry - and hopefully we will have a separate exercise on those. For now, we wish to start small by focusing only on English language books.
The plan right now is to make this post and list a standing feature and to keep adding to it as readers share their suggestions and ideas. Hopefully this will be a useful service to those interested in Pakistan and Pakistaniat.
On autobiographies, I would highly recommend “Unlikely Beginnings” by General A.O. Mitha. Very absorbing read - from a soldier’s pen who left most of his family in India, married a Christian woman, rose to the rank of Maj General - and prematurely retired by Bhutto.
On fiction, I’d recommend Thalassa Ali’s two books “A Singular Hostage” and “A Beggar at the Gate”. Third and final book in this sequel is due out this summer. It is a historical novel set in Ranjit Singh’s Lahore - written from perspective of an English woman. Author is a American widow of a Pakistani businessman who spent many years in Pakistan.
Enjoy and please keep book recommendations coming!
Fascinating list. and comments.
I suggest dividing the books mentioned into separate lists, political, economic, poetry & literature, societal, etc
thanks.
I am surprised no one listed the Case for Pakistan by Tariq Ali.
Breaking the Curfew - Emma Duncan
and
Pakistan: The Eye of the Storm - Owen Bennett Jones
The best book I have read on Pakistan is Hasan Zaheer’s
“The Seperation of East Pakistan”. Gives a detailed insight on the happenings leading to the tragic seperation.
Some other books included “We Never learn from History” By Asghar Khan and “Journey to Disillusionment” by Sardar Sherbaz Khan Mazari and “Hama Yaran Dozakh” by Siddiq Salik.
What i’ve read recently:
1. “The Dancing Girls of Lahore: Selling Love and Saving Dreams in Pakistan’s Ancient Pleasure District” … a Brittish author stays with and catalogues the lives of people in Heera Mandee. Unbelievably sad, depressing, deeply poignont, and very important to read.
2. Non-fiction: “Kartography” by Kamila Shamsie. Actually, any Kamila Shamsie book is centered in Karachi and talks alot about it.
Pakistan or Partition of India… by Dr. B R Ambedkar is an amazing book. I thoroughly recommend it.
Another very interesting one on partition is
Pakistan and the partition of India
by Dr. Ambedkar (the father of India’s constitution), 2nd edition in 1945
What makes this book particularly instructive is that it is not an analysis of partition by a historian, but a contribution to the debate when the question of Pakistan was being hotly debated. It takes us right into the 1940s, discusses a variety of arguments that were being given on the topic, thus helping the reader get a better understanding of how one might have seen the issue in those days rather than looking at it through the prism of the present situation.
Ambedkar seems quite sympathetic to the demand for Pakistan, which makes the book all the more interesting and worth reading, considering that this man later became the author of the Indian constitution.