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.
1. Leaving Home
A Collection of English Prose by Pakistani Writers
Selected and Edited by Muneeza Shamsie
2. Beloved City
Writings on Lahore
Editor:Bapsi Sidhwa
nice blog.
sorry for myself, i have only read two books in the collage above, and know of only 2 more.
“Karachi – Mega city of our times by oxford” is a really cool book, however, its more about historical life rather than what the name suggested to me at first. the chapters on life in the 60’s and 70’s are worth reading. Besides its the only book which increased my knowledge on local figures, for instance Frere, Napier, Abdullah Haroon and others.
Can anyone recommend a neutral book on Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto?
my favourite book on pakistan is a work of fiction – shame by rushdie published in early 80’s. written in typical rushdie style, the book is a very unique and uncomfortable take on pakistan and deals a lot with life under zia. shame was written when rushdie used to be good i.e. before satanic verses. i used to think rushdie was completely indian but apparently his family moved to pakistan and rushdie worked for radio pakistan for a short while in early 70’s. rushdie himself has never linked himself with pak which is understandable because in gora circles, india is more fashionable than pakistan is and indianess helps to sell more books. i wonder if rushdie’s family still resides in pakistan? i think his sister might still be there.
waisay i also wonder why pakistanis would read books on pakistan written by goras? goras certainly dont know pakistan as well as pakistanis do. plus goras have always been biased against islam and a country that is so closely associated with islam will never get a sympathetic treatment at the hands of goras. a muslim country with the bomb even less so.
also books published by pakistani authors for gora audiences are completely useless as well. goras only like to read books written by natives who reinforce gora viewpoint. halo surrounding ayaan hirsi’s “book” is a good example of this. any pakistani author presenting pakistani viewpoint wont be able to sell books in goraland and thus will never get a contract.
These books are certainly worth checking. However, in addition to the above, it is also very important to read some material on the issues of Pakistan’s socio-economic development, a topic that is badly missing in the whole list.
Here are a few suggestions.
1. Pakistan: Fifty Years of Nationhood.
Shahid Javed Burki, Westview Press, 1999
2. Pakistan’s Economic and Social Development: The Domestic, Regional and Global Context
by S. Akbar Zaidi, 2004
3. Issues in Pakistan’s Economy
by S. Akbar Zaidi, 1999
4. The New Development Paradigm: Papers on Institutions, Ngos, Gender and Local Government.
by S. Akbar Zaidi
5. Pakistan : The Economy of an Elitist State
Ishrat Husain
The wikipedia page on Pakistan’s economy also has a list of books:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Pakistan
@Arsalan Ali
My reaction to Stephen Cohen’s book was not as positive as yours. My reaction to his ‘Idea of Pakistan’ was that he has no idea about Pakistan. Having read his earlier work, I have never been very impressed by him.
The book that I have not yet read but recently bougth is Shameful Flight by Stanley Wolpert, whose earlier books on Jinnah, Bhotto and Gandhi I greatly admire. Nice to see it in teh list above and am planning to read it soon.