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.
For anyone wishing to understand today’s political Pakistan the following two books, in addition to some already listed in the post, may be helpful:
The Separation of East Pakistan by Hasan Zaheer – 1994
The Mirage of Power by Dr. Mubashir Hasan – 2000
Farrukh,
Sir, my opinion was not as positive as you might have guessed from the post. Obviously no Pakistani enjoys reading about Pakistan being a dangerous state/almost out of control blah blah…However, i think the book is significant because of its audience in the states, and because of its possible impact on US thinking and policy.
I just finished reading Christopher Kremmers Carpet Wars that explores several aspects of Pakistan’s carpet industry alongside the origins and evolution of oriental carpets in south and central asia. A very interesting book that I recommend to all of you.
@Abbas Halai
Yes, Fouzia Saeed’s ‘Taboo’ is a great read. I loved it.
Aqil, I am surprised that you have the Charles Kennedy and Craig Baxter volumes (yearly compilations) on Pakistan. I have found these to be really sloppy. A few decent articles in each but many not really worth much. They just wanted an edited book per year and a lot in there seems quite sub standard.