It is an undisputedly history-rich bouquet of books that IANS is
offering to its readers this weekend, covering the most debated topic of
India-Pakistan rivalry to juxtaposing the neighbour's state of affairs
in global politics. And then there are some gems from history repolished
through the eyes of foreigners. Take a look.
1. Book: The
Longest August: The Unflinching Rivalry between India and Pakistan;
Author: Dilip Hiro; Publisher: Nation Books; Pages: 528; Price: Rs. 799
The
partitioning of British India into independent India and Pakistan in
August 1947 occurred in the midst of a communal holocaust, with Hindus
and Sikhs on one side and Muslims on the other. More than 750,000 people
were butchered, and 12 million fled their homes - primarily in caravans
of bullock-carts to seek refuge across the new border: it was the
largest exodus in history. Sixty-seven years later, it is as if that
August never ended.
The author provides a riveting account of the
relationship between India and Pakistan, tracing the landmark events
that led to the division of the sub-continent and the evolution of the
contentious relationship between Hindus and Muslims. To this day, a
reasonable resolution to their dispute has proved elusive, and the Line
of Control in Kashmir remains one of the most heavily fortified frontier
in the world, with 400,000 soldiers arrayed on either side. Since
partition, there have been several acute crises between the neighbours,
including the secession of East Pakistan to form an independent
Bangladesh in 1971, not forgetting the wars of 1948, 1965, 1971 and 1999
and the confrontation in 2002 that almost blew up into a conflict.
Hiro
amply sketches the geopolitical contours of the India-Pakistan conflict
by chronicling their respective ties not only with America and the
Soviet Union but also with China, Israel, and Afghanistan. The author
weaves these threads into a lucid narrative, enlivened with colourful
biographies of leaders, vivid descriptions of wars,
sensational assassinations, gross violations of human rights - and cultural signifiers like cricket matches.
2.
Book: The Struggle for Pakistan: A Muslim Homeland and Global Politics;
Author: Ayesha Jalal; Publisher: Belknap Press; Pages: 448; Price: Rs.
886.
Pakistan, created as a homeland for the sub-continent's
Muslims, has had a tumultuous history that has unfolded in the vortex of
dire regional and international conflicts. Beset by assassinations,
coups, ethnic strife and the loss of East Pakistan in 1971, the country
has too often found itself contending with religious extremism and
military
authoritarianism.
Now, in a probing biography of her
native land amid the throes of global change, the author provides an
insider's assessment of how this nuclear-armed nation evolved as it did
and explains why its dilemmas weigh so heavily on prospects for peace in
the region.
Attentive to Pakistan's external relations as well
as its internal dynamics, Jalal shows how the vexed relationship with
the United States, border disputes with Afghanistan in the west, and the
conflict with India over Kashmir in the east have played into the hands
of the generals who purchased security at the cost of strong democratic
institutions. Combined with domestic ethnic and regional rivalries,
such pressures have created a siege mentality that encourages military
domination and militant extremism.
Since 9/11, the country has
been widely portrayed as a breeding ground for Islamic terrorism.
Assessing the threats posed by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban as American
troops withdraw from Afghanistan, the author contends that the battle
for Pakistan's soul is far from over. Her definitive biography reveals
how pluralism and democracy continue to struggle for a place in this
Muslim homeland, where they are so essential for its future.
3. Book: The Tears of The Rajas; Author: Ferdinand Mount; Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Pages: 768; Price: Rs. 799
This
book is a sweeping history of the British in India, seen through the
experiences of a single Scottish family. For a century, the Lows of
Clatto survived mutiny, siege, debt and disease - everywhere from the
heat of Madras to the Afghan snows. They lived through the most
appalling atrocities and retaliated with some of their own. Each of
their lives, remarkable in itself, contributes to the story of the whole
fragile and imperilled, often shockingly oppressive and devious but now
and then heroic and poignant enterprise.
On the surface, John
and Augusta Low and their relations may seem imperturbable, but in their
letters and diaries, they often reveal their loneliness and desperation
and their doubts about what they are doing in India. The Lows are the
family of the author's grandmother and a recurring theme of the book is
his own discovery of them and of those parts of the history of the
British in India which posterity has preferred to forget.
The
book brings to life not only the most dramatic incidents of their
careers - the massacre at Vellore, the conquest of Java, the deposition
of the boy-king of Oudh, the disasters in Afghanistan, the relief of
Lucknow and Chitral - but also their personal ordeals - the bankruptcies
in Scotland and Calcutta, the plagues and fevers, the deaths of
children and deaths during childbirth.
It also brings to life the
unrepeatable strangeness of their lives - the camps and the palaces
they lived in, the balls and the flirtations in the hill stations and
the hot slow rides through the dust.
4. Book: The First Firangis; Author: Jonathan Gill Harris; Publisher: Aleph; Pages: 344; Price: Rs. 495.
This
book chronicles the lives of fascinating yet little-known foreigners
from the 16th and 17th centuries who decided to become Indian.
The
Indian subcontinent has been a land of immigrants for thousands of
years - waves of migration from Persia, Central Asia, Mongolia, the
Middle East and Greece have helped create India's exceptionally diverse
cultural mix. In the centuries before the British Raj, when the Mughals
were the pre-eminent power, a wide array of migrants, known as firangis,
made India their home.
There are gripping accounts of healers,
soldiers, artists, ascetics, thieves, pirates and courtesans who were
not powerful or privileged. Often they were escaping poverty or
religious persecution; many were brought here as slaves, others simply
followed their spirit of adventure. Some of these migrants were absorbed
into the military; others fell in with religious communities - the
Catholics of Rachol, the underground Jews of Goa, the fakirs of Ajmer
and the Sufis of Delhi.
Healers from Portugal and Italy adapted
their medical practice in accordance with local traditions. Gifted
artisans from Europe joined Akbar's and Jahangir's royal ateliers and
helped create enduring works of art. And though almost invisible within
the archival record, some migrant women such as the Armenian Bibi
Juliana and the Portuguese Juliana Dias da Costa found a home in royal
Mughal harems.
The author uses his own experience of becoming
Indian through the process of acclimatising to the country's culture,
customs, weather, food, clothes and customs to bring the stories of
these shadowy figures to vivid life.
