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.