The Blood Telegram: India’s Secret War in East Pakistan
Gary J. Bass
Random House (paperback), 2013
PRs 995
The Blood Telegram: India’s Secret War in East Pakistan is a gripping account on the actual events that preceded the Indo-Pakistan war in 1971. Gary J Bass, American author and Professor narrates the truth behind the events that shook South Asia, sparking off one of the bloodiest wars in the 20th century – the attack on East Pakistan. His revelations come from a thorough study of newly declassified documents, unheard Whitehouse tapes and a meticulous investigation.
This book investigates the relation between key players that sparked off the attacks in Bangladesh-specifically India, Pakistan, the United States of America, China and the Soviet Union. Bass reveals the decisions taken by Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, that catalyzed the break between India and Bangladesh. He also describes the role of the United States of America, especially that of Nixon and Kissinger, hence highlighting the nature of policy making in Washington.
It is understood that the history of the Indo-Pakistan friction popularly known by the masses is not as it seems. There were other players at hand that have no mention, yet played a key role in determining the actions of nation leaders. This breakthrough book has caught the attention of historians and political figures worldwide.
The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution: The Jama’at-i Islami of Pakistan
Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr
IB Tauras (paperback), 2013
PRs 495
At a time when Islamic revival movements in many countries make headlines, it should be remembered that Islamic revivalism is not a new phenomenon, nor is it simple and monolithic as it is often portrayed. In this ground-breaking study, Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr examines the origins, historical development, and political strategies of one of the oldest and most influential Islamic revival movements, the Jama’at-i-Islami of Pakistan.
Founded in 1941, the JI soon became the most prominent political party in Pakistan. As the first political movement to develop systematically an Islamic ideology and agenda for social transformation, the party became active during the partition of India and it continues to be a potent force in Pakistan and throughout the Islamic world. The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution offers an insightful analysis of the JI, focusing on the inherent tension between its central idealized vision of the nation as a holy community based on Islamic law, and its political agenda of socioeconomic change for Pakistani society. Nasr identifies the significant issues in the politics of India’s Muslim community that inspired the JI on the eve of Partition, and he goes beyond the exploration of a single party to examine the diverse sociopolitical roots of contemporary Islamic revivalism.
Based on personal interviews and archival research in Pakistan, India, Britain and the United States, this detailed account provides a wealth of new material and original analysis. Nasr’s work challenges many of the standard interpretations about political expressions of Islam.
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
Samuel P. Huntington
Penguin India (paperback), 2016
PRs 800
Samuel P. Huntington, one of the world’s most influential thinkers, argues in this seminal book that conflicts between different cultural ‘civilizations’ are the greatest threat to world peace. He suggests that the world is comprised of not two opposite but eight diverse groups, based on religion, and how international cooperation between them is the best safeguard against war. Global events in the twenty-first century have proved his foresight and sagacity. Huntington’s provocative thesis that a struggle for supremacy among dominant cultures—like the Japanese, Chinese, Hindu and Islamic—is inevitable is turning into reality. In the end, people’s decision to coexist or to make war in a complex, multipolar, multi-civilizational world will determine the course of humanity.
What is Islam: The importance of being Islamic
Shahab Ahmad
Princeton (hardcover), 2015
PRs 4920
What is Islam? How do we grasp a human and historical phenomenon characterized by such variety and contradiction? What is “Islamic” about Islamic philosophy or Islamic art? Should we speak of Islam or of islams? Should we distinguish the Islamic (the religious) from the Islamicate (the cultural)? Or should we abandon “Islamic” altogether as an analytical term?
In What Is Islam?, Shahab Ahmed presents a bold new conceptualization of Islam that challenges dominant understandings grounded in the categories of “religion” and “culture” or those that privilege law and scripture. He argues that these modes of thinking obstruct us from understanding Islam, distorting it, diminishing it, and rendering it incoherent.
What Is Islam? formulates a new conceptual language for analyzing Islam. It presents a new paradigm of how Muslims have historically understood divine revelation—one that enables us to understand how and why Muslims through history have embraced values such as exploration, ambiguity, aestheticization, polyvalence, and relativism, as well as practices such as figural art, music, and even wine drinking as Islamic. It also puts forward a new understanding of the historical constitution of Islamic law and its relationship to philosophical ethics and political theory.
A book that is certain to provoke debate and significantly alter our understanding of Islam, What Is Islam? reveals how Muslims have historically conceived of and lived with Islam as norms and truths that are at once contradictory yet coherent.
The Sun that Rose from the Earth
Shamsur Rahman Faruqi
Penguin (hardcover), 2014
PRs 1600
A young Rajput orphaned by the revolt of 1857 travels many years later from Cawnpore to Delhi to get the Divan of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib autographed by the great poet himself. Beni Madho Ruswa is entranced by the poet’s radiant presence. Young Mir Taqi Mir, a rising star in the world of poetry, meets the first great love of his life, Nurus Saadat, an exquisite beauty from Isfahan. A tumultuous love affair follows, accompanied by ravishing verse. Aspiring poet and wealthy businessman Darbari Mal Vafa pays a visit to Lucknow and learns of the life and work of the poet Shaikh Mushafi through the stories told by his widow. Poets and poetry occupy centre stage in the fabulous stories of The Sun that Rose from the Earth, set in the great cities of north India and spanning the glittering age of the Mughals. Brilliantly reimagined by Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, the poets-historical figures ranging from Ghalib, Mirza Jan-e Janan, Budh Singh Qalandar, Amir Khan Anjam, Mir, Kishan Chand Ikhlas, Haidar Ali Atash, Mushafi and many more-compose remarkable poems, find patrons, make love, fight their enemies and make their living.
The celebrated master of Urdu prose presents richly elegant and superbly realized portraits, from a time past, of those who exemplify the land and culture of Hindustan.