A Puzzle Called Pakistan

In avoiding the fashionable gloom about the future of Pakistan, objectively assessing the positive and negative factors at work, and laying out different scenarios for its evolution, Cohen has given us a masterful intellectual framework on our western neighbour. It should allow us to think more subtly about our 8220;brother-enemy8221; that is so central to India8217;s own future.

Pakistan, India8217;s principal adversary since the Partition in 1947, takes up so much of its political, diplomatic and military energies. The daily sparring between the foreign offices in New Delhi and Islamabad fills up enormous space in our newspapers. Yet there is very little scholarship in India on the history and evolution of Pakistan as a state. Minus a broad insight into the state and society in Pakistan, India has violent mood swings that define our perceptions and policies towards Pakistan. When we are angry, we demonise Pakistan. We wish to believe Pakistan8217;s demise is at hand. When we are a little more charitable, we are drawn intensely towards Pakistan by many enduring bonds that tug at us despite the many wars we have gone through.

With the writing of our own history a contested terrain, we have had even less success in putting down a balanced account of the rise of the idea of Pakistan, the political forces that have shaped it since Partition and the turbulent relationship with it ever since.

Our perceptions of Pakistan are shaped less by the realities across the border and more by our own broader political attitudes. Liberals and progressives are for peace with Pakistan. Conservatives and those steeped in the national security debate are skeptical to the point of conceding an inevitable thousand year war between the neighbours. Whether we wage war or peace with Pakistan or merely find ways to live with it, we need to understand what makes it tick. Until Indian academia produces those insights 8212; it could be a long wait 8212; we will have to rely on scholars from outside the subcontinent like Stephen Cohen.

Given the growing worldwide interest in the Muslim world after September 11, 2001 and the location of Islamabad at the centre of the global war on terrorism, there has been a rash of new books on Pakistan focusing on Islamic extremism and terrorism and the potential for a failed nuclear state. While many of those will soon disappear from bookshelves this new volume from Cohen will stay with us for a long time, for it takes a longer and well-considered view of Pakistan. Unlike most scholarly work, Cohen8217;s volume is at once accessible to the lay reader and insightful to those interested in policy debates on Pakistan in the United States, India and beyond.

Cohen8217;s earlier volume on the army in Pakistan has been staple for most Indian students of Pakistan. His new work is about a much larger project 8212; to lay out the factors behind the complex political and institutional factors at play within Pakistan.

Cohen walks us through the history of Pakistan 8212; from the early Muslim invasions of India to the creation of a new state by Mohammad Ali Jinnah and state building in Pakistan. Strong armed forces and weak political parties, the role of Islam and ethnic separatism form important parts of Cohen8217;s narrative. He offers us an incisive look at the political uncertainties and contradictions that endure in Pakistan at a very critical juncture in the history of that nation as well its relations with India and the world. For nearly three decades, Cohen has been at the centre of American debates on South Asia and an important influence among a new generation of South Asian scholars on international relations.

The flip side of being an American academic on India and Pakistan is the huge risk of being misunderstood in both. With this contribution, Cohen will surely enhance his academic reputation in the region as well as enlarge his circle of friends in both India and Pakistan.