ASIA THROUGH OUR EYES: PART 1 – PAKISTAN Asia Through Our Eyes: Part 1 – Pakistan We are a 50+ year old (actually nearer 60) married couple from the south-east of England. In 2006 we took the decision to give up our home and jobs to join the numerous other back-packers travelling around the globe in search of new experiences. Our plan was to sell our home of 25 years and use the bulk of the equity to buy a smaller property outright in a cheaper part of the country. Any remaining balance would fund our trip. We reasoned that if we put off the decision any longer, we might make a larger profit on the house sale but other factors such as health may prevent us from such adventurous travels in the future.Little did we know then that the…. Read more
National Identities in Pakistan: The 1971 war in contemporary Pakistani fiction (Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series) In 1971, a war which took place in Pakistan that resulted in the establishment of two separate countries; East Pakistan became Bangladesh, leaving the remaining four western provinces to comprise a truncated Pakistan. This book examines how literature by those who remained Pakistanis acts as a cultural response to the threat the war posed to a nationalist identity. It provides an analysis of the writing by Pakistani authors in their attempt to deal with the radical shock of the war and shows how fiction about the war helps readers imagine what the paring down of the country means for any abiding articulation of a…. Read more
Regionalism in South Asia: Negotiating Cooperation, Institutional Structures (Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series) The dramatic surge in regional integration schemes over the past two decades has been one of the most important developments in world politics. Virtually all countries are now members of at least one regional grouping. South Asia is no exception to this trend. In December 1985, seven South Asian countries came together to establish South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to address issues of peace and development in the region. This book examines regionalism in South Asia, exploring the linkages between institutional structures, government capabilities, and domestic actors’ preferences to explain…. Read more
Bangladesh and Pakistan: Flirting with Failure in South Asia (Columbia/Hurst) An active member of the U. S. Foreign Service until 2001, William B. Milam possesses an exhaustive knowledge of the history and culture of Bangladesh and Pakistan. His insightful study expresses a profound empathy for both countries and, with the death of Benazir Bhutto and the decline of Pervez Musharraf, could not be a timelier contribution to current debates concerning the stability of the region. Since 1971, Pakistan has evolved into a praetorian state plagued by army interventions and corrupt civilian governments. Nevertheless, the tunnel-vision of General Musharraf triggered a political implosion in 2007, and widespread dismay over the assassination of…. Read more
Secularizing Islamists?: Jama’at-e-Islami and Jama’at-ud-Da’wa in Urban Pakistan (South Asia Across the Disciplines) Secularizing Islamists? provides an in-depth analysis of two Islamist parties in Pakistan, the highly influential Jama‘at-e-Islami and the more militant Jama‘at-ud-Da‘wa, widely blamed for the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India. Basing her findings on thirteen months of ethnographic work with the two parties in Lahore, Humeira Iqtidar proposes that these Islamists are involuntarily facilitating secularization within Muslim societies, even as they vehemently oppose secularism. This book offers a fine-grained account of the workings of both parties that challenges received ideas about the relationship…. Read more
