This is a comprehensive history of Pakistan, a country that lies at the centre of the world’s strategic concerns. Being published as Pakistan completes its sixtieth year as a nation state the book covers contemporary crises in the perspective of the subcontinent’s ancient and medieval history to explain how Muslim nationalism emerged and how the community interacted with the other communities in the region. Covering the centuries from Mehergarh to Musharraf, the author breaches the confines of political history to depict the intellectual, economic, diplomatic, and cultural history of Pakistan. Topics that have become the subject of controversy such as the 1971 Poland Resolution and the 1972 Simla Agreement are highlighted in boxes. The book is thematically addressed, but it provides underpinning by interspersing personality profiles of the individuals who shaped the course of events over the centuries. This gallery includes Amir Khusro as the embodiment of a distinctive Indo-Muslim culture; Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru, whose lofty ideals nevertheless resulted in Partition; M.A. Jinnah, who is credited with almost single-handedly creating the state of Pakistan; and the volatile but tragic figure of Z.A. Bhutto. In covering economic history, the author has also treated unorthodox subjects such as the rise and fall of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International and the Kalabagh Dam controversy. In diplomatic history the author presents little known material on the 1971 War and in intellectual history he examines the circumstances that caused piety to develop into terror. Replete with striking interpretations based on neglected but authentic sources, this book breaks fresh ground.

"In Michael Cook's words, this book is "about a substantial slice of human history delimited by a particular cultural characteristic: adherance to Islam in some form or other. [...] A commitment to Islam makes a difference. Wherever a society and its rulers have come to be Muslim, this has meant a major discontinuity with its pre-Islamic past and a significant expansion of its relations with the wider Muslim world." Starting in the pre-Islamic Middle East, Cook returns a sense of wonder to how Muhammad could not only become a prophet of a new monotheistic religion but also unite the Arab tribes behind it and create a state that would conquer much of the territory that belonged to the Byzantines and the Sasanians, the two empires that had balanced power in the region for hundreds of years. Exploring the high culture of the Abbasids, Cook then charts the disintegration of the Caliphate and the brief rise of the Fatimids and the Mongols of the Steppe. He covers the Ottomans (Turkish), Safavids (Iranian), Mughals (India), and ventures to East Africa, Madagascar, Somalia, Southeast Asia, and many places between. An epilogue gestures to major themes in the post-1800 world"--

Recipient of several international awards, Fatima was nominated in 2004 as one of the fifty greatest South Africans. In 1999, she was listed among the top ?100 Women Who Shook South Africa.? Despite being banned three times by the apartheid government, shot at, and imprisoned, she remained a fearless anti-apartheid fighter until freedom was won. Fiercely independent, she was a compelling character of Muslim and Indian heritage who left a profound impact on the history of South Africa?s Liberation Movement. Her life story and contributions should be preserved for future generations.

Original, unique, and a significant addition to the humanities scholarship, this book illuminates the historical amnesia in the environmental movement and eco-thought in relation to ongoing violence of dispossession in the colonies of postcolonial states. Tracing the ecological ethics in Kashmir and Palestine while choosing to read personal narratives as cultural texts, Aamir’s individual exegesis of these texts offers key contemporary imaginaries on eco-politics. Her book may be a good source to understand global anxieties about ecocide beyond the emerging postcolonial critique of environmentalism. She manages to challenge postcolonial eco-critique that has typically tended to train its focus more on global “developed” vs “third world” dynamic without disaggregating the postcolonial world itself along a logic of hierarchy. The book stands out as a unique and timely contribution to the emerging field of environmental ethics in the context of two palpitating geo-historical nodes — Palestine and Kashmir. The eco-postcolonial discourse, perceived through the lens of literary life narratives of selected authors, underscores the crucial tenets of political resistance that aim to address the issues of marginalization and erasure as experienced and lived out by Kashmiris and Palestinians in particular and people across the globe in general.

People and their acts of bravery are often lost to the annals of history. But what of mighty lineages? Generations of kings and the lands and people they fought for? What of kings who fought against their own people? The Hindu Sahi kings, to whom honour and pride were more important than their own survival, fought a near-130-year rear-guard action as they continued to be pushed east from Kabul, their original homeland, changing their capitals and defending themselves from their own countrymen. The last of their house had the misfortune of confronting the juggernaut that was Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. Where obedience to the Sultan would have allowed their house to endure, their honour would have them confront him over and over. But who were they? This book tries to piece together their story from the limited sources that are available from an age where historical sources were few and, the case of the Sahis. mostly from the point of view of their enemies. This is the story of a dynasty that represented a resurgent Hindu faith in a land that was long dominated by Buddhism but also coincided with the arrival of the Muslims.

The "Gazetteer of the Dera Ismail Khan District" is a historical document that provides detailed information about the geography, history, demographics, culture, and administration of the Dera Ismail Khan district, located in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

In 1992 when a Dalit woman left the convent and wrote her autobiography, the Tamil publishing industry found her language unacceptable. So Bama Faustina published her milestone work Karukku privately in 1992-a passionate and important mix of history, sociology, and the strength to remember. Karukku broke barriers of tradition in more ways than one. The first autobiography by a Dalit woman writer and a classic of subaltern writing, it is a bold and poignant tale of life outside mainstream Indian thought and function. Revolving around the main theme of caste oppression within the Catholic Church, it portrays the tension between the self and the community, and presents Bama's life as a process of self-reflection and recovery from social and institutional betrayal. The English translation, first published in 2000 and recognized as a new alphabet of experience, pushed Dalit writing into high relief. This second edition includes a Postscript in which Bama relives the dramatic movement of her leave-taking from her chosen vocation and a special note 'Ten Years Later'.

For twenty years, the Taliban was the number one enemy of Western forces in Afghanistan. But it was an enemy that they knew little about. And they knew even less about its founder and leader, Mullah Omar. With only a fuzzy black-and-white photo of the man, investigative journalist Bette Dam decided to track down the reclusive Taliban chief. But in the course of what had seemed an almost impossible job, she got to know the Taliban inside out, realized how dangerously misinformed the global forces fighting it were, and made a startling discovery about the elusive Omar’s whereabouts. The outcome of a five-year-long pursuit, Looking for the Enemy is a woman journalist’s epic story that takes the reader deep into Afghanistan as it throws up several unknowns about a movement that is now once again at the helm of the country.

A chronicle of Pakistan's political history that offers concise accounts of the major political events and constitutional issues, the making and the breaking of interim and regular constitutions going back to the establishment of Pakistan in August 1947. The book focuses on Pakistan's challenges of state building and nation building, and the search for a viable participatory political order. It examines political and constitutional engineering by civilian and military-bureaucratic governments to serve their partisan interests, and Pakistan's conflictual politics devoid of the democratic culture and civility. The book also offers insights into the changing patterns of civil-military relations, ascendancy of the military to political power, civilianization of military rule through power-sharing, and the shift from military "rule" to "role". It also examines the internal and external dimensions of the East Pakistan/Bangladesh crisis, national and provincial elections, protest movements including the lawyers movement and the Caretaker governance system in Pakistan.

“In this seminal study, a leading practitioner in the field of economics has reached beyond the disciplines’ boundaries and cast a glow of spiritual humanism on it. He has brought heart to the ‘dismal science’ and thus given renewed vigour to his subject. This is the work of a master philosopher writing at his peak.” “Akmal Hussain places the ‘human’ squarely at the heart of ‘development’ and brings human consciousness into the developmental paradigm.” “This elegant and wide-ranging study of politics and ideology transcends disciplinary boundaries and helps us to understand a new Pakistan’s history with unusual depth and clarity.” “What a gem of an analysis of the instability of, and in, Pakistan’s institutional architecture, and hence the State. A unique study of the interaction(s) between the various organs of the state… Brilliant and most insightful…” — Aitzaz Ahsan, Honorary Fellow, Downing College Cambridge. Akmal Hussain is an economist and activist. He is presently Distinguished Professor of Economics, Beaconhouse National University (Lahore).

Secular Muslim: Jinnah, His Politics and Pakistan covers Pakistan’s founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s political journey from start to finish. It also explores the origin of classical liberalism and moderate secularism whose salient features inspired his approach to politics. The writer pinpoints several distortions in ‘history books’ and debunks several myths surrounding Jinnah and the Pakistan Movement. One such myth is the so-called Two Nations Theory’. Contrary to the popular belief, right-wing Caste Hindus were the first to classify themselves as a separate nation in British Raj, and they wanted to create one state in the subcontinent free of non-Hindus. The book explains how Jinnah used their ideology against them later on and tried to achieve an inclusive state for all religious communities and atheists of the subcontinent, where oppressed classes, in general, could progress economically and emancipate their women. The author concludes that the present-day Islamic Republic of Pakistan is everything its founder stood against throughout his life. Therefore there is a need to establish a secular albeit Muslim-majority state that serves all its citizens equally, regardless of their religion, caste, creed, sect or gender.

The 1947 Partition of India stands as the largest forced migration in history, involving around 14 million people, with 10 million hailing from the Punjab region. This book, a holistic examination of this pivotal event, sheds light on the first major post-World War II ethnic cleansing. Drawing from confidential British reports, it shares poignant accounts from eyewitnesses, survivors, and participants in the violence on both sides of the border. Offering a balanced narrative, the book emphasizes that peaceful coexistence isn’t hindered by religious differences unless exploited by divisive forces. Interviews with those who experienced the violence provide candid revelations, making it compelling for anyone interested in recent Indo-Pak history. The third edition includes four poems depicting the partition’s tragedy and additional oral histories, each offering a unique perspective. The book underscores the theoretical aspect of governments in East and West Punjab collaborating to expel unwanted minorities, emphasizing the ethnic cleansing goal during the partition.

Joseph Campbell, arguably the greatest mythologist of the twentieth century, was certainly one of our greatest storytellers. This masterfully crafted book interweaves conversations between Campbell and some of the people he inspired, including poet Robert Bly, anthropologist Angeles Arrien, filmmaker David Kennard, Doors drummer John Densmore, psychiatric pioneer Stanislov Grof, Nobel laureate Roger Guillemen, and others. Campbell reflects on subjects ranging from the origins and functions of myth, the role of the artist, and the need for ritual to the ordeals of love and romance. With poetry and humor, Campbell recounts his own quest and conveys the excitement of his lifelong exploration of our mythic traditions, what he called ¿the one great story of mankind.”

Dive into Lahore's film entertainment scene with "True Colors of Filmic Fairies," a book that escorts readers through the scandalous corridors of Urdu dailies and showbiz periodicals. Khurshid Alam passionately guides you into the shadowy recesses of Pakistan's esteemed film heroines, unveiling their covert love affairs, closely guarded secrets, and silent struggles. Far from being just sensational gossip, Alam's analysis skillfully intertwines these actresses’ fluctuating personal and professional journeys with their socio-economic and cultural backdrop, shedding light on Lollywood’s leading ladies’ often enigmatic personal histories. Translated faithfully from its original Urdu title "Filmi Pariyo Key Par Purzey," this compelling read is perfect for Lollywood enthusiasts, film aficionados, and anyone eager to delve into the stories concealed behind the glimmers of the silver screen.