Modern South Asia

"Yes, I think if you read the Paz first, this history book should be number two on the list. You’ll notice there isn’t any mention of India in the title – the book takes India, Pakistan and also Bangladesh and deals with all those experiences together. Yes, you could study the history of India in isolation but intellectually it’s not a very interesting or rewarding thing to do, because India really referred, before 1947, to that entire region. There was a geographical idea of India before it became a name for a nation state, and that area included even parts of Afghanistan. And there is no way you can even consider the history of India, the nation state, in isolation from the history of Pakistan. “There was a geographical idea of India before it became a name for a nation state.” The countries have fought three wars and India’s entire post-1947 evolution has been marked by the relationship it has with Pakistan – not to mention what’s been happening in Afghanistan and, for instance, the connections a place like Kashmir has with Afghanistan. So you have to look at the region as a whole and this book does it brilliantly. There is an entertaining history of post-1947 India, Ramachandra Guha’s India Af ter Gandhi . That’s a big book, a sort of newspaper history in that it describes what the most prominent people did from 1947 onwards. It’s also a very personalised and detailed history, and the Western reader coming to India for the first time may get lost a bit, whereas Modern South Asia doesn’t presume too much knowledge, only an intelligent and curious reader. And as a thematic history, a reflective account, it provides a really interesting frame for a reader to understand how India, as it presently exists, came into being. It goes back to the 18th century and covers the entire period from the beginning of the British conquest to the present era. You really get a very widescreen, panoramic view of what has happened, and what the different currents shaping events are – whether it’s regionalism, or religion, or politics or the fact that India became part of a globalised economy in the 19th century. It also covers, impartially and clear-sightedly, how India and Pakistan, the nation states, came into being, which is the big, important question if one wants to understand anything about politics in India today, or in Pakistan or indeed what is happening in Afghanistan. And I think the fact that Ayesha Jalal is a Pakistani historian of South Asian Islam means she is able to bring her own valuable insights to this. On a book, yes. It is unusual and wonderful, because having those different perspectives makes for a really rich book. It’s not just a nationalist history, showing only the development and construction of a modern nation state and the great figures who made it possible. It gives you a sense of how India looks from a neighbour’s perspective and how Pakistan appears from India’s. Both perspectives are mutually enriching. For instance, if you read the history of Pakistan, you’ll find that Gandhi and Nehru were power-hungry Hindus and Jinnah was a great Muslim leader. The nationalist history of India will tell you that Gandhi and Nehru were great secularists and that Jinnah was a Muslim communalist. The truth is, of course, a lot more complex – and unflattering to all great heroes. “It gives you a sense of how India looks from a neighbour’s perspective and how Pakistan appears from India’s.” This book shows the messiness of the transition from colonial rule to sovereign nationhood, how political identities emerged under British rule, how elites from both Hindu and Muslim communities used the rhetoric of nationalism and secularism."