Pakistan Studies: A Book of Readings
Edited by Sikandar Hayat
Sang-e-Meel, Lahore
ISBN: 978-9693534559
334pp.

The words ‘Pakistan Studies’ are probably amongst the most drowsiness-inducing for students. At school level, the term normally refers to an attempt at indoctrination that has as its singular redeeming virtue only the clumsiness with which it is executed. At college or university level, it is a compulsory subject to be endured.

I recall that as a student at Government College University, Lahore, there was a ridiculous book written by one of the faculty members that we all had to buy for the course — an excellent, if unintended, lesson in the political economy of coercive inanity. There was, therefore, a need for a properly researched and reasonably sized work on the subject that discards songs of the motherland in exchange for serious analyses and rational argument.

By bringing together a team of experts and editing their work into Pakistan Studies: A Book of Readings, Sikandar Hayat — a professor of history retired from the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, and currently dean of the faculty of social sciences at Forman Christian College University, Lahore — has managed to fill a vacuum.

Pakistan Studies consists of nine chapters that cover everything from ancient civilisations to demography, to transgender rights. It provides a thoughtful and accessible starting point for any student or general reader in need of a solid introduction to the subject. What is remarkable about this work is that it quietly builds the case for Pakistan, communicates the actual ideals of its founders, and forthrightly engages with the many failures and few successes that the country has experienced.

Quibbles about its production quality notwithstanding, Pakistanis would profit greatly if this scholarly book became the standard textbook on the subject

One important issue that Hayat’s book resolves is that it refers to the entirety of the past that has unfolded in and around the territories of Pakistan simply as “Pakistani.” In a manner certain to irk those who are eager to lay claim to an unbroken connection to the ancient past while they seek to deny that same link to Pakistan, Pakistan Studies speaks of the ancient civilisations of Pakistan.

The map of the Indus Valley Civilisation is a particularly striking instance of depicting the unity of the Indus region and its dependencies alongside its separateness from what would, much later, become the Ganges-centric Indian (which is a misnomer) civilisation.

Hayat’s edited book makes the case that Pakistan has much to learn and gain from taking ownership of the antiquity of its origins, the long-standing separateness of the Indus region and the broad patterns of communications and agricultural economy that lent it an underlying unity. Pakistan is the modern incarnation of the Indus State and the heir to a tradition of civilisation that originates in the greatest and most expansive Bronze Age polity.

Pakistan Studies also makes a compelling case for understanding Muslim separatism and the demand for Pakistan as a manifestation of modernism, triggered by the challenge of European colonial rule. Framing the inter-communal struggle in British India as one that eventually became a question of imperial succession, simplistic communal narratives are discarded.

Muslim modernists such as Sir Syed Ahmad Khan were primarily concerned with reviving the worldly fortunes of their community. They worried that British reformers — and many Indians — had come to think of India as a society of free-floating individuals who could be expected to vote their interests. This was far from the reality of India, where any majorities constituted were likely to be communal.

The antidote was to build such safeguards into the emerging parliamentary political order that would over-represent minorities and ensure that no majority could prevail without the consent of the minorities, especially on matters where their own identity or vital interests were at stake. Absent such safeguards, minorities would become permanent and stigmatised. It was only after many honest attempts at compromise with the Indian National Congress (INC) failed, that Muslim opinion hardened in favour of separate statehood.

Whatever the origins and antecedents of Pakistan, it is its story since 1947 that merits the greatest attention in the context of Pakistan Studies. And here, the book delivers a clinical, evidence-based account of the multiple crises that have gripped the country since 1947.

Pakistan’s failure to develop a legitimate and stable political order, the machinations of unelected and unaccountable civil and military officials, chronic socio-economic underperformance, demographic over-expansion and the horrid treatment of women and minorities are all engaged with. The behaviour and performance of Pakistani elites stands in sharp contrast to the vision and perspective of its founders, constitutional guarantees and national interests, and this dissonance is clearly expressed.

However, while there is much by way of substance to recommend Pakistan Studies, the publisher has not done justice to the scholarship Hayat brings together. It almost seems as if Sang-e-Meel is operating in 1995, when clumsy formatting, blurred images, tube-light paper and a lack of attention to cover design were acceptable. The hardcover book is also pricey for the intended audience, though a discount is on offer with some proceeds from sales going to provide financial assistance to deserving students.

The publisher would be well advised to swiftly bring out a paperback of better quality, price it more reasonably, provide a free e-book version and get started on Urdu and indigenous languages translations. This is too valuable a book to be sacrificed at the altar of a publisher’s greed and incompetence.

Quibbles about the production quality notwithstanding, Pakistanis would profit greatly if Pakistan Studies became the standard book on the subject. The editors and contributors — Farzand Masih, Muhammad Younis, Arfa Sayeda Zehra, Sara Rizvi Jafree, Kashif Shafique, Uzma Hanif, Saeed Shafqat and Nukhbah Taj Langah deserve to be commended for their analyses and learned accounting of the origins, heritage, developments and crises of Pakistan.

The reviewer is most recently the author of Downfall: Lessons for Our Final Century and a professor of history at the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. He tweets @IlhanNiaz

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, July 16th, 2023