Tilak Devesher, a retired top bureaucrat of Government of India turned writer specialised in security issues pertaining to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. After his retirement, he focussed on writing articles for some major news dailies and television channels of India. Currently, he is well known for his in-depth knowledge about Pakistan and its current scenario. He appears frequently in many talk shows and podcasts in Indian television channels and has quite a big subscriber base in social media.
STORYLINE
The book begins with the birth of Pakistan movement in the final phase of British period in colonial Indian subcontinent. The story of Pakistan right from the conception to present stage has been elaborately explained with umpteen number of references being quoted from various invaluable books, articles, letters written by stalwarts of the period. The reader is taken through a variety of incidents that took place pre and post independence with a clear understanding of how a once proposed prosperous Pakistan by its founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, has turned out to be a disastrous failed State due to a weak and corrupt political leadership coupled with a strong and religious Army. Every aspect of the society like Pakistan’s identity crisis; its ideology revolving around anti Hindu and anti India propaganda; it’s constant suppression of basic rights to provinces like Balochistan, Khyber Pakthunkwa and Sindh, domination of Punjabis in acquiring lion’s share of the country’s resources and budgetary allocations; rise of its Islam-centered Army as the saviour and custodian of the country’s security and development; radical Islamization of its society with limited scope for peaceful co-existence of other minority religions; growth of sectarianism within Muslims amongst Sunnis, Shias, Deobandis, Ahmadias, Barelvis etc; birth and rapid venomous progress of madrasa culture in propagation of radical Islam into the minds of the youth of the country; subsequent rise of terrorism amongst the unemployed youth after completion of madrasa education; massive mismanagement of natural resources like its river and ground water with most of most of it preferred to Punjab but other provinces ignored; defective education policy with most of basic education focussed on Islamic knowledge rather than maths, science and social studies required by the industry for employment opportunities; structural weaknesses in economic policy of the country; uncontrolled growth of population without proper stategy to reap the dividends of the young; the Army’s quest for parity with its powerful neighbour India on economic and military fronts; its quest for domination over another neighbouring country Afghanistan through Taliban, for strategic control over its resources and spread of its radical Islamic ideology against India and Soviet Union; its unquenchable quest for dependence on monetary and military assistance from China and USA to be on par with India’s might; and finally it’s never-ending nose-dive into the abyss of destruction and instability of its economy under the cover of being a nuclear powered country that might permanently annihilate the entire region if allowed to fail as a State.
My favourite paragraphs in the book
According to Rehmat Ali, Pakistan was an acronym composed of Punjab, Afghania (NWFP), Kashmir, Sindh and Balochistan.
According to Narendra Singh Sarila if Col Elahi Baksh, the doctor who attended on Jinnah during the last phase of his illness in August– September 1948 at Ziarat near Quetta, is to be believed, he heard his patient say: ‘I have made it [Pakistan] but I am convinced that I have committed the greatest blunder of my life.’
Pros:
One aspect that is worth praising in this book is about the author’s unambiguous analysis of Pakistan’s political and military policies. Though the author is of the Indian origin, there appears not a single instance where he directly involved his Indian views about the transformation of Jinnah’s creation into a falling comet within six decades of its birth. Can be used as a rich resource for students and enthusiasts to learn about the statistics of Pakistan’s journey into chaos and failure as an economy.
Cons:
Though much has been spoken about Afghanistan, not much has been covered about Pakistan’s obsession for Kashmir, its history and current scenario. Similarly, more information should have been given about Bangladesh’s breakaway with ample facts. This is the only void, as per me
My rating : 4.5 out 5
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