“Chequered Past, Uncertain Future: The Story of Pakistan” by Tahir Kamran

Pakistan’s politics is so complicated that it can be hard to determine either a trajectory or even a throughline. If Tahir Kamran’s enormously-detailed Chequered Past, Uncertain Future is any indication, this is not due to any failure of imagination. Kamran is focused mostly on the country’s often fraught relationship with democracy, but leaves one with much the same impression about foreign and domestic policy and issues of Pakistani identity.

The first date in the book is 3800 BCE, but Karman races through to the 18th century in a single chapter. Some four-fifths or more of the book deals with Pakistan proper and the period leading up to independence—and runs up very close to the present day. Much will therefore overlap the living memory of many of the book’s readers, a good proportion of which, at least outside the Subcontinent, may nevertheless have forgotten exactly why Nawaz Sharif, Benazir Bhutto, Pervez Masharraf and Imran Khan were turfed out of office, even if they understood it when they read about it in the papers.

 

Chequered Past, Uncertain Future: The Story of Pakistan, Tahir Kamran (Speaking Tiger, August 2024; Reaktion, July 2024)
Chequered Past, Uncertain Future: The Story of Pakistan, Tahir Kamran (Speaking Tiger, August 2024; Reaktion, July 2024)

It is easy to get lost in the plethora of names of politicians and officials, the various political parties (whose acronyms can on occasion be  confusingly similar), constitutions, organizations, sects, towns, cities, districts and programmes. The book is probably better-suited as an aide-memoire to those who know something (or perhaps used to) of the events and personalities in question than as a primer for those new to the country.

In his introduction, Ian Talbot writes “The reader is made aware that Pakistan’s chequered history was not preordained,” but this reader was left with rather the opposite view. Once a Muslim identity distinct from an otherwise “Indian” one arose, it is hard—at least based on Kamran’s telling—to see how partition could have been avoided. Kamran describes the development of this identity, a process which had been going on for a minimum of a century; it was rooted as much in script (if not quite “language”) and the divergence in relations between the various communities and the Raj, as religion per se. Kamran discusses the difficulties in establishing a democracy in a country which has tied its raison-d’être to a religion:

 

As Pakistan’s political history clearly shows, the relationship between democracy and religious ideology is fundamentally antithetical, yet this paradoxical combination is pursued without any realization that it is bound to fail. This is precisely why Pakistan’s historical realities are complex and messy, and they do not lend themselves to simplistic theories put forth by Islamic ideologues or political scientists who seek to fit them into ideal categories of the postcolonial state.

 

Had Pakistan had succeeded in this, it would have been an exception.

 

No less inevitable seems the break-up of Pakistan into two countries only a quarter century later. The impracticality of a single country split by the width of India notwithstanding, the two pieces—of similar but not quite even size—were, it would seem, just too linguistically and culturally different to hang together as a political unit. East Pakistan, the future Bangladesh, had the political heft in terms of population and cohesion, while West Pakistan had the capital, the government apparatus and the military.

Pakistan had other strikes against it: most Raj-era industry and operational expertise was on the Indian side of the new border. The British had never been terribly concerned about developing institutions, but even less so in what became Pakistan. The entire colonial legacy was somewhat baleful:

 

The last two viceroys of India, Lord Wavell and Louis Mountbatten, both from the armed forces, had a reputation for giving orders to politicians and even imprisoning them if necessary. This behaviour of senior officers was not lost on Indian officers serving in the British Indian Army.

 

Border disputes surely tended to foreground the Army even more than it might have otherwise.

Talbot goes on to say “The state’s development took its current form because of the political choices made by civilian and military elites.” While undoubtedly true, one can’t help but feel that Pakistani democracy was battling long odds.

 

If there is one word to describe the book, it would be “fair”. Although (as telegraphed in the title), Kamran is largely downbeat—he is well aware of the country’s shortcomings—no one is entirely demonized. Kamran will give actors credit for their accomplishments in the economy, administration, or  foreign affairs, while also dinging them for authoritarian tendencies, corruption or personality flaws. As a case in point, he writes that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s

 

ability to captivate large crowds through his eloquent speeches was truly remarkable. However, Bhutto’s talents were not limited to just oratory. He was also a gifted writer and authored several books, including The Myth of Independence and The Great Tragedy. Bhutto’s writings were known for their insightful analysis and persuasive arguments, but in addition to his political writings, he also wrote poetry in both English and Urdu.

 

But, by contrast

 

Bhutto’s authoritarian tendencies and mishandling of the economy eventually led to his downfall.

 

With 500 densely-packed pages, Chequered Past, Uncertain Future is not for the faint of heart. Since Kamran follows both themes and individuals, the chronology will jump back and forth, leading to some repetition that an editor should probably have excised.

To his credit, Kamran’s gaze extends beyond politics and religion to arts and culture:

 

With their intricate interplay, of the diverse identities that shape Pakistani society, art and literature serve as crucial tools in challenging the narrow definitions of Pakistan, particularly those imposed by the West.

 

He is particularly strong on language and literature, with in-depth discussions on the development of Urdu, both as a language and as a means of literary expression, leading in turn to Pakistan’s multi-lingual cultural environment. It is hard to imagine any other history book that would discourse on, for example, Mohsin Hamid, Mohammed Hanif and Kamila Shamsie. It’s not all doom and gloom:

 

Critically acclaimed and translated into various languages, the works of Pakistani writers have aided in the decolonization and indigenization of the English language and literature, fostering a more dialectical dialogue between cultures and promoting a global sense for the humanities.

 

Indeed.