A STATE IN DENIAL

A State in Denial by veteran journalist B.G. Verghese explores a subject of immense global significance - Pakistan and where it is positioned in relation to India and the world. After a brisk overview of the events that have come to define post-Independence Pakistan - the battle for Kashmir; the integration of Karat and Hyderabad into India; the creation of Bangladesh - Verghese drawing from rare archival material approaches subjects that have long been contentious - the Indus water treaty Siachen and A.Q. Khan’s dangerous nuclear forays. Even while analyzing Pakistan’s present-day plunge into internal dissent self-made jihadi extremism provincial rivalry and military rule Verghese offers a gentle way out of the nation’s self-made dilemmas - by encouraging Pakistan to become more than the Indian ‘other’ and urging it to move away from fundamentalism and embrace the syncretic Sufi-infused Islam it once knew. B.G. Verghese’s last book is a powerful reminder that the core issue with Pakistan is not Kashmir - rather it is the lack of a clear identity the absence of a positive ideology and the reluctance of the nation to fully accept its history.