Ayesha Jalal
Author of Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy
About the Author
Ayesha Jalal is Mary Richardson Professor of History, Tufts University.
Works by Ayesha Jalal
The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League, and the Demand for Pakistan (1985) 89 copies, 3 reviews
Democracy and Authoritarianism in South Asia: A Comparative and Historical Perspective (1995) 36 copies, 1 review
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- professor
author
editor - Awards and honors
- Sitara-i-Imtiaz
- Relationships
- Manto, Saadat Hasan (uncle)
- Short biography
- Ayesha Jalal is the Mary Richardson Professor of History and the Director of the Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies at Tufts University. Between 1998-2003 she was a MacArthur Fellow. She obtained her BA, majoring in History and Political Science, from Wellesley College, USA, and her doctorate in history from the University of Cambridge. Dr Jalal has been Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (1980-84), Leverhulme Fellow at the Center of South Asian Studies, Cambridge (1984-87), Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, DC (1985-86) and Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies (1988-90). She has taught at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Tufts University, Columbia University and Harvard University. Her publications include The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1985 and 1994); The State of Martial Rule: the Origins of Pakistan's Political Economy of Defence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) and Democracy and Authoritarianism in South Asia: a Comparative and Historical Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1995) and Self and Sovereignty: the Muslim Individual and the Community of Islam in South Asia since c.1850 (Routledge, 2000; Oxford University Press and Sang-e-Meel, 2001). She has also co-edited Nationalism, Democracy and Development: State and Politics in India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997) and co-authored Modern South Asia: History, Culture and Political Economy (Routledge 1998) with Sugata Bose which has been published by Oxford University Press in India and by Sang-e-Meel in Pakistan. Her most recent book is Partisans of Allah: Jihad in South Asia (Harvard University Press, 2008). She is currently working on several projects, including A Short History of Pakistan (Cambridge University Press), Jinnah (Permanent Black and Indiana Press) and is the general editor of the Oxford Companion of Pakistani History.
http://www.tufts.edu/~ajalal01/ - Nationality
- Pakistan
USA - Birthplace
- Lahore, Pakistan
- Places of residence
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA
New York, New York, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
There's nothing wrong with this work as such, as a fairly straight-forward and workmanlike account of the twists and turns as the new country strove to establish itself in the new world order and in a transformed neighborhood of the subcontinent. However, the subject itself can only be termed desultory and tedious, because it has so little of anything exalting, anything instructive to offer. It is a story of, at bottom, the obvious self-defeating consequences and emanations of an entirely show more self-seeking set of actors with little higher purpose to guide or elevate their actions. So one cannot blame the author if the result is less than gripping; the same deadening effect is there in other works on this country, such as Jaffrolet's. As for myself, I keep promising not to waste any more of my time on this part of the subcontinent's history, but I keep getting drawn back to it, maybe out of a futile expectation that some significant understanding will emerge. Thus I still may not be able to resist the other works by this author, such as the account of Jinnah, the architect of the new country.
If critical comment were to be made, it may be that the experience of Pakistan may better be understood if compared with other countries faced with a similar challenge of forging a modern nation (with emphasis on universal human rights, equality, freedom, and other Enlightenment values), on a foundation of medievalism and religious discrimination. For a reader from the other side of the subcontinent, Pakistan also proffers a signal lesson of the dangers of descending into such a backward-looking polity.
The Epilogue offers a few more generalised judgements that will be of some interest; I would suggest that one point of interest to Indian policy makers may be that the more they assure Pakistan of not aspiring to undo Partition (or even of trying to take back any territory occupied in incursions and wars after Independence), the less the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment will be influential. That may help the more enlightened and less medieval sections of Pakistan's society to bring back a more constructive leadership and governance regime, with less support to fundamentalism and militarism. show less
If critical comment were to be made, it may be that the experience of Pakistan may better be understood if compared with other countries faced with a similar challenge of forging a modern nation (with emphasis on universal human rights, equality, freedom, and other Enlightenment values), on a foundation of medievalism and religious discrimination. For a reader from the other side of the subcontinent, Pakistan also proffers a signal lesson of the dangers of descending into such a backward-looking polity.
The Epilogue offers a few more generalised judgements that will be of some interest; I would suggest that one point of interest to Indian policy makers may be that the more they assure Pakistan of not aspiring to undo Partition (or even of trying to take back any territory occupied in incursions and wars after Independence), the less the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment will be influential. That may help the more enlightened and less medieval sections of Pakistan's society to bring back a more constructive leadership and governance regime, with less support to fundamentalism and militarism. show less
An engaging and unique perspective into seeing how Pakistan was formed , the many facets of it's national history, and what the future holds. Ms . Jalal tells the great story of nation of Pakistan and how it has struggled to define itself internationally and to unify the country to a point where it can be a viable nation state that can provide basic needs to it's citizens. A fantastic read with prose that makes this seem like a historical fiction rather than nonfiction, this is a must read show more for people who want an introduction to Pakistan. show less
The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan (Cambridge South Asian Studies) by Ayesha Jalal
A well crafted tale of unintended consequences. I preferred the use of footnotes to endnotes in this case as the wealth of correspondence among the British authorities showed clearly the personalities and opinions that steered events.
The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan: 31 (Cambridge South Asian Studies, Series Number 31) by Ayesha Jalal
This should be mandatory reading for all high school Pakistani students, particularly for those raised on the doctored history of Pakistan movement of the Zia-ul-Haq era textbooks.
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