K. K. Aziz (1927–2009)

Late Khurshid Kamal Aziz was indeed a forward looking historian and perhaps the best Pakistan has produced in terms of academic honesty, quality of scholarship and analytical skills; and for a lay-reader this is vintage K.K. Aziz. From the point of view of the new Pak-Studies generation of Pakistan, this can be categorized as one of the single most essential text; one that single-handedly captures the historical, sociological (including religious), political, psychological and philosophical show more dimension of the genesis of a new nation that is still struggling to evolve.

But a word of caution that this is meant to be a casual all-encompassing essay and not for those who are only impressed by tomes when it comes to such multifarious dimensions. There are no hypotheses that are furnished and tested here; rather, I would call it a lucid effort to supply some fundamental historical narratives (in the context of Muslim Nationalism in pre-partition India) and put them in perspective. In my view, this text has enough potential to strike some middle grounds between misplaced nationalism muddled by religious biases, Orwellian methods of Zia regime and pseudo-intellectualism of likes of Nasim Hijazi and Orya Maqbool Jan etc which is popularly sold in the name of 'history'. show less

Nothing extraordinary in terms of literary value but extremely important as far as historical value is concerned. K.K Aziz is one of the few and rare great historians that Pakistan has produced and his scholarship and literary acumen must not be judged by this book.

This book stands up to its promise, i.e., showing Pakistani students and parents what rubbish they are being taught on the name of History; however, it is not meant for the serious well informed reader.

informative
historic

information