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.