| Reviewed
by Touqir Hussain
|
Pakistan's internal dynamics and external
behaviour have come to reflect as well as affect many
critical issues lying at the heart of some foremost US
concerns in the post-Cold War and 9/11 world. Pakistan
has thus attracted an enormous amount of interest and
attention of the American academia, strategic community
and policy makers resulting in prolific literature on
the country much of which reflects a fairly high standard
of research, scholarship and academic enquiry. Out of
this stream has now emerged a new work by an internationally
acclaimed authority on South Asia that has indeed elevated
the level of discourse on Pakistan.
Unfortunately, much of the literature
on Pakistan in recent years has tended to be sombre, if
not apocalyptic. Stephen Cohen's book is not clouded by
such stark perspectives. His searching intellect, and
intimate knowledge of Pakistan, resting on decades of
direct and personal exposure to South Asia, brings the
issues alive leaving readers free to guide their own sentiments
towards Pakistan.
The book revolves around the theme that
the "idea of Pakistan" has fallen well short
of its ideals. It is not strictly a historical survey
or a linear narrative. What Cohen has done is that he
has broken down the subject into issues that best define
Pakistan, such as the idea of Pakistan, the state of Pakistan,
the army's Pakistan, political Pakistan, Islamic Pakistan,
regionalism and separatism, Pakistan's futures, and America's
options, and then organized the book around each one of
them representing a chapter.
Historically, the idea of Pakistan had
embodied "many assets, several great traditions and
a number of political identities". "Jinnah worked
these attributes together", but after him, this complex
and elaborate idea, that contained much anti-thesis, became
susceptible to appropriation by dominant social, religious
and administrative forces, eventually opening up divisions
in the country as well as radicalizing it. Much of the
book examines the institutions that stimulated such divisions,
principally the army, feudal/tribal politicians and aristocracy,
and Islamists "failing to establish enduring and
credible political institutions, (and) sowing the seeds
of Pakistan's continued instability". In the end
not only the idea but the state of Pakistan as well came
to a stumbling halt.
Musharraf may have stemmed the rot, but
the truncated democracy, and flawed national priorities,
especially the religiously denominated and India centric
concept of security, are a serious constraint on Pakistan's
ability to resolve the challenges it faces, even if Musharraf's
intentions and capabilities may be sincere and serious,
about which skepticism remains. Though the economy is
improving, his reforms "seem to have produced much
movement but little fundamental change".
There is much discussion in the US thinktank
community as to who is to blame more for Pakistan's misfortunes,
the army or the politicians. The consensus points to the
army but Stephen Cohen has finessed the issue without
breaking out of the predominant view. Politicians, he
says, "must learn the limits of their own freedom
but then must learn to expand these limits. The army on
the other hand will have to understand the limits of its
own capacity to govern. The army may be strong enough
to prevent state failure but is not imaginative enough
to transform it". There is an extra burden on the
politicians - they must not only govern effectively and
develop a satisfactory relationship with the army but
also "solve the ideological puzzle".
"Politicians never built a political
coalition strong enough to contain the army - such a coalition
would have had to demonstrate competence in dealing with
some of Pakistan's most pressing problems". In the
end neither the army nor the politicians contributed to
the capacity of the state to meet its basic obligations.
So much has been written on Pakistan over
the years that the issues that define Pakistan have more
or less been well identified and exposed but the problem
arises in projecting the likely futures and exploring
solutions to the country's intractable problems. Perhaps
the quality of analysis is an issue here. Very few works
on Pakistan may match the brilliance of Cohen's analysis.
Yet in discussing the future of Pakistan in his book,
like the rest of the US literature on the subject, his
analysis also tends somewhat to be accented by multiple
scenarios, but these are not abstruse and he does differentiate
between the likely and the unlikely. Nonetheless the book
remains very readable. And above all it avoids doomsday
or any other dire predictions.
Stephen Cohen's scenarios range from the
continuation of the present civil-military arrangement
to soft authoritarianism, and dictatorship though he feels
that the most likely scenario for Pakistan may be that
its present will be its future. He rules out an Islamic
revolution but does predict a gradual strengthening of
Islamic parties. There is unlikely to be another Bangladesh
or ethnolinguistic break up of Pakistan but Pakistan does
need a new organizing idea that will provide more space
for sub nationalism and an identity defined in terms other
than fear.
The book closes with a chapter on American
options which is probably the best contemporary assessment
of the issues that the US re-engagement with Pakistan
raises and the critical policy choices available to both
sides in pursuit of their respective national interests.
Stephen Cohen's book The Idea of Pakistan
took many years to write.Given the author's grasp of the
complex reality that surrounds the "enigma"
that is Pakistan and the concerns it radiates, the book
almost has a touch of finality about its insight and understanding
of Pakistan. It is not the last word on the subject but
does stimulate the intellectual curiosity of its readers.
(The reviewer, a former ambassador, is
senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace,
a Washington DC based think tank)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Idea of Pakistan
By Stephen Philip Cohen
Published by Vanguard Books, 72-FCC Gulberg-4,
Lahore
Tel: 042-5751025
Email: [email protected]
Also available with Mr Books, 10-D Super
Market, Islamabad
Tel: 051-2278843-5
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.mrbooks.com.pk
ISBN 969-402-491-9
382pp. Rs695
