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June 30, 2002
REVIEWS: Conducting foreign policy
Afrasiab, a career Foreign Service officer, has compiled an unusual work of reference, that is both a chronology of the triangular relations between the US, India and Pakistan, and a collection of documents and agreements of significance between them. Its coverage is even more unconventional, starting with 1492, when Christopher Columbus set out in search of the fabled Indies, and ending with March 2002, when the world had been transformed by the terrorist outrage of September 11, 2001.
The genesis of the book is equally unusual. While serving in the Pakistan Embassy in Washington between 1987 and 1991, Afrasiab, then a junior officer, was required to locate some papers going back to the 1950s. He found the Embassy archives to be in a neglected state, a situation he also encountered later in other missions, where he served, including New Delhi and Vienna. He therefore decided to devote as much of his time as possible to putting together important references on the interaction between the US on the one hand, and India and Pakistan on the other. Indeed, the larger part of the book, covering the period since 1947, is devoted to India-Pakistan relations.
The result of this labour of love is this 500-page book, which he has published himself, and which is entertaining in the variety of information he has assembled. The coverage of the earlier years is brief, and largely of incidental value. However, the details provided from 1947 onwards contain a mine of information that will be found highly useful by researchers and journalists.
Readers will find the range of reference material assembled by Afrasiab to be truly exceptional in its scope, reflecting extensive reading spread over more than two decades. He has quoted from authoritative sources, including the political actors themselves, on each development of significance. He stresses the importance of key events by giving greater space to contemporary sources. Thus he quotes the London Times in evaluating the role of the Quaid-i-Azam, after his passing away in September 1948. Similarly, he has provided many statements by Indian leaders on their commitment to consulting the will of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Afrasiab’s chronological coverage of developments of significance between India and Pakistan is interspersed with telling and useful quotes that are not only interesting for a drawing room guest, but are also convenient source material for the serious student of current affairs. For instance, he provides the backdrop to the signing of the Tashkent Declaration in 1966, and the Simla Agreement of 1972, and also furnishes the comments of key actors involved. With his Foreign Office background, he singles out significant conferences and agreements between India and Pakistan in each year since independence that provides highly useful details for the researcher and historian alike.
The usefulness of the book becomes evident through a periodic and occasional perusal of its contents. One notices that in 1968, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, now regarded as the symbol of moderate elements in the BJP, had been elected as President of its Hindu-extremist precursor, the Jana Sangh, and that there were anti-Muslim riots in Ahmadabad in that year as well. The coverage of the events since September 11, 2001, is specially detailed and relevant to current concerns. For convenience, the book provides annexures that include UN resolutions on Kashmir, and other Indo-Pakistan issues, as well as communiques and joint statements pertaining to high level visits between the US and Pakistan.
Overall, it is a highly readable and useful work of reference that could even be kept by the bedside for both entertainment and information. If an index can be added in its next edition, that would add to its value for reference purposes. The texts of the Tashkent Declaration, the Simla Agreement, and the Lahore Declaration might also be added to the annexures.
Writer’s email: drbhatty@yahoo.com
US relations with South Asia [since Christopher Columbus] and India-Pakistan interaction (1492-2002)
By Afrasiab
Published by the author from WordMate, Islamabad
Tel: 051-2275290
504pp. Rs450
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