Q: What are you currently reading?

A: I am currently reading John Nixon’s Debriefing the President, which is basically about Saddam Hussein. John Nixon, of course, was the CIA agent who interviewed Saddam after his capture, and he left an account of that which has now finally been published. That’s something that I wanted to read and I just got a copy last week; I’m almost done with it.

Another book I’m reading – albeit rather slowly because it’s more of a series of entries – is Peter Watson’s The Modern Mind. It’s an intellectual history of the 20th century, and that’s a more complex read because it has lots of entries on individual thinkers, philosophers and artists etc, that contributed to the 20th century. So those are the two books I am wrestling with.

Q: Do you prefer non-fiction to fiction?

A: I almost exclusively read non-fiction. It’s been a very long time since I’ve read fiction. I don’t really find fiction all that interesting, in terms of what it presents. But, again, I’m not opposed to it, I don’t have anything against people who read fiction.

Q: Are there any classic texts or writers you could not get through?

A: Well, I managed to get through them, though I’m not quite sure anything from them managed to stick. Hegel is someone who we engage with in history, philosophy of history, philosophy of religion, and I wasted – or invested let’s say – quite a bit of time in trying to deal with his works but not with any great success.

Q: Are there any texts or writers you find yourself returning to?

A: One author that I often find myself reading a lot of – though perhaps not necessarily re-reading the same text – is Henry Kissinger.

This is partly because he deals with problems of the world order, though he is of course an American statesman, diplomat [and] thinker, I generally find his basic perspective on the world far more realistic, than many other American thinkers. That probably has something to do with the fact that he is a naturalised US citizen and his view of the world therefore is more European than American.

There are other classical works in history and philosophy of history, like Herodotus’ Histories or Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah that I find are very useful and presented in a very clear manner, so you can keep turning to them and use them, even for current research.

Q: Are there any South Asian works you return to?

A: The thing with South Asian writers or South Asian texts is that they are often in diverse languages – whether its classical Persian or ancient Sanskirt. But, fortunately, there are lots of excellent translations available. Two books, or two works rather, that I find myself constantly turning to and re-examining are Kautilya’s Arthashastra and Abul Fazl’s Ain-i-Akbari.

The depth and detail of their perspective on statecraft, on governance, on rulership etc, even today, is profound; it’s truly remarkable - there are two works that I am constantly turning to.

Q: Are there any works or authors you think are underrated?

A: I think there will always be texts that are arguably underrated, but it’s important to understand why they are underrated. This has a lot to do with the structure of publishing rather than with the quality of work that is being produced by researchers and writers, whether it’s in Pakistan or whether it’s abroad.

The basic challenge that you have, if you’re talking about academic research, is getting that output out – ensuring access to it. The way academic publishing is structured; you have very small print runs and very high prices. There are wonderful works that are written, but they don’t get the kind of circulation, the kind of attention that they deserve.

On the other hand, commercial publishers, for whom you need to hire an agent – especially abroad – of course have much bigger print runs. They project books; they invest a lot of money and their thinking is very different. What I’ve found is there’s a lot of work they push that captures a lot of attention, but is not necessarily wise or that well-researched. There’s a lot of good stuff in academia that doesn’t really get the kind of wider circulation it deserves.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2017