Bloomsbury Pakistan book prize

On Pakistan’s 75th anniversary, London-based research centre Bloomsbury Pakistan launched the Bloomsbury Book Prize with the intent to award the most outstanding academic book on the history, politics, society, economy and culture of Pakistan.

The award seeks to highlight original and thought-provoking texts that deepen as well as challenge awareness of Pakistan, and contribute to a scholarly understanding of the lives and experiences of the people of Pakistan and South Asia.

The winner of the first ever award is Property Taxes and State Incapacity in Pakistan by Muhammad Mujtaba Piracha, published by Oxford University Press, Karachi.

Shortlisted for the inaugural edition of the prize were Finding the Enemy Within: Blasphemy Accusations and Subsequent Violence in Pakistan by Sana Ashraf, Making a Muslim: Reading Publics and Contesting Identities in 19th-Century North India by Akbar Zaidi and Hidden Caliphate: Sufi Saints beyond the Oxus and Indus by Waleed Ziad.

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, August 21st, 2022