THE most significant contention made in History of the Invasions of the Indus Valley and Their Aftermath is that the Indus Valley has remained throughout history, a distinctly separate entity. As such, the creation of Pakistan may not be taken as a partition of India, but a dissolution of Britain’s empire in India into its constituent entities.However, this is not a new hypothesis.

Suleman Zubair describes the Indus Valley as extending from the Khunjerab Pass to Karachi, and from Delhi to Gwadar. Thus present day Pakistan is composed of the Indus Valley minus a part of it in the north east and another part of it in Kashmir which is occupied by India.

Zubair has given two reasons why Pakistan lost the north eastern part of the Indus Valley. The first was that Emperor Akbar had gifted to the Sikhs a large chunk of land between the rivers Ravi and Beas. The Sikhs built the Golden Temple at what later came to be known as Amritsar, and subsequently, that portion of the Indus Valley became a Sikh majority area.

Another reason advanced by the author is the alleged policy of Sultan Alauddin Khilji, who ruled from 1296 to 1316 CE, towards the conversion of the people of India to Islam. The author has maintained, without quoting any historicalsource, that the Sultan did not want the local population to adopt Islam. According to the author, he killed “every man, woman and child” of those natives who accepted Islam, particularly in some areas of the country which also included the territory between the river Sutlej and Delhi. As such the population of that area remained largely non-Muslim. This assertion neither makes any sense nor is it corroborated by any other historical source. Alauddin Khilji was undoubtedly a tough ruler and took harsh measures. But why would he kill those adopting Islam as their religion?

Another statement made by Zubair is also contrary to the general belief. He claims that Muhammad Ali Jinnah was born at “Pandi in the Kathiawar peninsula”. Generally, he is believed to have been born at Karachi. He has again not quoted any source in support of this claim. The book also suffers from proof-reading mistakes. Moreover, Zubair is inclined toward inventing his own spellings for names. For example, Mughal is Moughal and river Jamuna is Jummna.

Invasions of the Indus Valley and Their Aftermath(HISTORY)By Suleman ZubairBenzey Publications, Lahore427pp. Rs500