A STATE IN DENIAL

A State in Denial by veteran journalist B.G. Verghese explores a subject of immense global significance—Pakistan, and where it is positioned in relation to India and the world.After a brisk overview of the events that have come to define post-Independence Pakistan—the battle for Kashmir; the integration of Karat and Hyderabad into India; the creation of Bangladesh—Verghese, drawing from rare archival material, approaches subjects that have long been contentious—the Indus water treaty, Siachen and A.Q. Khan’s dangerous nuclear forays.Even while analyzing Pakistan’s present-day plunge into internal dissent, self-made jihadi extremism, provincial rivalry and military rule, Verghese offers a gentle way out of the nation’s self-made dilemmas—by encouraging Pakistan to become more than the Indian ‘other’, and urging it to move away from fundamentalism and embrace the syncretic, Sufi-infused Islam it once knew. B.G. Verghese’s last book is a powerful reminder that the core issue with Pakistan is not Kashmir—rather, it is the lack of a clear identity, the absence of a positive ideology, and the reluctance of the nation to fully accept its history.