Book Review: Spiritual Quest: Reflections on Quranic Prayer According to the Teachings of Imam Ali by Reza Shah-Kazemi

The Quran holds a very central position in Islam. Throughout centuries it has been recited by Muslims. This monograph is a contemporary insight into the spiritual, intellectual and moral dynamics set in motion by the short Quranic chapters. Shah-Kazemi bases his own philosophical reflections on the teachings of Imam Ali. He focuses on the moral and the mystical aspects of the texts. 

The authors stresses on the need to acknowledge religious diversity. According to the author Hazrat Imam Ali urges ‘each Muslim not to remain content at this level, but to penetrate into the depths of meaning, the batin, or ‘inwardly hidden’, doing so by means of that mode of esoteric interpretation, ta’wil, for which he was renowned’ (p. 5). 

Discussing Surat al-Maun the author states that ‘the integrity and the authenticity of one’s prayer is thus inextricable from virtue. Without the practice of virtue, one’s formal worship is deprived of sincerity, it is thus that one who prays, and is heedless of his prayers, is described as one who belies religion, who violates the integrity of al-din, insofar as he ruptures the nexus between faith and virtue’ (p. 90). Regarding Surat al-Ikhlas, the author mentions the prophet who had referred to the Sura as being the equivalent of one-third of the entire Quran (p. 95). This book can be helpful to anyone interested in knowing the deeper meanings of the different Surahs of the Quran. 

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Book Review: Fact and Fiction by Bertrand Russell

Betrand Russell belonged to an influential family of England. His grandfather had once been the Prime Minister of Britain. This book is a compilation of Bertrand Russell’s essays. The first section is on the books which influenced Russell during his youth. The second section is on politics and education. The last section is on divertissements and parables. This section also includes some rare descriptions of Russell’s dreams.    

Russell discusses how the Bactrian Greeks were ‘separated from their mother-country by deserts and alien monarchies, losing gradually most of their Hellenism, and finally subdued by less civilized neighbors, but passing on as they faded away some part of the cultural heritage of Greece in the Buddhist sculpture which they inspired’ (p. 38). 

Russell states that toleration of what you dislike is what characterizes the liberal attitude (p. 56). Writing about mental freedom Russell states that ‘education should not be such as to make its victim incapable of ever thinking an original thought’ (p. 57). Writing on freedom the writer discusses the Doukhobors, who were disliked by the Czarist Government, because on religious grounds, they refused military service. Tolstoy, as a pacifist, took up their cause and they were allowed to emigrate to Canada (p. 60). On page 61, he further writes that only those who enjoy an independent income are free from this slavery. Here slavery refers to the dependence for livelihood. Continuing the same chapter Russell states that new ideas are unpleasant to the majority of mankind. They disturb habits (p. 63).

Russell believes that in the field of Mathematics a lot of work was done in Mesopotamia (p. 63). In ancient Greece there was no powerful bureaucracy to place obstacles in the way of the popular will (p. 74). I found it very interesting to read about the whole process of MADT (refer to page 74-75). 

Writing about the story of colonization, Russell writes that various agencies have been favorable to the growth of civilization. He thinks that the most important have been military conquest, commercial intercourse, and missionary zeal (p. 111). In regard to all three a very important part has been played by colonies, which form the themes of these talks. A colony, as the word was understood by the Greeks, consisted of a small group of sea-faring men accompanied by their families, all coming from some one Greek city and settling on the sea-coast of some comparatively uncivilized country (p. 111).

While discussing education, the author advocates for the teaching of a course on history. According to the author, such a course should deal with the history of Man, not with the history of this or that country. It should include things from archaeology and anthropology (p. 148). Russell says that one may say that Plato’s Academy was the first university (p. 150). Russell is of the view that men and women should inculcate an undogmatic temper, a temper of continual search and not of comfortable certainty (p.156). 

Regarding truth, the author mentions that ‘Truth is a shinning goddess, always veiled, always distant, never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the devotion of which the human spirit is capable’ (p. 156).

On publicity and propaganda, the author opines that both these things have such an influence that the majority in any powerful country is pretty sure to believe whatever its government wishes it to believe (p. 217-218). He also adds that in America books giving truthful information about Russia are banned from public libraries (p. 219). 

In the chapter on Psychology and East-West tension, Russell writes that ‘the dangerous state of the world is caused, I repeat, by the dangerous passions of ordinary men and women, which have been inflamed by unwise propaganda on both sides. It is these widespread passions that must be assuaged if we are to be no longer exposed to the imminent risk of total annihilation’ (p. 220). Russell states that ‘Man has risen to mastery over external dangers, but he has not risen to mastery over the internal dangers generated by his own passions of hate and envy and pride (p. 276).

Russel has also discussed Turgenev’s invention of the word ‘nihilist’ (p. 20), age of universal ugliness, agriculture, serfdom, oppression, invention of concentration camps by the British (p. 222) and other themes in this book.

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Book Review: Iran: A Revolution in Turmoil (Edited by Haleh Afshar)

Book chapters contributed by the different authors for this book include Ervand Abrahamian, Haleh Afshar, Kamran Afshar, Reza Fazel, Fereidun Fesharaki, Mohamad Hashem Pesaran and Ayatollah Morteza Motahari. In this review I will provide an overview of the chapters. The major focus of this book is the practical reality of the development process in Iran. Safavid dynasty existed from 1500 to 1722. There was an Allied military occupation of Iran from 1941 to 1945. Iran’s industrialization took place from 1921 to 1941. An American consultant company was involved in the development planning in Iran, which was passed by the Iranian parliament in 1949. Less than half of the population in Iran spoke Farsi (p. 5). 

In the introduction of the book, it has also been mentioned that in the late 1960s, the policies of consolidation of holdings and concentration of resources on the modern, capital-intensive rural concerns, deprived small peasant proprietors of much needed credit and displaced many without providing them with alternative employment The resulting widespread rural poverty led to large-scale rural-urban migration (p. 4). 

One of the authors named Pesaran shows how the IMF choked Iran (p. 31). He adds that about half the doctors of Iran in 1973 were located in Tehran (p. 30). The author states that the oil workers' strike in Khuzestan was instrumental in bringing down the Shah. After the revolution, the Shia uleemas consolidated their political leadership in Iran.

Kamran Afshar quotes Dale W. Jorgenson who argues that: “transfer of labor from agriculture will result in a decline in agricultural production, thereby creating a problem of feeding the increasing urban population (p. 52). Afshar further states that in the 1960s, working with a western model of development and its concepts the planners branded agriculture as ‘backward’ (p. 63).

Haleh Afshar writes that the deleterious effects of the development plans were important contributing factors to the 1978 revolution. She also states that “it is worth noting that the revolution was a primarily urban phenomenon” (p. 71). In the early 1980s farmers were making a 10 000 rials loss per hectare of cultivated wheat (p. 74). Haleh Afshar writes that during the First World War the British, who were occupying the southern provinces of Khouzestan set up the South Persian Rifles, mainly with Indian recruits, to protect the oilfields (p. 176). Under the Qajars the military was always commanded by foreigners. Britian and Russia sent tehri forces to dispose the Shah whose pro-German sympathies were unacceptable to the Western Allies (p. 177-8). The Iranian forces could only last for three days. Reza Shah was deposed and his 18-year-old son Muhammad Reza Shah was placed on the throne by the Allies. 

Fazel mentions that Reza Shah interrupted the seasonal migrations which resulted in massive losses for the nomads. Reza Shah thought the tribal people to be incompatible with national unity and a danger to the internal security of Iran. Shah’s attitude and his actions reflected his intent to destroy the socio-economic and political foundation of the tribal societies (p. 82). He also mentions that in a tribal society the principal mechanism of conflict resolution is mediation by a member of the community who is mutually respected by the disputants. He further states on the same page that the arbitrator must not be hampered by self-interest (p. 89). Fazel writes that the three major tribal populations include Turkomans, Kurds and Baluchis. Abrahamian writes that under Pahelvi Azeri language had been banned from the publishing houses. Writers such as Nabdel were only allowed to get published in Persian.  

Further in the book the authors discuss Fadayan Marxist group, how land reforms by the Shah increased corruption among the bureaucrats, list of foreign oil companies in Iran, Anglo-Persian Agreement of August 1919, drawn up by Lord Curzon, Invasion of Persia by the Russians in 1911, role of bazaar leaders (p. 136), interesting comparison of Iran and Europe with respect to riots, disturbances and strikes (p. 143), theory of urban guerilla warfare developed by communist Brazilian, merger of different groups (p. 169), qualities of Imam Khomeini (p. 208), rich uleema in Iran (p. p. 221), Reza Shah imposition of bureaucratic control over one of the important sources of income for the ulema (p. 222) and Khomeini’s version of Islamic government called Valayateh Fiqh. In the Epilogue of the book, women, educational institutions and media are discussed. The department of humanities was closed for four years under Khomeini and women were not allowed to progress in the field of education.

While reading the book I found some interesting words which include Zargos mountains (xi), boneh (p. 60), joft (p. 69), Dasht-e-Moghan (p. 101), Rasht (p. 124), Sattar Khan (p. 131)- a name in Iran and Savant (p. 203).

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Book Review: Pakistan: The Social Sciences' Perspective (Edited by Akbar S. Ahmed)

Overall this book highlights the complexity and diversity in Pakistani society. It covers the saints of Sind, Afghan refugees in Peshawar, complex social networks of Baltistan, groups in Faisalabad, and tribalism in Faisalabad. This anthology of essays present various anthropological and historical perspectives. Overall there are thirteen contributors to this book. Essays on Afridi of the Khyber Agency, Hazarawal district ethnicity, Transformation in Dir and Swat, Identity of Afghan refugees, Charismatic Kingship in Baltistan, Shrines in Punjab, the politics of Sufism, Shrine of Golra Sharif, The Case of Faisalabad (1947-75), Shrine in Sind, Shame and Purdah in Balochistan, the social structure of the Brahui and the Baloch, and Pirs among the Baloch living in Pakistan. 

David M. Hart writes about Tarbur, Mahr and Nanawati among the Afridi pakhtoons. Afridi jirga takes place in masjids (p. 17). Among the Afridis the Adamkhel's owned and operated gun factories. They did not arise in response to any particular urge  to combat the British as Mujahideen. They did it for economic reasons. Darra factories also supplied arms to the British Indian Army during the period of arm shortage (p. 24). In the second chapter, Akbar S. Ahmed writes about the different politicians from Hazara, the stereotypes in Hazara, conflict and bloodshed in Hazara forests, Pakistan Peoples Party, timber mafia, and the politics of ethnicity in Hazara- related to its forest wealth (p.42).

Writing on Dir and Swat, in the third chapter Charles Lindholm states that in attempting to conquer Chitral, Dir itself developed centralization (p.52). In 1969 Dir had rebelled against Pakistan and this happed again in 1976 (p. 58-59). David Busy Edwards writes about the Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Edwards mentions primordial affinities of ethnicity (p.63), usury among Ghilzais, Tarburwali (cousin enmity), character slurs among members of different tribes (p. 79), and nomads versus mullahs in Parachinar in 1983.

Richard M. Emerson writes in detail Baltistan. Emerson writes that 'balti' means the basement chambers where animals are put and the people who put them there (p. 103). Different parts of Baltistan were settled by migrants of Dard, Turkistani, Kashmiri, and Ladakhi people, they were almost certainly assimilated into an established Tibetan culture now called Balti (p.102). The author also writes that Mar-pa were the butter people (ladakhis) and Brok-pa (pasture people). Emerson says that the ruling family of Shigar must be connected with the Dards of Hunza-Nagar (p.111) as they have some similar names in the genealogy. Emerson has also written about the Turkic Buddhist rulers of Kundus, Khaplu kingdom's origination from a person belonging to Turkistan (p. 113). The author also speculates that the landless dependents in Baltistan might have descended from slaves (p. 115). From Khaplu 400 soldiers aided the British-Dogra conquest of Hunza-Nagar (p. 143). Before 1846 local titles were used by the ruling elite. It was replaced by 'Raja' after the British-Dogra suzerainty. Emerson adds that Kha-Cho were a warrior class (p.117). He further writes about the British land settlement of 1903 in Khaplu, Trampa, 'milk mother' relations among Baltis, origin of Nurbakhshis in Baltistan, judicial process and role of Trampas (p. 120), land distribution to the military nobility, Weber on domination and exchange, Chilasis seeking protection of Skardo, Chilasi raiders taking away women and animals, logic of collective action, Maqpoon (the military elite) and the sword dance.

David Gilmartin's essay is about the conflict over Sajjada Nashin, invitation to the Pirs for attending the Delhi Durbar of 1911 (p.155). The British wanted to educate the Sajjad Nashin themselves. Gilmartin says that Khakwanis are pathans from Multan. Katherine Wing writes about the politics of Sufism. He writes about the moral force that began to shape the political order and the conversion of Jats and Rajputs. The Muslim rulers tried to bring the Sajjada-nashis under their control by granting them land (p.172). Pir Pagaro was executed in 1943, because the British saw him as a threat (p. 172). Wing further writes about the spiritual aristocracy, public display of religion by high government officials during Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's government, and Sufi Barkat Ali of Lyallpur.

Hafeezur Rehman Chaudhry writes about the Golra shrine. He mentions that Golra Sharif Pir came from Ambala. Later one of the descendants Pir Meher Ali wrote against Qadiyani movement. Chaudhry also writes about the hierarchies at the shrine, the design of the building, the functions of various employees, the crops produced on the shrine land and the Mujaver of Golra shrine (p. 201). The author believes that Qawali was for attracting converts (p. 202). Mohammad Waseem writes a chapter on Faisalabad. In the chapter he is of the view that1/3 of Faisalabad's population migrated to India in 1947. It became an urban district. Waseem further writes about the presence of sheikhs and khojas in Faisalabad, patronage and extraction of bribes, dominance of entrepreneurial class in Faisalabad, Sehgals joining politics, Nizame Islam party in Faisalabad, pattern of interaction between local forces, non-local workers, People's Academy in Faisalabad and the whole textile sector which remained untouched during ZA Bhutto's nationalization.

Richard Kurin writes an essay on the Abdullah Shah Ghazi Shrine in Sindh. Carrol McC. Pastner writes on Balochistan. He states that in Panjgur there exists three main groups which include Hakim, Baloch and Hizmathar. Hizmathar are negroid in origin (p. 248). In the nineteenth century Makran was incorporated into the Kalat state (p. 252). Emancipation of slaves had taken place in 1920s. 

Yuri Gankovsky writes that Zikris are Shiah and they practice Taqqiya (p. 261). Yuri further writes that the first university in Balochsitan was opened in 1970 (p. 269). In Balochistan twenty percent of the uleemas are from the Baloch districts. The author states that in 1979 181 out of the 830 top officials in the province were Baluchis (p. 271). Gankovsky also says that the Barahvi population also lives in Afghanistan and Iran (p. 271). Barahvi's did not have a script and were surrounded on all sides by the Baloch. Stephen L. Pastner writes that the founder of Zikri religion was Sayid Mahmud of Jaipur who in his Indian homeland proclaimed himself as the Mahdi. Nasir Khan of Kalat did a crack down on Zikris. The author claims that he was a fanatic Sunni Muslim (p. 278). This collection of essays is a brilliant addition to the literature on history, politics and anthropology.

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Book Review: The Old World: Early Man To the Development of Agriculture (Under the editorial supervision of Robert Stigler)

Reading this book, I learnt that how from the flowers, which were identified by the pollens found in the grave, it was possible to determine the burial month of an individual (p. 61).

In southwestern France in Upper Paleolithic times we have the appearance of two cultures, the Aurignacian and the Perigordian, which run almost side by side in the same region (p. 65). Solecki says that the Aurignacian is quite widespread there, through Turkey and the Zagros Mountains as far as Afghanistan (p. 65). Solecki further states that most probably 30, 000 years ago people entered Australia by boat (p. 68).

Perkins. Jr and Daly state that food production most probably began in the Near East in the Highland Zone (p. 72). The authors further state that the theory that the retreat of glaciers was assumed to have shifted the rain belts, causing increasing desiccation- seems to have numerous flaws( p. 74). As per these authors a domestic animal is one 'which breeds in captivity and is of significant economic importance' (p. 80).

Stigler writes that in the Near East the early stages of food production did indeed take place in such mostly upland country and only afterwards did Neolithic settlement  begin to fill  the alluvial valleys and lowland plains (p. 100). Stigler further writes that in Catal Huyuk the entrances were through the roofs which presented a blank façade to the outside world (p. 104). The author further writes that some old world archeologists sometimes refer the "Old Testament effect", which means 'attributing the appearance of any cultural innovation to an immigration of peoples from the outside' (p. 110).Ubaid in Southern Mesopotamia  has origins which are often attributed to a new people coming into the area from south western Iran (p. 114).

Writing on Egypt and India Stigler writes that 'the later dynastic written sources indicate that by Late Pre-dynastic times two parallels lineages of "kings" ruled Upper and Lower Egypt respectively' (p. 140). The author states that in India and Pakistan the links between Mesolithic and the Neolithic are still missing from the archeological record (p. 145). Stigler is of the view that the 'earliest date farming communities known to be of direct relevance to the subcontinent proper are located in Baluchistan' (p. 146). In addition to that the author writes that the site of Kile Gul Mohammad in the Quetta Valley of north-eastern Baluchistan is a cornerstone of the Baluchistan Neolithic, providing the earliest carbon-14 dates for the period in all of India-Pakistan' (p. 146). In geographical extent this was the largest of the four "primal" civilizations of the Old World- Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus, and China- stretching some thousand miles along the great alluvial river valley (p. 150).

This book covers plant domestication, sexual division of labor, deer-slayers in Germany and Poland, transition from hunter to townsman, hunting peoples, agrarian peoples, principal food animals (p. 75), definition of "civilization"(p. 116), historian Karl Wittfogel on irrigation (p. 117), Tasian burial practices and Walter Fairservis' views on first settlements in Baluchistan (p. 148).

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Book Review: The Railway Children by E. Nesbit

I must admit that it took me almost four months to read this book. Not because of the complexity of the novel. In fact while I was reading other books I could not dedicate time for this one. At times I found it dull and boring. I kept reading at a slow pace and now I discover that it is already four months! Anyway, today I congratulate myself on achieving this great milestone. 

When their father is mysteriously taken away, Roberta, Phyllis and Peter have to leave the comfort of their London house for a humble dwelling in the country. There is not much to do there, no places to go to either, save the nearby railway station. The children like it. The children visit the nearby coal mine and discover many interesting things. They also admire the passing train and wave at passengers. The children's action in time also helped in avoiding major accidents, which saved human lives.

They befriend the porter and the stationmaster. They make it a habit to wave everyday to the same old gentleman on the London train. they hardly have a clue that the railway will not only fill their lives with adventure but also help unveil the truth behind the disappearance of their father.

 At one point in the book the author writes "very wonderful and beautiful things do happen, don't they? And we live most of our lives in the hope of them. I may come again to see the boy?" (p. 224). Regarding lessons the author is of the view that "however nice the person who is teaching you may be, lessons are lessons all the world over, and at their best are worse fun than peeling  potatoes or lighting a fire." 

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Book Review: Antonio Gramsci: Working-Class Revolutionary- Essays and Interviews (Edited by Martin Thomas)

The essays and the interview collected in this booklet discuss the ideas and the politics of Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), especially in the light of a major recent study of Gramsci, Peter Thomas's book The Gramscian Moment. They argue that Gramsci's ideas are best and most loyally understood as a contribution to working-class revolutionary socialist battle against the capitalist system, which as the financial crash of 2008 and its sequels show, is as much a system of class exploitation and social destruction as ever.

Italy stayed out of World War I (p. 6). The workers defeat opened the way for the rise of fascism. Mussolini took power in 1922 (p. 8).  Mussolini consolidated his power in 1926 (p. 8). Mussolini was a former member of the Socialist party (p. 9). 

Gramsci spent much of his life building a Marxist party (p. 13). For some time he operated from Vienna. Gramsci was developing themes first sketched by Antonio Labriola, a late 19th century philosopher who gradually, as a maverick on the fringes of the socialist movement, developed a supple and imaginative version of Marxism as "philosophy of practice" (p. 74)

In chapter two, Peter Thomas writes that 'we need to reaffirm that deepening the conception of politics and political organization- and linking that with a Marxist critique of political economy- remains at the absolute center of Gramsci's project the entire way through (p. 19).

In the third chapter Peter Thomas says that 'for a proletarian hegemony , Gramsci argues that a politics of truth is necessary. He states on many occasions that the precondition for doing mass politics in the working classes need to speak the truth (p. 22). Politics, for Gramsci, was not conceived of as a moment of administration or command from above, but always in terms of the transformative dimensions of a social  formation or relations between social formations (p. 24).

Peter Thomas says that Gramsci 'came to the view that it is only by acknowledging the always-already-practical nature of philosophy that it is possible not only to criticize previous forms of philosophy (including, crucially, the criticism of previous conceptions of Marxist philosophy), but also to go further and attempt to develop a new form of philosophical practice that would arguably be more genuinely philosophical than the contending and rival positions, if we are to understand philosophy as always a practice, as "love of wisdom", in the classic sense' (p. 37-38).

Moreover, Peter Thomas mentions that 'the "democratic philosopher", for Gramsci, became the philosopher who was mature enough to acknowledge the foundation of their thought in the common every day practices of the people, a philosopher who was open to the capacity for transformation of those instances, and sought himself or herself to contribute to their transformation through his or her intervention in linguistic, conceptual, or political forms' (p. 39). He believes that the democratic philosopher means an active citizen.

In chapter six, Martin Thomas states that 'the last 25 years prove that a battle for democratic forms is ineffectual if not tied together with a socialist battle to reorganize the working-class as an assertive, militant combatant for its own interest, as the champion of democracy, and as the leader of all the oppressed and plebeians' (p. 65).

Further themes in the book include hegemonic apparatuses, Gramsci's analytical developments, neo-liberalism and class organization (p. 35), 'democratic philosopher', Marx, French Communist party philosopher Louis Althusser, cosmopolitan academic and Eurocommunist. This booklet discusses a major recent study on the Notebooks- Peter Thomas's The Gramscian Moment- and argues that the Notebooks were in fact a powerful contribution to the working-out of revolutionary working-class strategy in developed capitalist societies. 

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Book Review: Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Ngugi says that the very words we use are a product of a collective history (p. x-xi). He says that the present predicaments of Africa are often not a matter of personal choice; they arise from an historical situation. Their solutions are not so much of a matter of personal decision as that of a fundamental social transformation of the structures of our societies starting with a real break with imperialism and its internal ruling allies. Imperialism and its comprador alliances in Africa can never never develop the continent (xii).

According to the author 'the biggest weapon wielded and actually daily unleashed by imperialism against that collective defiance is the cultural bomb. The effect of a cultural bomb is to annihilate a people's belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves (p. 3). Ngugi remembers the time when speaking his native tongue Gikuyu in school led to punishment (p. 11). Writing about his younger days he also narrates how a button was used as a tool to punish those students who spoke their native tongue (p. 11).

The author writes that Swahili in East and Central Africa is used as a means of  communication across many nationalities, but it is not a carrier of culture and history of many of those nationalities whereas in parts of Kenya and Tanzania, particularly in Zanzibar, Swahili is inseparably both a means of communication and a carrier of the culture of those people to whom it is a mother-tongue (p. 13). Ngugi writes that 'rival imperialisms and the colonial practice of divide and rule introduced contradictory representations of the sound systems of the same language, let alone of similar African languages within the same colonial boundary. For instance the Gikuyu language had two rival orthographies developed by protestant and catholic missionaries (p. 67). 

Ngugi was put in prison, banned from teaching at the University of Nairobi and the exiled (p. 62). He was at his home on 31 December 1977. Ngugi wrote on toilet paper when he did not have paper in jail (p. 74). There was so much repression from 1952 to 1962 during the Mau Mau struggle that more than five people were deemed to constitute a public gathering and needed a license (p. 37).

The author stresses that African literature can only be written in Africa languages, that is, the languages of African peasantry and working class, the major alliance of classes in each our nationalities and the agency for the coming inevitable revolutionary break with neo-colonialism (p. 27). Ngugi stresses on the oral literature (orature). According to him orature ha sits roots in the lives of the peasantry. It is primarily their compositions, their songs, their art, which forms the basis of the national and resistance culture during the colonial and neo-colonial times (p. 95).

The land question is basic to  an understanding of Kenya's history and contemporary politics, as indeed it is of twentieth century history wherever people have had their land taken away by conquest, unequal treaties or by the genocide of prat of the population (p. 44). The colonizers also introduced categorization. The good African was the one who cooperated with the European colonizer whereas the bad African character was the on who offered resistance to the foreign conquest and occupation of his country. The bad character was portrayed as being ugly, weak, cowardly and scheming (p. 92).

Because of its intermediate economic position between the many contending classes, the petty- bourgeoisie develops a vacillating psychological make-up. Like a chameleon it takes on the color of the main class with which  it is in the closest touch and sympathy (p. 22). The author states that under the colonial system, through the racist ideologies the private appropriation of wealth was ensured in a few hands- mostly white (p. 66).

On page 53, Ngugi shares a play in which one of the character named Wangeci says: 

"Think about today and tomorrow.

Think about our home.

Poverty has no permanent roots!

Poverty is a sword for sharpening the digging sticks..."

Ngugi says that 'when that day comes, when the African writer will naturally turn to African languages for his creative imagination, the African novel will truly come into its own, incorporating into itself all the features developed in the different parts of Africa from the different cultures of African peoples as well as the best progressive features of the novel or fiction developed in Asia, Latin America, Europe, America, the World (p. 85). Ngugi also writes that 'drama is closer to the dialectics of life than poetry and the fiction' (p. 54).

While writing about the main aim of the book the author states that 'in this book I have pointed out that how we view ourselves, our environment even, is very much dependent on where we stand in relationship to imperialism in its colonial and neo-colonial stages; that if we are to do anything about our individual and collective being today, then we have to coldly and consciously look at what imperialism has been doing to us and to our view of ourselves in the universe' (p. 88). Ngugi says that 'economic and political control of a people can never be complete without cultural control' (p. 93). 

On page 105 Ngugi quotes Brecht who says in a poem:

"Your science will be valueless, you'll find

And learning will be sterile, if inviting

Unless you pledge your intellect to fighting

Against all enemies of Mankind."

Further in the book Ngugi also writes about colonialism in education, Kamiriithu Community Centre, racism of Hume, Thomas Jefferson and Hegel, class origin of discoveries, his view about the appropriation of the novel, his learnings from different writers, African children and colonial schools. Ngugi has very clearly addressed the main issues on the language question in literature. This book is the author's farewell to English as a vehicle for any of his writings.

In the concluding chapter Ngugi writes that the aim of this book has been about 'national, democratic and human liberation' (p. 108). I want to paraphrase but I think it would be injustice to the powerful words of the author. Ngugi says that 'the call for the rediscovery and the resumption of our language is a call for a regenerative reconnection with the millions of revolutionary tongues in Africa and the world over demanding liberation. It is a call for the rediscovery of the real language of humankind: the language of struggle. It is the universal language underlying all speech and words of our history. Struggle. Struggle makes history. Struggle makes us.  In struggle is our history, our language and our being. That struggle begins wherever we are; in whatever we do; then we become part of those millions whom Martin Carter once saw sleeping not to dream but dreaming to change the world' (p. 108).

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Book Review: Pakistan: The Economy of the Elitist State by Ishrat Hussain

In this second edition (published in 2019), Ishrat Hussain presents an analysis of the economic development in Pakistan. Hussain compares Pakistan's case with other countries in South Asia and East Asia. He also presents an outline for the economic and social reforms in Pakistan. Hussain believes that the elite in Pakistan continues the unjust accumulation of wealth because the respective roles of the state and the market have been reversed in the case of Pakistan.

Ishrat Hussain says that the share of agriculture has declined to 25 percent (p. 6). In 1947 Pakistan only had 57 MW of installed capacity of electricity (p. 249). Tracing the history of Pakistan's economic development Hussain writes that due to the Korean War a new class of industrialists developed in Pakistan (p. 13). Hussain says that in the 1950s there were food shortages. Pakistan became a net food importer. Despite having such fertile agricultural land and a well-developed irrigation system speaks volumes of the anti-agriculture bias of Pakistan's ISI (import substitution industrialization regime).

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto provided subsidies on wheat, edible oils and other goods consumed by the poorer section of the population. This consumed 2 per cent of the GDP by the mid-19970s (p. 128).The average inflation rate from 1971 to 1977 was 16 percent (p. 23). In the 1980s steel, automobile and engineering were the weakest sectors and the better preforming ones were cement and fertilizers (p. 102). After Zia, when Benazir Bhutto took over she strengthened the private industry. In Pakistan's history the interim government of Moen Qureshi introduced an agricultural income tax which was vehemently opposed by large feudal and land-owing interests (p. 43). PPP's performance from 2008 to 2013 was on average 2 percent of growth (p. 446).

Comparative advantages based on high skills, product differentiation, and new technologies last much longer (p. 107). Hussain states that the aim of the financial-sector reform is to establish a flexible system of financial intermediation in which a variety of instruments are made available to savers and borrowers through stable financial institutions (p .145). Ishrat believes that 'success of Pakistan's economic policy will depend on its ability to maintain fiscal discipline' (p. 171). Ishrat suggests that 'international experience suggests that in low-income developing countries, small scale agriculture, small and medium enterprises, and, more recently, knowledge-based enterprises are the main avenues for productive employment' (p. 232).

Ishrat is of the view that at the time of public procurement of wheat the food inspectors make purchases from influential farmers (p. 461). Husain states that estimates suggest that about one-third of the sick in developing countries are victims of nutritional disorders (p. 224). The author writes that low-cost arrangements to mobilize savings in the rural areas have proven effective in Bangladesh, Bolivia and Bangladesh (p. 164). The author does not even mention a single example of rural support programs in his home country Pakistan, where the rural support programs achieved a lot in terms of mobilizing savings in rural areas.

Throughout the book Ishrat criticizes the civilian bureaucracy, labor union leaders, engineers and other factors that hinder growth and development, but he refrains from writing about the military establishment's role in Pakistani politics and economy. According to the author, in practice the elitist growth works on three factors. one, a strong leader who has concentrated power without any checks and balances. Two, a bureaucratic class which implements the wishes of the leader. Three, a dormant and subservient population that is passive and indifferent to the actions of the leaders and bureaucracy (p. 381). Ishrat does not mention about the reasons behind the subservience of the population. In fact, Ishrat Hussain himself writes in a very subservient tone throughout the book. At times it feels like reading a text book on the economic history of Pakistan.

The author is in favor of allowing Independent Power Producers (p. 427). Hussain writes about GST, VAT, inflation, foreign banks in Pakistan, local banks, Pakistan's financial sector, foreign currency deposits, measuring poverty, primary and tertiary education, value addition, child labor, some useful tables comparing Pakistan with other regional and international figures, and private sector involvement in energy. Hussain also discusses sources of external capital flows to Pakistan, misery index, the impulses of greed, corruption in Pakistani society and social ostracism (p. 453), Benazir Income Support Program, role of FBR and the need for improvement and issues of obtaining finances in Pakistan.

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Book Review: Critical Theory and Society: A Reader (Edited with an Introduction by Stephen Eric Bronner and Douglas Mackay Kellner)

The Frankfurt School was the first Marxist-oriented research institute in Europe. Its members made an effort to revise both the Marxian critique of capitalism and the theory of revolution, as after the death of Marx new social and political conditions had evolved. The broad themes included in this book are social psychology, cultural criticism, philosophy and political theory. During World War II Marcuse and others went to USA to work for the US government. Horkheimer and Adorno went to California where they worked on theory.

Erich Fromm states that 'what psychoanalysis can bring to sociology is the knowledge- though still imperfect- of the human psychic apparatus, which is a determinant of social development alongside technical, economic, and financial factors, and deserves no less consideration that the other factors mentioned' (p. 38). Erich Fromm writes that 'every form of society has not only its own economic and political, but also its specific libidinous structure, and psychoanalysis can finally explain certain deviations from the course of development expected on the basis of the economic preconditions (p. 216).

Leo Lowenthal says that 'a genuine, explanatory history of literature must proceed on materialistic principles' (p. 44). He further says that 'psychology must be considered as one of the principal mediating processes, particularly in the field of literary studies, since it describes the psychic processes by means of which the cultural functions of a work of art reproduce the structures of the societal base' (p. 45). Lowenthal critiques social research as it 'takes the phenomena of modern life, including the mass media, at face value. It rejects the task of placing them in a historical and moral context' (p. 191). In the same chapter the author states the popular culture has its own characteristics of standardization, stereotypy, conservatism, mendacity, manipulated consumer goods (p. 195).

Horkheimer writes that an existing society is increasingly endangered by its internal tensions, the energies spent in maintaining an ideology grow greater and finally the weapons are readied for supporting it with violence (p. 55). Writing on the Jews and Europe Horkheimer states that 'whoever is not willing to talk about capitalism should also keep quiet about fascism' (p. 78). In the same chapter on page 79, the interesting connection between the market economy and the advertising signs is presented. Further in the chapter he critiques liberalism,  writes about Mandeville's view on fascism and Kant's categorical imperative. Horkheimer says that 'not ideas but utility are decisive for the bourgeoisie' (p. 88). He further writes that 'someone who can only play at politics should keep away from it' (p. 93).

On state capitalism, Pollock writes that 'the genuine problem of a planned society does not lie in the economic but in the political sphere, in the principles to be applied in deciding what needs shall have preference, how much time shall be spent for work, how much of the social product shall be consumed and how much used for expansion, etc. (p. 99).

Marcuse writes that civilization is man's subjugation to work (p. 125). On the same page he writes that satisfaction is postponed and enjoyment sacrificed. Writing on philosophy and critical theory Marcuse is of the view that 'critical theory is, last but not least, critical of itself and of the social forces that make up its own basis' (p. 72). Marcuse writes that the proletariat's quality of being  'potentially revolutionary force' is definitive of its very existence (p. 288). In the chapter, The reification of the proletariat, Marcuse is of the view that 'within the global system, the multinational corporations keep the competitive conflicts from becoming explosive' (p. 291).

Adorno mentions that 'the power of the culture industry is such that conformity has replaced consciousness' (p. 133). Critical Theorist Walter Benjamin opines that 'discretion concerning one's own existence, once an aristocratic virtue, has become more and more an affair of petit-bourgeois parvenus' (p. 174).

Jurgen Habermas writes about the public sphere in which he traces the link between the newspaper and public opinion (p. 140). In the last chapter Jurgen Habermas writes that 'In the past decade or two, conflicts have developed in advanced Western societies that deviate in various ways from the welfare-state pattern of institutionalized conflict over distribution. They no longer flare up in domains of material reproduction; they are no longer channeled through parties and associations; and they can no longer be allayed by compensations. Rather, these new conflicts arise in domains of cultural reproduction, social integration, and socialization; they are carried out in substitutional - or at least extra parliamentary- forms of protest; and the underlying deficits reflect a reification of communicatively structured domains of action that will not respond to the media of money and power' (p. 305). 

Habermas mentions about the 'old politics' and the new politics. New politics find strong support among new middle classes, among the younger generation, and in groups with more formal education (p. 305). The old politics has strong support base among employers, workers, and the middle-class tradesmen.

In this book there is discussion on the differences between between Horkheimer and Marcuse, Adorno's views on Jazz- which he considers "utterly impoverished" (p. 14), Marcuse's marginal groups theory, points in favor of state capitalism, scarcity economy, French Enlightenment, Adorno on Lyric poetry and society, Adorno's view on Jazz in Europe, Erich Fromm's critique of Marcuse, Marcuse's critique of Marx and Marcuse's mention of the surplus consciousness.

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Book Review: Desertion by Abdulrazak Gurnah

I first read this interesting novel on the Swahili coast in 2021. The novel covers various aspects of the history, customs and social life of the people living on the coast. Colonialism, racism, trade, merchants, colonizers, biases, politics, minority communities, education, orientalism, ignorance about oral communities and many other themes are discussed in this novel. I find the writing style of the novelist very different from what I have read before. 

Some of the chapters in the book are Hasan Ali, Fredrick, Pearce, Rehana, An Interruption, Amin and Rashid, Amin and Jamila, Rashid and Amin, and A Continuation. The setting of the novel is based in a small town along the coast from Mombasa. In 1899, when Hassanali sets out for the mosque he finds and exhausted Englishman. Hassanali rescues the man named Martin Pearce. Pearce recovers and visits Hassanali to thank him for help and support. There Pearce meets Rehana, the sister of Hassanali. Pearce finds her attractive and hence begins the love affair. This all happens on the brink of the twentieth century.

Some of the interesting sentences in the novel are:

• Happy to be disturbed (p. 49).
• Exaggerating his willingness to listen (p. 52).
• Left them bereft and disconsolate in unfamiliar silences (p. 64).
• When inspiration deserts you, it deserts you completely (p. 97).
• You are over-salting the dish (p. 139).
• Elysian pastures (p. 149).
• Knowledge sometimes obscures what was known before (p. 210).

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Book Review: What Went Wrong?: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response by Bernard Lewis

Islam was at the forefront of human achievement for many centuries. This included military and economic power in the world. Europe was considered as something from which there was nothing to learn or to fear from. Europe changed drastically- first on the battlefront and the marketplace. After that it progressed in every aspect of public and private life. Lewis tries to understand how things changed and how the West rose to dominate the rest. At some places in the book, Lewis writes in a very patronizing tone. The author explains how the Middle East turned its attention towards understanding European weaponry and military tactics, commerce, industry, government, diplomacy, education and culture.

Lewis writes about the differences between the Western and the Middle Eastern cultures from the 18th to the 20th centuries. He makes comparisons of themes related to music, arts, women, civil society and religion. He presents an account which helps in understanding the historical relationship between the Middle East and Europe. The author writes in the early 1600s the Persian won a number of successes against the Turks (p. 12). The Turks were ready to make peace. The Treaty of Carlowitz 1699 was of special importance as it was the first peace signed by a defeated Ottoman Empire with victories Christian adversaries (p. 18). Lewis states that Carlowitz  had two lessons. The first was military, defeat by a superior force. The second lesson was diplomatic- learnt from the process of negotiation (p. 19). For Ottomans philosophy was not useful, but history was.

In the 16th and 17th centuries Arabic Chairs were established in major European universities (p. 42). First the pasha of Egypt, then the sultan of Turkey and then the shah of Persia sent selected groups of students to London, Paris and elsewhere (p. 44). Young Ottomans persuaded the Sultan to proclaim a brand new constitution with the help of some pressure from the European powers (p. 58). There were constitutional revolutions in Persia in 1906 and in Turkey in 1908 (p. 60).

Lewis says that the title of ayatollahs of Iran is quite a modern times and unknown to classical Islamic history (p. 109). He also mentions about interesting examples of how cigarette was used to measure times, invention of sundial and water clock in the Middle East (p. 123). The writer also writes about crusades, Muslim and Christian methods of warfare, migration and government services, telegraph and the changes it brought, the notion of political freedom, money and power in the East and the West, Islamic egalitarianism, slaves in Islam, roots of secularism, separation of powers in Christianity, Jami's Frankish glasses from the 15th century, the notion of frontier and demarcation, Sultan Mahmud's help from abroad.

Further in the book the author writes about the translations in various languages, the three forms of cultural influence (visual, musical and literary), team sports, dinning and dancing. The West European empires taught their subjects English, French, and Dutch because they needed clerks in their offices and counting houses (p. 61). Lewis says that the most valued commodity brought from the East to Europe were slaves(p. 26). Slavery was abolished in Yemen and KSA in 1962 (p. 89).Coffee originally came from Ethiopia (p. 50). 

Bernard Lewis states that 'every dominant civilization has imposed its own modernity in its prime' (150). Printing, translation and newspapers accelerated the process of modernization (p. 50). Steamships, railways and building of road networks accelerated communication (p. 52). Clock, timetable and calendar were the instruments by which modernity was introduced (p. 131). Lewis says that the most powerful instrument of change in the whole process of modernization seems to have begun with railway (p. 130). Modernizers by reform or revolution concentrated their efforts in three main areas, which includes military, economic and political. 

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Book Review: Coming Up for Air by George Orwell

In the novel George Bowling is a forty-five years old man. He is married and has children. He works as an insurance salesman for a company. His worries include an expanding waistline, a new set of false teeth and a strong desire to escape his current life. George decides to return to his village life. When he gets there, things seem to have changes drastically. 

He fears the war in 1939, because he foresees food queues, soldiers, secret police and tyranny. The protagonist writes about his early life, things he wanted to do, family life, the food he ate, women, married life, his work, and nostalgia. At various instances in the book the author makes some really interesting descriptions. Orwell writes that 'human mind goes in jerks. There is no emotion that stays forever' (p. 194).

Some other expressions that he uses in the book are 'book-pipe-fire atmosphere', 'whipped-dog air that middle-aged businessmen always have', and 'the way small shopkeepers look at their customers- utter lack of interest.' 

Overall, the book is entertaining as Orwell's ironic humor keeps the reader engaged. I am sure that anyone reading Part IV of the book would find it really fascinating as it reminds the reader how the process of change never stops. It also brings to surface the adverse effects of urbanization on rural areas. 

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Book Review: Sex Slaves: The Trafficking of Women in Asia by Louise Brown

Louise Brown states that Japan forcefully recruited 100, 000 girls and women during World War II, as sex slaves. Most of them were Korean women (p. 8). She argues that prostitution is not just about poverty. It is a business founded upon all sorts of inequalities (p. 60). The author stresses that the sex slaves do not have a choice. They cannot resign because of poor working conditions and the unreasonable conduct of their employees and clients (p. 96). 

Writing about the whole sex business in Asia, the author writes that psychological conditioning is every bit as brutal as the physical coercion of girls and women into the trade. Sex workers are stripped of their previous identities and women who refuse are beaten, tortured and sometimes killed (p. 122). Companies in Japan treated their employees to annual sex tours to Korea, Thailand or the Philippines (p. 82). The author also establishes a link between the boom in the Cambodian sex industry and the 22,000 UN peace-keeping forces in the country during 1991-93 (p. 138).

Writing about the trends in South Asia, the author states Pakistan the internal trafficking of girls for prostitution is far more common than the trafficking of Bangladeshi, Indian and Afghani women (p. 63). The author mentions that the Japanese maybe the biggest spenders in the sex market but the Pakistanis are the biggest hypocrites (p. 152). Further in the book the author writes about the dominant mother complex, sadism in Japanese society, corruption in the Japanese immigration department, and the Japanese people (who consider themselves as the 'whites' of Asia).

As per the author, the Kandupatti brothel in Central Dhaka housed five hundred women and girls. It was established by the British during the colonial period (p. 166). The author also critiques the Sharia and considers it misogynist. Brown says that 'the institution of prostitution, the people who profit from it, and the men who enjoy it who deserve our unreserved condemnation (p. 246). In addition to that at another place the author stresses that 'prostitution has to be damned for the dehumanizing, woman-hating activity that it is (p. 255). She concludes that sex slaves are the intrinsic product of male-dominated Asian societies (p. 255). Both prostitution and traditional marriage can be interpreted as a continuation of a primitive form of human transaction whereby women exchange sex for food and protection (p. 129).

This book covers many stories from India, Pakistan, Burma, Japan, Nepal, China, Malaysia and Thailand. The author does not provide any detailed account of the connection between the institution of prostitution, colonized lands and the colonizers.

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Book Review: The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell (with an Introduction by John Skorupski)

This work of Bertrand Russell was originally published in 1912. In this he covers many interesting themes. Some of them include subjects, such as the distinction between appearance and reality, the existence and nature of matter, idealism, knowledge by the acquaintance and by description, induction, and the limits and the value of philosophical knowledge. I have tried to cover of the points in the book review.

All our knowledge, both knowledge of things and knowledge of truths, rests upon acquaintance as its foundation (p. 26). The chief importance of knowledge by description is that it enables us to pass beyond the limits of our private experience (p. 32).

The author also writes about the controversy between the empiricists and the rationalists. He states that the 'empiricists- who are best represented by the British philosophers, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume- maintained that all our knowledge is derived from experience the rationalists- who are represented by the Continental philosophers of the seventeenth century, especially Descartes and Leibniz- maintained that, in addition to what we know by experience, there are certain 'innate ideas' and 'innate principles', which we know independently of experience' (p. 41).

Russell says that 'minds do not create truth or falsehood. They create beliefs, but when once the beliefs are created, the mind cannot make them true or false, except in the special case where they concern future things which are within the power of the person believing, such as catching trains' (p. 75).

According to the author the main characteristic of philosophy which makes it distinct from science is criticism. Philosophy 'examines critically the principles employed in science and in daily life; it searches out any inconsistences there may be in these principles, and it only accepts then when, as the result of a critical inquiry, no reason for rejecting them as appeared' (p. 87).

The author writes that 'the value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty. The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age of his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason' (p. 91). Further on the same page Russell states that ' philosophy, though unable to tell us with certainty what is the true answer to the doubts which it raises, is able to suggest many possibilities which enlarge our thoughts and free the from the tyranny of custom' (p. 91).

Russell suggests that 'philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination, and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind also is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good' (p. 94).

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Book Review: Glimpses Into The Corridors of Power by Gohar Ayub Khan

Gohar Ayub Khan's book provides an insight to the upper echelons of power in Pakistan. Basically this book serves as an autobiography. Khan provides details of his grandfather and father. He also briefly traces his family history. Ayub Khan's father was a Risaldar Major, and when he passed away Ayub was away from home. When Ayub returned home he opened his father's grave (p. 8). I am not certain if this is still practiced in Pakistan. 

The author also writes about the brothers of Ayub Khan and their appointments. One of Ayub Khan's brother was posted in Chilas. Ayub himself was once posted in Waziristan. Gohar writes that his father Ayub Khan rode a bicycle to office when he was a Major General (p. 40). Gohar also writes that Ayub Khan raised the SSG in Cherat. Ayub had made ZAB the Secretary General of Muslim League (p. 142). Ayub Khan passed away in 1974.

Gohar Ayub went to Burn Hall School Srinagar where English was the only language allowed. Burn Hall was later shifted to Abbottabad in 1947, into the old Abbott Hotel (p. 17). Gohar Ayub also writes about the discrimination faced by Indian cadets at Sandhurst (p. 25). He also mentions about the discriminations faced by East Pakistanis, as they were patronized by the people of West Pakistan. 

The author writes that Iskander Mirza was forced to resign and then he went to London. Gohar Ayub writes that G. Allana was sent by Bhutto to Mumbai to revisit the pandit who had make certain predictions about Bhutto's life (p. 141-42). Chinese wanted to build the KKH to be far from Soviet reach, that is why Kilik was avoided (p. 108). Gohar states that Yahya Khan had a draft constitution ready well before the 1971 war (p. 136).

When Zia was in power he kept Asghar Khan under house arrest for four years (p. 140). Zia allowed the establishment of a cement factory in Islamabad which was against the laws of CDA (p. 192). Gohar Ayub had good relations with Nusrat Bhutto. She expressed her wish to become Ambassador of a European country (p. 213). Gohar helped her in the process and when everything was almost done, Nusrat backtracked, most probably because of Benazir. 

Gohar says that Benazir did everything possible to damage Nawaz Sharif's businesses (p. 207). Nawaz Sharif's father was arrested on the instruction of Benazir (p. 254). In 1997 Pakistan Muslim League won two third of the seats in the National Assembly (p. 264). Nawaz Sharif appointed one of his close friends (a businessman) as the Honorary Counsel General in Washington. Gohar Ayub suggested Nawaz Sharif to keep four things in mind to ensure success- to keep good relations with the President, the Army Chief, the Americans, and make no open declarations of war against India (p. 210). 

Further in the book, there are details about the Gandhara Industries, meeting Zhou Enlai, Yahya Khan's decisions, politics of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Tashkent declaration, relationship with China, testing bombs, economic issues of Pakistan and civil-military relations. A very interesting revelation by Gohar Ayub was that the National Assembly library was used only by 3.5 percent of all the MNAs (p. 235). Another interesting incident is about 13 Chinese nationals who crossed into Pakistan via the Shimshal Pass.

Pakistan gave $10 million each to the Central Asian States in 1992, for development projects (p. 295). Moreover, in the book Gohar also writes that the people and the administration of Northern Areas quote a letter written in 1937, which claims the village of Bhasha to be in Northern Areas (p. 313). In this book Gohar includes his decisions upon his return to Islamabad after visiting the region. This book also includes the events up till the appointment of General Ziauddin Butt as the new Army Chief.

I found this book very interesting as it gives a personal account of various events in Pakistan's political history. 

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Book Review: In Praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell

This collection of Russell contains different essays on social questions in which he scrutinizes many aspects of modern life. Spread over fifteen chapters, Russell makes interesting points, some of which I mention in this book review. 

Russell believes that formerly there was 'a capacity for light-heartedness and play which has been to some extent inhibited by the cult of efficiency' (p. 22). He also says that the more we know the more harm we can do each other (p. 151). Regarding fruits he adds that apricots and peaches were first cultivated in China (p. 35).

Writing about America Russell states that America is a man-made world; moreover it is a world which man has made by means of machinery (p. 143). In America 'educational commissions point out that fifteen hundred words are all that most people employ in business correspondence, and therefore suggest that all others should be avoided in the school curriculum' (p. 29).

Russell stresses on the need to introduce a communal element into architecture (p. 44). He further adds in the same chapter, that it is marriage and the family that introduce the instinct of privacy (p. 47). Russel enforces that the world needs two things. One is socialism and the other one is peace. Both are contrary to the interest of the most powerful men of our time (p. 80). He claims that in Germany and Italy Fascism arose out of Socialism, by rejecting whatever was anti-nationalistic in the orthodox program (p. 86).

Russell says that many modern inventions tend to make people silly (p. 136). He further says that 'the effect of mass production and elementary education is that stupidity is more firmly entrenched than at any other time since the rise of civilization' (p. 138). Russell writes that uniformity in matters of  thought and opinion is much more dangerous (p. 144). Regarding writers that author is of the view that it requires 'unusual firmness of character to produce good work and remain poor' (p. 106).

Russel also states that 'science and industrialism are nowadays the distinctive marks of western civilization' (p. 120). Russell says that he is afraid that Europe, however intelligent, has always been rather horrid, except in the brief period between 1848 and 1914 (p. 131). 

Overall in the book the author writes about superstition, power, economics, common characteristics of fascism, industrialism, war, socialism, skepticism, belief, civilization, science, peace, cinema, language, power, modernity, and many other ideas. 

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Book Review: Property Taxes and State Incapacity in Pakistan by Muhammad Mujtaba Piracha

Piracaha tries to provide answers to some of the most serious questions regarding taxation in Punjab, the most populated province of Pakistan. The author discusses the reasons behind the low property tax in Punjab, inter-governmental politics, low fiscal equilibrium, public service delivery, formal tax collection, questions of enforcement and what can be done to improve the tax collection. In the preface of the book Pircaha writes about the 'fiscal contract' between the citizens and the state. In the state the people are sure that their lives and property are secure and that they are getting services in return for their money (taxes).

In Punjab alone, the government collects about 1 billion in agriculture income tax, where the potential is between 50-70 billion (p.7). Some experts say that the aid flow to Pakistan helped the government put off the required tax reforms and avoid the political costs of taxation (p. 7). Piracha is inspired by Robert Wade (1982), whose work is used as an approach to study the irrigation department in India.

The author says that Punjab has historically neglected raising its own source revenues (p. 19). One perspective is that the provincial government of Punjab does not commit adequate resources to digitalize property tax (p. 38). Further in the book the author discusses responsibilities of junior officer, channeling of taxes, district civil service cadre, global level institutional arrangements, initiation of NFC in 1951, government's financial accounting system, local banks, failure in the delivery of public services

Piracha is of the view that the rich including the industrialists show large chunks of their income as agricultural (p. 85). An oft-quoted quip in the civil service is that 'it is easier to fire the Prime Minister of Pakistan, than a peon in a government office' (p. 102). Other themes discussed in the book are bribes and hiring in Punjab, increase in reviews and monitoring missions by donors, ET and NCD hierarchy of Punjab, corruption, patronage, and the civil service.

The lower staff usually feels threatened by digitalization (p. 121). The constable usually introduces himself as 'tax officer' (p. 120). Piracha also writes about the difficulty in collecting full payments, different types of taxes based on location, examples from an established family of Lahore, lacking in the tax assessment, tax administration reform and corruption amongst the civil servants. The last line of the book says that 'a nation's real strength lies in socio-economic progress and the happiness of its people' (p. 185). 

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