Book Review: Islands of Hope- Recollections of Dr Akhter Hameed Khan compiled by the AHK Resource Centre

Never before have I come across a more detailed book on the life and times of Dr. Akhter Hameed Khan who served humanity in a very special way and left behind a legacy for others to follow. Khan was a very different man. Some considered him a social scientist while others added various other titles including poet, scholar, community development expert and philosopher.

Very early in his career he left the Indian Civil Services and opted to become a locksmith. He wanted to experience the misery of the downtrodden class. Later he became Director at the Comilla Project in East Pakistan where he was engaged in community mobilization and encouraged the participatory approach of development.

Akhter Hameed Khan later went to Karachi and initiated the Orangi Pilot Project. This project was based on self-help and power of the people living in the locality. He provided guidance with many aspects of the project. Technical assistance was provided to the resident of Orangi, regarding sewerage system and improvement of the environment. A micro-credit system was also established in the area which emphasized on self-reliance.

Dr. Khan received numerous awards, but paying tribute to him would only be justified when his work and ideas would be taught at university level. This would help his teachings in making their way to the development policies of the developing world. The twelve chapters in this book cover his early life, struggles in achieving his goals, his development works, efforts for a humane society, community mobilization methods and unfortunately the false cases initiated against him. The life of the maverick covered in this book teaches the reader the common lessons in life regarding idealism, sacrifice, hard work and persistence.

Dr. Akhter Hameed Khan said: “Pakistan’s development will not come from the top, it will come from the bottom, and it will happen in pockets – one island formed here, one there and one island will be made by you…”

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Book Review: Twenty Weeks in America by Akhtar Hameed Khan

Written by Akhtar Hameed Khan from 3 Sept 1969 to 21 Jan 1970 this book is a dairy of day to day account of his time spent in Princeton USA. Originally written in Urdu this book is translated into English by Aquila Ismail.

Born on 15 July 1914 Akhtar Hameed Khan rose to one of the most prominent social scientist of the twentieth century. He rose to fame with the establishment of a Rural Development Academy in Comilla East Pakistan in 1960s and a rural development program in Karachi named Orangi Pilot Project in the 1980s.

Dr. Khan was invited to Princeton University to deliver a series of lectures in September 1969. There during his stay he recorded his experiences and observations. He also included various developments in American academia and also expressed his thoughts on various developing issues. In this book he mentions the books which he read during his stay. Dr. Khan frequently mentions Tolstoy and Buddha. Moreover Khan discusses human greed, life in general, miseries of the underprivileged and the American way of life.

The author in his spare time attends a Beatles concert, watches plays and attends university debates. In addition to that he comments on how the student movement in US is against the American atrocities in Vietnam. Khan visits churches and synagogues. He also briefly narrates his experiences inside these places of worship. Akhtar Hameed Khan attends many lectures by different professors at Princeton. In the US he also meets economic experts, government officials and officers from Pakistan. In addition to that he writes about the opinion divide among students in American institutions.

Throughout the book Dr. Khan mentions various couplets from different poets, both eastern and western poets. For one hundred and forty one days Dr. Khan stayed in the US and closely observed through his engagements the people and society of the United States of America.

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Book Review: Contemporary Issues in Pakistan Studies by Saeed Shafqat

This particular book by Dr. Saeed Shafqat is a compilation of different articles. In every article a separate theme has been addressed. Writers who contribute to this book analyze the issues confronting Pakistan. These writers are from different academic backgrounds who analyze with great detail. Moreover this document is an excellent example of inter disciplinary work with respect to Pakistan Studies.

 A total of thirteen articles have been included in the book. Six of the articles are written by Shafqat himself. The articles in this book encompass Jinnah, pre-partition scenario, bureaucracy, politics in Pakistan, military, participatory development, foreign relations, and strategic issues of security, Kashmir issue and democracy in Pakistan. Published in 1995 this book is both well researched and documented.

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Book Review: Walking with the Comrades by Arundhati Roy

This work by Arundhati Roy draws serious attention on the ongoing rebel movement in India. Maoist guerillas are waging war against the brutal and suppressive Indian government which is adamant on furthering the interests of multi-million dollar corporations.

Roy writes about the time she spent with the guerillas on the frontline fighting the government soldiers. She writes briefly about the history of the Naxalites, different personalities of the movement, her life in the forests with the rebels, role of women, makeshift schools for children, and about poverty and malnutrition among the guerillas. Roy believes that the government wants more minerals, clearing of forest lands to pave the way for mining companies, dams and large corporations. She leaves the reader with an important question: whether global capitalism would also engulf this part of the world?

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Book Review: Nisso By Pavel Luknitsky

This historic novel revolves around a girl named Nisso who lives in the mountains of Central Asia. She loses her parents at an early age. Her maternal aunt gives her to Aziz Khon in marriage. Aziz Khon pays her the price. One day Nisso decides to run away from Aziz Khon. She runs away and reaches a valley named Siatang. At Siatang she is under the protection of Sho-pir an ex-red army soldier. Mededev is a comrade and works in Siatang to improvise the life of the local population. Nisso is in love with him, but she does not express her feelings until later. Aziz Khon gets to know about the presence of Nisso at Siatang valley. He prepares a force of basmachi people. One day Aziz Khon attacks on Siatang in Sho-pir’s absence. Aziz Khon’s forces loot, plunder and kill people in Siatang. Khon wants to torture and then brutally kill Nisso. Sho-pir while returning to Siatang hears about the attack of Aziz Khon. He gets enraged and fights against the basmachi. During this fight he gets severely injured. To his rescue the red army men enter Siatang and capture the basmachi along with Aziz Khon. Sho-pir is badly hurt and is in bed. Gulriz’s son Bakhtior had been killed by the basmachi. Gulriz is devastated to see the dead body of her son. Sho-pir later recovers and goes to Volost with Nisso. This novel displays the oppression of the Khans in Central Asia; and shows how the populace was liberated by the soviets and soviet way of life.

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Book Review: Three Cups of Deceit by Jon Krakauer

Three Cups of Deceit written by Jon Krakauer is basically a reply to Greg Mortenson’s book Three Cups of Tea. Published in 2011, this book has been divided into three parts. 

The first part named the creation myth addresses the creation of Greg’s story in Baltistan, which according to Krakauer is a fake one. Krakauer simply refutes the narration of Greg Mortenson. At various places in his book Greg has mentions that after returning from a failed attempt of K2 in 1993 he lived in a small village called Korphe. But Krakauer contests this narration on page 8 of his book. He is of the view that Greg along with two others had walked down to Askole and from thereon they hired a jeep which took them to Skardu, the district capital. The author Jon Krakauer refers to Darsney, Greg’s fellow who returned with him after the failed attempt of K-2, who says that according to him he and Greg had stayed at Skardu for several days after the failed attempt. After that they hired a jeep and went to Khane, a village in the Hushe Valley. It is there where Greg proposed the construction of a school, as the village did not have one. Furthermore Mortenson mentions in his account that he had met Niamat Gul Mehsud for the first time in Peshawer, whereas Mahsud remembers meeting Mortenson in Rawalpindi, in front of the latter’s hotel. Greg shows in his book that he was kept hostage in South Wazairistan by the Taliban back in1996.  However the author of Three Cups of Deceit makes it clear that the kidnapping story of Greg is entirely fabricated. He gives references of various credible people who surely believe that the story was fabricated. Naimat Gul one of his accomplices also believes that Greg had invented a false story.

The second section of the book is titled accountable to no one. For the funding of his schools Greg believes that it does not matter where the money comes from, as it is in the service of God. Known for not returning phone calls and emails Mortenson also does not arrive on time for his engagements. Karakauer has repeatedly referred to various instances when Mortenson maintained this careless attitude. Mortenson said he had a salary of $28000 in 1995, but in reality he was drawing a salary of about $75000. This means Mortenson was not honest about his salary. Further on page 30 the author mentions that an article on Greg suggested that the schools constructed by Greg helped in countering the influence of fundamentalist Madrassas. This question further complicates and creates doubts about the authenticity of Greg’s story. Mortenson in his first book narrates the story of a long conversation with King Zahir Shah in 2003, in a PIA flight. Krakauer on inquiring from Zahir Shah’s grandson made it clear that no such meeting had taken place. In fact his grandson said that King Zahir Shah had never travelled on any PIA flight from 1973 to 2007. Hence Mortenson’s story seems to be made up. Not only that but Mortenson used CAI’s credit cards and never produced any receipts for them. Mortenson used chartered jets, received royalties from his books and also purchased thousands of copies of his book for the attendees of his events. Along with that Mortenson charges hefty amount of money when he speaks at events. He charges $30,000 plus per event and travel expenses too.

The final part of the book is regarding the school constructed by the Central Asian Institute headed by Greg Mortenson. Many of the schools constructed by Greg, according to Krakauer, have turned into ghost schools. Going on further Greg has referred in one of his books that Wahabbi influence present in the region where he works is strong. But in all those areas where his projects have been established there is no presence of Wahhabi elements. The working mechanisms of CAI are dubious. In 2010 when an auditor was asked to audit CAI finances, a fraudulent document was produced by the CAI staffers. Adding on to that Parvi from Baltistan, who resigned from CAI confessed to embezzle $50,000 from CAI. Further in the Three Cups of Deceit, the gallstone attack on Safaraz Khan, the then program director northern Afghanistan is covered in detail. Greg is alleged to have produced a tampered account of the incident in his book. In 2007 with respect to an incident, Mortenson in one of his email’s to Sarfaraz believed that, AKDN an international NGO, was planting false rumors against CAI. According to the author of Three Cups of Deceit the school in Boazai Gumbaz Wakhan district, was built primarily for the sake of Greg’s book.

Jon Krakauer believes that Greg lied about his first visit to Korphe, lied about eight day armed kidnapping by the Taliban and also bluffed about the building of schools in areas which were on the frontline of war against terror. In the concluding remarks the author has rightly made a remark considering Greg as a murderer of his ‘own creation through his duplicity’. 

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Book Review: The AKRSP- A Journey Through Grassroots Development by Shoaib Sultan Khan

Writen by Shoaib Sultan Khan,this book basically gives an account of events leading to the intiation of AKRSP in Pakistan.Khan who had previously worked with international development agencies was now called to explore one of the most remote and inaccesible regions in Pakistan. He had experience in working to improve the livelihoods of people of different regions. This involved many projects in the underdeveloped world. His experience of work included the Daudzai project, visit to Japan and Srilanka. Now he has been given the responsibilty to start a project in Northern Areas of Pakistan under the umbrella of AKDN.

Khan has stated the community development principles of Akhter Hameed Khan, who he proudly calls his mentor. At many instances he explains the difficulties encountered at different projects he had managed. The operational level details and the structure of AKRSP are thoroughly explained so that the grass root level involvement in the community development projects is easily shown. This participatory approach of development in rural areas could be followed by other community based organizations and international NGO’s to increase the success rates of projects and practice sustainable development.

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Book Review: Talks of Akhter Hameed Khan

This Eighty-five-page book outlines the dialogue sessions that took place between Akhter Hameed Khan and the NRSP staff. AHK shares his own experiences in the field of rural development ranging from the Orange Pilot project in West Pakistan and Comilla project East Pakistan. 

At various places he mentions and explains the problems faced by various community development projects mostly in the developing world. In Pakistan’s case, he compares and contrasts the reasons of failure for some projects. 

 Relying heavily on foreign aid, according to him is basically the beginning of the end for the programs. Some factors of his life, such as his education have also been brought to the light. Accompanied by Shoaib Sultan Khan, Akhter Hameed responds to the questions of social organizers, regional managers of different areas. Problems ranging from micro finance to the construction of sewerage lines have been mentioned. 

His talks cover upon various themes including subject of agriculture, public administration, economics, microfinance, basic infrastructure and irrigation schemes in Pakistan. He included Urdu and Persian poetry at various instances in his talks while emphasizing on the need for improvement. The involvement of the local populace in the development of a region is what matters the most, which according to AHK is the only key to success.

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