The Great Divide: India and Pakistan

I just finished reading 'The Great Divide' and thoroughly enjoyed each of the informative pages. This is an important thing to take stock of; especially sixty years after India and Pakistan were carved out as distinct entities.

Today, the countries' peace and sense of security is marred by terrorism, infringement, internal riots and other security issues. The 'generation y' may hardly have any information about the time when the two nations started out being independent countries. The book is therefore a treasure trove of the post partition days.

The book is a volume of essays written by writers from both the countries. Edited by Ira Pande, the book brings together the opinions of writers from both sides of the border. In her introduction she says "There is a balance here between the 'hard' topics (politics, economy, diplomacy, religion et al) and 'soft' (music, crafts, language, cricket, and cinema) to bring out the full range of our engagement with each other."

The myriad aspects of being Indian or Pakistani are well explored in this book. There is a preview of the expression of these sentiments in the context of a personal or national identity by writers like Urvashi Butalia, Sonia Jabbar, Shiv Vishwanath, Amit Baruah, Alok Rai, Lord Meghnad Desai and Mukul Kesavan to list a few. Essays by many other prominent writers and political and social commentators also feature in the book which is every bit a 'must read'.

Review posted for The Great Divide: India and Pakistan   |   Login to rate this review.