We Cannot Forget the Plurality of Pakistan

A book review of Towards People’s Histories In Pakistan: (In)Audible Voices, Forgotten Pasts edited by Asad Ali and Kamran Asdar Ali.  The review was published in The Wire on June 13.  (Full disclosure: Some of the contributors to this volume as well as one of the editors are family friends)

https://thewire.in/books/we-cannot-forget-the-plurality-of-pakistan

In conclusion, it can be said that while the opening chapters may read a tad academic for a practitioner, the book eases into a telling of history that is accessible and kind to all kinds of readers. The effort to bring in a diversity of voices, experiences, and expressions, gives a richness to the book and keeps it interesting.

Some chapters of this book, especially where they connect to the stories of the humans that lived these histories, provoke emotions of sadness and anger, and of inspiration and strength. Some bring a smile to the face. Some make one pause and acknowledge the many ways humans find agency and continue on with strength. Some analyse the past to help us inform strategies for the future. Some flip the script. Some demystify the -isms of politics. What sat uncomfortably with me from time to time though was the process by which we are deciding who the ‘people’ are who merit mention. Who is left behind? How much of our lenses of looking at “people” is shaped by where we sit in the world?

In Pakistan, we need a deeper exploration of what it means to be organising now, at a time when a whole generation has grown up with little knowledge of histories of resistance. It is in this context that books like this hold a special meaning and place. It locates ongoing struggles in a longer arc of history. It grounds us. It connects us to the lives of many that have lived and breathed, given costs for freedom and celebrated the joys of freedom, over time.