Product Description
Provides information on the history, civilization, and social conditions of Pakistan. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

impressive at the least
This book can provide plenty of help and guide for anyone traveling to Pakistan, foreigners in particular (she mentioned a few things in Lahore, my hometown, which even I did not know). I picked the book from my father's bookshelf to kill my time and ended up reading all of it. She explains most things about the local culture extremely well, without the usual negative tone that most other authors unconsciously get into (no offence for anyone please).

For me if a book gives you the information that you need and makes you read more than what you initially planned, is a five star, so is this one!

Archaeology
We visited North Pakistan, looking at the archaeology, and this guidebook was excellent- it covered virtually everything.
We ordered it from London, and it arrived very promptly - and cheaper than the price quoted by amazon.co.uk!

The Journey Home For The First Time
My journey home to Pakistan started a little over five years ago when I married a Pakistani national who had immigrated to the United States in the early nineties. The decision to visit my family back home in Lahore City was one that took nearly five years to make. After securing my flight at the height of the summer travel season and I might add the hottest time of year in that part of the Indian subcontinent I desparately sought out the most comprehensive travel guide I could find. Isobel Shaw's book is informative and a godsend to a novice traveller to the Indian subcontinent such as my self.From her descriptions of famous landmarks to the locations of hotels and hospices she gives an accurate account of what to expect.The index of Urdu phrases came in handy on several occasions as I do not speak or read the language and was often dependent on my husband's translating capability. The maps and descriptions of the different regions allowed us to the luxury of travelling to areas of Pakistan I might never have seen otherwise.My only regret is that we were unable to see more of Kashmir than the border checkpoint.Due to my blonde hair and western features the border guards were relunctant to let us in.Perhaps next time I shall be allowed to travel in that region. I would not hesitate to recommend Ms. Shaw's guidebook to anyone travelling in Pakistan.It is an informative and enjoyable book on the people and the country of Pakistan. ... Read more

Product Description

Synthesizing political, anthropological and psychological perspectives, this book addresses the everyday causes and appeal of long-term involvement in extreme political violence in urban Pakistan. Taking Pakistan’s ethno nationalist Mohajir party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) as a case study, it explores how certain men from the ethnic community of Mohajirs are recruited to the roles and statuses of political killers, and sustain violence as a primary social identity and lifestyle over a period of some years. By drawing on detailed fieldwork in areas involved in the Karachi conflict, the author contributes to understandings of violence, tracing the development of violent aspects of Mohajir nationalism via an exploration of political and cultural contexts of Pakistan’s history, and highlighting the repetitive homology of the conflict with the earlier violence of Partition. Through a local comparison of ethnic and religious militancy she also updates the current situation of social and cultural change in Karachi, which is dominantly framed in terms of Islamist radicalization and modernization. In her examination, governance and civil society issues are integrated with the political and psychological dimensions of mobilization processes and violence at micro-, meso- and macro- levels. This book injects a critical and innovative voice into the ongoing debates about the nature and meaning of radicalization and violence, as well as the specific implications it has for similar, contemporary conflicts in Pakistan and the developing world.

Product Description
Photographs and brief text introduce the geography, history, government, people, and economy of Pakistan. ... Read more

Product Description

"During the course of my journey, many of the people I met in Pakistan and India expressed a curious combination of affection, indifference, and animosity toward their neighbors across the border. . . . The border divides them but it is also a seam that joins the fabric of their cultures."

On 15 August 1947, in what some have argued was the final, cynical act of a collapsing empire, the British left India divided. Arbitrary borders that have profoundly affected the recent history of the subcontinent were drawn upon the map of India. In the violence that accompanied Partition, it has been estimated that close to a million people were killed and more than ten million uprooted and displaced. The hatreds created by what was one of the largest mass migrations in history only exacerbated the religious tensions that originally led to Partition. Since then, India and Pakistan have fought three devastating wars, and the danger of armed conflict is constant.

A sensitive and thoughtful look at the lasting effects of Partition on everyday people, Amritsar to Lahore describes a journey across the contested border between India and Pakistan in 1997, the fiftieth anniversary of Partition. Setting out from and then returning to New Delhi, Stephen Alter crossed the border into Pakistan, retraced the legendary route of the Frontier Mail toward the Khyber Pass, and made his return by bus along the Grand Trunk Road, stopping in major cities along the way.

During this journey and another in 1998, Alter interviewed people from all classes and castes: Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs, men and women. In candid conversation, the older generation who lived through the events of 1947 shared their memories and opinions of that pivotal moment of Partition, while youths who have inherited the fragments of that past reflected upon the meaning of national identity. In an engaging account of peoples and places, Alter documents in evocative detail his meetings with varied individuals. He recalls the Muslim taxi driver who recognizes an air of confidence with which men in Pakistan walk the streets dressed in salwar kameez; the brigadier who saved the brass insignia of the British crown from Lord Mountbatten's Rolls Royce; gold merchants, customs officers, fellow travelers, musicians, and many others.

Alongside these diverse and vivid interviews, chance conversations, and oral histories, Alter provides informed commentary to raise questions about national and individual identity, the territorial imperatives of history, and the insidious mythology of borders. A third-generation American in India, where he has spent much of his life, Alter reflects intimately upon India's past and present as a special observer, both insider and outsider. His meaningful encounters with people on his journey illustrate the shared culture and heritage of South Asia, as well as the hateful suspicions and intolerance that permeate throughout the India-Pakistan frontier. Also woven into the narrative are discussions of the works of South Asian novelists, poets, and filmmakers who have struggled with the issue of identity across the borderlands.

Ongoing battles in Kashmir and nuclear testing by both India and Pakistan may prove that peace in this region can be achieved only when border disputes are resolved. Offering both the perspective of hindsight and a troubling vision of the future, Amritsar to Lahore presents a compelling argument against the impenetrability of boundaries and the tragic legacy of lands divided.

Product Description
This work encompasses a description of the tectonic outline and geophysical parameters of the Indian subcontinent. It enables the reader to visualize the extension of the structural and tectonic elements at depth and the processes underlying the evolution of the Indian lithosphere and craton. It integrates the emerging concepts and newly acquired data keeping in view the framework of plate tectonics, seismicity, neotectonics, mid-continent rifting, ridge formation, suturing together of disparate cratonic elements covering a period of over three billion years. ... Read more