In The midst of chaotic voilence and brutal slaughter that caused the deaths of over half a million people in 1947, Pakistan was born. The event which resulted in this culmination of hope and despair-and the consequences these events have produced-are examined here by a man who, in his capacity as an information officer with the United States Information Service in Karachi, learned intimately of the country and its people.
For exmaple, the author's first hand knowledge shows why the importance and influence of religion in Pakistan cannot be emphasized too strongly. Indeed religion is the very basis upon which the country was conceived and established by Britain at the time of Indian independence: the creation of two nations based on religious distinction.
As a result of this split, the Hindu majority retained most of India while the Muslim minority (25%) created a separate, politically united country from two predominantly Muslim areas-one in the East and one a thousand miles away in the West.
The cross-migrations of Hindus and Muslims made necessary by partition resulted, however, in anger, hardship, riot and bloodshed. the resettlement of these millions, along with the basic fact of wide physcial separation, has accounted for many of the crucial problems faced by Pakistan since independence.
Within the homogeneous framework of the Islamic religion, Pakistan is a land of great variety and many extremes. Nevertheless, all share the common plight of illiteracy, malnutrition and poverty. How such problems are being met forms one of the chief themes of this comprehensive book.
Mr. Weekes discusses in depth the rise of Pakisan's military dictatorship, and devotes an entire chapter to the explosive Kashmiri dispute with India. In addition, relations with other Muslim nations are carefully analyzed.
This is a thorough perceptive study of a nation struggling for survival.
Richard V. Weekes
came to know Pakistan at first hand only a few years after its founding in 1947. As an information officer in Karachi with the United States Information Services, he traveled to all corners of the new country, getting to know the land and he people and writing about his observaions. His affection for Pakistan and its people grew accordingly and led him to resign his job in order to learn more about the area through further study at Columbia University.
Born in Berea, Kentucky, in 1924, the son of former missionaries in China, Weekes was introduced early to interantional interests. among his more vivid boyhood memories are the streams of foreign visitors who came to renew friendships with his family. He recalls how much more exciting all the "far-away places" sounded after seeing them through the eyes of his guests.
Weekes' own globe-trotting began, courtesy of the U.S. Navy, during World War II when he served as a pharmacist's mate aboard an LST in the Pacific. After the war he attended Oberlin Collge, interspersed with newspaper reporting jobs. In addition to his travels and work in Pakistan, he undertook a rural development project in Turkey, served as an editor and research director on studies of Tunisia. Syria, and Afghanistan for the Human Relations Area Files in Washington, D.C., an as a foreign correspondent for Time Magazine. Since 1960 he has been executive director of the iran Foundation in New York.
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