Many Indian works analyse Pakistan, to understand this subcontinental neighbour. This book is an important addition thanks to the balanced, nuanced, and insightful perspectives offered.
Sharat Sabharwal spent eight years in Pakistan (1995-99, 2009-13). Few in our Foreign Service have had similar lengthy exposure. The book’s succinct first paragraph reads: ‘All the policy options deployed by India over the years—peace overtures, reaching out to the Pakistani people, deterrence, coercion, use of military force, incentives by way of lucrative trade and economic linkages and attempts to isolate Pakistan internationally—have failed to convince or compel Pakistan to alter its course and build a normal relationship with India’ (p. 7). He speaks of Pakistan’s ‘revanchist agenda’ vis-à-vis Kashmir, and ‘the use of terror as an instrument of state policy’. That’s the core of the Indian case, but also well-trodden ground. What’s new? Are there fresh insights? Sabharwal is at his best covering his years in Islamabad. The book is neither a history, nor a memoir—it’s a succinct thematic analysis.