Never before has a single volume featured non-fiction writing by women from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh on the Partition of India. Here, for the first time, are Ismat Chughtai, Sara Suleri, Anis Kidwai, Phulrenu Guha, Meghna Guhathakurta, Shehla Shibli, Manikuntala Sen. Kamlaben Patel and many others, speaking and writing about communalism and literature; what they learnt from refugees; what partition means to them 50 years later; and how they define themselves—Hindus? Muslims? Indians? Pakistanis? Bengalis? All of these or none? Either or neither? Not-Indian-not-Pakistani? Bangladeshi not Pakistani? Above all, their accounts raise that most troubling question: do women have a country? An unusual mix of memoirs, interviews, reminiscences and reflective essays, this anthology is the first attempt to present women’s perspective on the partition of India, based on the experience of three countries.

The three essays in this volume explore the changing parameters of struggles over gender in Pakistan. In the process, the author attempts to theoretically traverse the boundaries between public and private domains, the State and what is often referred to as ‘civil society’, the individual and the collective, and the local and international. She does this through a discussion of sovereignty and citizenship; the growing nexus between militarism, masculinism and fundamentalism; and the rapid shrinking of democratic spaces in the country.

The decline of British imperialism had far reaching colonial and post-colonial consequences. British policy and Indian history, for obvious reasons, unfolded in the foreground of this decline from 1900 onwards. This volume contextualizes crucial aspects of modern India’s military past. It contends that British imperialism, like all empires, declined due to its inherent contradictions. Managing the military affairs of the British Raj comprised a crucial element of these contradictions.

While mentioning the challenges posed by India’s military system to British policy, this volume highlights the tension between the imperatives of reform and the compulsions of economy and traditions felt both by the British and the Indians involved in managing colonial military affairs. Between 1900 and 1939 the colonial Indian war machine could be refurbished only up to a point, primarily because of the very system which had produced it. The significance of military reform and decolonization were first underscored by the Great War (1914-18) and subsequently even more by the Second World War (1939-45).

This socio-political history of the colonial Indian military organization investigates why reform remained largely theoretical even as the British used Indian resources to defend a weakening empire through two world wars. Ultimately, World War II transformed the Indian armed forces but eventually, as this book asserts, this transformation worked against the British.

Flight of the Falcon is about the spectacular episodes, trials and tribulations I had to face during my 28 years in the Pakistan Air Force. There is more in my story as it traverses through Pakistan’s misfortunes soon after the death of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Au Jinnah. It begins with my encounter with the father of the nation, his unceremonious death followed by the murder of his legacy of unity. Ayub Khan’s mid-night coup was a violation of the role the Quaid-e-Azam had bequeathed on the armed forces. The domino effect of dictatorial rule by unprofessional generals with unflattering soldiering history and self seeking corrupt politicians has finally brought Pakistan to its knees. No lessons were learnt and history keeps punishing us. What a legacy for our children to inherit, for which the nation continues to pay a price. What will it take to change our course?

Every year the 1965 war is celebrated remorselessly to keep under wraps the failures of our leadership at the time. I feel cheated and enraged at the loss of the many gallant men who were martyred believing they were fighting for a sacred cause. The 1971 war was a corollary to the 1965 war and the Kargil conflict followed in the same vein. Shallow personal interests were projected as national interests by dictators. All these wars and conflicts proved to be catastrophic for the economy and security of Pakistan. Were these conflicts avoidable? If not, why were they not planned and directed with professional dexterity? Why were no lessons learnt from each disaster? Such questions have hardly been addressed candidly from fear of retribution by the powers that be.

Unfortunately, the armed forces have become punching bags for all the ills of the country. These are deceptive tactics to deflect our top leadership’s failures and corruption. The combat crews from the army, navy and especially the PAF have always fought with indomitable courage and sacrificed lives to save what was and is left of Pakistan. They continue to perform their duty to the nation every minute of the day and night as you and go about our daily lives.Who pushed us into the devastation of wars and what was the outcome is a moot point and will be the focus of my book. It is time that the history of our wars is re-written and the truth is told. The lessons need to be brought out for Pakistan’s survival. I feel it should be my legacy to leave behind a detailed account of not just the battles in which I fought, but the circumstances which led to these senseless conflicts and the leaders responsible for perpetrating them. In the end, the truth shall prevail.

A few weeks after India detonated a thermonuclear device in 1998, Arundhati Roy wrote ‘The End of Imagination’. The essay attracted worldwide attention as the voice of a brilliant Indian writer speaking out with clarity and conscience against nuclear weapons. Over the next three and a half years, she wrote a series of political essays on a diverse range of momentous subjects: from the illusory benefits of big dams, to the downside of corporate globalization and the US Government’s war against terror. First published in 2001, The Algebra of Infinite Justice brings together all of Arundhati Roy’s political writings so far. This revised paperback edition includes two new essays, written in early 2002: ‘Democracy: Who’s She When She’s at Home’, that examines the horrific communal violence in Gujarat, and ‘War Talk: Summer Games with Nuclear Bombs’, about the threat of nuclear war in the Subcontinent.