No spark, no fire

Journalist MJ Akbar's book traces the journey of the idea that led to a divided India, going as far back as Babur. But the trail fails to ignite our interest

Journalist MJ Akbar's book traces the journey of the idea that led to a divided India, going as far back as Babur. But the trail fails to ignite our interest

Publishers possibly obsess about timing the way restaurants pay an inordinate amount of attention to location. It may explain the arrival of Tinderbox: The Past and Future of Pakistan mere weeks after the assassination of Salmaan Taseer in Islamabad.

If restaurants eventually learn that food is all that matters though, publishers ought to understand that good writing always beats a well-attended launch. Dry, drab, and uninteresting were words that cropped up repeatedly in the mind of this poor critic, before whose nose Mobashar Jawed Akbar's hefty new booku00a0-- the launch of which went off well, apparentlyu00a0-- was thrust.

The former plunged in with a number of expectations, few of which were met. Would he find access to interesting voices from across the border? No. Would Akbar's legendary reporting yield insights on life on the streets of today's Pakistan? No. Would he, at the very least, find concise prose? Sorry, wrong book.

The last expectation was rudely shattered early on, when this sentence swept into view: 'Muslims, who had lived in India for five centuries with a superiority complex, suddenly lurched into the consuming doubt of an inferiority complex which became self-perpetuating with every challenge that came up during different phases of turbulent colonial rule.' The saddest thing is how interesting the premise was: Going back thousands of years to trace the journey of an idea, the events, people and circumstances that divided India.

A large part of the book reads like a history lesson taught by a somnambulist. Akbar spews facts, quotes liberally throughout, and does everything except whip up enthusiasm for the subject at hand. He wakes up once in a while, with a splendid caricature of Babur for instance, or by tracing the roots of the Wahabi movement and an idea of jihad radically different from the one currently fashionable.

Three chapters stand out: Two devoted to Gandhi and his relationship with the Muslims of India, one on Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, sometimes referred to as the founder of Islamic fundamentalism.

Interspersed with these are notes on theologians, politicians and opportunists, all of whom have contributed in their own special way towards the creation of today's Pakistanu00a0-- and what Akbar defines as 'havoc beyond repair'.

It is a frightening sight, of course, and Pakistan may indeed be a tinderbox. If only the book were mildly explosive.

Tinderbox: The Past and Future of Pakistan, by M J Akbar, published by Harper Collins. priced at Rs 499. Available at all major bookstores