PAKISTAN'S FOREIGN POLICY: 1947-2005 By Abdul Sattar Oxford (Karachi) Price: Rs 595; Pages: 329

At a time when Pakistan and its foreign policy are changing rapidly, the country needs an objective, analytical assessment of its foreign policy. But what Sattar has produced is a curious book, marked by his obvious biases. Ironically, the most interesting chapters are those that deal with the two most contentious India-Pakistan summits: Shimla and Agra. Sattar was present at both, and has reproduced the various drafts that were discussed and put forward by India and Pakistan. This may be professionally unethical, but will delight scholars of India-Pakistan relations. Sattar's views on the two summits are well known; he has voiced them in Track II meetings and published them in various iterations. Nevertheless, Sattar's chapters on Shimla-where he was in attendance as a junior member of the Pakistan delegation-and Agra- where he represented his country as foreign minister-are alone important enough to make the book essential reading, however distorted or prejudiced the accounts may be.

PICTURE SPEAK

CLEVER BUT NOT WISE: Sattar (left) with Musharraf

The first glaring contradiction was the geographical divide between East and West Pakistan, separated by nearly 2,000 kilometre of "hostile" Indian territory. The creation of Bangladesh in 1972 was, in many ways, the logical consequence of this physical separation since 1947. The second contradiction that Pakistan faced, and which adversely impacted on its quest for national security and foreign policy, was that it was created in precisely those provinces where the Muslim League was not very strong and had often not even found roots. The logic of Partition demanded that Pakistan be established in areas inhabited by a majority of Muslims, but quite clearly the demand for a separate state was strongest in places where the Muslims were an insecure minority especially the United Provinces. In other words, the ideology of Pakistan had not seeped to the grassroots in the Frontier Province, Baluchistan, or even Sindh and Punjab.

The third problem was rooted in the very raison d'etre of the new state. Pakistan was created as a home for the Muslims of India, but its founders, especially Jinnah and initially his second-in-command, Nawabzada Liaqat Ali Khan, did not want Pakistan to become an Islamic state, but a modern liberal democratic one. The distinction is subtle, but crucial to understand the dilemmas that Pakistan faced since Independence in 1947. To want to create a separate state for a minority community, which may feel threatened by the chauvinism of sections of the majority, is one thing, but to want the new state to be run on religious lines is quite another. It is well known that Jinnah was neither religious nor well versed in the Islamic scriptures. Jinnah was born a Shi'ite Khoja Muslim-descendant of a community that had fled to India after facing persecution in Persia-and what he seemed to have favoured was the creation of a "bourgeois democratic state". But the problem was as

Tariq Ali has suggested, "If Pakistan was the culmination of the struggle for a 'Muslim' nation, then clearly secularism was a somewhat inappropriate ideology for it."

Pakistan's foreign policy, through these decades, has reflected the problems of the idea and reality of Pakistan, a fact that Sattar only tangentially recognises. A narrow "survivalist" model of national security, therefore, dominated the political discourse of the country. India was continuously viewed as a major external cause for Pakistan's insecurity, but its demonisation-at the elite and the popular level -was also a way through which domestic consolidation could be engineered to an extent. Moreover, the exaggeration of the Indian threat-and the playing up of Indian "hegemonic" designs-served as a not-so-effective strategy through which external support and consequently a sort of regional balance could be attempted. Covering this multi-layered terrain of Pakistan's foreign policy required real scholarship and academic confidence. Perhaps it is too much to expect Sattar to be really introspective and self critical. A diplomatic career, however bright, does not prepare you to be a good scholar.

AUTHORSPEAK: ARUN KAPUR
Teacher's Day

Having stumbled upon teaching by chance-when he began as a history teacher at Doon School, Dehradun in 1977, without any specialist knowledge-writing a book about education was probably the last thing on the mind of Arun Kapur, 52, currently Director of Vasant Valley School, Delhi. But unusually observant of his students' behaviour, he became increasingly interested in the process of learning itself. "I took up a number of short-term courses on the subject, read papers and went to conventions," he says. It was at one such conference at MIT, Boston, that he met Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner. Strongly influenced by his theory of multiple intelligences, Kapur, too, started applying them in the field of education. "It fascinates me that intelligence can be improved through intervention. Every student has the potential, the school must actualise it," he says.

To do this, as he argues in his book Transforming Schools-Empowering Children (Sage Publications), will need a reorientation of the schooling system towards the individual needs of every student, and helping them develop new competencies. "These are theoretical concepts that I have been fine-tuning with my experiences. They may be hard to implement, but not impossible," he says. Moreover, he argues that it is the Government school framework that will have to take on the mantle of change: "It is not as much a question of money as it is about being ready to change one's attitude."

The ideas in his book find echoes in his work outside school as well. Educational NGO Ritinjali, of which he is the chairman, employs innovative teaching techniques to "take quality education to places where it doesn't reach." Be it while working with Tihar jail inmates or helping youngsters through the residential vocational training institute Second Chance, he remains convinced of the importance of helping the youth take control of their decisions. He is also part of the CII's core group which is looking into innovative education techniques to improve the quality of school education. They are currently working on a blueprint of a model school that will lay down the basic framework for schools of tomorrow to build on. His book, he hopes, will bring to education a measure of seriousness it deserves as he concludes, "In today's increasingly complex world, the school is an initiation into the real world."

-By Gaurav Rajkhowa

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