Ayesha Jalal is a professor of history at Tufts University in the United States. She was born in Lahore in 1956, to Hamid Jalal, a senior Pakistani civil servant and Zakia Jalal. Zakia's sister, Safia, was the writer Saadat Hasan Manto's wife. Manto was also Ayesha's great uncle, i.e., younger brother of her grandfather.
She obtained her BA, majoring in history and political science, from Wellesley College, US, and her doctorate in history from Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, where she wrote her Ph.D. dissertation: 'Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan'. Subsequently, it was published as a book under the title of "The Sole Spokesman" (1985). In this book she argued that the partition was not a good solution to the communal problem. She has been consistently saying that Jinnah did not want partition and she blames it on Nehru. The vast majority of Pakistani scholars don't agree with her on this point.
She argues that Nehru ensured his dynastic rule through partition. This is what she told Ali Usman Qasmi when he interviewed her for the Karachi-based monthly magazine Herald in 2017. She said: "On what grounds did the Congress high command justify the division of Punjab and Bengal? We know it led to about 60 years of Nehruvian dynasty. This dynasty would never have come about if Punjab and Bengal were not divided. Uttar Pradesh would never have dominated Indian politics. Punjab and Bengal would have called the shots. Where would Nehru be in that case?"
Ayesha is among the most prominent American academics who write on the history of South Asia. In 2009, the the president of Pakistan conferred Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Distinction) on her. On April 16, 2016, Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistani ambassador to the UN, said that she was the “the greatest historian Pakistan has produced.”
She is a trenchant critic of Pakistani education system. According to her, it has no room for critical thinking. Thinking is prohibited in Pakistan. She has described Pakistan as an intellectual wasteland. Pakistan is an insecure state. It wants to control minds of its citizens. It is spending too much on the military.
She also believes the partition greatly weakened India Muslims. "Pakistan has weakened the Muslims of the subcontinent." Here are some excerpts from here interview.
1:10 As a discipline, history has been sidelined in Pakistan. Pakistan Studies has been brought in. 20:18 Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed's Jinnah book is based on hearsay. He is a political scientist, not a historian. Context is more important public statements.
29:10 About Sarmila Bose's book, Dead Reckoning, she says that it does not have much credibility. You cannot equate the violence committed by the state with the one committed by those who oppose the state.
24:33 The underworld was responsible for the Great Calcutta Killings. She quoted Prof. Dilip Basu to prove her point. It was a big setback for the Muslim League cause.
30:05 There is no question of forgetting the Kashmir issue. Your water comes from there. I don't think Shaukat Hayat is a very reliable witness.
37:05 The Line of Control is the problem. It is not the solution. The Kashmiris will never accept it.
40:55 India is oppressing the Kashmiris (zulm kar raha hae.) India's government needs to be changed.
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Shakil Chaudhary is an alumnus of Government College, Lahore. Subsequently, he studied international relations at Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad and media at the London School of Economics. He has worked for several English-language newspapers.
He has written a critically acclaimed bilingual book, Handbook of Functional English (Ferozsons), to help those who wish to improve their English skills. Prof. Tariq Rahman, one of the finest linguistic scholars in South Asia, has praised it in these words: “This book is an excellent guide for the South Asian user of the English language. It gives examples of both the British and American varieties of English and provides guidelines to avoid the common errors of most Pakistanis when they write and speak English. It is also a comprehensive guide for pronunciation, vocabulary, editing and all other aspects of English usage. It has been written with great care and attention. I recommend it to students, editors, writers and other users of English in Pakistan.”
Shakil has conducted many workshops on communication, writing and critical thinking skills. He is a former president of the Progressive Writers Association, Islamabad (2021-2022).
If you want to see his most popular videos, here are the links to them.
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