The Book:
This is oral history at its best. It is the chronicle of a zamindar family's transformation under the influence and aegis of British rule in the Punjab. It shows how sensitivity to the call of time can change a people's fate. It throws light on the social evolution of the Punjab, a much-neglected field in our studies. At the same time this book is the triple biography of the author's father, grandfather and great-grandfather and their spouses. In this grand narrative the reader will find a gripping story of three lives spent in the service of God, man and learning, their little but colourful thread in the warp and woof of modern history and the exiting and forceful role played by the principal ladies of the family.
The Author:
Professor KHURSHEED KAMAL AZIZ has been on the academic staff of the Government College, Lahore, and of the Universities of the Punjab, London, Cambridge, Khartoum and Heidelberg, and has delivered occasional lectures at the Universities of Karachi, Peshawar, Dacca, Islamabad, Hull, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Geneva, Oxford and Bergen. During intervals snatched from teaching abroad he has served at home as Deputy Official Historian to the Government of Pakistan, Chairman of the National Commission on Historical and Cultural Research, and Special Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister (Z. A. Bhutto). Author of over a dozen books, he is a historian of rank with an international reputation.
