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THE PASHTUNS
₨ 1,695The Pashtuns are perhaps the largest ethnic group in the world without a country of their own. They inhabit a continuous stretch of land from the Hindu Kush to the Indus, across Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan used the Pashtun-dominated areas in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) as a launching pad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and later during the US-led War on Terror. In the process, FATA was kept in a constitutional and informational black hole. The discontent finally burst in 2018 when the extra-judicial killing of a Pashtun youth led to widespread protests. This book by veteran analyst Tilak Devasher fulfills a gap in the geopolitical understanding of South Asia, given the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the shifting power equations in the region.
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PAKISTAN: THE BALOCHISTAN CONUNDRUM
₨ 1,795Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province, is a complex region fraught with conflict and hostility, ranging from an enduring insurgency and sectarian violence to terror strikes and appalling human rights violations.
In his third book on Pakistan, Tilak Devasher analyses why Balochistan is such a festering sore for Pakistan. With his keen understanding of the region, he traces the roots of the deep-seated Baloch alienation to the princely state of Kalat’s forced accession to Pakistan in 1948. This alienation has been further solidified by the state’s rampant exploitation of the province, leading to massive socio-economic deprivation.
Is the Baloch insurgency threatening the integrity of Pakistan? What is the likelihood of an independent Balochistan? Has the situation in the province become irretrievable for Pakistan? Is there a meeting ground between the mutually opposing narratives of the Pakistani state and the Baloch nationalists?
Devasher examines these issues with a clear and objective mind backed by meticulous research that goes to the heart of the Baloch conundrum.
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MY JOURNEY INTO THE HEART OF TERROR
₨ 2,495An alarming and enlightening first-hand account of what’s going on behind the borders of the Islamic State.
ISIS is the Islamic State. It’s an organization that has taken on chilling associations due to the horrific deeds committed in its name. ISIS beheads journalists and yet one, Jurgen Todenhofer, was invited to visit its fighters in Mosul, after months of negotiations. Accompanied by his son, Frederic Todenhofer, who photographed the journey, he asked them to explain their beliefs, motivations, and goals. This book, the most in-depth research conducted on the terror group so far, is the result of those conversations. My Journey into the Heart of Terror shows how the organization grew from its al-Qaeda roots and the role the West has played, both past and present. Along the way, Todenhofer offers startling insights into what ISIS thinks, what it wants, and how it can be defeated. Only by understanding our enemies, Todenhofer believes, can we combat ISIS’s radical, un-Islamic vision and the terror and destruction it brings. -
POLITICAL TRIBES
₨ 1,795The bestselling author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Yale Law School Professor Amy Chua offers a bold new prescription for reversing our foreign policy failures and overcoming our destructive political tribalism at home, Humans are tribal. We need to belong to groups. In many parts of the world, the group identities that matter most – the ones that people will kill and die for – are ethnic, religious, sectarian, or clan-based. But because America tends to see the world in terms of nation-states engaged in great ideological battles – Capitalism vs. Communism, Democracy vs. Authoritarianism, the “Free World” vs. the “Axis of Evil” – we are often spectacularly blind to the power of tribal politics. Time and again this blindness has undermined American foreign policy.