The author of this book, Tariq Rahman, is a distinguished scholar with expertise in multiple disciplines, from linguistics to history and sociolinguistics. His notable academic achievements were recognized by the Presidential Pride of Performance award in 2004 and the Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 2013. He has authored several books in his lifetime, including “Pakistan’s Wars: An Alternative History.” While the main theme of the book is Pakistan’s wars with India and nonstate actors, the book also acknowledges underlying issues like the relationship between history, culture, and gender in war, making this book a unique contribution to the literature on Pakistan’s military history. This review summarizes each chapter, highlights the book’s strengths, and reflects on areas that could benefit from more theoretical engagement.
The first chapter, introduction, lays the foundation of the state structure in Pakistan and the decision-making processes that are the defining factor in any war. He also talks about the subaltern perspective shared in the book, meaning the personal experiences of soldiers, widows, villagers, and displaced persons. That is the primary data he collected over the duration of two decades. The second chapter deals with the military in decision-making, where he analyzes the secrecy through which the military operates and their centralized approach when it comes to decision-making. He names the approach taken by these officials as the gambling syndrome, which was a pattern through which military personnel took dangerous actions and strategically shallow risks without considering the consequences.
In the third chapter, Kashmir War 1947–48, the main focus is on the miscalculations on the part of Pakistan’s side, mainly how it was believed that India would not cross the international border, the nonstate actors would be able to capture Kashmir, and that the war would be won quickly, without any risks. However, all of these assumptions were proven wrong at the time of the conflict. Chapter Four, The 1965 War: Decision-Making and Consequences, argues that the war was not a state decision but was initiated by a small, powerful elite within the military establishment. The war depended on a dangerous assumption that Kashmiris would revolt, which did not happen, and eventually, the UN had to intervene and mandate a ceasefire. Both chapters five and six are about the 1971 War; while one deals with the Pakistani experience, the other deals with the Bangladeshi one. The Pakistani side blamed India and saw the war as a result of their conspiracy. But the book features firsthand accounts of soldiers, officers, and civilians, which tell a different tale. For Bangladesh, the war was about resisting the dominance of West Pakistan and taking a nationalistic stand. But neither side ever acknowledged the massacres, rape, and atrocities faced by both sides at the hands of the soldiers. In chapter seven, Siachen and Kargil, Dr. Tariq discusses the harrowing conditions that soldiers have endured in Siachen ever since India militarized and occupied the glacier in 1984. For Kargil, initially, Pakistan denied involvement, but later on, it was discovered that the military directly planned the operation. This resulted in both diplomatic embarrassment and a worsened Indian stance in the shape of the Cold Start doctrine and militarization of nuclear policy. Chapter Eight deals with Low-Intensity Operations from the Pak-Afghan Frontier, which discusses Pakistan’s involvement in Afghanistan from 1970 to the Global War on Terror. The focus is on how it impacted Pakistan’s national security and caused massive civilian casualties. The chapter also analyzes the Eastern border skirmishes, from the Mumbai attacks (2008) to Pulwama (2019). Dr. Tariq claims that these operations have had many unintended consequences for Pakistan.
Chapters nine and ten are War and Gender, both male and female. The female perspective sees how rape was used as a weapon of war in the 1971 war and the violence war-impacted women are subjected to by the military, officials, and even their own families. On the other hand, the male perspective talks about the hidden costs of war borne by civilian men, marginalized soldiers, and non-combatants. Both show a gendered history of how civilians were impacted by the war. The last chapter, Transcending Hatred and Vengeance, shows a truly illuminating counter-narrative to how war is glorified. The chapter is built on stories of empathy; he shared a heart-awakening quote from a son of a martyr: “Pakistan didn’t kill my dad, war did,” reflecting how people can still distinguish between their enemies even in grief. And Rahman has argued that despite the militarization and polarization in the two states, there’s a stubborn ray of hope derived from shared identity and culture, which could someday bring a lasting peace.
While the book touches on many key areas and provides a comprehensive viewpoint, it stops short of providing a theorizing perspective that could have woven together the intricate threads of regimental loyalty, Islamic nationalism, or martyrdom narratives. He provides an account of individual experiences, but he fails to show the theoretical work on collective memory. This means there is no way to adjudicate between competing memories of different individuals. Even though the book talks about the role of international actors, it does not give a theoretical analysis of realism and how states’ behavior is impacted by an international structure. He has dismissed the realist explanations of Pakistan’s strategic behavior in Kashmir or Kargil, which could have very well been analyzed through the lens of structural security dilemma. Instead, he focused solely on the role of powerful elites. He has also failed to incorporate the post-colonial legacy and the role of militarized nation-building in state formation, which might have played a part in the decision-making processes and created an impulse to start wars.
To conclude, Pakistan’s Wars is a deeply grounding and humanizing work that opens one’s eyes to the complicated history of conflicts that civilians and militants alike in Pakistan have been subjected to. It shares stories of different classes and draws an analysis based on the experiences of all people. While it is theoretically uneven at times, the book gives a moral clarity that is a counterpoint to state-centric history, making it an inclusive understanding of Pakistan’s wartime past.
