Book Review:

As mentioned earlier that the book comprise of 03 Parts.

Part-I of this book—The Two Regions—examines the divide between Indus (Pakistan) and
India, along geographical lines.

Part-II—The Two Worlds—investigates the difference between the Indus (The Indians) and the
most recent foreign rulers, the British.

Part-III—The Two Nations—explores the essential divide between the Muslims and the Hindus
of the subcontinent.

In endeavoring to determine the generic nature of each divide, an attempt has been made
to discover the original inhabitant of the Indus region. The underlying purpose of this book is to
discover and define the Indus person, the Pakistani citizen. It encompasses the entire period from
pre-history to partition in 1947.

In Part 1 the Author states that the book restates the social, political and cultural history of
Pakistan that the author calls the Indus. From the Pamirs in the north to Cape Comorin in the
South from Gawadar in the west to Asam in the east to the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal the
Indian Subcontinent has always been treated by geographers as a single unit.

Indus (Pakistan) has the rich and glorious cultural heritage of its own. Indus has remain
independent and separate from India from almost 5.5 thousand years. However during the only
03 universal states those of Mauryans, the Mughals and the British welded these two regions
together in single empire from the period of almost 500 years. The entire geographical area
laying between the Himaliyas and the Indian Ocean contains two river basins Indus and Gangus.
The Indian concept of Mahabharat as one invisible unit is analytically challenged.

The book provides an alternate narrative to the idealogy of Pakistan by asserting that the identity of
Indus people has been different from that of Ganges people throughout our 5000 year old history. it
is not only a nationalistic perspective but also secular one. The significance of animals, clothing and
anthropological material is highlighted and the broad contours of history is brushed with poetry, folk
heroes and literature of theIndus.
The Arabs dominated the locals of Indus because of the horse and elephant factor. Bactrians,
Scythians and Gandharas had a major influence on Indus culture and rebellion is innate to the Indus
man. It focuses both on the waves of migrating groups that have left traces in the heritage of the
region for millennia, and the fact that geography made Indus (present day Pakistan) a bulwark for
various invasions heading Eastwards from Persia, Afghanistan and Central Asia etc, making the
Indus person distinctly different from those originating in Hind.

Ahsan seeks to establish that the north-west of the subcontinent, comprising the valley of the Indus and
its major tributaries, has always been distinct from India. Drawing evidence from legend, folklore, poetry,
ritual, and social norms, from ancient times to the modern age, The Indus Saga questions and rejects many
of the widely-accepted myths of subcontinental history. The facts presented in this book highlight the

dichotomy between the Indus region and India.

Part 2:

We must endure to determine and examine the influence of European colonization over Indus
together with India. What were the different ways in which the Raj touched, changed and
exploited Indus in India.

By the time the British has established their own rules. The line of succession was pre
determined and the transitions were peaceful. They had also devised some stable norms
concerning the relationship of the citizen with the state. In short, these were the bourgeois
philosophies sanctioning rights of man. While on the other hand, no such philosophy was
proponded in the subcontinent until the 20th century.

In Europe the ‘cowherd’ and the ‘cow’ as we have seen had entered into a working agreement.
There was already a compact. This was the new social contract. The king kept the peace and the
merchant funded the wars. It was to the mutual benefit of both. Where as, in the Indus the Indian
struggles for power by contrast were factionalist conflicts led by individual claimants in which
the victor would enjoy the fruit of unfettered and orbitery powers and inflicting upon the
vanquished the most abject suffering and painful gruesome death .putting at stake the sence of
honor, courage and national pride that had been the strength of early rajpur and feudal kingdoms
.

Therefore backed by the new technological advance weapons, naval dominance , printing press ,
steam engine and telegraph lines , the Britain was marching India at an opportune time . india
was splitting apart and Britain made most of their opening in and bold, opportunistic, and the
pre-emptive manner.

p.3. The author claims to have written a history with a difference. About the flaws in the
previous histories of Pakistan, the author says, “Our earth, we are told, was not our own until
people from distant lands came and conquered it (and us), for us. Our ancient heroes cannot be
our heroes because they preceded our own conversion to our faith. Muslim conquerors fought
only Hindu infidels, never a Muslim opponent. Their defeats were always the result of
conspiracies, intrigue and betrayal by the Muslims in all battles.” The book, on the whole, gives
a deep insight into the history of the Muslim inhabitants of the subcontinent and removes many
of the ill-conceived historical facts about this region.

Ahsan’s work is no less a treat for anyone desperately seeking an alternative history of
ideology of Pakistan other than the usual mechanically concocted ones by people. Rather than
early Arab Muslim conquerors, Ahsan traces ideological and cultural roots of today’s Pakistan in
the ancient Indus Valley Civilization. Nevertheless, the work is highly original and thought-
provoking.

3. Pakistan has been variously described as an historical aberration, the result of a split electoral
mandate, the outcome of a divide and rule policy, or the product of one man's intransigence. They show
the almost unbroken continuity of a distinct social and political order, bearing testimony to the primordial
and restless impulse of the Indus region to be a distinct and independent nation-state. They also bring
out, in bold relief, the identity of the Indus person (the modern-day Pakistani) as distinct from the Arab,
the Central Asian, the European, and the Indian. They all converge, finally, in the establishment in 1947,
of Pakistan.

Aitzaz Ahsan has come out with a new vision of the history of Pakistan – a vision that may
be termed as the “Discovery of Pakistan”. Ahsan has come forward boldly on a theme
which the Pakistan historians have so far hesitated to elaborate …… If we have created
Pakistan …. there must be the history of the land of the people who have lived and
laboured here. The future generations deserve to have a history of the country. Aitzaz
Ahsan is a lawyer, which makes the breath of his historical, sociological and cultural
research all the more impressive. He underlies his abiding theme: the vein of resistance in
Pakistani culture exists in contradiction to the officially imposed or sanctioned ideologies.
The Indus Saga questions and rejects many of the widely-accepted myths of subcontinental
history; highlights the dichotomy between the Indus region and India; and shows the
almost unbroken continuity of a distinct social and political order. It is bold, innovative,
.provocative and highly readable

Concluding Remarks:

After all, Ahsan's bid to reconcile the Indian denial of the "distinctness" of Pakistan and the
Pakistani repudiation of the commonality between the two nations is hinged on the Indus region
— his preferred word for Pakistan to establish its separate antiquity — having a primordial
existence outside India.

Of the view that Pakistan needs to understand it has an identity beyond being just "un-Indian",
Ahsan's effort is to show to his countrymen and people on this side of the prickly border that the
Indus region has maintained a "rare individuality and distinctness" since time immemorial.
Pakistan, according to him, is not the product of the colonial "divide and rule" policy and can
boast of an ancient history.

His argument apart, Ahsan — a member of the Pakistan People's Party and third generation
politician — evidently harbours the hope of this book being Pakistan's answer to Jawaharlal
Nehru's The Discovery of India. He actually reveals himself in the preface: "Nehru wrote The
Discovery of India in the Ahmednagar Fort prison. I began my journey to discover Pakistan in
the New Central Jail, Multan."

THE Indus Valley civilisation is amongst the oldest in a long list of cultures that this land has
seen. But as scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and the
Archaeological Survey of India have recently discovered, the Indus Valley culture may be much
older than is currently believed. As per a report published in Nature, researchers say the
civilisation may be up to 8,000 years old; this would make it older than the ancient Egyptian and
Mesopotamian cultures. The thought is fascinating, even though we know so very little about this
ancient civilisation, primarily because its script remains undeciphered. Researchers have also
come up with another unique conclusion: they say it was probably climate change that led to the
end of this culture. If the findings of the research are further substantiated, it would make the
Indus Valley culture around 2,500 years older than previously thought.

As an inheritor of the Indus Valley civilisation, these findings should be of great interest to
Pakistan. After all, it is in Sindh’s district Larkana that Moenjodaro — one of the jewels in the
crown of the Indus Valley civilisation — is located, whereas Harappa in Punjab is another key
site. The process of uncovering the remains of the Indus Valley culture occurred in the colonial
period, in the early decades of the 20th century. However, we have not come very far when it
comes to unravelling the mysteries of this lost culture. Moreover, the vagaries of time, the
harshness of the weather, and the neglect of man have all taken their toll on these magnificent
ruins. It is also true that much of Moenjodaro remains unexcavated. It goes without saying that
the state needs to prioritise the upkeep of this and other cultural and historical treasures that are
spread out across Pakistan. Also, the government should take the initiative by engaging local and
foreign experts to study the Indus Valley culture through the use of scientific methods.