Book: A Leadership Odyssey: Muslim Separatism and the Achievement of the Separate State of Pakistan
Author: Sikandar Hayat
Reviewed by: Jonathan Addleton, former U.S. ambassador to Mongolia and current president and rector of Forman Christian College in Lahore, Pakistan
As a country, Pakistan was born less than 75 years ago; as an idea, Pakistan is not yet a century old. And yet it is also a place that matters.
Partly, this is because it is a nuclear power with a large standing army. Partly, this is because it is situated in a strategic neighborhood, one that includes Afghanistan, Iran, India and China. And, partly, this is because its population exceeds 220 million, making it the world’s fifth largest country. Indeed, if present growth trends continue, Pakistan’s population might one day surpass that of the United States.
Pakistan is also both a religious and an ideological state, hastily created as a homeland for the Muslims of British India when it seemed that the post World War II British government in London couldn’t shed its Empire fast enough. Once the “jewel” of that Empire, the newly independent nations of India and Pakistan — joined later by Bangladesh, formed after a civil war from the eastern wing of Pakistan bordering Burma — faced desperate poverty in their early years. Despite economic growth, the region remains home to the largest number of impoverished people in the world.
Focused largely on the past rather than the present, Sikandar Hayat’s brilliant “A Leadership Odyssey: Muslim Separatism and the Achievement of the Separate State of Pakistan” (Oxford University Press) provides fascinating insights into the origins of Pakistan, possibly one of the most stereotyped and least understood countries anywhere.
Although largely unfamiliar to most outside Atlanta’s growing South Asian community, this book includes sketches of six leaders who together made Pakistan possible: Syed Ahmad Khan; Sultan Muhammad Aga Khan; Syed Ameer Ali; Maulana Mohamed Ali; Allama Muhammad Iqbal; and Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. While each championed the cause of Muslims on the Subcontinent and to some extent anticipated the country that later became Pakistan, only two of them — Sultan Muhammad Aga Khan and Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah — lived long enough to witness its birth.
As Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Distinguished Professor of History and Public Policy at Forman Christian College (A Chartered University) in Lahore, Pakistan, Dr. Sikandar Hayat offers a number of important perspectives on Pakistan’s journey from an idea to a nation, all of them rooted in the conviction that leadership can and often does play a decisive role in the life of any country.
As “A Leadership Odyssey” makes clear, Pakistan was never a “foregone” or even a “predictable” conclusion. Rather it was the force of will displayed by a small number of early leaders that in this case created a nation and then placed it on the global map.
Perhaps there will one day be a follow-on book, this one focused on various post-independence political leaders responsible for building Pakistan (the list here might include Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf, among others, all but one of them former generals). Arguably, these “builders” were much less successful than the “architects” who preceded them. However, such a sequel is for another time — for now, it is enough to simply express appreciation to Dr. Sikandar Hayat for his skill in discussing the intellectual roots of Pakistan as well as the ideas, motivations and convictions of some of the key people who made it possible.
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