Comparative Study of Politics in Pakistan and Bangladesh: An Insightful Analysis

Abstract

More often than not, the study of South Asia has been compartmentalized into the study of individual countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka. A comparative study of these countries is rare. Also rare is analysis of the future of Muslim-majority countries, such as Bangladesh and Pakistan, that are facing the critical problems of poverty, deteriorating law and order, and security. The latter omission is especially striking in contemporary times given the importance of the spread of Islam in South Asia and its effect throughout the world. This book fills the gap. Issues such as nationalism, military domination, the politics of language, the nature of civil-military relations, and religious extremism are addressed with considerable care and sophistication, particularly with reference to Pakistan and Bangladesh. The book is the outcome of a laborious comparative study of the history and evolution of both countries. One of the book’s major strengths is that it offers an enormous amount of secondary data that should prove fruitful for researchers conducting further analysis. Being a seasoned diplomat, William Milam’s analysis is based on his personal experience as well as on his observations and deep understanding of historical developments in South Asia. The book is accessible and presents a lively portrait of the structure and agency of politics in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Various interesting observations are scattered through the book. For example, both countries had initially attempted to establish a government based on democratic principles that upheld the secular approach of their founding father Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and yet later they seemed to adopt the politics of religion based on undemocratic norms. Religion could not hold the two countries together and proved to be the biggest evidence of the weakness of the “two nation” theory, according to which Muslims in the Indian subcontinent demanded a separate homeland on the basis of their