Christophe Jaffrelot has already made an important name for himself as a scholar of South Asia, and once again he has created a virtual omnibus of comprehensive fragments elucidating Pakistan's sociopolitical history since the demand for the separate country arose over a century ago. In The Pakistan Paradox, we are treated to a comprehensive analysis of Pakistan, a welcome addition to a growing field of study of that country from “the inside out”—the various dimensions of what makes Pakistan work, as opposed to many accounts that merely see it juxtaposed with the United States and other countries—and its place in the global arena. Jaffrelot has edited another book about Pakistan that was just published, Pakistan at the Crossroads: Domestic Dynamics and External Pressures (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016), and one must wonder how that will add to this already comprehensive tome.
At the outset, Jaffrelot provides a fair...
