Book review
‘Efforts are on to create Pakistans of hatred in every nation in the world. That’s what happened in Bosnia . . . the fragmented Soviet Union . . . and it is happening in Afghanistan . . . everyone is interested in creating new Pakistans against the interests of their own people.’

Kamleshwar’s Kitne Pakistan enjoys cult status as a novel that dared to ask crucial questions about the making and writing of history. While its main reference point is the turmoil of India’s partition in 1947, the novel presents a limitless canvas against which the most extraordinary trial in the history of mankind runs its course. Present in a court that transcends space and time are Mughal Emperors Babar and Aurangzeb, Spanish adventurer Hernando Cortez, Lord Mountbatten, Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein. Along with political leaders, religious zealots and scheming gods of mythology, they stand accused of creating countless fractured nations, leaving a never-ending trail of hatred and distrust.

The arbiter for suffering humanity is an unnamed adeeb or littérateur who must sift through the testimony of casualties from the killing fields of injustice at home and abroad, ranging from Kurukshetra to Kargil, Hiroshima to Bosnia. As recorded history unravels to reveal the sinister realities that lie beneath, the scholar finds himself travelling back through the centuries over oceans of blood, so that he may carry forward for posterity the enduring lessons of love, compassion, peace and hope.

Translated into English for the first time, this boldly provocative saga is a triumph of poetic imagination that relentlessly probes our underlying assumptions of history and truth, religion and nationalism.

Published by Penguin Books India
• Published in India: January 2006
• ISBN: 0144000997
• Edition: Paperback
• Format: Demy
• Extent: 384pp
• Classification: Fiction
• Rights: World

About the author Kamleshwar was born in Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh, in 1932. He did his master’s in Hindi from Allahabad University in 1954 and soon afterwards started working as a scriptwriter for Doordarshan. In the course of a glorious career as a writer, he has written ten collections of short stories, ten novels and over thirty books in genres as diverse as literary criticism, travelogue and memoir. As a journalist he has been associated with the Dainik Jagaran (1990–92) and the Dainik Bhaskar (1996–2002) among other important assignments. In the electronic media he has been the additional director general of Doordarshan and has written TV serials like Darpan, Ek Kahani, Chandrakanta and Yug, apart from producing and directing various TV programmes and documentaries. He has also been a prolific scriptwriter in films with such acclaimed and popular films as Sara Aakash, Aandhi, Mausam, Rajanigandha, Choti Si Baat and Mr Natwarlal to his credit. He has been the recipient of various awards including the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2003. He lives in Delhi.