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The Thakali: A Himalayan Ethnography

interregional and intraregional disparities. All these diverse factors have continued, Talbot argues, to disrupt nation building and development over the subsequent halfcentury of Pakistan's existence. In this volume, Talbot proceeds chronologically to recount the disappointing circumstances and policies of Pakistan's civilian and military rulers through 1998, the first year of Nawaz Sharif s second incumbency. While Talbot regards some rulers, including Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Liaqat Ali Khan, Ayub Khan, and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, as having held special promise, and others, including Zia al-Haq, as particularly harmful, each ruler ultimately failed to deliver and left Pakistan worse off than before. Talbot entitles the final part of his book "Ever-decreasing Circles," as Pakistan has spiraled downward since 1988. Yet Talbot does not doubt Pakistan's future existence as a nation. Talbot's own formula for Pakistan's improved future requires a revival of the preindependence Unionist Party's culture of "consociational, accommodationist politics" (p. 5). He calls for the proportional representation of all of Pakistan's culturally and economically diverse groups in the political process. He further advises that, to allay the fears of Pakistan's other, much smaller provinces about the "Punjabisation of Pakistan," that disproportionately large and internally diverse province should be divided into three (pp. 371—72). Overall, Talbot prescribes for Pakistan's leaders "the five C's of consensus, consent, commitment, conviction and compassion" as "Pakistan's best hope for the future" (pp. 373-74). Talbot's fine analysis of Pakistan's political history displays both his comprehensive knowledge and his commitment to its improvement. Although Talbot differs in places with Ayesha Jalal, he largely concurs with her larger interpretations in her Democracy and Authoritarianism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) and State of Martial Rule (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). Talbot's scholarly political analysis compares well with Shahid Javed Burki's well-informed but more generous economic and political narrative, Pakistan: Fifty Years of Nationhood, 3rd edition (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1999). While Talbot writes of the exclusivist "rantings of Islamic ideologues" (p. 6), Burki reflects a more Islamicist interpretation of Pakistani history; they particularly disagree about the significance of General Zia al-Haq's eleven-year rule. Talbot's book will be essential reading for scholars and students seeking an informed narrative of Pakistani political history. Centering on West Pakistani politics, his narrative reflects the marginalization of East Pakistan even before it split off as Bangladesh in 1971. Although he demonstrates a sound knowledge of political science theory, and appropriately refers to it as relevant, he concentrates on his political narrative about Pakistan. He draws on public records and private papers, and interviews with leading figures, as well as his extensive reading of journalistic and secondary sources. His extensive appendices provide brief biographies of leading politicians and descriptions of political parties and organizations. If he occasionally expects his readers to comprehend allusions to particular events in the Pakistani news, especially in his chapter on recent developments, overall he writes for the general reader. Alas, this narrative proves a sad one about "the Hobbesian jungle which is contemporary Pakistan" (p. 40).