Chapter 1 examines the problem of postcolonial estrangement, via a little-known episode in 1966 in which the preeminent national painter of Pakistan was commissioned to illustrate Albert Camus’ 1942 novel L’Étranger (The Stranger). These “illustrations,” artistic projects in their own right, were commissioned by an artists’ book press, and printed in a limited run, most of the copies of which were distributed to members of the guild press and the artist’s friends and family. While Sadequain had some familiarity with the major works of European modernism via print publication, his primary literary and aesthetic bibliography draws from the Urdu and Persian traditions. The lithographs, curiously cosmopolitan, are shocks of color and modernist collage, filled with grinning devils and red-lipped sinners, the images facing opposite Camus’ ascetic rendering of Meursault’s spare and affectless criminal condition and his victim. As such, they may be the first rendering of Camus’ nameless Arab – murdered on the beach – by a postcolonial subject. This chapter, based on archival research of the artist’s book and the painter’s other Paris work, examines this complicated and multifaceted text itself, as well various etiologies of estrangement.

In Chapter 5, we explore the implications of our argument for the prospects for conflict resolution in Islamist civil wars. Using new global data on negotiations coupled with existing data on peace agreements, we demonstrate that conflict resolution efforts in the form of peace negotiations are rare in Islamist civil wars, whereas we find no robust support for our expectation that peace accords are less likely in Islamist civil wars. In this chapter, we not only compare Islamist civil wars with other conflicts but also focus on Islamist conflicts to explore whether there are any differences when comparing transnationalized Islamist civil wars with other types of Islamist civil wars. We find support for our claim that those Islamist conflicts that appeal to a transnational global agenda are less open to negotiations and peace agreements. Examples from Thailand, Egypt, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Pakistan validate the distinction between transnationally oriented and domestically focused conflicts and the potential of negotiations and peace agreements in Islamist civil wars.

Pakistan is one of the few countries worldwide whose Constitution does not explicitly address the environment. The higher courts have filled the vacuum by turning to the constitutional right to dignity, which the Constitution says is ‘inviolable’, as the basis for improving environmental outcomes to water, sanitation, and a stable climate, to name a few. This paper hazards an explanation as to the judicial reasoning behind this development. It posits that Pakistan takes the idea of dignity under law so seriously as to embrace environmental matters. In recent years, the courts have increasingly recognised the links between environmental protection and the enjoyment of human rights, including in particular, the human right to dignity. This article maintains that this is a positive development. As a conceptual matter, attention to human dignity foregrounds the impacts on human beings of environmental decisions, including decisions that contribute towards addressing climate change issues. It requires courts to address the ways in which those decisions diminish the ability of people to manage their own lives, often in ways that disproportionately affect those who are already the most vulnerable and marginalised.

This project is a close study of the legal and political aspects of management of water resources in semi-arid environments. The British in India laid the foundations of the modern irrigation system in what is now India and Pakistan. In semi-arid environments, the bulk of agriculture relies on irrigation, as it did in Spain under the Moors. We can observe a stark divide in the use of laws and institutions to manage natural resources in different societies, at different times and places. Some societies have managed in a way that achieved prosperity and long-term sustainability. The Moors of Spain created a vibrant civilization in the Middle Ages that lasted nearly eight hundred years. One of the reasons for the dynamism of their civilization was their judicious management of water resources on which foundation they created a thriving agricultural economy that produced the economic surplus for their vibrant urban culture. Of particular interest is what I regard as the essence of Moorish water management: its management of scarcity by borrowing principles from the great cradles of civilization, Mesopotamia and the Nile, which built abundance in harsh environments, along with principles of use, reuse and justice as conceived of in the Quran.

The British Raj had favoured open trade and a small state. Economic development was not a major priority. This changed after independence. State expenditure as share of GDP increased in both India and Pakistan, with the goal of reducing poverty and inequality. Still, the trajectories of India and Pakistan and then Bangladesh varied. Especially in India, policymakers favoured inward-looking economic policies, and were sceptical of trade and foreign investment. The private sector was constrained by regulation. After 1991 Indian economic policy shifted sharply, deregulating and becoming more open to the global economy. Bangladesh and Pakistan moved in the same direction, but less sharply, partly because they were less statist to begin with. Other factors mattered besides government policy: the Internet boom and the service exports it facilitated; substantial remittances by migrants to the Middle East; and the protests of workers, women and other marginalized groups. In this chapter we highlight key elements of these narratives and flag the chapters that discuss them.

This concluding chapter looks ahead to the challenges facing the economies of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. The three countries have several challenges in common, including the threat of climate change, the low status of women and the potential of artificial intelligence and robotics to undermine badly needed jobs for their young and growing populations. There are some differences: women’s participation in the labour force is rising in Bangladesh, falling in India and lowest in Pakistan. Bangladesh and India have been on good growth trajectories for the last few decades, but Pakistan’s growth has been slower and less stable. We see many opportunities for research. On the one hand there are neglected areas, such as the princely states of colonial India. On the other hand, the digital revolution has made historical and present-day sources, including data, far more accessible.

Bangladesh became an independent country in 1971. Its territory was formed of the former East Pakistan (1947–1971). Consisting mainly of the well-watered and alluvial eastern Bengal delta, Bangladesh’s economy was mainly agricultural in 1971. Although such large-scale industries as textiles and tea and such small-scale industries as handloom weaving existed on an extensive scale, an overwhelmingly large proportion of the employed workforce was engaged in agriculture. High population density, a low land–person ratio and rural poverty made diversification of the economic base an acute necessity and a challenge. A significant transformation did happen through the Green Revolution, an effective social policy that delivered a demographic transition, and a few large-scale industries forged ahead. The chapter shows how market forces, global influences and state policies combined to shape that process.

This chapter is focused on nuclear weapons. It includes a discussion of the history of these weapons and their delivery systems, focusing on the technological developments that occurred in the early decades of the Cold War, as well as addressing why the two superpowers built such large arsenals yet few other countries became nuclear proliferators during this period. The chapter also addresses the post-Cold War era, exploring the absolute number of nuclear weapons globally over decades. The chapter discusses nuclear proliferation and counterproliferation, as well as possible future developments related to these weapons. Regarding the latter, ballistic missile defences receive attention. The discussion of the possible future of these weapons takes recent global political developments, such as the Russo-Ukrainian War and related nuclear threats by Russia, into account.

Pakistan’s seventy-five-year economic history can be divided into three distinct periods. The first decade after 1947 was a period of low growth, but one in which a functioning state was set up from scratch and rapid industrialization occurred. The 1960–1990 period saw high economic growth but high costs, including the secession of Pakistan’s eastern wing (now Bangladesh), the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the ensuing civil war, which spilled over into Pakistan. Between 1990 and 2022, growth halved, primarily due to the continuing conflict in Afghanistan – this time with the US- led invasion after 9/11 – coupled with poor economic management in dealing with recurring balance-of-payments crisis and frequent recourse to the IMF. The key factors responsible for these changes are identified through ten turning points, which capture major events both internal and external and the ensuing structural changes, including in the composition of the ruling elite. Failure to undertake economic reforms was a key factor in Pakistan’s overall disappointing performance after a promising start.

This chapter explores how judicial mechanisms employed by apex courts have migrated across South Asia and Southeast Asia, using India, Pakistan, and Malaysia as examples. The chapter focuses on two case studies – Pakistan and Malaysia – to examine how judicial mechanisms, like the basic structure doctrine articulated by the Indian Supreme Court, have been strategically adapted by courts in Pakistan and Malaysia to strengthen their institutional power. This chapter considers the use of judicial rhetoric and constitutional comparativism in crafting opinions of popular salience by examining the distinct ways in which these Asian courts have engaged with foreign and comparative case law.