Aug 26, 04: Questioning History with Ayesha Jalal
Famous and controversial Pakistani historian Ayesha Jalal describes how partition of India and creation of Pakistan was the result of a colossal miscalculation
We talk to the famous and controversial Pakistani historian
Ayesha Jalal (Professor of History, Tufts University) who took on
the academic and political mainstream in her native Pakistan as
well as the administration of Columbia University some years ago
when she angered so many Muslims in the US and in her homeland by
asserting that the 1947 partition of India -- the event that
opened the door for the creation of Pakistan -- was an accident,
a colossal miscalculation. What's more, she says that Jinnah
never wanted a separate Muslim state; he was only using the
threat of independence as a political bargaining chip to
strengthen the voice of the Muslim minority in the soon-to-be
sovereign India. Indian scholars around the world have found Ms.
Jalal's work no less provocative. "In Pakistani terms, she takes
a very pro-Indian perspective, but in Indian terms, she's still a
Pakistani,"
Convinced that a cadre of Indian and India-centric faculty
members who objected to a Pakistani woman teaching Indian history
had put the kibosh on her tenure application at Columbia
University where she taught for seven years, she sued the
university alleging religious and ethnic discrimination. Columbia
refuted her contentions, and in spring of 1998, a federal judge
in New York's Southern District dismissed the case, labeling the
evidence of bias "thin," though "suggestive."
AYESHA JALAL is a historian whose books on the history and
culture of Pakistan and India have consistently overturned
previously held assumptions. Her works have explored the creation
of the Pakistani state, its struggle to become a democracy,
Indian-Pakistani relations, and current changes in Muslim
identity in the face of modernity and globalization. She
specializes in decolonization, problems of sovereignty, identity,
citizenship and democracy, Islam, and women and the state. She
received her B.A. from Wellesley in 1978 and her Ph.D. from
Cambridge in 1983. She was an associate professor of History at
Columbia University. , and is the recent recipient of a Macarthur
"genius" award . She is currently professor of history at Tufts
University .
