A monumental and comprehensive book on the East Pakistan crisis, Kamal Matinuddin's in-depth research provides a clear and candid view into the disintegration of the house that Jinnah built.

    The unforgettable story is told here by the Commander of this brigade, with a wealth of detail matched by depth of perception. The story is worth reading again and again, because, as time has shown, the Kashmir confrontation is not over yet.

    

    In its most startling revelation, the author shows how the demand for a separate homeland for the Hindus, which was fuelled by a large and powerful section of Hindu society within Bengal, was seen as the only way to regain influence and to wrest power from the Muslim majority. The picture which emerges is one of a stratified and fragmented society moving away from the mainstream of Indian nationalism, and increasingly preoccupied with narrower, more parochial concerns.