Review of
Stephen Cohen's Book
By Karen Leonard Via
E-mail
How
depressing it was to read the review of Dr. Stephen
Cohen's book, The Idea of Pakistan. An otherwise
fair and thoughtful review suddenly had a sentence
mentioning Cohen's Jewish background and wondering
if his pessimistic assessment of Pakistan's military-dominated
present and future had something to do with that
pessimism. Hussaini says it "would be an utter
folly" to think this...so why mention it? And
then this portion of the review is highlighted,
blown up and centered on the page.
Stephen Cohen is an acknowledged expert on the
Indian and Pakistani military establishments and
is respected by the military in both countries
for his even-handed scholarship. Cohen and I were
fellow students in a Hindi class many decades
ago at the University of Wisconsin, and Cohen
has been a hard-working and dedicated student
of politics in South Asia ever since. I am sorry
Hussaini found Cohen's work on Pakistan depressing,
but I can assure Hussaini and readers of his review
that religious background has nothing to do with
it, unless perhaps it is that of the writer of
the review, oversensitive and defensive where
he need not be. Should Christians, Jews, Hindus,
Buddhists, etc. be barred from becoming scholars
of countries where the majority religion is not
their own? Should their work be suspect if they
persist in following their personal and academic
interests rather than their "background?" I hope
it "would be an utter folly" to hold such views.
(Pakistan Link respects the scholarship of Dr.
Cohen as much as the right of Mr. Hussaini, its
most senior and widely-read columnist, to his
views on the thrust of the book.
To enable the readers to form their own judgment,
the portion of his column denigrated by Prof.
Karen Leonard is reproduced below: "I have just
finished reading the tome and it has left me with
a feeling of depression. I can't avoid wondering
whether the learned professor has not underplayed
the bright spots while adding a darker hue to
the gray areas. It would be an utter folly to
attribute this to his Jewish background. Surely
a person his scholarship and academic eminence
cannot but be meticulously objective. Perhaps
my depression emanates from my own attachment
to my native land and my sanguine vision of its
future." - Editor)
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