The Ebb And Flow Of History

For Alice Albinia determination to write her first book Empires Of The Indus following the meandering and undulating course of the Indus River and the rise and fall of its empires was lucid and almost immediate. The realisation of this idea and the development of the book to illuminate a varied history spanning 5,000 years took about four years – deep inroads into the heart of the valley, adverse journeys across landscapes and an extensive reservoir of historical archival scholarship. After graduating with a degree in English Literature from Cambridge University, she worked as a journalist in Delhi and later pursued an M.A. in South Asian History from SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London). Elaborating her intimate relationship with the Indus Valley, the author discusses her experiences from the time of the book's conception to its completion with BW Online's Alokita Datta.

Did you have a story in mind before you started your journey, or did it crystallise with time and your experiences?
It was very much being in Delhi, working here, being immersed in Delhi life that the idea of writing this book first came to me. I went back for a very precise reason once I realised that I would be really interested in writing a book about the history of the Indus and the modern day ramifications as well, the relationship between India and Pakistan all the politics and history and the shared culture that exists. I went to SOAS specifically to study these various strands of history.

I did have a story in mind when I started. Partly, it came from the experience of living in India. When I moved to Delhi, the Kargil war had just happened and it was a negative time in Indo-Pak relations. In the two-and-a-half years that I spent in Delhi I never once visited Pakistan. It was a much unknown land to me as I imagine it is with many Indians. That was one strand. The other was the idea of an ancient Indian shared history, the Harappa civilisation, the Rig Veda and different influences though time. At the same time, there was also a very contemporary story to be told about how India views Pakistan and vice versa. How they negotiate vis-a-vis various cultural forms whether it's a river or a temple or an ancient song.

What kind of research did you have to engage in prior to your physical journey into this region, or was most of it undertaken during the process?
There was a lot of research that I did during my M.A. That was one year of academic research, sitting in libraries, thinking about various aspects of the book and so on. It took me four years to write this book. I would go to Karachi or Sindh with a particular story that I wanted to research and then come back and think about it. So, I made a number of trips and often revisited places. Some of the chapters just took one journey or one set of research but sometimes the stories would require more delving and layering and construction.

Did you also speak to academics and historians in Pakistan, for instance, while you were there?
Yes, I did. Not just academics. For many of the stories in the book, I also spoke to poets especially in Sindh and Punjab. All these lands of the Indus have a lot of people who have preserved the folklore and history, the works of 18th century poets or 20th century poets and other cultural forms that continue to live on. For me, the most exciting part of the research was when I had an idea sitting in Delhi, researched it in the British library in London and then went to Pakistan to see the different kinds of things I was told. For example in Chapter 4 ('River Saints'), the part when Mashkoor takes me to the Jhok village was very interesting.

Academics study their own particular area really well. But equally, there were non-academics who offered different points of view about the people of the Indus and how they narrate their history. Often that is what I find most fascinating. How people represent their history, what they think is important. A school text book written by a nationalist will be very different from a story told in a village in Sindh. There are different agendas at work.

You begin by exclaiming how "India and its river (Indus) tantalised the Western imagination". How distinct was your experience of the 'Indus Valley' as opposed to previously held knowledge and notions?
It was extremely different. In Chapter 2 ('Conquering the Classic River'), the British go to the Indus with a very romantic 'Alexander, the Great' sort of an idea, and find that is completely different from what they had imagined. It is very disappointing for them for many reasons. For me, the first impression of the Indus was engendered sitting in my flat in Delhi, reading about it and then going to SOAS and studying a lot about it in archives kept in the British library. I had been reading a lot of British accounts, and when I arrived at Indus I found that there was nothing left. So many dams had been built following the British model of development, without really caring about the ecology of the delta. It was a shock.

When you were interacting with families who have suffered the Partition (in both India and Pakistan), were you able to discern traces of this rich legacy in the everyday lives of the people?
It is very different with different people. People who migrated to the Indus valley during the Partition don't necessarily have a connection with the land and culture. Often they are very urban based, they don't travel in Sindh. They are completely different from people whose families have lived in the Indus valley for generations.

But despite that, did you feel there were correspondences between what you have read and what you actually experienced?
It was very much so. Because my initial research for the book was so removed from the actual Indus valley, I did not go there with a fixed idea in mind. Often, I was astounded by how clearly a certain institution or strand of history has been preserved. For example, Sultan Mahmud Ghazni is a very important figure in Pakistan. He was the first one who came to across to the valley; as opposed to India he probably doesn't enjoy the same status. For me, one of the joys in this book was to witness this merging of contemporary ideas of history with ancient past. The way the Sultan's story is played out today, he is a figure they talk about and respect. Then, in Afghanistan, he is viewed as a figurehead -- in a completely different yet equally important way.

With particular regard to Pakistan, since it lies at the heart of this civilisation, do you feel that an evocation of the country's rich past can help revise current ideas about the 'militaristic' and 'fundamentalist' impression in the light of terrorism?
I would certainly hope so. Probably one wouldn't choose to go there with the country being portrayed as a terrorist nation. It is true though. That is a big problem with the Taliban and the army having to fight these people. And America's involvement in Afghanistan has had awful ramifications in Pakistan. One of the points in the book was to go beyond that.

I imagine the book is a bit of a surprise for people. In newspapers in Britain, if you are told that you will be sent a book on Pakistan, one expects to see something related to the idea of militancy. It [the idea] is something that the West has helped create and is now having to deal with.

As a European researcher, did your essentially foreign identity inhibit or did it enable the process of discovery and documentation?
It was incredibly easy for me. When I was getting my visa in the Pakistani High Commission and I told them I was writing a book about the Indus, they asked if I was a journalist and when I said I wasn't they gave me a visa where I could make frequent really long journeys. Nobody really stopped from doing anything. I went everywhere. I imagine it is not the same for journalists (laughs).

I managed to communicate since I learnt Hindi from living in Delhi. I also studied Urdu. I was in Pakistan for three months and because I was writing about the river I had to speak to people living in villages who spoke no English except the word 'tension'. They said 'bahut tension hai! Almost everyone in Sindh knew that word. I think it's been absorbed from Indian cable television that everyone watches. Another interesting thing was that in India I really stand out as a foreigner, in Pakistan there were a lot of people with my colour and though I don't pass as Pakistani, I didn't really garner too much attention in this regard. People often thought I was an Afghan also because of the way I spoke the language.

What hurdles did you have to encounter while journeying through certain 'troubled' areas in Afghanistan and elsewhere?
In Afghanistan I was lucky because I was there in 2005. It was really before things started to worsen I remember the first suicide bomb happening in Kandahar in a mosque and that was the first atrocity of its type in Afghanistan, then the Taliban became much stronger. When I was there you could still travel on the road between Kabul and Kandahar, something you can't now, you will be killed. I took advice from local journalists about getting shared taxis and I was fine.

There are certain parts in Pakistan where I was a lot more inhibited. You have to be accompanied by a man or wear a burqa. I stayed with a family in Bannu on the border with Waziristan, where they wouldn't take me if I didn't wear a burqa. It is probably one of the most conservative places in Pakistan. If you go to the markets in Bannu the men do all the shopping and handle the transactions with the outside world. The women stay within the confines of the Purdah.

Following a different tangent from the present book, are you interested, both as a reader and writer, in historical novels and literature? Does the idea of historical fiction appeal to you?
I think it is a wonderful idea. I just read The Enchantress Of Florence by Salman Rushdie. I also enjoyed this book about the Mahabharata; The Palace Of Illusions by Chitra Divakaruni. I liked Amitav Ghosh's historical and non historical novels. I think it is a very brave way of writing history. I loved The Sea of Poppies; I really like Nadeem Aslam's books.

alokita 'dot' datta 'at' gmail 'dot' com