From Martial Law to Martial Law

This edited translation of Syed Nur Ahmad's landmark study, Martial Law-se Martial Law-tak, provides the most comprehensive study in English or Urdu of the politics of the Punjab. Drawing on his career as a journalist and as former director of information for the government of the Punjab, Nur Ahmad gives an eyewitness account of the politics of the province from the imposition of martial law in 1919 (following the Jalianwala Bagh massacre) to the reestablishment of martial law accompanying the coup d'etat led by General Ayub Khan in Pakistan in 1958. Nur Ahmad relates the events in the Punjab to the larger Indian Muslim political scene, assesses the development and eventual decline of the Unionist Party (which stood against the partition of India), and traces the rise of support for the Muslim League. He also looks at the postindependence period in Pakistan and the failure of the parliamentary regime, discussing how national-level politics affected the Punjab.