Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan: His Life and Times - Hardcover

Wolpert, Stanley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195076613 ISBN 13: 9780195076615

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1993

Synopsis

No individual in the history of Pakistan--indeed, few people in modern history--have achieved greater popular power or suffered so ignominious a death as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Bhutto's political rise and fall were so meteoric that his name became a legend in the land he once ruled. Indeed, a full decade after his execution his continuing popularity ensured the election of his daughter, Benazir, to the premier position he once held. As she campaigned in Sind and Punjab, the crowds cried "Jiye Bhutto!"--"Bhutto Lives!"--and the Bhutto they meant was Zulfi.
Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan tells the story of this remarkable life in a vivid, insightful narrative. Written by Stanley Wolpert, a leading authority on South Asia and the author of the acclaimed biography Jinnah of Pakistan, the volume traces the life of this remarkable figure from the colorful days of his feudal ancestors to his imprisonment and hanging at the hands of a military dictatorship.
Bhutto, Wolpert writes, was a charismatic and contradictory man, a microcosmic reflection of Pakistan itself--a nation born out of division with India which later fell victim to its own internal split with the creation of Bangladesh. Wolpert follows him from his privileged youth in British-ruled India, to his years as a student at USC and UC Berkeley (where he sported a thin moustache, shiny two-tone shoes, and proved a keen, if rakish, fraternity brother), to Oxford and back to Pakistan. Bhutto climbed to the heights of power with amazing swiftness, winning a seat in the central Cabinet of Pakistan at the unprecedented age of thirty. Wolpert weaves Pakistan's turbulent politics and repeated wars with India together with Bhutto's ambitious maneuvering, tracing his rise to Foreign Minister, the founding of his own political movement, and finally leadership of the nation. The story of Bhutto's sometimes brilliant, sometimes quixotic career is a fascinating one, and Wolpert tells it well, through Bhutto's triumphant years in the mid-1970s, the military coup in 1977, and his treacherous imprisonment and execution in 1979.
Like the nation he embodied, Bhutto led a sprawling, ambitious, and tragic existence. Wolpert's intensively researched, engagingly written account captures the scheming, the grandeur, and the contradictions of one of modern history's most fascinating figures.

About this title

About the Author

About the Author:
Stanley Wolpert is Professor of South Asian History at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of a number of books on South Asian history, including A New History of India (Oxford, Fourth Edition, 1993), Nine Hours to Rama (subsequently filmed, and banned, in India), and Jinnah of Pakistan (Oxford University Press, 1984).

Reviews

Pakistanis still revere their slain prime minister, glib, charistmatic, Oxford-educated Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (1928-1979), who was arrested by his top general and hanged after two ignominious years in prison. His supporters hailed the fiery anti-Indian orator and pan-Islamic politician as a restorer of Pakistan's pride, and they see in his daughter Benazir Bhutto--ex-prime minster and now leader of the opposition--the promise of resuscitating Zulfi's glory. But this searching, brilliant, exhaustively researched biography dissolves Bhutto's aura to present him as a "schizoid personality" who ran Pakistan like a feudal lord. Wolpert, South Asian history professor at UCLA, tells how the "Islamic Napoleon" waged a disastrous genocidal war against newly independent Bangladesh, led a secret program to amass a nuclear arsenal for Pakistan and two-timed his Hindu wife Nusrat who, disconsolate over his lies and infidelities, attempted suicide. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Brilliant, charismatic, and flamboyant, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto rose to become prime minister of Pakistan (1971-79). Unfortunately, he ruled the country as he did his 40,000-acre estate, stressing siasat (a feudal code of conduct) and izzat (honor) rather than caring for the welfare of the people. Gen. Zia ul-Haq, who seized power in a military coup, trumped up charges against Bhutto and had him hanged. Wolpert, a professor of South Asian history and author of Jinnah of Pakistan ( LJ 4/1/84) and India ( LJ 3/1/91), traces in great detail both the positive and negative aspects of Bhutto's career, showing how he, in many respects, deserved the fate he received, although Wolpert does not condone the death sentence. Those who are interested in Cold War policies or Pakistan will benefit from reading this book. For academic and large public library collections.
- Donald Clay Johnson, Univ. of Minnesota Lib., Minneapolis
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195076613
• ISBN 13: 9780195076615
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400