Book Reviews : Democracy in Pakistan. By G. W. CHOUDHURY. (Dacca: Green Book House, and Vancouver: Publications Center, University of British Columbia, 1963. Pp. xix, 309.)

• Author: Robert Y. Fluno
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296601900117
• Published date: 01 March 1966
• Date: 01 March 1966
• Subject Matter: Articles

156

is

said of

the

climax

at

Prokhorovka.

The

biggest

military

operation

of

World

War

II,

the

destruction

of

the

German

Army

Group

Center

in

White

Russia

by

four

Russian

army

groups

in

the

summer

of

1944

barely

gets

a

mention,

while

the

chap-

ters

on

the

last

year

of

war

contain

nothing

more

than

a

repetition

of

Guderian’s

memoirs,

Reitlinger’s

excellent

book

on

SS,

and

Thorwald’s

pseudo-history.

Clark’s

account

of

the

Home

Army

rebellion

in

Warsaw,

apparently

written

without

the

benefit

of

consulting

the

books

by

Krannals

and

Borkiewicz,

suggests

that

the

Russian

advance

had

faltered

by

the

time

that

the

uprising

broke

out.

True

as

this

may

be,

Stalin

had

every

reason

to

see

the

rebellion

crushed,

since

it

was

moti-

vated,

among

other

reasons,

by

a

desire

to

take

away

the

due

credit

for

Poland’s

liberation

from

the

Red

Army.

It

is

naive

for

the

leaders

of

the

Home

Army

to

claim

that

they

were

doublecrossed

by

Stalin,

when

the

latter

had

left

plenty

of

evidence

of

his

love

for

Polish

nationalism,

notably

at

the

Katyn

Forest.

Putting

down

the

rebellion

was

not

entirely

an

SS

affair

as

Clark

claims,

as

regular

German

Army

units

took

part

and

Reinefarth,

the

commander

of

special

commandos,

which

Clark

de-

scribes

in

detail,

filed

his

reports

regularly

with

the

German

Ninth

Army.

The

book

is

also

marred

by

numerous

factual

errors:

Armies

and

commanders

are

placed

in

wrong

places,

e.g.,

the

German

Third

Panzer

Army

in

Donetz

basin;

nonexistent

units

are

created,

e.g.,

Russian

Second

Guard

Tank

Army

in

Stalingrad;

SS

and

Waffen

SS

are

confused.

These

and

many

other

errors

not

only

indicate

a

lack

of

familiarity

with

the

subject

matter

but

also

could

lead

to

faulty

interpre-

tations.

Until

we

have

access

to

Soviet

documents,

we

will

not

have

a

definitive

history

of

the

war

on

the

Eastern

Front.

However,

with

what

is

available

-

and

Clark’s

bibliography

only

mentions

a

handful -

an

attempt

could

be

made

to

write

a

study

in

depth

of

this

terrible

war.

MICHAEL

PARRISH

Indiana

University

Democracy

in

Pakistan.

By

G.

W.

CHOUDHURY.

(Dacca:

Green

Book

House,

and

Vancouver:

Publications

Center,

University

of

British

Columbia,

1963.

Pp.

xix,

309.)

The

greater

portion

of

this

book

consists

of

a

survey

of

constitutional

provisions

beginning

with

acts

of

the

British

Parliament

and

ending

with

the

present

Consti-

tution

of

Pakistan.

The

author’s

bias

is

that

of

a

democrat,

a

resident

of

East

Pakis-

tan,

and

one

who

is

sympathetic

with

the

ideals

of

an

Islamic

polity.

He

is

familiar

with

comparative

studies

in

the

British

and

American

political

systems.

To

students

of

Pakistan

government

the

value

of

this

book

is

as

a

detailed

review

of

constitution-writing.

At

this

stage

in

the

literature

on

that

subject,

such

compi-

lations

are

valuable

despite

the

crying

need

for

appraisals

of

the

informal

aspects

of

democracy

on

the

Indian

sub-continent.

From

another

viewpoint,

the

test

of

such

a

work

is

its

value

to

general

students

of

comparative

government.

In

this

respect,

much

of

the

worth

of

this

particular

book

will

come

from

reading

between

the

lines.

One

of

the

weaknesses

of

a

new

nation

such

as

Pakistan

is

that

the

art

of

constitution-

writing

develops

much

more

rapidly

than

the

establishment

of

that

more

elusive