The People Next Door: The Curious History of India’s Relations with Pakistan

his book traces the seven decades of the India–Pakistan relationship since the bloody partition of the subcontinent in 1947. Events, anecdotes and personalities drive its narrative to illustrate the cocktail of hostility, nationalism and nostalgia that defines every facet of Indo-Pakistani relations. T. C. A. Raghavan illuminates the main events of this tumultuous dynamic through the eyes and words of key players and contemporary observers. He exposes how, in both countries, this shared past is seen through radically different prisms; how history keeps resurfacing, with unavoidable resonance, to this day.

The People Next Door digs beneath the obvious political, military and security issues, evoking other perspectives: divided families and unwavering friendships; peacemakers, war-mongers, and contrarian thinkers; intellectual and cultural associations; the footprint of Bollywood; cricket and literature–all are an intrinsic part of this most profoundly tangled of relationships.