Folio Books is delighted to share that it has published Dr. Akmal Hussain’s new book, his magnum opus, Pakistan, Institutional Instability and Underdevelopment: State, People and Consciousness, details of which can be found here.
Dr. Akmal Hussain is an Economist who specializes in action research on development. Besides having taught in a wide range of academic and professional institutions at home and abroad, Dr. Hussain has undertaken research on Economic Policy, Poverty Alleviation and Regional Cooperation in South Asia.
He has also helped to establish civil society institutions for poverty alleviation, engaged in advocacy for Regional Cooperation in South Asia at the national and international levels, and contributed to national economic policy as an independent economist.
Dr. Akmal Hussain is an Economist who specializes in action research on development. Besides having taught in a wide range of academic and professional institutions at home and abroad, Dr. Hussain has undertaken research on Economic Policy, Poverty Alleviation and Regional Cooperation in South Asia.
He has also helped to establish civil society institutions for poverty alleviation, engaged in advocacy for Regional Cooperation in South Asia at the national and international levels, and contributed to national economic policy as an independent economist.
The book analyses institutional instability in Pakistan and shows how the trajectories of instability in different periods are largely determined by the dynamics within the underlying power structure. This power has its roots in Raj and it continues to manifest itself in the permanent underdevelopment in Pakistan.
Examining political power dynamics, Hussain analyses the psyche of the elite coalition and how it was moulded by the colonial encounter. The book contrasts this psyche with the repeated episodes of resistance against authoritarian rule demonstrating the consciousness of the downtrodden classes and the sources of the impulse for revolt against oppression in their literature, legends and myths.
The idea of consciousness also draws upon recent works in neuroscience, on the one hand, and the ancient religious and wisdom traditions, on the other.
A truly interdisciplinary work cutting across political economy, neuroscience and indigenous studies, the book outlines a strategy of development for and by the people. Such a strategy could place Pakistan on the path of what Hussain calls, a “Human Economy.”
Folio Books is a Lahore-based independent publishing house with a focus on academic non-fiction. Taking forward the South Asian legacy of independent political publishing, Folio Books identifies as anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and internationalist.