Moth Smoke

After World War II, which presaged the slow unraveling of the British Empire, the Indian subcontinent was divided into India, West Pakistan, and East Pakistan; this partition was drawn, largely, based on religious orientation. Thus, India harbored a Hindu majority, while Pakistan was Muslim. Later, East Pakistan would win independence as Bangladesh in a civil war. In the post-war years, Pakistan’s government would swing between hardline religious leaders—General Zia ul-Haq implemented an Islamic legal system in the late 1970s; Nawaz Sharif incorporated Sharia law in 1991—and quasi-secular ones, like the Bhutto dynasty. Benazir Bhutto, the daughter of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was deposed and executed, made a bid for power in the late 1980s and won. She was later accused of corruption and dismissed as leader, only to be restored as president in 1993 but then again caught up in corruption scandals. In addition, during the 1980s, the United States sent military aid to Pakistan to prevent Soviet incursions. Later, hardliner Sharif returned to power and oversaw Pakistan’s first nuclear tests. This is a brief account of the complicated socio-historical background that undergirds Moth Smoke: Widespread political corruption; conservative religious values clashing with secular ideologies; and international interference, with both the United States and Russia jockeying for power in the region, all influenced the power structure of 1990s Pakistan.