Under Five Flags

This book traces the progress of an migr family of Iranian ancestry from ancient times of the royal family of Nadir Shah of Iran via Ashraf Afshar, through many generations, against the larger historical backdrop of the societies and cultures in which they lived. Jacob J Ross (FRSL), a reader from Literary Consultancy comments, This book has clearly been an enormous undertaking, covering as it does much of the seminal events that shaped the twentieth century as well as the origins of the State of Iran (from 1835 onwards) and the emergence of this country as a major focus in the global, geopolitical and ideological debates of the present century. On top of all this, he has layered his own personal history.... overall, he has succeeded in writing a book that is often times insightful, at times funny and for me, quite elucidating.The author, Shahrukh, shows how significant happenings around the world affected and wrapped each decade of his life. The 19th century was described as an age of progress. With the help of the telegraph, railway, and steamships, boosting trade, the Europeans imperial ambitions reach its heights of development.Cultural, artistic and political changes emerged that fundamentally modify the way they thought about the world and their place in it.Shahrukh, born in the 1930s in Burma, grew up in a close-knit conservative community, living a life of luxury in mansion houses with servants and nannies in attendance. Then an abrupt convulsion ruptures the serenity of their scene; the Second World War erupts, and seemingly the world implodes around them. Having lost everything they leave Rangoon, fleeing from village to village in pursuit of preserving life, like Nomads, not in search for new pastures, but trying to escape from the British and Japanese bombs, local bandits, and succumbing to disease and death in the jungles of Burma. Many survive by selling their precious heirlooms and jewellery.After the wreckage of war in Burma, they arrive in Calcutta in December of 1945. Shahrukh is eight years old.The authors exploration of the political dynamics that led to the partition of India and Pakistan gives a deeper understanding, not only the 'creation' of Pakistan but the religious and ideological ideas that underpinned its formation. It therefore helps give a better appreciation of the present situation prevailing in that country.In India, Shahrukh and family witness the gruesome communal riots and killings between the Hindus and Muslims. The Great Calcutta Killing, started on 16 August 1946, a day of widespread riot and manslaughter in the city. The force and ferocity of this fury in Calcutta leads to the massacre of about three thousand people within twenty-four hours, with bodies strewn uncounted in the bamboo thickets; vultures fed off them. Starvation threatened to add to the crisis faced by hospitals. At Grammar School he is taught Latin but not Urdu, the local language. He is taught Shakespeare, which he masters, but not Allama Iqbal, the national poet. Their heroes are Nelson and western movie stars. He narrates about the aim of school in trying to produce replicas of English public schoolboys. After completing his Senior Cambridge Exams, Shahrukh gets admitted to D. J. Science College, part of Karachi University. For his Bachelor degree he takes Maths and Physics as his major subjects.In his final year at the college, the Principal appoints Shahrukh as President of the College Student Council. He takes this enterprise very seriously and is determined to make it succeed. After much debate and discussion, a budget is drawn up and finalised; it is printed and displayed on the main notice board. Each programme of the year proceeds with clockwork precision. This is accomplished for the first time in the history of the college; Shahrukh exclaims, It was worth all the tears, sweat and toil.The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States played out through the entire decade. The Korean conflict and