On the eve of the 79th Anniversary of Pakistan’s creation, we are pleased to announce the winners of the biennial Bloomsbury Pakistan Book Prize 2026
Omer Aijazi. Atmospheric Violence: Disaster and Repair in Kashmir. The University of Pennsylvania Press 2024
Ilyas Chattha. Citizens to Traitors: Bengali Internment in Pakistan, 1971–1974. Cambridge University Press 2025
Omer Aijazi. Atmospheric Violence: Disaster and Repair in Kashmir. The University of Pennsylvania Press 2024
An ethnography of life in ecologically fragile, militarised borderlands, Atmospheric Violence offers both a methodological, and a conceptual innovation, making a compelling case for rethinking how disaster is researched and represented. Instead of framing disaster as rupture, the book foregrounds friendship, kinship, and emotional life as central to recovery. Aijazi combines rich empirical detail with strong theoretical grounding, linking affect and marginality through vivid vignettes from two remote valleys in Pakistan‑Administered Kashmir.
Ilyas Chattha. Citizens to Traitors: Bengali Internment in Pakistan, 1971–1974. Cambridge University Press 2025
Chattha’s work adds significantly to the existing historiography of the 1971 civil war through its focus on the experience of the Bengali population who were resident in West Pakistan at that time and constructs his work through a remarkable assemblage of disparate archival sources. Citizens to Traitors is both a vital contribution to recovering a largely forgotten history and a testament to the power of meticulous archival research in piecing together a story that might otherwise have remained untold.
The Bloomsbury Prize is thrilled to see the expansive reach of Pakistan Studies reflected in these two outstanding but very different books. Both books offer exciting illustrations of path-breaking scholarship, in Aijaz’s work, cutting-edge experimentation with scholarly narrative rooted in deeply compassionate ethnographic research focused on the emotional terrain of Kashmir and, in Chattha’s work, meticulous research engaging with a pivotal but understudied feature of the country’s social and political history. For scholars across the spectrum of academic disciplines, these books will be highly influential.
We extend our congratulations to Dr Omer Aijazi and Dr Ilyas Chattha. We would also like to acknowledge the three runner-up entries (listed in alphabetical order) for their excellent contributions to the study of Pakistan.
- Fauzia Husain. The Stigma Matrix: Gender, Globalization, and the Agency of Pakistan’s Frontline Women. Stanford University Press 2024
- Arsalan Khan. The Promise of Piety: Islam and the Politics of Moral Order in Pakistan. Cornell University Press 2024
- Tahir Naqvi. Questioning Migrants: Ethnic Nationalism at the Limits of Pakistan. Cambridge University Press 2024
The book prize is awarded to the most outstanding academic book published in English in the previous calendar years 2024 and 2025 on a topic or theme connected to the history / politics / society / economy / culture either of Pakistan within its present borders or of the communities of South Asia where the work is broadly relevant to Pakistan. The successful book is expected to make an original contribution to scholarly understanding of the lives and experiences of the people of Pakistan or South Asia.
Convener: Dr Maria Rashid
Selection committee:
Prof Matthew Nelson, SOAS University of London
Prof Humeira Iqtidar, King’s College London
Prof Yunas Samad
Prof Ali Usman Qasmi, LUMS
We are grateful to the convener and the selection committee for handling the book prize with due diligence.
Book Prize 2024
Book Prize 2022
Book Prize Guideline
© Bloomsbury Pakistan 2026