Harris Khalique's erudition and breadth of vision, indeed, are breathtaking. Such a book—so readable and yet so learned—was long overdue as an antidote to the textbooks we teach and the sound bites which pass for wisdom in our media. Crimson Papers should be compulsory reading for all Pakistanis and those interested in Pakistan. It is a landmark in our intellectual life as a nation.

– Dr Tariq Rahman
Distinguished National Professor Emeritus, Language Historian, and Author

In Crimson Papers, Harris Khalique maps Pakistan’s changing cultural, political, and religious landscapes with the eye of a poet and the wisdom of a seer. His is a voice of sanity in the conflict with absolutism—a vital corrective to the rants of those who cannot tolerate different points of view. And his sympathetic intelligence makes him a companionable guide to one of the most complicated countries in the world.

– Christopher Merrill
Poet and Essayist, Author of The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony, Expedition, War

The personal, we have been told, is the political. This collection of evocatively written essays—culled from a rich lode of history, literature, memory, and politics—shows us exactly how, and why.

 – Dr Rakhshanda Jalil

Writer, Critic, and Literary Historian