Book Review: Feroz H. Khan. 2012. Eating Grass: The Making of the Pakistani Bomb
| Author | Sina Salessi |
| Published date | 01 April 2014 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2347797013518408 |
| Date | 01 April 2014 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
120 Book Reviews
Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs, 1, 1 (2014): 107–122
audience. Often significant points, postulations and reasons regarding Muslim
stratification and backwardness and most importantly why Muslim backward
classes deserve reservation get lost in overwhelming and sometimes repetitive
details. While filling in a very significant knowledge gap in social stratification
and backwardness of large segments of the Muslim population, it might lose a
chance to sway a vast section of the Indian public opinion in favour of extending
support to include Muslim OBCs in the current reservation list because of its nar-
rative style.
Mishtu Ganguly
Tulane University
E-mail: mishtug@hotmail.com
Feroz H. Khan. 2012. Eating Grass: The Making of the Pakistani Bomb.
Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press. 552 pp. ISBN: 978-08-047-7601-1
DOI: 10.1177/2347797013518408
Israel’s programme might be the world’s worst kept secret, Pakistan’s nuclear
programme is the most talked about, for all the wrong reasons though, despite the
fact that barring the recent plethora of writings on A.Q. Khan network, other than
poorly written but widely quoted Long Road to Chaghi and a detailed exposé by
one M.A. Chaudhry in Karachi based Defense Journal, nothing was available on
the history of Pakistani nuclear programme. Eating Grass: The Making of the
Pakistani Bomb by Feroz Khan fills this void in literature. Brigadier General
(retired) Feroz Khan is a noted South Asian strategic expert and lectures in the
Department of National Security Affairs at the Monterey based Naval Postgraduate
School. As the director of Arms Control and Disarmament Affairs (ACDA) at the
Strategic Plans Division (SPD), Professor Khan was part of the elite group that
worked out Pakistan’s nuclear policy and command and control setup.
A book on the history of Pakistan’s nuclear programme was long overdue.
However, there are a number of reasons why nothing was published on the subject
for such a long time. Firstly, Pakistan’s nuclear programme is a closely guarded
secret and its details were shrouded in secrecy. Second, due to the professional
rivalry between the PAEC and KRL, competing versions of its history exist which
could not be easily validated especially in the absence of any access to official
records and documents. Added to this is the fact that the programme was compart-
mentalized, most likely no one had a complete view of the programme and that
the most knowledgeable persons about the programme such as Agha Shahi and
Ghulam Ishaq khan have passed away. Although the author has denied that
the book is an insider account, this reviewer believes that his association with the
nuclear establishment of Pakistan makes professor Khan’s book even more
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