Atul Mishra's work presents an intriguing proposition—that for both India and Pakistan, pursuit of sovereignty has remained an end in itself. Traversing the fields of political history and theory of international relations, The Sovereign Lives draws our attention to how the perception of statehood of both countries is predicated upon ideas of minority, national identity and territoriality. The importance of the book lies in its ambitious attempt to
present alternative ideas of nation-state and community in the context of South Asia.
Atul Mishra is an associate professor at the Department of International Relations and Governance Studies, Shiv Nadar University, India.