From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling author of Ghost Wars and The Achilles Trap , a trek across a socially and politically damaged South Asia Bestselling author Steve Coll is one of the preeminent journalists of the twenty-first century. His last two books, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars and New York Times bestseller The Bin Ladens , have been praised for their creative insight and complex yet compelling narratives-and have put him on par with journalists such as the legendary Bob Woodward. Now, for the first time ever, the paperback edition of On the Grand Trunk Road is finally available, revised and updated with new material. Focusing on Coll's journeys in conflict-ridden India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Afghanistan as a bureau chief for The Washington Post, On the Grand Trunk Road reveals a little-seen area of the world where violence, corruption, and greed have had devastating effects on South Asians from all walks of life. Steve Coll is the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Ghost Wars and a professor and dean emeritus of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, and from 2007 to 2013 was president of the New America Foundation, a public policy institute in Washington, D.C. He is a staff writer for The New Yorker and previously worked for twenty years at The Washington Post , where he received a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism in 1990. He is the author of nine books, including On the Grand Trunk Road , The Bin Ladens , Private Empire , Directorate S , and The Achilles Trap . Table of Contents   PENGUIN BOOKS Title Page Copyright Page Introduction   STATES OF FLUX Chapter 1 - Sound and Fury Chapter 2 - The Grand Trunk Road Chapter 3 - The Gravy Train Chapter 4 - Village on a Hill   STATES OF MIND Chapter 5 - Enemies Chapter 6 - Through the Looking Glass Chapter 7 - Rulers Chapter 8 - Crossed Lines   STATES OF CONFLICT Chapter 9 - Among the Death Squads Chapter 10 - The Boys Chapter 11 - Riding the Tiger Chapter 12 - Inside Out Chapter 13 - Secret War   STATES OF PROGRESS Chapter 14 - A Shadow Lifts, a Shadow Falls Chapter 15 - DEM-o-crah-see Chapter 16 - Bombay and Beyond   Epilogue: Time Bomb Acknowledgements Index PENGUIN BOOKS ON THE GRAND TRUNK ROAD Steve Coll is most recently the author of the national bestseller The Bin Ladens. He is the president of the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy institute headquartered in Washington, D.C., and a staff writer for The New Yorker. Previously he worked for twenty years at The Washington Post, where he received a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism in 1990, traveled widely as a foreign correspondent, and served as the Post’s managing editor between 1998 and 2004. He is the author of five previous books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller Ghost Wars and The Taking of Getty Oil . PENGUIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R oRL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 100 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa   Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R oRL, England   First published in the United States of America by Times Books, a division of Random House, Inc. 1994 This edition with a new introduction and a new epilogue published in Penguin Books 2009     Copyright © Steve Coll, 1994, 2009 All rights reserved     ISBN: 978-1-101-02913-8 1. South Asia—Politics and government. 2. Communalism—South Asia. 3. South Asia—Ethnic relations. I. Title. DS340.C65 1994 915.404’52—DC20 93-1994 24689753       The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. Introduction to the Paperback Edition Between 1989 and 1992, when I served as a New Delhi-based foreign correspondent for the Washington Post and traveled to report the material in this book, I spent a great deal of time in Pakistan, often in the capital, Islamabad, an antiseptic planned city laid out on a grid. Almo