The People Next Door: The Curious History of India’s Relations with Pakistan, by T.C.A. Raghavan

‘The People Next Door’ is the name of a 1968 television (TV) series made into a 1970 Hollywood movie, a 1996 TV film, a 2008 novel, again a 2016 TV film, and, in the case of the book being reviewed, a non-fiction historical book. When we spend time in observing neighbours, the act has a voyeuristic feel. A quote by the late Aleister Crowley, British magician and occultist, in the above-mentioned 2008 novel states, ‘it is evidently consoling to reflect that the people next door are going to hell’.1 However, Raghavan’s book does not convey this negative aspect, which a reader may expect to find.