M.A. Jinnah: The Outside View by Dr M. Reza Kazimi (Book Reviews)

Keeping track with the growing literature on Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and his role in the modern Indian politics, may be an interesting and stimulating undertaking for the students of history. One thing is quite obvious that with the passage of time both in Pakistan and India—more so in the latter than in the former—the official historiography is being surpassed by historians aspiring to look into the partition afresh. The official historiographies in India and Pakistan had remained in vogue, in both countries, particularly during the initial two decades. This may be attributed to the momentum of respective Muslim and the Indian nationalist movements, which dominated the intellectual horizon in the two countries after independence. The postcolonial states in the two countries also relied heavily on their respective pre-partition nationalist assertions to construct their ideological edifices while aspiring to legitimize the state authorities. It was during the 1970s, that historians amassed courage to question some of the logical inconsistencies enwrapped in the official nationalist historical claims. With this there arose the urge to look into the historical roles of some of the most prominent political figures of pre-partition era. Thus while on the one hand Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Ambedkar, etc, came under new searchlights, on the other, Jinnah’s role was revisited with fresh and objective outlook. The new versions were also subjected to questions and historians have since been involved in responding to points raised by each other.

Electro-Deposition & Dissolution Behavior of Zinc-Based Alloys in Additive-Free Chloride Baths and Formation of Doped Zno Nanostructures by Their Hydrothermal Oxidation

Zn-Ni and Zn-Co alloy coatings with 5-18 at% Ni and 8-25 at% Co have been prepared by DC plating in additive free chloride baths. Effects of bath composition on the alloy composition, texture, grain size, morphology and hardness were investigated. Potentiodynamic anodic stripping, reverse chronopotentiometry were employed in combination with XRD and EDS to correctly determine the electro-dissolution (dezincification) behavior of alloy electrodeposits. Potentiodynamic cyclic stripping was also performed to prepare compact Zn-Co electrodeposits. Zn-rich alloy deposits are predominantly formed by DC plating in these baths due to anomalous codeposition. With the help of careful cyclic voltammetry, chronopotentiometry, chronoamperometry, and (potentiodynamic) cyclic voltammetry, it has been established for the first time in this work that it is primarily the electrochemical potential that determines the deposition mode. Between the window of normal codeposition where nickel or cobalt rich phases are deposited and anomalous codeposition where zinc-rich phases are formed, a range on electrochemical potential exists where the formation of zinc hydroxide hinders the electrodeposition and cathodic current mostly becomes insignificant. A shift from this region to the cathodic direction allows anomalous codeposition of zinc and nobler alloy constituent. A shift in the anodic direction may again allow cathodic deposition of nobler constituent with under-potential deposition of zinc. The transition potentials depend on bath composition and temperature. Hydrothermal oxidation of Zn, Zn-Ni and Zn-Co electrodeposited on conducting substrates resulted in wide variety of nanostructures depending on the oxidation temperature and alloy content. In case of pure electrodeposited zinc, nanorods with diameter ranging from 300-800nm are seen at oxidation temperature of 100oC. The size of nanorods becomes coarser with rise in oxidation temperature. Hydrothermal oxidation of Zn-Ni alloys resulted in the doped ZnO nanostructures with quantity of dopant ranging from 2 at% to 11 at%. Not only nanorods and nanowires are synthesized by this technique, but also novel structures like nanotulips, hollow nanocones, faceted nanotubes and electronically translucent nanosheets arranged are obtained. Hydrothermal oxidation of Zn-Co alloys resulted in hollow and tubular ZnO nanostructures with doping of cobalt around 2at%. The doped ZnO nanostructures become finer with a rise in synthesis temperature. Hence, dopant and temperature exhibit synergistic effects in determining the morphology of the ZnO nanostructures grown by hydrothermal oxidation of electrodeposited nanocrystalline alloys.