1st Edition
State and Nation-Building in Pakistan Beyond Islam and Security
Religion, violence, and ethnicity are all intertwined in the history of Pakistan. The entrenchment of landed interests, operationalized through violence, ethnic identity, and power through successive regimes has created a system of ‘authoritarian clientalism.’ This book offers comparative, historicist, and multidisciplinary views on the role of identity politics in the development of Pakistan.
Bringing together perspectives on the dynamics of state-building, the book provides insights into contemporary processes of national contestation which are crucially affected by their treatment in the world media, and by the reactions they elicit within an increasingly globalised polity. It investigates the resilience of landed elites to political and social change, and, in the years after partition, looks at the impact on land holdings of population transfer. It goes on to discuss religious identities and their role in both the construction of national identity and in the development of sectarianism. The book highlights how ethnicity and identity politics are an enduring marker in Pakistani politics, and why they are increasingly powerful and influential.
An insightful collection on a range of perspectives on the dynamics of identity politics and the nation-state, this book on Pakistan will be a useful contribution to South Asian Politics, South Asian History, and Islamic Studies.
Introduction: Themes, Theories, and Topics in the History of Religion, Violence, and Political Mobilization in Pakistan Ian Talbot 1. The Impact of the Redistribution of Partition's Evacuee Property on the Patterns of Land Ownership and Power in Pakistani Punjab in the 1950s Ilyas Chattha 2. Elections, Bureaucracy, and the Law: The Reproduction of Landed Power in Post-Colonial Punjab Hassan Javid 3. Factionalism and Indiscipline in Pakistan’s Political System Marian Mufti 4. Constructing a State: Constitutional Integration of the Princely States in Pakistan Yaqoob Khan Bangash 5. Identity Politics and Nation-Building in Pakistan: The Case of Sindhi Nationalism Sarah Ansari 6. Understanding the Insurgency in Balochistan Yunas Samad 7. A Sublime, Yet Disputed, Object of Political Ideology? Sufism in Pakistan at the Crossroads Alix Philippon 8. The Rise of Militancy among Pakistani Barelvis: The Case of the Sunni Tehrik Mujeeb Ahmad 9. Pakistan's Religious Others: Reflections on the Minority Discourse on Christians in the Punjab Tahir Kamran and Navtej K. Purewal 10. Violence and State Formation in Pakistan Gurharpal Singh
Biography
Roger D. Long is Professor of History at Eastern Michigan University, USA.
Yunas Samad is Professor of South Asian Studies at the University of Bradford, UK.
Gurharpal Singh is Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the School of Oriental and African Studies, the University of London, UK.
Ian Talbot is Professor of History and Director of Post-Graduate Research at the University of Southampton, UK, and former Chair of the British Association for South Asian Studies.
