Comments on: Readings on Pakistan

By: Usman

Usman — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 22:48:03 +0000

Dear Sepoy,
I am a student at University for Peace Costa Rica from Pakistan.I have planned to work on Religious Extremism & Madrassa Education in Pakistan…. I am finding it difficult to collect liturature related to my topic.
Ater reading your post here n events in Pakistan I think I’ll have to take into account issues of identity and its political implications…

I am looking for a favor of sending me your email address… due to some technical error i’m finding it hard to send you an e-mail through this page.

In Peace,

Malik Usman Khan
University for Peace
Costa Rica

By: Desi Italiana

Desi Italiana — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 18:38:19 +0000

Or vice versa.

It can be a big mess :)

By: Desi Italiana

Desi Italiana — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 18:38:01 +0000

Abir:

“Why not call ethnic, regional, linguistic nationalisms by their names…Balochi, Assamese, Sindhi, Kashmiri? The “sub-” is unnecessary because sometimes these nationalisms might be working with what you call “the hegemonic nation-state nationalism.”

I’d venture as far as saying that even nation-state nationalisms can be regarded as “sub-nationalisms” as well, particularly with countries are break off pieces of a larger entity.

By: sepoy

sepoy — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:58:46 +0000

There are many outdated and discarded terms that clutter CM. We shall hold on to this one for now.

By: Abir

Abir — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:13:27 +0000

Thanks, Desi Italiana and Sepoy for your thoughts.

In Delhi, I had often heard this political science term come up in boring Conferences on Kashmir, Assam and Nagaland in the early 1990s. But it has been given up (even by political scientists…things changed so rapidly in the 1990s)… so I hardly expected to come across it on CM. The adherents of different subnationalisms might feel provoked into saying, Uski kameez meri kameez se safed kaise. I don’t know if there is a more recent citation for the concept. My feeling is that it has long been given up even by political scientists.

Why not call ethnic, regional, linguistic nationalisms by their names…Balochi, Assamese, Sindhi, Kashmiri? The “sub-” is unnecessary because sometimes these nationalisms might be working with what you call “the hegemonic nation-state nationalism.” Something is lost with the “sub-”…more so when all these movements have their own histories.

By: Desi Italiana

Desi Italiana — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:39:37 +0000

“subnationalism is a polisci term to capture cultural (linguistic, regional, ethnical) nationalisms working against the hegemonic nation-state nationalism.”

But nation-state nationalisms are composed of linguistic, regional, and ethnic threads as well, no?

And even with nation-state nationalism, it’s not like there is one hegemonic and monolithic nationalism (ie “the hegemonic nation-state nationalism”). There are various nation-state nationalismS, which I think compete one another and jostle with one another. Like with India, there are different kinds and conceptualizations of nationalism…

By: sepoy

sepoy — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:21:13 +0000

Abir: subnationalism is a polisci term to capture cultural (linguistic, regional, ethnical) nationalisms working against the hegemonic nation-state nationalism.

See, Mitra, The Rational Politics of Cultural Nationalism: Subnational Movements of South Asia in Comparative Perspective, British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 25, No. 1. (Jan., 1995), pp. 57-77.

By: Desi Italiana

Desi Italiana — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:56:47 +0000

Abir:

“What is a sub-nationalism? A nationalism opposed to a nationalism? A nationalism less than a nationalism?”

That’s an excellent question, when you think about it. My first impulse was to say that it is more regional and ethnic based, but then you could say the same about nationalism. I suppose in this context, “sub-nationalism” might be that which is within the overriding nationalism of the nation state (Pakistan), and one that could or could not be in defiance of this larger nationalism.

Or maybe Sepoy wants to elaborate…

By: Abir

Abir — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:19:14 +0000

What is a sub-nationalism? A nationalism opposed to a nationalism? A nationalism less than a nationalism?

By: Aun Ali

Aun Ali — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:45:37 +0000

I think a list of books about Pakistan is incomplete without something about language. I have a penchant for Urdu and so I will recommend S R Faruqi’s Early Urdu Literary Culture and History, which delves into the politics of Urdu as well as its history.

By: bol

bol — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:05:56 +0000

A great list and there is a lot that I haven’t read myself. Here are a few suggestions to the list

gender and citizenship

Shanaz Rouse. The Outsider (s) Within: Sovereignty and Citizenship in Pakistan. In Shifting Body Politics (Kali Press: 2004).

class and labor history

Kamran Ali. The Strength of the Street Meets the Strength of the State. International Journal of Middle East Studies 37 (2005) 83-107

Pakistan and East Bengladesh Independence

Yasmin Saikia. Beyond the Archive of Silence. History Workshop Journal. 58(1) (2004): 275-287

By: Astarte

Astarte — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 11:45:20 +0000

Thanks for the list, especially the on-line links. I too am tempted to start at the bottom of the list.

By: sepoy

sepoy — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 02:27:44 +0000

I don’t know what would give you that impression. I love Fareed “Carefully Start Shooting” Zakaria as much as I love Tom “Suck on This” Friedman.

By: durjan

durjan — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:34:50 +0000

I see, every now and then, some references to Fareed Zakaria, sometimes not very complimentary. Is there perhaps some critique in CM of his work on or attitudes towards Pakistan?

Thanks

By: sepoy

sepoy — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:41:25 +0000

Dave: Taken as a whole, the books on Pakistan are generally political histories, at best, with scarcely any social or cultural or regional history; they rarely incorporate any vernacular sources (even Urdu sources, for that matter); and typically adhere to the conventional “failed state” model. One cannot find any monographs say on the history of the Left or gender or city. It is slim pickings out there.