God's Kingdom on Earth? Politics of Islam in Pakistan, 1947–1969

Qasmi, Ali Usman

doi:10.1017/s0026749x09000134

Cited by 10 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…His favoured terms of reference were ‘national’ and ‘modern’ as can be seen from various reforms undertaken by him and policy initiatives introduced. Contrary to the popular image of Ayub Khan as ‘secular’, his various policy initatives clearly show him as a Muslim modernist who was keen on using Islam – understood by him to be egalitarian and progressive – for the purposes of state and nation building (Qasmi ).…”

Section: Closed Holidays and Optional Holidays: National Calendar In mentioning

confidence: 94%

Identity formation through national calendar: holidays and commemorations in Pakistan

Qasmi

2017

Nations and Nationalism

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This article contributes to academic literature on the project of identity formation in a postcolonial nation‐state. The article argues that a nation‐state emphasising certain aspects of the past for commemorative or celebratory purposes, while suppressing or ignoring the memories of some other event or historical figure, are both parts of the same process. Both these processes, in different ways, seek to give a certain direction to the narrative about the history of the nation and the nation‐state. These aspects of national memory and amnesia have been explained through the prism of national/public holidays while foregrounding the case study of Pakistan. The article argues that although this process of shaping a specific narrative (referred to as commemorative narrative in this article by using Yael Zerubavel's work) is common to every project of identity formation, its peculiarity is more pronounced in a postcolonial state like Pakistan, which has certain cut‐off dates and ruptures but is, simultaneously, eager to emphasise continuities in its trajectory and antiquity in historical tradition. The study of the process of developing a national calendar in case of Pakistan will show that identity formation is a transient process in which various identarian values, political considerations and social processes play an important part. In particular, it requires an attempt on the part of the state to try impose a homogenising historical narrative by envisaging a national calendar, i.e. by announcing a national or public holiday. This helps accord prestige to persons credited as founding fathers or ideologues, ascribe solemnity to days remembering wars and festivity to mark independence or religious occasions. By discussing these themes in detail, this exploratory study of the history of national calendar will lend an alternative lens through which to look into the processes of identity formation in postcolonial nation‐states in general.

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Section: Closed Holidays and Optional Holidays: National Calendar In mentioning

confidence: 94%

Identity formation through national calendar: holidays and commemorations in Pakistan

Qasmi

2017

Nations and Nationalism

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“…As part of this process, the decades since Partition in 1947 have seen a steady growth in the formal, institutional mechanisms through which Islam has been incorporated into the political process. While state elites in Pakistan—both civilian and military—have historically had differing views with regards to the place of religion within Pakistan’s politics (Qasmi, 2010), the period since the 1970s has witnessed growth in the extent to which Islam—and institutions like the Council of Islamic Ideology and the Federal Shariat Court—have exerted greater influence over lawmaking (Lau, 2006; Nelson, 2017). These legislative changes have been accompanied by the emergence of increasingly assertive religious parties and organisations, ranging from older electoral parties like the Jamaat-i-Islami, newer movements like the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), and explicitly violent and sectarian organisations like the Lashkar-i-Tayiba.…”

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The Limits of Possibilities of Religious Politics: The Case of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik in Pakistani Punjab

Javid¹

2021

Sociological Bulletin

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Historically, despite the tremendous influence exerted by Islam on public life, religious parties and organisations have historically failed to do well at the ballot box, receiving an average of only 6% of votes cast in elections since the 1980s. Focusing on the case of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a new Barelvi political party and social movement that has campaigned on the emotive issue of blasphemy since being formed in 2015, this article argues that the clientelistic, patronage-based nature of democratic politics in Punjab, coupled with factionalism and competition within the religious right, continues to play a role in limiting the electoral prospects of religious parties. Nonetheless, as was seen in the General Elections of 2018 in which the TLP outperformed expectations, there are particular circumstances in which the religious parties are able to make electoral breakthroughs. While the TLP was able to make effective use of populist rhetoric to garner some genuine support for itself, this article argues that the organisations sustained campaign of protests over the issue of blasphemy fed into broader efforts by the military establishment and opposition political parties to destabilise and weaken the government of the PML-N prior to the 2018 elections.

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Islamic Law in an Islamic Republic

Nelson

2017

Constitution Writing, Religion and Democracy

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God's Kingdom on Earth? Politics of Islam in Pakistan, 1947–1969

Cited by 10 publications

References 6 publications

Identity formation through national calendar: holidays and commemorations in Pakistan

Identity formation through national calendar: holidays and commemorations in Pakistan

The Limits of Possibilities of Religious Politics: The Case of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik in Pakistani Punjab

Islamic Law in an Islamic Republic

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